So many events in Napa every weekend!  This Saturday was the winemaker BBQ at Goosecross.  Goosecross has a new Kiwi winemaker and a new owner (from the Coors family).  It was a family winery and the name comes from the family name Gorsuch which apparently means something like the goose crosses the street in old English.  It is a small lovely property that will be going through many changes in the coming months as they build a new tasting room and a new winery.  Hopefully some of the small producer qualities will remain.

We got to try the new white blend and play the “name the wine” contest.  We also got to enjoy their Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Gris.  For such a small place they produce 16 different wines to keep their wine club engaged as all of their sales are direct to consumer.  From their Yountville vineyards on State Lane we had a bit of a barrel tasting of their premium wine called Aeros which is a meritage of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, and Petit Verdot.  The 2009 vintage of this wine sold for $125.

The 2011 Zinfandel was nice with our BBQ meal and music but as with so many of the places I visit it is hard to justify $42 for an every day bottle. In any case it was another fun evening with friends trying new wines, listening to a fun band and watching a lovely sunset over the Napa valley.

Winery #22 on week #26.  Cheers!

 

This one was not so much about the wine … It was all about celebrating the first day of summer!

I never thought about visiting Clif Family Winery.  Yes Clif as in Clif bars.  There is a tasting room in St. Helena that also offers cycling tours!  Last weekend I was trying to figure out what to do on a Saturday night and came across their Summer Solstice party on the Do Napa website.  So glad as it was a fun evening filled with nice reasonably priced drinkable wines,  food trucks with tasty eats and a super fun band comprised of Clif Bar employees.  Lots of dancing and trying new wines!

 

Guess I should mention the wines:

2012 Riesling – dry nice but didn’t really linger on the palate.  From their Mendocino vineyards.

2012 Gewurtraminer – not something I would usually drink but great on a summer night.  Not sweet, a bit musky.  Yep, Mendocino again.

2010 Climber Limited – a red blend from five different vineyards in Napa including Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon.  Nice light red but probably one bottle too many…

Winery #21 was more of a party than a tasting experience.  A very fun way to kick off the summer of 2014!

Cheers!

 

 

 

The best thing about Artesa is the view.  And the Albarino.  Very drinkable on the patio on this gorgeous summer day.  Was less interested in their 2013 Rose of Pinot Noir after a weekend of enjoying really good roses from Orin Swift and Blackbird.  The Tempranillo (Alexander Valley) was enjoyable but there are a few other wines I would rather spend $40 a bottle on.

And the view…

Did I mention the view?  Worth a quick stop on the Napa Neighbors program.  Winery #20.

Napa’s three day music festival did not disappoint with old favorites like The Cure and new discoveries like Mexican Institute of Sound!  But even better I got to try some new wines including Del Dotto.

The Del Dotto rose of pinot noir was fab!  The perfect wine to sit in the tasting tent and sip while listening to the Spin Doctors.  Now at $35 a bottle I’m not sure I am going to buy this for my next dinner party but for $12 a glass on a summer day definitely worth a try!

#19 on week 22.  Got some serious catch up work in the weeks ahead!  Who’s ready to join me?  Cheers!

Mexico would be close to the last place I would have expected to be able to work on my wine goals.  I was off to Rancho La Puerta for five days of healthy living and detox.  Luckily we discovered the newly opened Bazar del Sol!  At the top of the hill we found this lovely little tasting room and shop which made for a great happy hour rendezvous after a day of hiking, pilates and wild and wonderful new pursuits (gyrotonics anyone?).

So we got to tasting.  Apparently there are many wineries in Baja!  We especially liked the Monte Xanic Sauvignon Blanc.  A sparky crisp light fruit white that was perfect in the summer heat which became our go to bottle every night to celebrate the day!  I was surprised and impressed and ready to try more Mexican wines!  Counting this as winery #18!  Cheers!

 

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.

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.

Week 18 – 15 wineries.

I’ve missed the past few weeks and am a bit behind on my quest for 52 but this weekend I made quite the effort to catch up with my alumni group’s board retreat. I was asked to plan the inaugural event for the board of the soon to be San Francisco Bay Area William & Mary Alumni chapter. I was amazed to find five alums in Napa alone in the wine industry and was lucky to connect with four of them for our day out on Saturday!

First stop was Ma(i)sonry in Yountville. Fellow alum Daniel Orrison is the Director and Brian Ball is the Wine Director. Ma(i)sonry is an amazing space as it is a gallery in a beautifully restored stone house and a tasting room for their own label Blackbird Vineyards as well as limited production boutique wines. The owner also has a vineyard in Argentina and we started our tasting with a 2012 Recuerdo Torrentes. I’ve become a bit of a fan of rosés these days and really enjoyed the 2013 Blackbird Vineyards Arriviste a blend of cab sav, merlot and cab franc. Perfect way to start a spring morning at our 10:30am tasting! We also tried the 2013 Blackbird Arise (merlot, cab franc and cab sav) and were then treated to an amazing late harvest sauvignon blanc when Roger Harrison stopped by and poured us a taste of his 2011 vintage.

