Notes from Napa Valley - Day 1

Journal rdewald's Journal: Notes from Napa Valley - Day 1 8

Journal by rdewald on Wednesday July 19, 2006 @01:48AM

NB:

The photos linked in this post were taken with my Treo 650. The soft-focus effect is likely due to the lens not being clean. These are best viewed with:
1. your monitor at it's maximum supported resolution
2. from across the room, and
3. with low expectations.
They look really great that way.
Should you want to launch a cruise missle at one of these places, I have provided "Google Earth" linkage which you can load into your targeting computer (or your Google Earth installation).

-----

Sherwin Family Vineyards
Warning: annoying flash music on index page, stops when you navigate off
Google Earth

I thought I might like this place when I got out of the car and heard Pink Floyd's "Welcome to the Machine" blaring over the stereo in the garage behind the tasting room. The woman I spoke to on the phone when I called told me that they were bottling today. It looked like they were loading cases of wine into a converted gooseneck horse trailer as I went in to taste the wines.

This is a small winery, a family business, the family house is on the front part of the land and the tasting room is out back. It all looks out on this pond. If one rotates 180 degrees from that position, one looks out directly on to some of their vineyards. Their wine is well-crafted and competently made. It was also among the more reasonably priced. I tasted everything they had in stock and settled on their 2004 Los Carneros Pinot Noir (5th down on that page at this writing). Pinot is a difficult varietal to get right, terrior has a lot to do with it. It has a really delicate nature. I am very picky about Pinot, but I liked this one. It had a lot of fruit but also with enough acidity to give it balance and heft. I figured it should go for about $60 and they were selling it for $45 so I pounced. I have a friend in NYC who is going to really like this one.

-----

And now for something completely different, Joseph Phelps Vineyards.
Google Earth

As small as the Reynolds Family operation is (and there are smaller vineyards, but not many), the Phelps operation is a big player. You'll probably find their wines in your wine shop and their 2002 "Insignia" was Wine Spectator's 2005 Wine of the Year. I tasted the 1998 Insignia, it was so good that I almost shelled out the $120 for a bottle. I mean, I came *really* close to blowing about half my wine budget for the entire trip for a bottle of this wine, and this wasn't even the award-winning vintage.

Phelps is a well-oiled machine, there were limos pulling up while I was there with loads of loaded (as in money and intoxication) tourists piling out, the tasting room is beautiful (that's the 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon there, it has a citrus-y nose and is very easy to drink, but not so easy to buy at $50). It costs $20 to taste and that's not refundable on a purchase, but to be fair, they did provide nice pours of five wines, one of which was the Insignia (albeit the 1998). It was enough to get a pretty good wine buzz on. That's the retail section of the winehouse in the background, I'm sitting out on the western garden area off the tasting room. It was hot.

Phelps makes good wine. The Chardonnay had too much malo-lactate (secondary, induced) fermentation, but to be fair, they have to do that to sell it as widely as they need to. The 2002 Merlot was exceptionally well-balanced for a Merlot, but at $40 it was also overpriced (I know a bunch of $15 Merlots that are nearly as good). The 2004 Mistral was trying a bit too hard to be an Old World wine (the tannins were a bit overdone), but in a few years it might be a lot better.

I didn't buy anything, but I was tempted to buy the 1998 Insignia, and I was also tempted by the $26 demi (half-bottle) of the 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon. I was also tempted to join their wine club, it's a good deal and it gets you the opportunities to buy futures on the Insignia line. I took the application with me. I might still do it. Lots of temptation at Phelps, but something about the size and corporate feel of the organization enables my resistance (I'm such a pinko hippie) at this time.

-----

Brown Estate Vineyards.
Google Earth

This was a treat. A trip to the Bat Cave! This is a smallish, relatively new (b. 1995), vineyard way (well, 10 miles) to the east of the rest of the Napa Valley wine/tourist industry up in the Chiles Valley District. It is so obscure that they don't even have a sign on the road, you have to call for directions. Since most of the operation is underground in a cave I'm not even sure I have the Google Earth linkage exactly right, but it is close.

Peruse the website, these people built a *cave* (that's the tasting room at the far end in this interior shot) into the side of a hill to have a naturally-constant 58 degree high-humidity space for oak-cellaring their excellent Zinfandel and Cabernet, produced in their 50 acres of vineyards, here's some of it. It is really cool, both in the thermal sense and in the stylistic sense. I was overwhelmed by the brilliance of it.

The wines were just as brilliant. I had planned to only buy one bottle from each winery I visit, but I had to have two from Brown Estate. I bought both the 2004 Napa Valley Zinfandel and the 2004 Chiles Valley Zinfandel. The former was just a delightfully fruity and well-made Zinfandel at a really good price ($36). The latter is a production run that was 100% from the same *vineyard.* A very unique experience, it had a fabulously unique finish of mushroom-y earthiness, something you hardly ever find in a California wine, much less a Zinfandel. At $45 I found it too unique and delicious to pass up. Since I hadn't bought anything at Phelps, I bought them both.

-----

Stay tuned, I've got another day planned tomorrow, but it might be a couple of more days before I get all that posted owing to travel plans.

This discussion was created by rdewald (229443) for no Foes, but now has been archived. No new comments can be posted.