Four days in Napa and several grand in wine purchases later………
For this trip, we set up several visits at some smaller wineries that require appointments. The wineries we picked are all owner operated with very small productions of 5000 cases or less. I have had some bottles from each and enjoyed them enough to make me want to visit them and spend time with the owners and winemakers. This is a real treat, as when you visit larger wineries, you rarely, if ever get to meat the folks who work the winery. We hit a few other wineries and tasting rooms in between appointments.
Day one….
Our first appointment was at White Rock. This is a very small winery on the Silverado Trail off the beaten path. The whole operation is in caves dug in, as the name implies, the white rock of the hillside. All their vines are on a steep hillside. They make an excellent Claret and Cab Sav.
http://www.whiterockvineyards.com/ 
Prior to White Rock we visited another smallish winery just down the road from White Rock called Reynolds Family. Reynolds had some pretty good juice too. They had an unusual Merlot that is aged in Hungarian Oak that I found particularly good.
http://www.reynoldsfamilywinery.com/After White Rock we visited Orin Swift Cellars. Orin Swift has become quite popular in the cult winery club with their Zinfandel, called Prisoner. Prisoner is one of my favorite zins. In addition to their Prisoner, they make an outstanding Sav Blanc and two Cab Savs; Papillion and Mercury Head. The Papillion is very good and the Mercury head is outstanding. All their wines have a great fruit forward nose, somewhat earthy / spicy pallet and a finish that just won’t quit. Their tasting room is in St Helena, in an office on the second floor of an office building. Nothing fancy. You won’t find it without directions.
http://www.orinswift.com/ 
After Orin Swift we had a special club member tasting at Flora Spring’s new tasting room on Highway 29. The new building is well…..ugly in my opinion. But the interior is pretty cool. We all buy a lot of their wine, so we got an invitation where they poured just about everything they make. We had to walk a while before moving on from this tasting…… As always, their wines are all good and their staff is very friendly.
http://www.florasprings.com/ 
After Flora Springs we shot back over to the Silverado Trail and went to a very small and new winery; James Cole. This was definitely the funnest winery we went to. I had heard about this winery from a friend and he suggested we visit the place. James Cole is the owner, winemaker and he works the vines and with his very small staff getting the wine from stem to the bottle. He’s an average guy who I think was given a great opportunity to buy a small chunk of land and build his dream. We got there after five and were greeted by his staff that was all relaxing with a couple beers. I found this funny, seeing how it was a winery, but after speaking with them, I can understand why they prefer to chill out with a cold beer instead of wine at the end of the day after making wine all day long. James spent some time BS’ing with us and giving us a quick tour after our tasting…. And all of us were carrying a beer during the tour. All of his wine was quite good. He makes a very unusual Zinfandel Ice wine that really enjoyed. His Cab Sav is also very good.
http://www.jamescolewinery.com/ 
After a few hours of sobering up, we had a wonderful dinner at 25 Brix.
Day two…..
Our first appointment as at 2:00 on the north side of Calistoga, so we wandered up the Silverado Trail and made a few stops along the way to North end of the Trail.
Our fist stop was Black Stallion. I didn’t care enough for their wines to buy any, or recommend any either. The building is pretty cool though……..
http://www.blackstallionwinery.com/The next stop was Darioush. This winery is owned by a wealthy Persian Fella. The winery was over the top and I really wanted to hate their wine. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. They make very good wine. They have a viongier that was outstanding. Very fruity and refreshing.
http://www.darioush.com/index.html 
After Darioush we hit Signorello. We all enjoyed these wines quite a bit. They tend to be the best of both worlds of France and Napa. They all tend to have that typical fruit forward nose of Napa wines, but without all the alcohol. I enjoyed these wines so much I joined their wine club. They are all reasonably priced below their peers in the Stag’s Leap District. Not real sure why, but I couldn’t pronounce Signorello, so we refer to this winery as Cinderella now…
http://www.signorellovineyards.com/After Signorello and a few phone calls to Marla Bleecher (owner of Jericho Canyon), we found their winery. This winery is found situated in the basin of Jericho Canyon. Marla greeted us with a glass of their new Sav Blanc and took us for a walk up one of the slopes to see the rest of their vines. Marla was nothing short of terrific. She spent no less than an hour with us just taking us through the entire process of growing and harvesting grapes, to fermentation all the way to bottling. What I found particularly different with this winery is that they don’t use a PH meter or perform batch harvesting. They inspect all their vines daily and hand pick only grapes ready to be picked. She told us that some rows could take up to six weeks to pick. All their vines are on steep hillsides and I was pretty amazed at the amount of labor and time it takes for them to harvest their grapes. After some barrel tasting and also tasting of the juice in different stages of fermentation, Marla took us to their caves and opened up a bottle of their cab sav. Her husband, Dale met us there as well and spent some time just BS’ing with us. Marla and Dale are terrific people. I look forward to spending more time with them in the future.
http://www.jerichocanyonvineyard.com/ 
After Jericho our next appointment was supposed to be T-vine, but we were unable to find it and they were not answering their phone. A fire hit a residential area of Napa the night before and we were told that the tasting room manager lived in this area…… I hope they are all OK. When we were at dinner the night before, we could see the flames miles away. We heard later that over 200 acres were burnt.
