We just got back from Napa / San Francisco yesterday. From what I remember and the extra 3 inches around my waste, I can conclude that I had a great time. Lots and lots of great wine and food….. There’s no way in hell I could ever live in this area and keep from eating/drinking myself into a state of gross obesity.
To forgo the food part, we spent seven days in the Napa area visiting different wineries. We went to some of the big wineries that each of us are fond of, but for the most part, we tried to find some smaller, non-descript wineries and wines that we can’t find locally. I’m probably forgetting a few, but here are the ones that I can remember we visited.
In the group, there were five of us. I tend to go for big reds; cabs and zins mostly, but I’ll drink anything. I do not like heavy tannins, so Italian and French wines are ones that I avoid unless I’m looking for a bottle to go with food. If I’m looking for a bottle to go with food, French and Italian wines are what I look for. – that’s why they make wine….., to drink with food.
Sarah likes mellow reds like Petite Sarah or Pinot Noir or Merlot. She also likes white wines.
Dwight likes anything and is our wine expert. Dwight gets us into all the libraries and the folks at the wineries just love talking to him. He’s a great wine tasting partner that never failed to get the folks at the wineries to open up one of them “secret” wines.
Shelly and Pete tend to like merlots or anything with a cool label or nice proprietors. These two are just fun to hang out with.
Day 1
We arrived in the afternoon on a Sunday, which just happened to be the last day of the annual wine festival in Santa Rosa. There were over 500 wineries at the festival….so many wines and so little time… (I don’t recall much from day one). There are three that stood out and we ended up going to their wineries for a second try; Wattle Creek, Hook and Ladder and Larson Family Wineries. More about them later. There were many more that we all liked, but after a while, all the wines started tasting the same. One thing for certain, Zins are in this year. I’d say 80% of the wineries had a Zin on the table. I USED to like Zins…. I don’t think I’ll be buying any soon after trying dozens of them.
Day 2
Our first stop was Cakebread, which is an appointment only tasting. Great wine here. If you like big chards with an oak finish, try theirs. I ended up buying a mixed case of their reds and signing up as a wine club member. I like their estate grown wines the best, but they are all very good. I don’t quite know why, but I just like the smell and taste of all their reds. I had better wines, but Cakebread is definitely one of my favorite wineries. You can’t go wrong with anything they make.
After Cakebread, we had another private tasting set up at Flora Springs (thanks to Dwight)
http://www.florasprings.com/If you have not had their wines or been to their winery, this is a MUST have / visit wine / winery. They are one of three of the region’s largest privately owned grower. They own 1200 acres of fruit and sell fruit to some very reputable wineries (like Cakebread and ZD). Plus, they make a really great wine. My favorite is their Wild Boar Cab at $85 a bottle. We did some barrel tasting of their 06 cabs and what was in the barrel was terrific. I can’t wait till these hit the shelves. The entire staff is nothing short of great company and they all love to have fun.
After Flora Springs, we had to get ready for dinner. Thanks to Cesar for recommending the restaurant, it was definitely the best meal I’ve ever had, ever. We set up a six course wine pairing meal at Cyrus. Four hours of food and wine….. Highly recommended. Just be prepared to dig deep in the wallet.
http://www.cyrusrestaurant.com/Day 3
Franciscan Winery / Mount Veder Winery. These two have their tasting rooms in the same building. I have several bottles of each, so figured we’d swing buy and try their latest wines. This tasting was a miserable disappointment. I’ll keep my current bottles in the cellar and won’t be buying any more.
