Archive for the 'Napa Times' Category
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Napa Valley on St Patrick’s Day
Only ten days left until we are on the plane to Napa Valley! All of our plans are completed and the tasting reservations made, all there is to do now is pack and wait. Judging by the comments on facebook and in Emails I would say our entire crew of eight is more than ready for this trip! Weather in the Valley appears to be improving so we hope for a good week. After a quick photo op at the Golden Gate Bridge for the first timers, it will be off to the valley with a first stop at an old favorite Regucci Winery on the Silverado Trail. Regucci has been our first stop in the valley for many trips and I am sure the new group will be impressed with their wine. Our first day in Napa just happens to be St Patrick’s Day and of course we will celebrate, with a reservation at the Silverado Brew Pub. Oh yes, this trip is going to be a good one! Stop back for some more updates.
Published by admin on March 7th, 2010 | Filed under Napa Times | Comment now »A Snow Day and Napa Valley
Here in my New Jersey home on an unexpected day off, I am watching the snow build up outside as we are hit with what will probably go down as the blizzard of 2010 for our area of the state. You see until now we have been very lucky with the past two major snow storms staying in the southern portion of our state, which is rather unusual. As I have lived in the area all my life I knew it was only a matter of time before at least one good winter snow storm hit us this season, and today is “the big one”. Aside from clearing the snow, a job I hate, I don’t mind a day off. It allows me a chance to catch up on many things, including the web site which is something I have been a ways behind on. I can also day dream and do a little planning for that upcoming Napa Valley trip. We have made it an annual pilgrimage starting with our first visit in 2005 for my 50th birthday, a gift from my wife and I am returning the favor for her 40th as I have previously mentioned. This will be the first time we have ventured out so early in the year so I am a bit nervous. March weather in Napa can be a gamble with early spring rain a big possibility. We chose March over January hoping to catch a nice week as January almost certainly guarantees rain. The trip will also be different in that we will travel as a group of eight instead of the usual four of us (our Brother and Sister in law wine travel partners) that normally make the annual visit. Four very good friends that have never been to Napa are being added this time, and that makes this special trip even more exciting to be able to share some of the great places we have already been to, so I have been working hard on setting up an itinerary with some great stops. I know I was in awe of the Valley on my first visit and would expect they will feel the same. With 34 more days to go I sit here, watch the snow and think about another visit to my favorite place (which by the way is expected to see sun and temperatures in the low 60’s today). Please don’t let it snow on March 17th so I can make it on the plane!
Published by admin on February 10th, 2010 | Filed under Napa Times | Comment now »A New Year 2010
A new year as well as a new decade has arrived, 2010 is already 21 days old and I am looking forward to a far better year than last. There are signs the economy is on the way back, the stock market has improved, and I am back to working full time after a furlough in 2009. I was never one who was overly excited about the changing of years, after all it is just another day, but I do have a good feeling about this one. I am already filled with great excitement to an event planned for March. My wife turned 40 on January 12th and part of her present was a trip to Napa Valley. I thought it fitting as she gave me the same gift when I turned 50 five years ago which began our love of Napa Valley and annual return trips ever since. Not wanting to brave the rainy season to be in the valley on her actual birthday we decided to wait until the middle of March when the weather begins to improve some. The trip includes our annual Napa Valley vacation partners that have been along for the ride since the 50th birthday trip; our sister and brother–in–law, but another exciting twist to this trip is four friends along for my wife’s birthday trip that have never visited the valley. One friend has even said it is a trip that she has on her bucket list….how exciting is that to be a part of someone’s wish list of things they want to do in life! This will certainly be a wine country experience they never forget and that will have them looking forward to future visits as it has for me. I will say a big part of my desire to return is the Wine Country Inn. I have my favorite wineries and restaurants, but the Inn really goes the extra mile and I feel as though I can’t wait to return. Check back for details as the trip plans evolve…I can tell you dinner at the Martini House is already on the list!
Published by admin on January 21st, 2010 | Filed under Napa Times | Comment now »Saddleback Cellars
Our last stop of day four was another return visit and by chance turned out that we got to meet one of our favorite winemakers; Nils Venge. Back down Silverado Trail we headed to Saddleback Cellars located in the heart of Oakville. Saddleback is owned by Nils Venge; a name we had run into on numerous occasions during our trip, including finding out at our earlier tasting with Fortress Vineyards that Nil’s is a consulting winemaker for them.
While we love Saddleback wines, and we were so excited to meet Nils, this was simply a bad choice for us as a last stop. The taste buds were burnt out from a long day of tasting and we should have known better. Next time we will visit Saddleback early in the day so as to appreciate the fantastic wines that Nils makes. We did walk away with two bottles of the 25th Anniversary 2006 Special Barrel Selection Cabernet. One bottle was to drink at dinner that evening and the other is resting comfortably in our cellar waiting for an occasion worthy enough to open a special wine such as the Anniversary Cabernet is.
Published by admin on August 29th, 2009 | Filed under Napa Times | Comment now »Annual Frank Family Vineyards Visit
Our next stop was an old favorite and was just a matter of changing rooms. We left the Frank Family VIP room and headed over to do a tasting of their reserve wines in the newly renovated tasting room. Frank Family has been one of our many favorites and we return each year to try the latest vintages of their reserve wines and champagne which are not sold locally. Shortly after our visit last year Frank Family opened their new tasting room in the original Craftsman House on the property.
The former residence of the original winery owner was lovingly restored including a brick fireplace that was found underneath layers of plaster and paint. I will admit for a moment I did miss the old neat “no frills” tasting room, only for a moment though. The new tasting is beautiful and definitely an improvement. Frank Family Chardonnay is one of my favorites and the reserve Chardonnay was outstanding this year along with the reserve Cabernet and Sangiovese. I think it goes without saying that we never leave without a case or two being sent back home and this year was no different.