Our next stop was Madrigal. Madrigal makes an outstanding Petite Syrah, which is why I wanted to visit them. This was another great visit as we had a great host. I ended up buying another case here, as well as signing up for their mailing list. Great wine here. Their wines have a slightly lighter body, but are packed with great smell and taste.
http://www.madrigalvineyards.com/For dinner, we ate at Terra in St Helena. I had fresh Main lobster in a coconut milk curry sauce that was amazing. The others had great dishes too, but I was too impressed with mine to remember what they had…. We also had a great Turley Zin with dinner.
Day three…..
Our first appointment was at Barrett Vineyards on Spring Mountain. It’s quite a trip to get to this winery as they are literally at the top of Spring Mountain. This is another very small winery. Everything they poured was outstanding. Great Sav Blanc, Pinots, Merlot and cabs. Besides having great wines, the location is beautiful. They have a tasting deck that overlooks the vineyard and Napa valley. If you ever go here (highly recommended), bring a picnic. They set aside a couple hours for their tasting and make you feel like they actually want you there. It was a great visit. Yah, I bought a couple cases here and joined another club….. For you Canadians, Miss Barnett is Canadian and they fly the Canadian Flag over their home with the US flag.
After sadly leaving Barnett, our next stop was Jordan winery in the Alexander Valley. On the way there, we stopped by and visited the folks at Fieldstone who we have all become very acquainted with. They hooked us up with a vintage port tasting. We had a 94, 96, 2000 and their lates 2006 port (along with a few of their wines). Fieldstone is probably one the better bargains out there. They make great wine and sell it at a price to their wine club members that almost makes me feel guilty buying it (almost)….
http://www.fieldstonewinery.com/At Jordan they poured their current release cab sav, chardonnay, a vintage 83 cab sav and their desert wine. Jordan is one of the most consistent wineries I know of. Every year they put out a great bottle, and you can store them for decades. While there we picked up a 78 cab sav in a 1.5 ltr for a friend of ours. He’s turning 30 in a few weeks and we thought this would be a pretty cool gift.
After Jordan we stopped by a new tasting room in Calistoga at the junction of highway 29 and the Silverado Trail. The tasting room was for Lava Vine wines. Lava Vine is a new wine that one of the other wineries suggested we visit. The owner popped in and BS’d with us for a while here. The name comes from the vineyards picked for their wines. They are all on volcanic rock and are all organic. The winemaker and owners also wanted to make wines that were different, which they succeeded. All their wines had a big fruity nose, but not overpowering or jammy. They were all very good. Their Syrah was particularly good.
http://www.lavavine.com/Dinner this night was at Brannans Grill. Another excellent meal.
Day four……….
We had to catch a plane at 4:00, so we were only able to hit a couple wineries this day.
Our first stop was at Vincent Arroyo. We were told by one of the other wineries that if we liked Petite Syrah, we should visit this winery. Being a big P/S fan, I put this one the list and I wasn’t disappointed. If you like P/S, this is a definite place to visit. My all time favorite wine is the Turley Rattlesnake P/S vintage that they made a few years back. I found out that Arroyo leased his rattlesnake vineyard out to Turley, which is the fruit they used for my favorite bottle. Unfortunately, they were sold out of their Rattlesnake vintage and I didn’t get to try it. But if their other P/S is any indication of what the Rattlesnake tastes like, I’m going to be pretty happy for their next release. Vincent Arroyo has a reputation of making wine his way and doesn’t get caught up with Napa trends. He's been making it his way for thirty years, which I find admirable. There’s no fancy label or a fancy tasting room. You get the real deal here. Nothing pretentious about Arroyo. All his wines are heavy body, but without the alcohol. I think 13.5% was the highest and his port was only 17%.
http://www.vincentarroyo.com/Our last winery was Regusci in the Stags Leap District. Again, another hit. All their wines were great. They had what I felt was the best Merlot I’ve ever had. They also had the best wine we had the entire trip, which was there flagship wine, their Hillside Select Cab Sav. It was also the most expensive wine we tried (go figure) at $125 a bottle. Considering how much money I had spent on wine by this time, I just couldn’t whip out the credit card again. I’ve been regretting that ever since……
http://www.regusciwinery.com/home.html