After making sure everyone was able to pick up a few of their favorite bottles we grabbed our Bouchon box lunches and started off to our next stop visiting Katharine DeSante in the well know Tierra Roja vineyard in Oakville. Katharine and her husband David DeSante left Virginia for the Napa Valley in 1994 and began DeSante Wines in 2001. We enjoyed lunch on the patio with a lovely 2011 Old Vine Sauvignon blanc. We then grabbed a few bottles of their cabernet sauvignon and walked through the vineyard where the grapes in these bottles were from! We tasted their 201 Oakville Terraces Cab (only 2 barrels produced) and their 2011 Oakville Cab Sav. David regaled us with stories about how he dropped out of med school to pursue his dream of becoming a winemaker, of vineyard management and a few history lessons of the Napa valley. I learned that the Silverado trail was constructed in the mid-1800s as the main road (now route 29) was prone to frequent flooding and the cross roads (like Oakville Cross Road) were put in as “pit stops” for the horses delivering the mail who needed water stops.

Our last stop was with the incredibly entertaining Kent Fortner of Road 31. We met him at White Rock Vineyard Napa caves. The property belongs to the Vandendriessche family and Kent keeps his barrels in the caves there. So many interesting stories! Did you know that a single French oak barrel costs $1500 and lasts about 3 years. He also uses Hungarian oak from Tokaji. While he gets his pinot noir grapes from three vineyards in Napa (down near the airport) he creates a blend each season of the three. He produces about 800 cases a year and sells them to his loyal following called “Truckers.” His trademark green truck was his grandfather’s. We were lucky that he saved a few bottles of his already sold out 2012 vintage for us to taste and buy!

Favorites from the day – Blackbird Arriviste rosé, the Harrison Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc and Road 31’s Pinot Noir. I’m definitely becoming a “trucker.”

Week 17 — 13 wineries. Got some making up to do!

Cheers!

Gorgeous new tasting room in downtown Napa!  The picture does not do justice to this Great Gatsby meets wild west saloon space.  I was walking home from dinner with a few friends the other night and came across Capp Heritage.  Clearly it is still a work in progress (as also evidenced by their website that has Greek type in place of copy !) but once they are finished it could be a fun place.  We walked in around 8:45pm and the place became quite busy.  A tasting was $10 so we saddled up to the bar.  Unfortunately nothing remarkable to report on the wine front.  The Capp family has been growing grapes in the valley for years and selling the likes of Caymus but this seems to be their first foray into wine making.  Worth stopping for a glass of their cab — especially if you are wearing a flapper dress! 

#10 at week 10!  Cheers!

 

Yesterday I went to meet my “Napa Neighbors” Kathy and Mike who were out doing their duty as Napa valley citizens and checking out a few places up on the Silverado Trail.  We met at Pine Ridge.  The first red we tried was their 2010 Charmstone,  a 97% cab that was quite charming, which is named after some of the artifacts found in the fields that were actually fertility symbols left by the early settlers.  It got better from there with a parade of cabernets including their 2011 Napa Valley cab (very light), their 2010 Rutherford which was a bit tannic for me and their 2010 Oakville which was lovely.  One thumb up.

We got to chatting with a few other “Neighbors” who were also out for the day and got a few recommendations / ideas from them.

After consulting the list of 400+ wineries that we have not been to and the words of our new friends we decided to check out Napa Cellars.  Napa Cellars is part of Trinchero.  Napa Cellars is in a shared tasting room on route 29 with Folie A Deux.  Flashback moment.  Many years ago I used to go camping with a few friends at Bothe Napa back in the mid ’90s.  I recalled that we went to a tasting room up in northern St. Helena all those years ago that was Folie A Deux.  Well I do have a few brain cells left and they confirmed there was one in a little house up valley when  “two wine-loving psychiatrists established a boutique winery”.  So I couldn’t taste that!  I already had all those years ago.  So I decided to taste the Napa Cellars wines.

Not sure how we made it through the very short tasting list.  The tasting room is a small domed building that amplifies noise.  It was filled with a group that could have passed as the cast and crew of Jersey Shore.  Oh well — focus.  Pretty uneventful.  They poured a 2012 Sauvignon Blanc, Zinfandel and Cab Sav.   I made no notes other than Kathy’s comment that pretty much summed it up.  “If you are young and want cheap wine this is the place to be.”  One thumb down.

Keep on tasting!

On track with week 9 and 9!  Cheers!