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.
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 »
If you are thinking about getting away to the Napa Valley with that someone special on Valentine’s Day, you’d better think quickly. Although tourism is down in the Napa Valley, Valentine’s Day is always one of the most popular weekends in the entire year and waiting until the last minute can get you in the doghouse. So, you have two things to do immediately after reading this posting. Make a lodging reservation and dinner/lunch reservations.
VinoVisit and Cellar Pass – Reservation system for tasting rooms
These two competing companies are battling toe-to-toe to sign up wineries with a new concept that is designed to attract wine country tourists to the tasting room. VinoVisit seems to have the head start with more wineries signed up plus a few publishers like our own Wine Country Getaways. The reservation widget for both companies will work much like widgets used by the Trip Adviser to find and book hotels or like Open Table to reserve a restaurant. With the tasting room widget the tourist will be able to book a tour, tasting, and other winery events. For VinoVisit, each winery in their system will have its own individual Widget on its Website, and publishers like Wine Country Getaways will eventually have a general Widget containing information on all the VinoVisit wineries. You can check out this page to see the current wineries using VinoVisit on WCG. Read the rest of this entry »
Have you heard of Tudal Family Winery? I doubt it. Even though its first vintage was in 1979 and its vineyards are located in the famed St. Helena AVA, most visitors to wine country have never seen or visited this small family-run winery just north of St. Helena. Despite its fine reputation for Cabernet Sauvignon, the Tudal winery has been lost in the shuffle of big wineries, fancy tasting rooms, and its hidden location. All that may be about to change as Tudal Family Winery is revamping its image under the guidance of John Tudal, son of the founders Alma and the late Arnold Tudal.
The revamp began in 2009 when John hired Kirk Venge to be the Tudal winemaker. Kirk is a winemaker on the move. At 33, Kirk not only heads up his own winery, Venge Vineyards, but is consulting winemaker for several boutique wineries in the Valley. He is in demand and one to watch in the coming years. Kirk likes full-bodied wines that will certainly be a change of pace from the current offerings made by Tudal. Read the rest of this entry »
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 »
The biggest news this month is the approval of the Calistoga AVA. This is a huge win for the wineries that garner their grapes from the Calistoga area. Wineries like Chateau Montelena who have vineyards in Calistoga will benefit and be able to use Calistoga on their wine label, provided that 75% of grapes come from the that AVA. Biggest loser is Calistoga Cellars. This winery has been in existence for ten years and has a tasting room in Calistoga but their wines are made from Central Valley vines. The Feds will give them three years to change their name or start making wine from the Calistoga AVA. This ends an approval process that started in 2004.
The Oxbow Public Market will be getting a new tenant. It will be C Casa, a new style Mexican restaurant run by Catherine Bergen, Napa culinary entrepreneur and founder of “Made In Napa Valley.” Out is Rotisario at the end of the year and C Casa will open in its spot in March of 2010. With the economy such as it is and the demise of next-door neighbor Copia, the Oxbow Market so far has not lived up to expectations. We’ve visited on four occasions during the week and on each visit the place has been a bit somber. It was patterned after the San Francisco Ferry Building Marketplace but has yet to replicate its popularity.
In December everything in wine country comes to a slow crawl. People are busy with holiday shopping and activities, the vines are brown and looking dreary, and the weather is not always the best for a getaway in the beautiful Napa Valley. Despite all this, we think there are many reasons why December is a great time to visit wine country. Read the rest of this entry »
I just finished reading in the St. Helena Star the article “More Wine Unsold During the Economic Slump.” There were two points in the article that really stood out for me. Long-time winemaker and owner Mike Grgich stated that his sales are down 30 percent this year in California and 50 percent for out-of-state sales. Most wine owners don’t like to admit how bad things are. Whenever I have asked about wine sales, I get the usual runaround: “It’s slow but we are holding our own because of our loyal customers.” I’m sure Mike Grgich has lots of loyal customers but not all of them are working right now. The second and most telling point of the article is some of the advice out there to the Napa wineries to hold prices, and forget the discounts. Napa has an image to uphold. Hello to Napa, things have changed. This is a different recession and a totally different global wine community. Read the rest of this entry »
Slow Season Gets an Early Start
The slow season has arrived a little earlier than usual in the Napa Valley.
According to a couple of limo drivers and tour guides I talked to on the road, when October came, the phone stopped ringing. Several tasting rooms say that the tasting rooms have seen less foot traffic than usual. Lodging deals and packages are beginning to emerge sooner than the norm. My own website, Wine Country Getaways, has seen a dramatic drop in visitor traffic since the end of September, much more than the average for this time period. These signs could point to a very dismal off-season in wine country.
One lodging deal that crossed our desk was at the Napa Marriott Hotel for a $99 special for per night from November 29 to the end of February. This is available through TravelZoo. If this does not show up on your browser, call the Napa Marriott and ask for the Wine Package.
We have are own Travel Widget on WineCountryGetways and we will alert you to any package deals that emerge.
Wine Sales and Discounts
We are also starting to see the signs of wines going down in price, but not much. I am on many a tasting room’s email list and several wineries have sent notices about discounts and shipping freebies. If the subject line says “Free Shipping,” I’m unlikely to open the email. If the subject line states “Sale,” I will open it and see what the offer is all about. Right now, the consumer is looking for good deals, and wineries need to get a sense of a new consumer attitude that looks for these deals. This must be tough on the small winery that depends on moving their wines and recovering costs. I just hope the small wineries survive and don’t give up.
Trinchero Family Estates
This is the family that created the White Zinfandel buzz in the mid 1970’s. Today, they own several labels including these Napa Valley wineries: Sutter Home, Folie a Deux, Napa Cellars and the Trinchero Napa Valley Winery, where Folie a Deux once existed before being purchase by Trinchero. Well, with all that wealth floating around, the Trinchero family does a lot of good deeds. The latest one, a million-dollar gift toward a facility focused on developing healthy grape rootstock. Congrats to the Trincheros for this donation.
Wine and Food Pairing
It is good to see more wineries offer a food and wine pairing experience for the wine country visitor. Food and wine pairings provide a terrific learning experience for the wine country traveler. The latest to offer such a pairing is the Duckhorn Wine Company. At both their Napa wineries they will offer these sessions: Food for Thought experience at Duckhorn ($55 per person) and at Paraduxx Winery, An Unpredictable Pair. Check the website for complete information for the times and the menu.
In search of wine, food, and other delights in the Napa Valley is the mantra of the Napa Valley Wine Blog. Our mission is give wine travelers and wine aficionados inside information about the wine regions of the Napa Valley and Los Carneros.
