Got Wine? Napa

Day 3:  NAPA

We packed up our SUV, checked out of our hotel and headed for the "other" valley.  After a few wrong turns and more scary mountain driving we got our first glimpse of Napa Valley.

This was definitely the "Big Boy" playground. The valley was spectacular and the wineries were more like estates.  Napa is home to the more worldly acclaimed wineries and wines and they have price tags to prove it.

I had one winery on my list, primarily for the grounds and the estate itself.  It happened to be one that sells directly to the customer, their wine is only available through the winery or their website.

http://www.vsattui.com/index.cfm

We LOVED this winery. V Sattui Winery was voted "Best Winery in Western US" and "Winery of the Year".  It is family owned since 1885 and is located in St. Helena, CA. It has a gourmet cheese shop and Italian deli.  In addition, they have a beautiful outdoor setting in which to enjoy a bottle of wine and a lunch or dinner, complete with picnic tables and fountains and courtyards.

V Sattui Winery, Napa Valley California

Courtyard at V Sattui Winery

The wine tasting was $5.00 or $10.00 per person, depending on how many wines you chose to sample and the fee is deducted from your purchase.  If you choose to visit this winery ask for Mark, he was a kick and a pleasure to work with.  We joined their wine club, purchased a mixed case and received a 25% discount.  In addition we sampled a toasted sandwich and greek salad from their deli. It was well over two hours before we could drag ourselves away.

 

        V Sattui gourmet cheeses

    

Next up: Beaulieu Vineyards, or BV winery.  Pricey wines, but very good.  My husband did the tasting here, but we were not persuaded to buy any. There was a tasting fee, but they waved it, which was impressive.  Very classy.

Beaulieu Vineyard, Napa Valley                

Andretti Winery

This winery was our last stop before heading home.  We sampled several wines, but this was a stop again for the name.  I thought my dad would be impressed, as he used to follow Mario Andretti in his racing days. Nice little winery.

Lessons learned:

1. Russian River Chardonnays are the best.

2. Buy Alexander Valley Zinfandels.

3. Napa is known for it's Cabernets.

4. Do your homework and bring maps!

5. Stick to the main roads on your trip to the valleys, unless you like the slower "scenic" routes.

6. You can stay in a hotel for $80 - $90 and still get comfort and wi-fi!  (Quality/Comfort Inns)

7. There are direct flights from Portland to Santa Rosa.

8. You can print out maps and an itenerary at the hotel, but you need to remember to bring a USB cord.  Our hotels had a printer in the lobby, but I did not have a cord with me.  Best Buy was close by thankfully.

Regrets:

1. Next time we go to San Francisco first and see our nephew.  We ran out of time this trip.

2. Sonoma wineries we missed: Bella, Manzanita Creek, Ferrari-Carano, Paradise Ridge and Silver Oak in Sonoma.  Jordan is also in Sonoma and you can only tour/taste by appointment.  This was one my husband wanted to tour, but we ran out of time.  

3. Napa wineries we will visit next time:  Beringer and Franciscan.

4. We missed the Olive oil tasting rooms. There are many Olive Oil producers in Northern California. We want to try those next time.

5. We just missed their Harvest Festival.  It was nice to not have to deal with crowds, but the Festival might be worth attending.

6. I would love to see a grape crushing/stomping festival.  I could not find much on the internet however.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ysubr1Bd1_o

All for now.

Got Wine? cont'd...

Day 3:  SONOMA

After a continental breakfast at the hotel and an unhurried preparation for the day, we set off to see Sonoma and sample it's offerings.  We picked up brochures and maps the night before, but had not made much of an effort to effect a plan for the day.  I took to the computer and the various publications we had acquired and picked approximately eight wineries to visit, based on our wine preferences:  Cabernets, Zinfandels and Chardonnays.  Chards were for me, my husband loves the reds.  In most cases we stayed away from those that charged for tastings or offered tastings by appointment only. 

First stop was Sausal Winery in the Alexander Valley. Sausal opened it's doors in 1973.  We enjoyed the reds and purchased a couple of bottles of their 2006 Private Reserve Zinfandel.  Our wine steward(?) was quite helpful and gave us some tips for other vineyards to visit.  She referred us to the next winery we visited.

Next stop was Field Stone Winery. Their tasting room and winey is underground and we enjoyed the couple pouring the wines.  They were entertaining and gave us great tips for lunch and dinner.  We got a tip for a great Italian restaurant to have dinner that night and the local stop to hit for lunch.  We also ran into a couple we recognized from our gym back in Oregon.  Small world!  We purchased a 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon and a 2006 PetiteSirah.