Published by admin on August 29th, 2009 | Filed under Napa Times | Comment now »Fortress Vineyards
After leaving Silver Oak we headed up to Calistoga for our appointment with Fortress Vineyards. Fortress does not currently have a tasting room of their own, so they hosted us in the new Frank Family VIP tasting room. My brother-in-law found Fortress while researching places to visit on our day trip up to Lake County which is where the vineyard is located.
Owner Barbara Snider was our host for the tasting and I can’t say enough about how good the Fortress wines are. We came away with two new favorites; the Sauvignon Blanc and Petite Syrah, with the Petite being one of the best I had ever tasted. I will not go into a lot of detail on Fortress as a forthcoming write up will be posted on our Unique U.S. Wineries page in the near future. However, I will say that Fortress was one of our favorites of the week and reminds me why it pays to research and try new and unique wineries.
Published by admin on August 29th, 2009 | Filed under Napa Times | Comment now »Silver Oak Cellars
Day 4 began at one of our old favorites, Silver Oak Cellars. We headed out to the Napa tasting room located in Oakville. As you may know, there is also a tasting room in Sonoma County where you can sample the latest Silver Oak vintages, but we were all very excited to get to the new Napa Valley winery and tasting room as the rebuild had been completed since we last visited. While the new tasting room made its debut almost a year ago now in late September our last visit to Silver Oak was in May while everything was still under construction.
We entered the tasting room through the massive cellar doors to an elegant, yet, cozy tasting room complete with a fireplace that looked well broken in. The room is mostly limestone with a tasting bar crafted from white oak brought in from an 1820 barn in Missouri topped off in steel. Behind the tasting bar there is the most gorgeous hand carved wooden replica of the Silver Oak emblem. A massive piece of art leaving out no detail that is stunning to look at. The tasting room has some of the original pieces, such as the tables and old tasting bars that adorn areas of the room.
The wine speaks for itself of course; so I don’t feel the need to go into much detail as it is always outstanding. I do feel the need to tell you about our host, an older gentleman named Deke. He was fascinating. His stories were amazing, his knowledge of the winery, the wines, the valley and simply his life itself were truly incredible. After purchasing a few memento’s and a large format bottle to ship home we tore ourselves away from the tasting bar and Deke’s stories with a promise to return again next year which has yet to be broken for many years running.
Published by admin on August 11th, 2009 | Filed under Napa Times | Comment now »Mounts Winery Dry Creek Valley
Our intension after Raymond Burr was to head back to the Inn. Well, plans change and we came upon a sign with balloons on Wine Creek Road which is just off of West Dry Creek Road, announcing Mounts Winery. Of course we decided to check it out so up the long driveway past rows of vineyards we went to the top of a hill with a beautiful view of the surrounding vineyards. Mounts is family owned and operated and we were greeted by the family themselves, and welcomed to the tasting area set up outdoors on the patio for the holiday weekend. The set up was complete with a barbeque, including ribs that were some of the best I have ever tasted. Rich Mount and his son David are the owners with Rich doing the farming (he is also responsible for those fantastic ribs) and David the winemaker. Growers of premium grapes for three generations and over 50 years, the Mounts opened their winery in 2007. We tasted a selection of five wines, all very good yet we were really impressed with their 2007 Estate Syrah and 2007 Estate Petite Syrah. Both of these wines are young and on the tannic side, have big, bold, complex flavors with a dark inky color and should mellow and age well. Both are small production with 475 cases of the Petite Syrah and 175 cases of the Syrah produced. All agreed this was another great find and that Mounts will be added to our list of favorites for a revisit in the future.
Published by admin on August 11th, 2009 | Filed under Napa Times | Comment now »Raymond Burr Vineyards annual visit
During our travels through Sonoma three years ago, we happened upon Raymond Burr Vineyards. Since that time we have been returning every year to taste the newest vintage of Chardonnay which is one of my favorites along with the Cabernet and Cabernet Franc, both very good also. This year we arrived at Raymond Burr on the 4th of July weekend and they were having a small picnic celebration with tasting out on the patio. They have a lovely picnic area outside the tasting room with tables under shade trees over looking rolling vineyards. It was a nice day to sit outside, take in the view and taste the latest vintages. It reminded me of a family celebration with a neighbor doing some pouring and old friends helping out. There was a grill fired up with sausage and hotdogs with all the fixin’s. We shipped home our favorites and all agreed it was a great stop to cap off our day in Sonoma. For a more in depth look at Raymond Burr Vineyards and the history behind it, visit our unique U.S. Wineries page.
Tasting at Locals
We left Stryker for a short trip over to Geyserville and a stop at Locals Tasting Room. Locals is a winery collective, or tasting room that features wines from boutique wineries that either do not have or want tasting rooms of their own. Locals presently features 10 award winning wineries with a selection of over 62 wines. Our reason for the visit was to try a selection of Portalupi wine after meeting the winemaker, Tim Borges at Envy the day before. We ended up doing a flight of wines from several different wineries including Portalupi.
I have to say I am not a regular of collectives as I find the experience somewhat like shopping at a super market. I feel the experience is more personal at tasting rooms on winery property with small groups, also why I stay away from the big wineries that attract large groups of people. I will admit Locals was a different and like able experience for me. Not only were the wines very good, the tasting room was cozy and full of atmosphere. Our host Diane happily provided information on the wineries, winemakers and wines as we sampled them, along with some stories of her time on the East Coast and how she arrived in California working at Locals. After selecting wine to ship home we headed out for a visit to Raymond Burr Vineyards; another old favorite.
Published by admin on July 31st, 2009 | Filed under Napa Times | Comment now »
