Today I headed off to a fellow William & Mary alum’s Spring Fling party at Green Valley Ranch up in the Wild Horse Valley.  What I expected was a lovely day of picnics in the country.  What I was treated to was an introduction to Ms. Olivia Brion when my friend introduced me to winemaker David Mahaffey who was pouring tastes of his gorgeous wines down at his wine cave on the ranch.

Ms. Olivia was my first introduction to unfiltered chardonnay. While I don’t totally understand it the unfiltered mantra seems to be “Respect the juice.”  That is with less intervention you have more flavor.  Much more to learn on this topic but I am sold as this is one of the first chardonnays in awhile that I liked!  

I also got to try something from the Que Syrah vineyard and look forward to tasting more!  And of course reading more about the fabulous yet fictitious Ms. Olivia.

Photo by Kathy Bauer

The lost post…

Orin Swift!  Back on March 15 after checking out a friend’s barn sale up in St. Helena I wandered in to the Orin Swift tasting room and was treated to China Doll their 2013 rose.  I’m also quite smitten with their Bordeaux style red blend the 2011 Papillon a lovely cab based blend with Merlot, Malbec and Petit Verdot.

Week 18 = 17 wineries.

Cheers!

One of the cool things about being a part time resident of Napa is I get invited to all of the events for locals! This weekend was the Napa Valley Grapegrowers “Afternoon in the Vineyards” – a “casual community open house.”  A few of my “Napa neighbors” and I decided to start with Paraduxx.  We were greeted out in the vineyard and served a taste of the Paraduxx 2013 Rose.

We were ushered in to the vineyard to hear P.J, Alviso the manager of all operations and viticulture for all Duckhorn’s vineyards (Paraduxx’s “parent”) telling us lots of fun facts.  Did you know that rose bushes are planted at the end of rows in vineyard as they are the lead indicator for mildew?  That Parduxx has alarms that go off if a frost is detected?  That right now in Napa the workers are “suckering” (shoot thinning) to ensure a good uniform crop?  As P.J. was telling us about how brix are just and indicator and in Napa they pick on taste we were poured the Z blend (you guessed it 67% Zinfandel).  Paraduxx claims to be the only winery solely devoted  blends.  From the two I tasted today I’d say definitely worth exploring further with a menu of over 18 wines to be tasted! But not today… on to the next stop.

Hagafen is a small family owned winery on the Silverado Trail.  We were greeted at the reception tent and handed a glass of their 2013 Sauvingon Blanc.  When people describe wines tasting like a specific fruit I’ve always been baffled until Saturday when I detected hints of strawberry on the nose.  We then joined the owner / winemaker Ernie Weir in the vineyard to hear their story.  At this vineyard they grow Cabernet Sauvignon organically.  They produce 8000 cases a year.  Each acre products ~4 tons of grapes which translates to about 400 cases of wine.  Their vines are trellised which is beautiful and allows the grapes to get more sun. We then wandered into their tasting room and treated to their 2011 and 2009 Cabernet Franc and their 2010 and 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon. The Cabernet Franc was a bit too earth for me but the 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon was delicious.

Ernie Weir

Week 18 – 15 wineries.