Last Saturday we attended the Burlingame Foundation Luncheon. Julia Flynn Siler, the author of the House of Mondavi: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty, was one of three featured authors. We did not attend so much to hear Julia but to support the Burlingame Library Foundation, but having Julia speak was a huge bonus. Her presentation was limited to 20 minutes but she gave us a fascinating account of her trials and tribulations in writing the book about one of the most famous families in the world of wine.

Shortly after writing a front-page article in the Wall Street Journal in June of 2004 about the Mondavi Family struggles, Julia received an email from a publisher asking her if she would be interested in writing a book about Robert Mondavi. She was undecided until she attended the Napa Valley Wine Auction. Here she witnessed the dynamics and interactions of this famous wine auction. She sat at the Trinchero Family table, a family that had made their mark with “White Zinfandel” years back. She observed first hand the decline of Robert Mondavi, not so much in his physical health, but in the decline in the prestige of his wines. His wine no longer commanded the highest bids and many “cult” wines were auctioned off for many times more than the Mondavi wine. It was then that she decided to write the book.

There were many obstacles to writing the book, the largest one being that no one in the Mondavi family wanted to be interviewed by Julia. But, two and a half years later armed with 525 interview hours, Julia completed her fabulous book.

This being a library luncheon, Julia commented on the importance of libraries and alluded to the fact that she spent many hours of research at the St. Helena Library. “It may be the only library in the world with a vineyard,” she stated. She also mentioned it was at the St. Helena library that she interviewed Timothy Mondavi for 2 hours. He had been ousted from the Robert Mondavi Winery and no longer had an office in the Napa Valley.

The book is a great read and we suggest it for anyone who enjoys California wines. We often wonder what the Napa Valley would be like without a Robert Mondavi. Be sure to go to Julia’s Web site and take the Walking Tour of the Napa Valley. The tour is a gallery of images that was collected in the process of writing the book and gives a concise synopsis of the book.

Our last post on Dutch Henry Winery drew a comment from Dutch Henry owner and winemaker Scott Chafen. We mentioned in the post that we thought the Dutch Henry wines were priced on the high side. Scott responded by saying, “organically farmed, hand picked, barrel aged, and hillside grown all has its price.”

This leads to the subject of wine pricing in the Napa Valley or in any wine country. How is the price of wine set by a winery? Is there a set formula that takes into account the cost of wine production, how much profit to make, and other factors? Or, is the process totally subjective?

We occasionally ask a vintner, when the opportunity is right, how he or she figures out how much to charge for a bottle of wine. The only really straight answer we have ever received in our small sampling came from George Hendry of Hendry Wines. George simply stated, “Whatever the market will bear.” Maybe Joe Heitz started this idea back in the early days of the Napa Valley. James Conaway in his book, Napa, The Story of an American Eden, tells of the time Joe Heitz impulsively opened a bottle of his $12 Cabernet, “drinking Cabernet off the hood of a local’s pickup, laughing and laughing at the absurdly high price.” The absurdly high price didn’t stop people from buying his Cabernet. And even today, there are several “cult” wines going for an absurdly high price of $200 and higher.

We wonder how many Napa Valley vintners have adopted this price point strategy. The price of Napa wines just seems to be shooting up despite the economy. Apparently, there are enough folks out there with plenty of money who are not affected by gasoline prices or the high cost of groceries, who want to buy wine regardless of the price. Napa’s big advantage is its reputation; wineries there can charge more for their wine simply because the wine came from the Napa Valley. It is true that it costs more to set up shop in the Napa Valley vs. Paso Robles or the Sierra Foothills. But some wineries in the Napa Valley have been there for ages, since the time when land was inexpensive. Do those wineries charge less because their overhead is lower?

For us, we travel often to the Napa Valley. We love the beauty, the food, and the whole experience of being in one of the world’s most famous wine regions. We are always searching for value wines in the Napa Valley and elsewhere. We love it when we find a good red for less than $20, a good white for less than $15. But this is so much easier to accomplish in the wine regions of the Russian River of Sonoma County, Mendocino, the Sierra Foothills, and Paso Robles.

Dutch Henry Winery is a small family-owned winery at the northern end of the Silverado Trail. The Dutch Henry Winery is a family run affair. The owners are Less and Maggie Chafen of San Francisco, and their son Scott Chafen is the winemaker and vineyard manager. The family opened the winery in 1992. The winery has estate vineyards located at the winery as well as other areas in the Napa Valley. The winery is named for a somewhat shady character, Dutch Henry, who was a silver miner in the area during the mid 1800’s.

