Peju just received Organic Certification for their 30 acre Rutherford Vineyard, the vineyard that produces the Peju flagship wine, the H.B. Reserve. Congratulations to Peju!

Groth Vineyards and Winery has launched a new level of wine tasting. The current tasting experience is 3 varietals, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Oakville Cabernet Sauvignon, for $10.

Beaulieu Vineyards is going big time with their George de Latour series of wines. The winery plans on investing $7 million to develop a winemaking facility for making the George de Latour wines. The winery is owned by one of the world’s biggest wine companies, Diageo Chateau & Estate Wines. I think the price of this wine might be going up.

Speaking of big wine companies, the Antinori Family has released its first wines from the winery they call Antica Napa Valley. The wines are a 2004 Cabernet and a 2006 Chardonnay. This winery is located up on Soda Canyon Road.

Using solar power makes sense for wineries. Winery buildings have lots of roof space or land and we know they have plenty of sunshine to grow those grapes. The latest Napa Valley winery to go solar is the Staglin winery in Rutherford. I wonder if the savings from energy costs will translate into a reduced price for their famous cult Cabernet.

Fall is in the air and now is a great time to visit the Napa Valley and Carneros. The leaves are just beginning to change color. This photo is one of my favorite places to visit. It is in the Carneros region on Los Amigos Road. It looks great now, but wait a couple of weeks.

Having been back one week from our four-week trip to Spain we needed to get a Napa Valley fix. So, off we ventured for a day’s outing. What a difference when you know your way around and are not fearful of getting lost.

We did not set out to visit Copia but there it was on our way to lunch at the Bounty Hunter in Napa. We decided to stop in to see what was new. Besides, we had been to an amazing wine museum in La Rioja wine region of Spain and wanted see how Copia measured up. We have been to Copia twice before, once when it first opened in 2001 and then again in 2006 when we participated in an excellent wine and food pairing class.

On our visit, we spent about an hour browsing around the various exhibits. New from our last visit was a set of wine dispensing machines. You pay for a card and use it at any of the dispensing stations and what ever the price of the pour is deducted from your “cash card.” Many of the new wine bars in San Francisco use these clever wine dispensers.

We do love the gardens at Copia. If you are a vegetable gardener, you will find the gardens very interesting. Julia’s Kitchen in Copia is one of Napa’s finest restaurants. The Copia gardens provide Julia’s Kitchen with a plethora of herbs, spices, and veggies. We know that Copia always has a very fine schedule of food and wine classes and events. We are on their email list and find their offerings cover a wide range of food and wine topics. But, after leaving Copia, we realized that none of the exhibits on wine really “wowed” us. It was fun and enjoyable but we found none of the exhibits to be very compelling or exciting.

In contrast, our visit to the Museo De La Cultura Del Vino in Briones, Spain, left us in utter amazement and awe. It was a totally fascinating and memorable experience. Just to list a few examples of the exhibits that captivated us: the history of wine making through the ages with artifacts of wine making equipment on display; a powerful video depicting a year in the vineyards presented with the latest media techniques on a collage of screens; a vast collection of wine serving vessels, glasses, and bottles from ancient times to the present; a sensory evaluation station that covered the spectrum of the most common aromas in wine; and an amazing vineyard plot with 200 grape varietals.

We are not saying that Copia should reinvent itself but there needs to be some zip and more absorbing exhibits added. Perhaps the Copia staff and Board can get some ideas from the Museo De La Cultura Del Vino.

For visitors to the Napa Valley Copia is a good place to start their wine country trip. The price of admission is inexpensive, $5 for adults, $4 for seniors, and children under 12 are free.

It is always fun to watch the frenzy of the harvest. It is an exciting time for both the vintner and visitor to wine country. The harvest is winding down now in the Napa Valley with only a few vineyards left to harvest. We missed almost all of harvest in Napa this year because we were in Spain on a four-week wine and food adventure.

Fortunately we didn’t miss the harvest in Spain. In the tiny wine town of Cambados we happened to be there on a memorable day in the midst of the Albariño grape harvest. What a difference in harvesting methods between Napa and in the Spanish wine region of Rias Braixas. In Napa, the harvesters work at fever pitch, bending, cutting and running to dump their cartons of grapes in the one-ton bins. In Rias Braixas, the workers have a much more relaxed pace. They carefully cut each cluster and place the cluster in a carton. When the carton is filled they leave it on the ground and then begin to fill another carton. Later each carton is placed on a palate and delivered to the winery on small trucks.

In the Rias Braixas wine regions, there is no need for the harvest worker to bend. All the grape clusters are above them. They stand as they work the vines. This wine country is damp and moist because it is only a few miles away from the water inlets of the Atlantic Ocean. The vines are trained so they sit high off the ground. With this trellis method, the grapes can quickly dry off from any wet conditions.

Another harvest difference is what I called the liability factor. In Napa and other California wine regions, visitors are restricted from harms way. Visitors are never allowed near the crush machinery tractors, or the workers. For sure, visitors are directed to stay clear. At the Martin Codax Bodega in Rias Braixas, I walked all around with my camera capturing images of the crush. No one said a word to me. In fact, it seemed that I was welcomed. The lady in the photo was anxious for me to photograph the grape cluster. She wanted me to taste the grapes. She was quite excited about the harvest and what a joy to see this in her face.

The wineries in Spain generally do not have regular visitor hours or tasting rooms. You have to call a couple of days in advance to set up an appointment. But at harvest time, the wineries close their doors to visitors. Every available body in the winery works on the harvest.

One thing we can say is the same, the crush yields some great wines in both Napa and Spain.

Artesa Winery is one of the most spectacular wineries you will ever visit. The views are magnificent and everything about this winery is elegant. The Codorniu Family, a Spanish wine company known for its Cava in Spain, owns the winery. The Family has spared no expense in building a very modern and impressive winery.

As you climb the stairs to the entrance of Artesa not only will you be treated to magnificent views of Carneros, but also to some wonderful sculptures by famed artist Gordon Hunter. The modern sculptures seem to complement the beauty of the Carneros vineyards below.

This is perhaps one of the busiest wineries in Carneros and Napa. It is no doubt a tourist attraction, luring big crowds throughout the week. It is a destination stop for many limousines and tour buses.

The tasting has two levels, $10 for the basic tasting and $15 for the premium wines. There is not much time to chat with the hosts, as they are all quite busy attending to the crowded tasting room. We had a coupon good for a free tasting at the $10 level.

For each wine we received a well-rehearsed spiel, describing the excellence of the wine. We like the more casual approach but that probably would not work with this many visitors. You can wander around the beautiful tasting room, sit at a table, or enjoy the view on the small terrace.

We enjoyed all the wines, but after having tasted the wines at Robledo shortly before, we have to say the Artesa wines don’t seem to have the same character and structure as the Robledo wines. Maybe it’s the “David versus Goliath” influence, but Robledo was more fun. We do, however, recommend a visit to Artesa; the total experience is well worth it.

The Good: The views, the architecture, the sculptures.
The Bad: The big crowds, especially on weekends.