Lunch!  Note:  Do not forget to eat while sampling the fruits of the vine! We got a tip to eat at Jim Town.  On the outside it appears to be a grocery, which they are, but inside is a great little deli too.  I had the local's favorite, a ham and brie on an Italian roll. My husband picked a tuna on wheat. We ate out back at a table under a grapevine covered arbor.  The only drawback was the table of pretensious So Californians who were one-upping each other with their name-dropping.

After lunch, we headed to Trentadue Winery, on our original list. This winery is in a picturesque setting and is booked the summer long for weddings.  We opted to purchase two bottles of the 2006 Tempranillo.  The grapes in this wine came from the Clear Lake region -- remember our ill-fated shortcut from I-5 to 101?
The following pictures are from the grounds of Trentadue.

We drove through Francis Ford Coppola's winery grounds, but there was an expansion and lots of construction going on.  We stopped at the make-shift tasting room, but were put off by the tasting fees, so we moved on without sampling.

Raymond Burr Vineyards was next on the the list.  It is located in the Dry Creek Valley. It made the list because of the name only.  We did not buy wine here but it was harvest time so I sneaked into the vineyard and got this picture of harvest-ready red grapes. 

Zichichi was recommended to us by Sausal for their Cabernets.  We did a flight of wines in their tasting room then were taken out to their cellar to taste the 2008's.  This winery sells exclusively to customers, none is distributed.  They typically sell out their Cabs before they are actually released.  We purchased "futures" here.  We ordered a half case of the 2008 Zichichi Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, release date is spring 2010.  We should get our wine in March 2010.  To clarify, Zichchi is located in Dry Creek Valley but this wine was from grapes in Napa.

Our last winery we visited was Sbragia.  Sbragia was recommended for its Chardonnay. It like Raymond Burr and Zichchi is located in the Dry Creek Valley.  The locals call it Miami Vice as it is a very modern building with a teal roof sitting high atop of  hill in Geyersville.  I finally got a couple of whites, a 2008 Sauvignon Blanc and their 2007 Home Ranch Chardonnay. The following pictures are of the deck outside the tasting room and the view.

Back to the hotel for a cat nap and then on to dinner.  We followed an earlier recommendation and went to Nonni's Ristorante in Santa Rosa for dinner.  It is located in the historic downtown area and you are greeted by the owner.  The food was fabulous Italian, service was wonderful and the pasta - unbelievable.

Tomorrow - Napa

stay tuned....

Got Wine?

Background:  This year my husband and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary.  We had planned to FINALLY take that trip to Italy we had been talking about for 10 years.  The trip derailed yet again, and our back-up plan was to visit the California Wine Country.  Our vacation plans were basically non-existent until the end of September when I suggested we just go, pack a couple of suitcases and take to the road. And that's we did. 

No plans, no reservations, no itinerary. The weather had turned cold and rainy in our Oregon, so we were hopeful we could capture a few more days of rays.  Last Sunday was our first travel day. We headed for Eugene, Oregon, via I-5,  to get a Colin (our son) fix and then on to Southern Oregon where we stayed our first night.  We hit sunshine on Monday as we passed Ashland, heading for the border.  The drive was beautiful and we made good time on I-5, thankful for the "Ticket Bait" who drew attention from our occasional speed infractions, permitting us to literally "fly under the radar". 

Mistake #1:  "Let's take a shortcut"

This shortcut probably doubled our travel time from I-5 to Rte 101 and Sonoma.  On paper this appeared to be our best route. It began with a scenic drive to Clear Lake.  After we passed the lake, however, the drive and our moods changed dramatically. We were in some serious mountain driving, hairpin turns, narrow roads, winding switchbacks, climbing and descending. We knew we had to cross some mountainous terrain to get to the Sonoma Valley, but we were not prepared (and rested) for this particular adventure.  It was as if we had to climb each mountain between the two destinations, rather than going around a few of them. As I said it was quite scenic, but most of the time I was too petrified to look. There was some screaming. Needless to say the trip was laced with tension and we were quite spent when we finally hit 101 and rush hour in Santa Rosa. yea...


Mistake #2:  Let's use the GPS to find a restaurant for dinner!  

After checking into our motel, my husband was anxious to get something to eat.  "Let's just get in the car and drive down the street", he says.  "No, let's use my GPS" I say.  I took about an hour to search my GPS and the internet for a perfect restaurant.  We finally settled on one, loaded the GPS with our destination and headed out at approximately 6:30pm.  Darkness descended upon us, and our moods did not improve with each mile we traveled.  "I thought you said this restaurant was close", he says.  We got on and off a highway that was closed, in and out of lanes that ended, when finally we turned down a driveway. One driveway too soon, as it turns out. So we got back on the road and pulled into the parking lot of our closed and out-of-business restaurant. Some words were spoken in utter frustration and hunger. After turning around we ended at an Applebee's a couple of blocks from our motel.

To be continued....