If you are serious about learning about wine and discovering delicious wines, you should spit wine when visiting the tasting rooms of the Napa Valley or any other wine country. There is no way you can visit three to five wineries in one day, tasting five or more samples of wine at each winery, and remain sober. You palate will be gone in short order.
Needless to say, if you are the driver, your only choices are to spit or just roam around the tasting room while the others are having a grand old time.
Archive for the ‘Wine Education’ Category
Why You Should Spit Wine
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Rutherford Dust Adventures – Tasting the 2007 Vintage
What a terrific day for us on Wednesday of this past week! We were among twenty-five wine writers and wine bloggers present at the annual Rutherford Dust Society’s “A Day in the Dust.” The venue was the historic Rubicon Estates Chateau and the setting dramatic as we entered the room to view the tables with sets of wine glasses numbered and prepared for the tasting. First we heard from present-day wine legends like Andy Beckstoffer, Joel Aiken, Peter Granoff, Larry Stone and others. Then it was down to work, or should I say pleasure, and the tasting of the wines.
The wines we tasted were from 23 different vintners in the Rutherford AVA, all 2007 vintage, Cabernet Sauvignon or blends made predominantly with Cabernet Sauvignon. Andy Beckstoffer explained to us that the 2007 growing season had been one of the best in memory. The season started with early heat, followed by cooler weather than normal. August warmed but there were no heat spikes. Usually the Napa Valley experiences five or six heat spikes that are in the high nineties or above the 100 mark, none of which are good for grapes. September was cooler than usual and the grapes gently matured to their ideal sugar levels. Peter Granoff told us that with the 2007 vintage there had been a shift from long hang time and high alcoholic wines to wines that were more elegant, balanced wines with a soft finish. Peter stated, “We have gone full circle and now we are looking for elegance.” Read the rest of this entry »
Napa Valley’s Heart
So, where is the “Heart of the Napa Valley?” This is what a recent visitor to Wine Country Getaways inquired in an email. “I will be in San Francisco and I want to spend one day in the heart of the Napa Valley, please advise.” We try to answer all emails so I got to thinking about how I would go about telling this person where he should go in the Napa Valley. Is the heart of the Napa Valley a winery, a town, Highway 29, or half way between Napa and Calistoga? After pondering a bit I realized that to find the heart of the Napa Valley, one must “experience” the Valley rather than venture to a specific area or location. I suggested a list of places to go and things to do that would guarantee him that he had been to the “Heart” of the Napa Valley.
Robert Mondavi Winery
Visit one of the historic wineries of the Napa Valley and, if time allows, take the tour there. This will give you a feel and understanding of the early pioneer days of the Napa Valley. Some suggestions are Schramsberg, Beringer, Rubicon Estates, and Beaulieu Vineyards. Robert Mondavi undoubtedly had the greatest influence on the development of the Napa Valley and a trip to his winery is always a great experience. His memories are embedded in this winery.
Visit one of the smaller wineries that is family owned, where family members take part in the daily operation of the winery. Smith-Madrone, August Briggs, or Hendry Winery are some good ones to visit where you are likely to get attention from one of the family members.
Charlie Smith at Smith-Madrone on Spring Mountain
Chasing Napa or Napa Envy
We are back from spending five days in the Washington wine country with 300 Wine Bloggers. We visited many wineries and heard many voices from various Washington wine associations and groups. Interestingly, the most commonly-mentioned wine area outside of Washington was the Napa Valley. When you are on top, watch out, someone’s out to top you. I don’t think Washington can ever reach Napa in terms of a tourist destination, but in wine quality this is another matter. These folks feel strongly that the AVA’s of Washington are unique and remarkable and are producing wines as good as, and perhaps better than, the Napa Valley.
Here are some direct quotes:
“The amount of sunlight here is on average 58 minutes longer per day than in the Napa Valley.”
“We don’t have phylloxera or the sharpshooter like Napa because our winters are so cold.”
“Our latitude is between that of Bordeaux and Burgundy; Napa is lower than Burgundy.”
“Our Syrah is big and chewy and there’s nothing like it, not even in Napa.”
“We heard that a Napa Valley winery wants to buy our Red Mountain grapes.”
View from Col Solare
50ml Wine Bottles from Napa Wineries & Other Wine News
Trefethen 2008 Fallow
First, I receive a bizarre miniature bottle called Fallow from Trefethen Vineyards. No information about why the bottle was sent, just a very hilarious winemaking note describing the aroma and flavors of this empty 50ml wine bottle. What’s up with this I thought. I don’t get it. Then, last Friday, my UPS guy rings the door and has me sign for a small box that he says is wine. I know better, no box that light or small can contain wine. Wrong, here from Trefethen again, is a small fancy box containing four 50 ml. wine bottles. But this time, the bottles are filled with wine. Yeah! Two each of their Double T 2008 Chardonnay and their Double T 2007 Red Wine. Now, I get it. This is a new concept for sampling wine that makes sense. Wineries using these small bottles can send out many samples instead of just a few regular-size bottles to wine bloggers, restaurants, and others without busting their PR budget. Although I would rather get a full bottle, this is a wise option for a winery that wants to introduce its wines to a host of people. Ggrich Hills, Patz & Hall, and Chateau Montelena in the Napa Valley are also early adopters of this novel approach to wine samples. The company behind all this is TastingRoom.com and if you look at their website you can find out how they go about processing these miniature bottles of wine. Incidentally, I polished off the four bottles of wine that I was sent and have judged both the Chardonnay and the Red Wine to be of delicious quality, as are all the Trefethen wines I have tasted.