Just outside the winery there is a Syrah Vineyard that has recently been organically certified. Another addition to the winery will come very soon and that is a wine cave. Currently, space is limited in the winery for the aging barrels. The barrel room also doubles as a tasting room and that makes for tight quarters. We got a peek of the cave construction and learned that it will not only house the barrel room, but also provide space for a more formal tasting area.

The tasting fee is $10 and we were able to taste five wines. We enjoyed all the wines, particularly the Pinot Noir, but were a little surprised to find that the wines were priced so high. Wines range from $28 to $58. One can always expect Napa Valley wines to be more expensive than anywhere else in California. Don’t get us wrong, these wines are tasty but, compared to some of the neighboring wineries we have visited, we think the wines are priced too high for the quality. There are no bargain wines to be found at Dutch Henry.

The staff at the winery is very friendly and warm. Scott is usually around the winery or vineyards with his three friendly dogs roaming the area. There are several picnic tables and a Bocce Ball court. One can easily spend a lazy afternoon sipping wine and playing Bocce Ball and taking in the vineyard views.

The Good: Family owned, organically certified vineyards, picnic tables, and Bocce court.
The Bad: Wines priced on the high side.

In celebration of Earth Day, we thought it would be fitting to list the wineries in the Napa Valley and Los Carneros that are recognized as leaders in utilizing “Green Activities” in their vineyards and winery facilities. The term “Green” can mean many things but in the case of this blog post we use the term “Green” to include the following activities:

• Organic farming (no use of synthetic pesticides, herbicides, or fertilizers)
• Use of solar power
• Use of bio diesel fuels (fuels derived from vegetable oil)
• Water conservation
• Reduction of waste

The following is a list of Napa wineries that we consider to be exemplary in their attempt to reduce their carbon footprint and preserve the environment for future generations.

• Araujo Estate
• Ehlers Estate
• Frogs Leap Winery
• Grgich Hills Cellars
• Honig Vineyards & Winery
• Joseph Phelps
• Long Meadow Ranch
• MacRostie Winery & Vineyards
• Madonna Estate
• Robert Sinskey Vineyards
• Staglin Family Vineyard

This list was created from our own experiences visiting wineries in the Napa Valley plus information provided to us by the Wine Institute. This is by no means a comprehensive list. Please comment if you think you are a winery or know of a winery that should be on this list. There is a public out there that wants to know who the “Green” wineries are.

In the future we will post additional wineries that do their part to sustain the planet.

We just read a great review of the “House of Mondavi: The Rise and Fall of an American Wine Dynasty” in the wine blog Vinography. The review reminded us that the author of this, Julia Flynn Siler, will be one of three featured authors at the Burlingame Library Foundation Book and Author Luncheon on Saturday, May 3, 2008 from 11:30 am to 3:00 pm. The cost is $65 per person and all proceeds benefit the Burlingame Public Library.

We live in Burlingame so you can easily understand why this event is of great interest to us. We get double pleasure out of attending this event. It helps our library and we get to hear Julia Flynn Siler talk about ‘The House of Mondavi,” a book that we thoroughly enjoyed reading. Having started our wine enjoyment adventures in the mid 1960’s, the book brought back many memories and experiences of the early days of the Napa Valley. We often wonder what the Napa Valley would be like today without the influence and pioneering of Robert Mondavi.

If you would like to attend this event, you can order your tickets online from the Burlingame Library Foundation.

The term “sustainability” means preserving the environment and using the land in such a way as to preserve it for future generations. Honig Vineyards & Winery is proof positive that a winery can make really good wines while at the same time preserving the planet by adopting sustainable practices. In the case of Honig Vineyards, sustainable practices include cover crops instead of chemical fertilizers, owl houses and bat houses instead of pesticides, the use of solar energy and bio diesel fuel, and much more.

We recently visited Honig Vineyards on a beautiful spring day. The winery is open by appointment only so we were expecting few visitors during a Tuesday visit. We were surprised to find the winery quite busy. It is obvious that Honig is a popular winery among tourists.

