Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler wine thread

Where the dropped-jaw smiley when you need it.... Wow! Thanks for sharing.

Cool trip, thanks for sharing.

Mike - wow!!! That was an amazing trip - thanks for sharing.

BTW - Regusci also makes a Cabernet for under $20 under the name Twenty Bench. I forget the whole story, but I think they developed Twenty Bench to make a good, inexpensive Napa cab. It is readily available in the U.S., and maybe, just maybe to our Canadian brethren.

I did invite you guys to come along.....

I think my next Napa trip will have to follow a trip to Paso Robles, Washington and Oregon. While I do have a fondness for Napa wines, I’m always on the lookout for some lower priced wines. Napa just doesn’t offer much in the sub $30 range. Out of 100 different wines we tasted, I can’t remember one being under $30. Most were in the $40-$80 range.

But when I do get back to Napa, the trip will be a bit different. Because traffic sucks and the tasting rooms are only open from 10:00 – 4:30, I’d rather stick to a particular area for a day, and then move to the next. I’d really like to spend a full day on Spring Mountain. I had no idea there were as many wineries on that mountain as there are. Another one would be Howell Mountain. Then there’s the Alexander Valley, Sonoma Coast…… I’ll have to check into that Twenty Bench. Are you sure it’s Twenty Bench and not Twenty Rows? The Regusci wines were very good. If I had stopped there earlier in the trip, I’d have most likely bought a couple cases.

You gotta do Russian River next time. That way I can be even more jealous.

Oh ya!! Great Pinots come from there...... You should just suck it up, go into debt, get away from your computors and come up for a visit.

Do I have to pass through Wassila to get there?

I'm with Peter on this one. I find always find myself drawn to those Russian River wines. Mike, thanks for posting this. Sounds like some awesome wineries that my wife and I will have to check out.

Rich

I've never developed a taste for wine, but I would love to go on a tour of wineries. Absolutely beautiful. Thanks for the pics Mike.

There used to be quite a few vineyards down here in Southern California, but they have mostly disappeared. I've had the pleasure of driving through Central California and seeing some of the vineyards and loved it. I need to plan a trip.

Visiting the wineries definitely makes one appreciate the work and skill required to make a good bottle of wine. These people don’t try and BS you crap that sounds good on a label.

For anyone thinking they would like to do this, I would highly recommend that you pick one of the smaller wineries where you get to meet the owners, or at least the general manager. Ask them about the tour and if it’s a private tour or a scheduled tour with a group. The smaller wineries will take the time to walk you through the entire process and give you that personal experience you don’t get with a crowd. Some of the larger wineries offer tours, but it just isn’t the same. What you have is someone who has some knowledge of the process, but it’s highly unlikely that they’ve ever had their hands dirty. If you visit Arroyo and shake his hand, you’ll notice that his hands are blue from working with grapes the past thirty years. Each time I visit a winery I learn more and become more appreciative of the stuff that’s in the bottle. At one of the wineries we visited, they had two barrels of the same grape, same harvest, same times in fermentation…but they tasted vastly different. The only difference between the two was that one was from a row of vines with a southern exposure and the other was from vines with a northern exposure. They both have the same amount of sun, but one gets morning sun and other gets afternoon sun. I wouldn’t have believed this if I hadn’t have tasted it. Another thing I learned is that grapes from hillside vines have a unique taste, smell and body than valley floor vines. Hillside vine wines tend to be a bit more robust with a heavier body and more nose to them. The reason being; is that the grapes tend to be smaller with thicker skins, but their growing time is the same as valley wines. This gives the pulp more flavor. It’s also why the cost of these bottles is more expensive; they don’t produce as much wine.