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If you are going to the Napa Valley
This may not be as fancy as a video produced by the Napa Valley Vintner’s Association or the Napa Valley Destination Council, but our new video on travel tips to the Napa Valley is just what our readers have been asking for. We must get several emails each month with the same essential comment: “We are going to the Napa Valley for the first time and we don’t know where to begin.” We are always a little bit bewildered by this because our Napa Valley Web pages on WineCountryGetaways.com are all about simplifying a trip to the Napa Valley and helping visitors to decide which wineries to visit. We realize now that many folks don’t want to spend a lot of time searching around, so we decided to create this short but informative video. The video explains how to select wineries and also many of the “Do’s and Don’ts” of wine tasting Read the rest of this entry »
A Vineyard Year – My Perspective
It has been awhile since I made a post to this blog. About two weeks ago I got caught up in making a video slide show about a year in wine country. I have seen many of these depictions in my years of wine travel and have always wanted to try my hand at putting one of these together.
I shifted from film to digital photography in 2004. The program I use to catalog my images, Adobe Lightroom, shows that I have some 28,000 digital images on my computer. I would venture to say that about 75% of those are of wine country. We travel to wine country every month of the year and often twice during a month, so I knew I would have no problems finding the images I needed. In fact having too many photos was the issue. It was hard to decide which photos to include and which ones would give the best representation of the vineyards during that particular season. I whittled it down to 42 images and 3 minutes of time.
About half the slides were taken in the Napa Valley and the others shot at various wine regions throughout Northern California. There is one slide from Spain and it’s one of my favorite photos, a close up of an Albariño cluster moments away from being harvested.
The background music is provided by jazz artist Marc Cary from his CD “Focus.” The title “Walk With Me” is so appropriate. Watch the video and walk with me through my rendition of the four seasons in vineyard.
Napa Valley – What it was like in 1970
My last post was about Napa Valley wine prices in 1970 so I thought it might be fun to try and describe what the Napa Valley was like back then. Our first trip to the Napa Valley was in 1968. We were newly married and just a mere 25 years old. I had actually been there once as a teenager but of course could not have cared much about visiting wineries. We owe our interest in wine and wine country traveling to my brother-in-law and to a teaching colleague who were both 12 years our senior. Both of these individuals introduced us to wine and we traveled often with these folks to the wine country. My guide back then to wine country was the first edition of Sunset Magazine’s California Wine Country. It was published in 1968 and was priced at a whopping $1.95. Read the rest of this entry »
Trading Wine at Rubicon Estate
My friend Mike Beltran has been collecting wines for 40 years. His collection is dwindling because he sells or trades most of his older wines. A couple of months ago while searching in the deepest and darkest part of his cellar he finds a bottle of 1959 Inglenook Charbono. Anything Inglenook prior to 1964 is special. For those not familiar, Inglenook was the premiere winery of California up to 1964. Its 1941 Cabernet Sauvignon was listed in Wine Spectator’s top 100 wines of the century with a 100-point rating. John Daniel Jr. was the winemaker and ran the winery during its heyday when suddenly and tragically he sold Inglenook in 1964 to Allied Grape Growers, essentially a jug wine producer. From there is was downhill for the Inglenook label. In 1975 Francis Ford Coppola purchased the old Inglenook winery and vineyards and today it’s called Rubicon Estates. The Inglenook name is still in the hands of a big conglomermate wine company but the majestic mansion, surrounding vineyards, and the wines made are once again magnificent. Read the rest of this entry »
Napa Valley Community College – A Bonded Winery
Alert to U.C. Davis and Fresno State University wine schools, you have a major competitor in the Napa Valley Community College. NVCC is not only situated in one of the world’s most renowned wine regions, but how about those course fees! The Napa college is the first community college in California to have a bonded winery and students can participate in every phase of winemaking, including growing grapes and the selling and marketing of wine. This November the college will release and sell its first vintages of wines, a 2008 Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, and Pinot Noir.
Dr. Stephen Krebs is the head of the Viticulture and Winery Technology instructional program at the Napa Valley College and is the driving force behind a ten-year effort by the college to raise funds and meet the difficult legal requirements to become a bonded winery. The first vintage will yield some 350 cases of wine and the college will be able to legally make as many as 1000 cases of wine. The college currently has six acres of vineyards on the campus. The Napa Valley Vintners Association, Trefethen Family Foundation, Gasser Foundation, Doud Foundation and many others have made significant contributions towards the development of the operation of the wine programs. Read the rest of this entry »
