The Chateau Souverain Winery & Restaurant in Geyserville has perhaps the best venue for a restaurant in the whole wine country. The restaurant occupies a huge hall, originally perhaps a cask hall, and the stone verandah surrounding it on two sides, overlooking the vineyards across tiered gardens. The hall is illuminated by chandeliers of art deco iron with approximately 50 lamps each by night, and by sunlight that streams through the two walls of french windows by day. The tablecloths are linen, as are the napkins, the tables are set with red and white wine glasses, and the staff are dressed immaculately. It makes quite a sight.
The menu is modern Californian (world, perhaps), with a choice of eight or ten dishes for each course. These boast imaginative spices, and a good range of central viands.
Sadly, our evening was marred by a few utter stupidities.
It was expected that a selection of library wines would be offered. We
would have gladly paid premium prices for older vintages. Instead, the
wine list offered only young, recently-released wines, and these
were at the (ordinary up-market-restaurant) inflated prices.
Worse, there were only wines from this particular winery. We were
effectively paying top prices for what we would be offered in the
tasting room in any half-way decent winery (for instance in the Hunter
Valley).
One of our party wished to order a pasta dish as a first course, in
addition to his main course but was told it would have to be split between
two diners. The wait staff even consulted with the kitchen to reach
this inaccomodation.
In discussion while waiting for our meals, we discussed the booking. One of the party of seven called to make reservations at our preferred time of 8:00pm and was told the latest available time was 7:45pm. OK, this happens, but when we looked around the "crowd" was very light and we were left wondering why the time had been a problem. (It was Saturday and the place was not even half full.)
Despite the light crowd, the service was slow.
The lamb, veal, and steak meals proved to be, when they arrived, very satisfactory indeed, with lovely spices and crisp, juicy vegetables. One of us did order the pasta as his main course and the pasta consistency was gummy. (Did it come from an indivisible freezer pack?) Under normal circumstances this would have been returned, but fear of an interminable wait for a replacement dish dissuaded us.
The meal wound up costing, after two bottles of wine amongst the seven of us, about $47 per head inclusive of tip. An acceptable sum for a classy restaurant, which this was not.
We wrote a letter to the manager, and all of us signed it. It remains to be seen if our experience was representative of their normal business practice, or at least if they seek to convince us that it is not.