Private appointment at Rudd Winery
http://www.ruddwines.com/ This was another really great visit (thanks to Dwight). The visit started out with a tour of the facility, then the tasting followed by a trip through their caves and a very special and closely guarded tour of the owner’s private library. This particular winery has an interesting story. Leslie Rudd is the owner. I didn’t know anything about Rudd before visiting his winery, but after seeing his winery and having an eye for quality craftsmanship and materials, I can say that he spared no expense with this place. It’s somewhat small at 50 acres, but it’s on the Silverado Trail and from what we were told, it took Rudd almost 30 years of waiting to acquire this winery. After he bought it in 96’, he ripped up all the vines and started fresh. He rebuilt the entire facility and dug all the caves. Rudd also owns several businesses in the area including Dean and DeLuca, the Press restaurant, the Brix restaurant and the Oakville Market stores. Rudd started and sold off Godfather Pizza and the Outback Steakhouse. The only business he owns that has his name on it is his winery. I couldn’t help but feel like I was in a billionaire’s favorite play house because it just reeked of care and money….
All that aside, the wines (all of them) were fantastic. I don’t care much for whites, but these were wonderful. He has two Cab’s and both are very impressive. One is his “Crossroads” cab and it is a blend of estate cab and non-estate cab and something else that I’ve forgotten. This bottle is made to drink now, or up to a couple years. The estate cab is on a level that I did not find in any wine the rest of the trip. I think this bottle will set the standard that all Napa cabs will be shooting for. Even though this one was made to cellar, the 2004 is wonderful right now. We bought a magnum of the 03 had it with dinner. I’m still remembering this bottle….. Ya, I bought a few of the 03’s ($130 each). The crossroad cabs are $65 each.
After Rudd we tried Elizabeth Spencer…. I wasn’t too impressed but that could be that I was still thinking about the Rudd wines.
Day 4
This day we set up a limo to take us to some small wineries in the Alexander Valley area. We just told the driver to take us to his favorite places…. The first stop was White Oak. We all agreed that this winery had the best Chardonnay of any winery so far with the exception of Rudd. But considering that the cost is less than half of the Rudd, we all thought the White Oak was the winner. Good news for us, the owner is from Alaska, and we can buy these wines locally.
After White Oak, the driver took us to a fairly rustic winery that we all sort of fell in love with called Field Stone Wineries. They opened up 11 bottles for us to try and we did just that. I liked every bottle they had so much that I signed up with their wine club and bought a mix of four cases. The best part is they’re fairly inexpensive. Their reserve cab was under $50 and it was the most expensive bottle they have.
http://www.fieldstonewinery.com/After Field Stone, we went to another winery that didn’t really impress me. I forgot the name, but it borders Silver Oak. Silver Oak didn’t impress me either, so no surprise here.
After that winery, we went to the Robert Young Winery. I liked all their wines, but they had terrible shipping fees and were not all that friendly. I did however leave there with a few of bottles of their cab sav. They came back in my luggage. Too bad about the shipping costs or I would have bought a case or two.
The last winery for the day was Stonestreet Winery. I didn’t like the wine or the place, and just felt like we were being treated like cattle. They didn’t get any of my money, or anyone else’s.
Day 5
This day we took the Wine Train, or as we call it, the gray hair express. At $80 a head, I can’t recommend this to anyone else. I enjoyed the train ride and the lunch was OK, but again, I felt like I was part of a heard of mindless cattle. We ordered a bottle of Louis Martini cab to try and they brought us the wrong bottle. I mentioned this to the bartender and he comped the bottle. Besides being free, it was a great bottle. The bottle was a 2003 Madrigal Petite Sarah and it was so good, we later went to the winery. Unfortunately, this is there first season as a winery and were busy with harvest so we couldn’t visit with them.
http://www.madrigalvineyards.com/wine.html I was able to find a couple bottles at the St Helena Wine Center and had them ship them to me with a few other wines that we had at different times during our trip that were excellent (2003 Prisoner Zin, 2004 Patz and Hall Pinot, 05 Lamborn Zin, 2003 Cain Five, 2004 Borra Red Fusion, 2005 Leviathan Hapa Red). They also had great prices on Riedel glasses, so we bought a few of those too.
