Palmaz makes it 52 wineries in 2014!  On a beautiful early December day I experienced the most expensive of all of the tastings I have done this year at the beautiful Palmaz Vineyards founded by the inventor of the cardiac stent.  My friend Gayle was visiting from New York and arranged for a private tour and tasting at this high tech winery for a mere $60 per person.  The winery is built into the mountain which allows for the equivalent of an 18 story building that houses the approach of gravity flow wine making.  No wine is pumped from place to place — it all flows down from story to story and is monitored by Star Trek looking dashboards projected on the walls.

We did the grand tour then sat down in our private “salon” for a tasting of their various Cabernet Sauvignons (that start at a $120 retail and go up quickly from there) that were all lovely but will most likely never touch my lips again.  I did however splurge on their Muscat as I seem to be on a bit of a dessert wine kick and it was not out of this world expensive.  So Palmaz was #52!  And my favorite label design of all of the wines I’ve tried this year!

View of the vineyards at Palmaz

Did I skip #51?  NO!  Before we went to Palmaz we checked out the holiday open house and art show at Black Stallion.  While none of the wines were particularly memorable they were all very drinkable and each “station” had a taste paired with food.  My favorite was the 2012 Rockpile Zinfandell served with truffled lentils with bacon vinaigrette.

But why stop at 52 when you are driving by another winery on the way to a Christmas party?  Last stop for the year – Andretti.  Yes that Andretti made it in as #53.  Did a quick tasting yesterday of their Sangiovese and their very un-Merlot like Merlot!

So my new year’s resolution was kept and I got to try many great new wines along the way and see some of the most beautiful spots in the Napa Valley and more.  So what will I do with myself next year?

Cheers!