Wow what a day!  Sometimes the unplanned days turn out the best.  My friend Catherine was visiting from Denver.  We had a lunch reservation but no other plan so we got in the car and headed north on the Silverado Trail.  On the way we looked at the tourist map and noted Robert Sinskey was not too far from where we were heading for lunch.  I’ve had their Pinot Noir but knew nothing else about them.

Beautiful grounds and a nice tasting room presentation.

Kicked it off with their Abraxas (love the name) a lovely lite blend of pinot gris, pinot blanc, gewürztraminer and Riesling.  Then on to their 2010 Pinot Noir which was as delicious as I remember.  The POV was an earthy blend of Cab Sav, Merlot and Cab Franc and features some lovely label art:

We then went off menu and got to try the 2010 Merlot and learned about their first weekend tastings.  The first weekend of the month they preview their new wine club release and have a little food and wine tasting.  There is a beautiful open kitchen at the end of the tasting room where they offer a farm to table tasting every day.  We ended up with their amazing 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon.

We had a great time talking to our tasting room host and we asked him about some of his favorite places in the valley.  He told us about Regusci which was just down the road.  Never heard of them so definitely worth a try!

What we found was a small family winery that has been around since 1932.  Katie in the tasting room told us stories about how during prohibition the family ripped out all of the vines except the zinfandel and planted cash crops.  I learned of the term “the black chicken” which was the code word for a bottle of the zin that people coming to buy beef or vegetables would also ask for when they visited the winery back in the day!

We worked our way through the tasting list and each wine we tried was great!  My favorite was the 2010 Patriarch — a blend of cab sav, merlot and cab franc.

What a great find this place was!  Our tasting room friend Katie poured us another taste of our favorites and gave me some must visits to add to my list:  T-Vine, James Cole, Robert Biale and Del Dotto.  All places that are new to me!  The adventure continues!

Week 4 +2 new wineries.

6 new wineries so far this year!

Cheers!

Napa locals join me on Saturday for Napa Valley Vintners’ Morning in the Winery.  I’ll be heading to Peju to kick off week 2 (have never been) bright and early! Cheers!