After the wine train, we visited Andreti wineries. I wasn’t overly impressed, but Pete and Shelly liked their wines and bought some.
After Andretti, we visited William Hill. I was very disappointed with William Hill. I had a 95 reserve cab a while back and loved it. Nothing in their current line impressed me. I also found out that Gallo just bought them out. This may mean that they will get better seeing how Jim Beam owned this winery recently and Gallo is quite a bit more family orientated than Jim Beam.
After William Hill we zipped over to Stetzner Wineries in the Stags Leap District. All of us liked everything they poured…and they poured a lot. Their wines are great and reasonably priced considering who their neighbors are. You can’t go wrong with any of their wines. Their Merlot is exceptionally good. They sold me two cases of their reserve wines that they do not distribute. Out of all the reds I had this trip, theirs have the mellowest tannins of all, but they still have that big bold cab noise and taste. Lots of red fruit, but not overpowering.
http://www.steltzner.com/Day 6
Hook and Ladder – Small privately owned winery owned by a retired firefighter. Very reasonably priced wines and all are estate grown, processed and bottled. I would have bought several, but their shipping costs were unreasonable, so I passed on buying any. If you are a firefighter, you get a 20% discount, which is what drew me to this winery in the first place. I’m a volunteer firefighter, so I had to try their wines.
http://www.hookandladderwinery.com/Larson Family Winery – Another small, family owned winery. They have a terrific Pinot. I bought a case them.
http://www.larsonfamilywinery.com/Stags Leap Cellars – great Stags Leap Area wines, but I didn’t think they were as great as they think they are.
ZD – We tried all their wines and loved them all. What I don’t like about this winery, is that they buy all their fruit. They do buy from Flora Springs, so I think they will be consistent, but still, I prefer wineries who grow their own berries for some reason.
http://www.zdwines.com/Provinence – I have many bottles of this winery in my cellar and like them all. Unfortunately, I think they’ve gotten too big and their wines are not on par with my collection. I passed on everything.
Day 7
This day I had a terrible hang over…. After the last day of wine tasting, dinner and vodka inspired game of poker with Pete and Dwight, we weren’t feeling too perky. The only thing we had planned for this day was a tour of Castello di Amorosa. Even though I was horribly hung over, I was speechless wandering around this place. It’s a 120,000 square foot castle that was designed to be a winery!!! Every brick was brought over from Italy and it was all crafted with old world tools and techniques. I dare guess what the owner has into this place, but if it’s cool billion, I’d not be surprised. This place is so cool; it has to be seen to be believed. All the wines are designed to be authentic Italian wines. I didn’t care much for them because they are so heavy with tannins, but I have to admit that they are great with food. I don’t remember doing this, but I ordered a case of wine from them. It’s sitting on the floor and I’m afraid to open it to see what I ordered…..
http://www.castellodiamorosa.com/We finished this day with a visit to the Freemark Abbey tasting room. The 94 cab reserve I had a couple months ago inspired this visit. I was very disappointed…. None of us liked anything they poured.
Day 8
This was a travel day for us and we didn’t visit any wineries with the exception of a visit to the Wattle Creek tasting room in San Francisco. Their tasting room is located at Ghirardelli’s square and I’d recommend that you pay them a visit. They make about ten different wines and I liked them all. I like them so much that I signed up for their wine club. They have a deal where they ship for free if you buy two cases, two times per year. They got three cases out of me…..
http://www.wattlecreek.com/index2.htmlThe next two days Sarah and I zipped around San Francisco. I learned the first night BS'ing with an Irish bartender to never use the "F" word, Frisco. It's either "the city" or San Francisco...LOL.. Too much to wright about the city, but that it was WAY COOL... I plan to go back and spend a few days.
All in all, we had a great time and plan to head back next year. Next year we plan to go in September when it’s a little warmer. I have around 12 gigs of photos do process and upload now. I also need to build a real wine cellar. I figure I have around a hundred bottles in the mail to me…..