Our host gave us the choice of tasting wines in the tasting room or at the tables in their outdoor tasting area. That was an easy choice considering how pleasant a day it was. Tasting fee is $10 for a taste of five wines including their high-end Bartolucci Vineyard Cabernet. Our host poured us a taste of their Sauvignon Blanc and sat down to welcome us to Honig and chat about their philosophy of sustainable practices. Our host was very enthusiastic but not overbearing. He gave us plenty of time alone to savor each wine. Each time he returned he gave us a brief description of the wine he was pouring and answered our questions knowledgeably. We spent a very leisurely time in the sun enjoying all the delicious Honig wines. The Rutherford Sauvignon Blanc is a wonderful wine and has been one of our favorites over the years. The Bartolucci Vineyard Cabernet is an outstanding wine highly rated by various wine critics. However, at $75 a bottle, it is a just a bit out of our price range.

Before we left, we walked in the vineyards to observe the owl and hawk houses posted at the end of several of the vineyard rows. The rows between the vines had been recently tilled so that the cover crops were now mulched into the soil.

One more thing, our host, also explained that the sustainable practices concept is applied to employees. The winery provides full benefits and other workplace practices to keep employees working productively and remaining on the job.

The Good: A fine example of what can be done using sustainable practices, delicious wines.
The Bad: The Bartolucci Vineyard Cabernet is out of our price range.

We hadn’t heard much about Buehler Vineyards nor tasted their wines until we went to a wine tasting event sponsored by the Napa Valley Vintners Association. We enjoyed the Buehler wines we tasted and then shortly thereafter, the Wine Spectator rated their Buehler Vineyards 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon 90 points and listed this wine on its annual issue of Top Value wines. So on our next trip to the Napa Valley, we arranged to visit Buehler Vineyards.

You won’t find too many visitors at Buehler because the winery is open by appointment only and the winery’s location is at the base of Howell Mountain, some six miles in from the Silverado Trail. Don’t let this stop you from visiting, the views are breathtaking and the wines are a great value.

We met with John Buehler Jr. the owner of Buehler Vineyards and John gave us a brief history of the winery. In 1971 John Buehler Sr. retired and purchased this beautiful hillside property. John Jr. went to work managing the winery and making the wines until the winery became well established. In 1982 John Jr. hired Heidi Barrett, now the renowned consulting winemaker for several of Napa Valley’s most prestigious wineries. Today, David Cronin is winemaker and has been crafting the Buehler wines since 1993.

John took us on a vineyard tour that was quite amazing. The views are very pretty and there is also the structure that was a “ghost” winery before the days of prohibition. Today, it houses the horses and some bats and owls. The winery has 55 acres of hillside vineyards planted with Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel. In addition, the winery brings in Chardonnay grapes from the Russian River Valley to make its gentle Chardonnay wine.

Following our vineyard and winery tour John took us into the tasting room and we sampled five wines, three Cabernets, a Zinfandel, and the Chardonnay. All the wines were very delicious. We were surprised by the fact that the wines were priced so reasonably, compared to other wineries with the same type of hillside vineyards. For example, the vineyard designated Papa’s Knoll Estate Cabernet Sauvignon is priced at $45. We have seen many hillside wines like this for well over $100. Earlier in the day, we had tasted a Cabernet on the Valley floor that was not nearly as tasty but priced at $75. The Buehler Zinfandel was a lovely wine but unfortunately, even though it was available for tasting, there is none left to sell at the winery. Fortunately, we were able to find a few bottles of the Buehler Zinfandel at our local wine shop.

We had a very nice visit and once again reaffirmed our notion that visiting family-owned wineries is always a unique and exciting experience.

The Good: Spectacular views, hillside wines at reasonable prices, family owned.
The Bad: Zinfandel sold out.

This is indeed the winery of the famous Mario Andretti of Indy race car fame. Mario Andretti founded the winery in 1996, and it has since has become a public company trading shares under the name Andretti Wine Group. This beautiful Tuscan style winery is tucked away on Big Ranch Road near the Silverado Trail. Since is it off the beaten path the winery remains largely hidden from the tourist frenzy and traffic on Highway 29 and the Silverado Trail. The countryside on Big Ranch Road is beautiful and serene.

The tasting room is very inviting done in Tuscan style colors. The outside area has a great view of the vineyards and there is an appealing set of picnic tables in view of the tasting room. However, as inviting as those tables are, we were told that the area cannot be used for picnicking but only for tours and tastings by appointment. That is very unfortunate because the area is so beautiful and peaceful looking.

The tasting fee is $10 for a choice of four wines, but the fee cannot be applied to a purchase. We were a little put off by our server, so we decided to share one tasting. Maybe it was the bad start but none of the wines seemed outstanding and not worth the price they were charging for the wines. We were in and out of the tasting room in about 10 minutes. We did spend much more time outside gazing at the Tuscan winery and the surrounding vineyards. The scenery is very enticing and brought back many memories of our 2005 trip to Italy.

