It was a Wednesday in late November when we decided to head out to the Napa Valley for an overnight stay. It was a beautiful clear and sunny day in the mid 60’s. Most of the vineyards have lost their fall colors. It is still beautiful. The other beautiful feature of the Napa Valley at this time of the year is the calm. Once Thanksgiving weekend is over, the Napa Valley goes into quiet mode for the next couple of months.

We stopped at the Soda Canyon Store on the Silverado Trail to buy our picnic deli lunch and then headed up the Silverado Trail in hunt of a winery with a picnic spot. The Napa Valley is he toughest wine country region in California to find a winery with a picnic area. We had picnicked at Pine Ridge Winery about four years ago so we headed there first. Pine Ridge makes terrific wines and they have a beautiful picnic area with a great view of hillside vineyards.

We entered the tasting room and explained we wanted to pass up the tasting until after lunch and would like to purchase a bottle of wine for our picnic. “Sorry folks, the picnic area is open only to wine club members.” We looked around the tasting room to make sure we were not seeing things. Yes, we were the only visitors in the tasting room. Outside, the only person near a picnic table was a gardener. The greeter suggested we taste and join the wine club and then we could use the picnic area. “No thanks,” we said and took off to find a more gracious tasting room.

Wine club members should have perks but if there are none in the winery, why pass up a sale or just plain good PR? Did they think a huge group of wine club members would suddenly surface on a slow Wednesday? We were a bit dumbfounded and perplexed.
Some wineries get it right, others get it wrong, and in this case we think Pine Ridge was way off the mark.

The Good: Great picnic spot open just for wine club members
The Bad: Great picnic spot open just for wine club members

Larson Family Winery – A Real Family Winery

Larson Family Winery has the right approach. Why not provide as much fun as possible for the entire family? At their Carneros tasting room on Millerick Road, you can take a chance with the giant wheel to win big discounts. Larson also has a Bocce Ball court, barn yard animals to view, and a wagon train ride through the vineyards.

Even Santa will be making an appearace this year at the Larson Family Winery, on Saturday and Sunday, December 15th & 16th, and December 22nd and 23rd, from 1 to 4p.m. Rumor has it that Santa will be taking a turn at the tasting bar and pouring some of Larson’s finest wines.

The Wine Spectator

Did you read Kim Marcus in the Wine Spectator’s November 15 edition? What he boldly states is what many of us have been saying for a while, California wines especially the reds are way too expensive and most of those are from Napa. He mentions a recent trip in the Sierra Foothills where he found a contrast from Napa, decent prices for very good wines.

Hess Collection Winery – Revitatalization

Our previous blog post was about the Hess Collection Winery and we just read this announcement in Winebusiness.com: Hess is going to spend $30 million over the next five years to focus vineyard development on Mount Veeder. I think this means that they are going to take over the vineyards on Mount Veeder that they contract out and replant them. After 30 years of experience on Mount Veeder, Hess says they have determined the best rootstock and clones that fit the particular climate and soils of Mount Veeder. This will be interesting to follow.

The Hess Collection Winery is a popular tasting room despite the fact that is off the beaten path, seven miles west of Highway 29, in the Napa Valley. It was remarkable how busy this winery was on a Wednesday when we visited a couple of weeks ago.

The first thing you notice as you walk towards the tasting room is the beautiful ivy covered stone building. This building was built in 1903 by Theodore Gier as a winery and then later taken over by the Christian Brothers. In 1986 Donald Hess took over the property, remodeled and added a modern winery.

Inside the Hess Collection Winery is an attractive tasting room and adjacent gift shop. Upstairs is the galley where Donald Hess displays a portion of his wonderful art collection. Visitors can view the gallery for free.

Now to the wines: For a $10 tasting fee you get to taste four wines from a selection of eight wines. What we did was taste all 8 wines by each selecting a different wine from each other and then trading glasses. The pour was enough for two good swigs of the wine.

Our server was well rehearsed and quickly gave us a concise description of each wine. We thought all the wines were well made and balanced but none of them really stood out as a “must have.” The best wine we tasted was the Melbec but at $36 it was priced too high for us.

We recommend a visit here because there is much to see and the area of Mount Veeder is quite beautiful. To get to Hess, take the Redwood Road exit off Highway 29. Follow Redwood Road for about 6 miles. At this point, you will see a sign for Hess directing you to the left. You will still be on Redwood Road for another mile.

The Good: Art Gallery, stone building, and the barrel room.
The Bad: $10 tasting fee, beautiful area for a picnic but no facilities.

Tourists heading to the Napa Valley and Carneros usually bypass downtown Napa as they head north into the Valley. As a consequence, they miss out on some wonderful places to dine and taste wine. We have written previously about Pearl’s and Pilar’s, both great restaurants in downtown Napa. Last week we visited the Bounty Hunter and we can add it to our list of “secret” places in the town of Napa.

The Bounty Hunter is very casual looking and your first impression might be that it is more of a cowboy hangout rather than a fine wine shop and restaurant. Once you have settled in, you will discover that this is great place to dine for lunch or dinner and do some serious wine tasting.

The Bounty Hunter first started out as strictly a wine bar and wine store and then later added the restaurant. The wine list has some 40 wines by the glass. You can try them in a 3 or 5 oz. pour, or try one of the several well-thought-out tasting flights. You can try the “About Bubbles,” the “Great White Flight,” or the “Pinot Envy Club,” just to mention a few. Tasting flights, like the ones at the Bounty Hunter, are a good way to learn about wines and hone your wine tasting skills. We watched as a party of four selected a tasting flight. The server was very savvy and not overbearing in anyway. He made everyone feel comfortable.

Our main purpose on our visit was to have lunch. By the time we arrived, the lunch crowd had left so there was no waiting and we had our choice of seating. Janelle had the Bounty Hunter Blue, a wonderful salad with blue cheese, organic butter lettuce, and Applewood bacon. Joe had a terrific pulled pork sandwich. Our food was elegantly presented and excellently prepared. Our check came to $35 without tip and that included a glass of wine each. We will be back for dinner one of these days to taste what we hear is a fabulous barbequed chicken.

The Good: Unpretentious wine bar, 40 wines by the glass, 400 different wines for sale, great food.
The Bad: Too bad we can’t get to the Bounty Hunter more often.