The winery offers winery and vineyard tours by appointment and wine and food paring classes. To get to the Andretti Winery, the easiest route is to head up the Silverado Trail and turn left on Oak Knoll Ave. Turn left on Big Ranch Road and go about ¾ of a mile to the winery. You can also pick up Oak Knoll Ave. on Trancas St. in Napa.

The Good: Lovely Tuscan style and setting throughout, Andretti race memorbilia
The Bad: Tasting fee too high, wines a bit overpriced

The immensely popular Taylor’s Automatic Refresher of St. Helena and San Francisco’s Ferry Plaza now has a third location, the Oxbow Market in the city of Napa. St. Helena is the original 1949 location of the once drive-in burger joint revitalized in 2000 by winemaker Joel Gott and brother Duncan. You have probably seen Joel Gott’s value priced wines at various wine shops. Both the St. Helena and the San Francisco locations are jammed around the lunch hour. You will see long lines at both locations but the lines move at a remarkable speed.

We decided to check out the Oxbow Market location for lunch last week. Early this year we posted a blog about the Oxbow Market and how deserted the place was shortly after its grand opening. The place is busier now, more merchants have moved in and the weather has improved. However, it was not bustling with tourists on a Thursday in mid March. For example, the newly opened Oxbow Wine Merchant had no more than 8 people roaming their vast wine store and tasting bar.

The newly opened Taylor’s Refresher is on the corner in one of the adjunct buildings to the main Oxbow Market facility. They too were doing an okay business but not the long lines you would find at the other two Taylor’s. At the height of the lunch hour, we were third in line and had a wide choice of where to sit both inside and outside.

It is remarkable how good the food tastes considering it is basically a fast food joint. Everything seems to be of high quality and burgers of various sorts fly off the shelf. The wine list is terrific with good choices for folks who want just a glass or a half-bottle. We shared a half-bottle of Chappellet Chenin Blanc, a great wine with the Chicken Club and the Fried Calamari. The wine is served in those fancy stemless Riedel glasses and that is a much better choice than a plastic glass. Almost everything else is served in plastic containers.

Taylor’s Refresher is a good choice when you want something that is good and very quick. Otherwise, try one of the fine eateries inside the Oxbow Public Market.

The Good: Very good menu choices, good wine list, speed of service remarkable.
The Bad: Plastic containers, the pour for the wine glass servings is too small.

Whitehall Lane sits on Highway 29 just south of the town of St. Helena. The winery looks especially beautiful in the winter when the mustard is in bloom. The vibrant colors of the winery blend in perfectly with the surrounding environment. The winery is most famous for its Cabernet Sauvignon. The Wine Spectator and other wine critics give both their Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon and Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon consistently high ratings. This recognition and the fact that the winery is very visible from Highway 29 make it a popular tourist spot. The best time to visit the winery is during the week or on weekends during the off-season.

We visited Whitehall Lane mid-week a couple of weeks ago. There were six visitors in the tasting room including the two of us, proving that mid-week visits are the perfect time to get some quality time in the tasting room. Sometimes the crowd can be too small. Two men were working the tasting bar and they were not the greatest conversationalists. There were several moments of awkward silence. Maybe they are used to having bigger crowds and maybe younger ones too. Or maybe the winery did not have their “A” team on duty for a slow mid-week winter day.

We liked all the wines we tasted for the tasting fee of $10. Normally the tasting includes five wines but on a slow day we received a couple of bonus wines to taste. The Sauvignon Blanc, Napa Valley Cabernet, and the Napa Valley Merlot are widely distributed in wine shops, including the big warehouse wine stores. These wines are considerably discounted at the stores so you are better off tasting the wines at the winery to discover which of these you like and then buy them at the discount wine shops. However, if you are interested in the delicious reserve Cab, you should buy it at the winery. It is a delicious wine and stands up against any of the “cult” Cabs selling for well over $100 or $200. Another wine we liked was a white wine made of 62% Sauvignon Blanc and 38 % Semillion. It is a very crisp white and quite different from the usual fare of California white wines. It is available only at the winery for $18. When we find the Whitehall Lane Sauvignon Blanc on sale for $12.99 at our local wine shop, we scoop it up. It is very nice Sauvignon Blanc at that price.

The Good: Very good wines especially the reserve Cab, family owned.
The Bad: Tasting room crowded during the busy season.