{"id":131,"date":"2015-11-30T19:29:22","date_gmt":"2015-11-30T19:29:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=131"},"modified":"2015-12-23T20:59:59","modified_gmt":"2015-12-23T20:59:59","slug":"wine-tasting-in-napa-town","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=131","title":{"rendered":"Wine Tasting in Napa Town"},"content":{"rendered":"

General rules are meant to be broken.\u00a0 In general<\/em>, the wines served at in-town tasting rooms are sub-par compared with those at wineries surrounded by lovely rows of vines.\u00a0 Fortunately, there are exceptions and there are good reasons to take a day to visit a town in Wine Country and find out what\u2019s on offer there.<\/p>\n

On a recent trip we decided to try our luck in the town of Napa, for several reasons.\u00a0 Our trip extended over a weekend and we wanted to avoid the crazy Sunday crowds and traffic on Route 29 and the Silverado Trail.\u00a0 Also, we had heard good things about the Oxbow Public Market and were looking forward to finding out what the buzz was all about.\u00a0 Finally, we wanted to eat lunch at the Bounty Hunter, of which we have written previously.\u00a0 [We never did dine there on this trip.\u00a0 It was ungodly hot and their air conditioning was on the fritz.]<\/p>\n

The main drag for tasting rooms is 1st<\/sup> Street, running from the aforementioned Oxbow Public Market to the Napa civic center.\u00a0 As we had expected, there were some tasting rooms we did not enjoy very much.\u00a0 But there were also some that delightfully exceeded our expectations.\u00a0 The first of these was Capp Heritage.\u00a0 Even if you don\u2019t like their wines \u2013 heck, even if you don\u2019t like wine at all \u2013 their tasting room is worth seeing.\u00a0 It has two rooms, one of which is a lounge in which they have musical performances on the weekends.\u00a0 There are big easy chairs and a copper fireplace, which blessedly was unlit the day we were there. The other room contains brass chandeliers and a long mahogany bar that looks as though Diamond Jim Brady might walk up to it at any moment.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 That, of course, is where they pour the wine.\u00a0 (There\u2019s a great wraparound picture of the bar on their web site, http:\/\/www.cappheritage.com<\/a>).\u00a0 The Capps were primarily farmers who sold to winemakers until, like many growers in the region, they decided to bottle their own wines.\u00a0 We aren\u2019t wine critics but we can say we enjoyed what we tasted, particularly an unusual Sangiovese and their Meritage.<\/p>\n

Just down the street is John Anthony.\u00a0 That\u2019s the label, the name of the tasting room and the first two names of the proprietor.\u00a0 We were surprised to learn that his last name is Truchard, son of Tony and JoAnn of Truchard Vineyards, which we have written about in a previous article.\u00a0 The tasting room is nouveau chic, looking more like a night spot than a place for serious wine tasting.\u00a0 In fact, that\u2019s the way they advertise, appealing to those out on the town in Napa for an evening.\u00a0 On a lazy Sunday afternoon, we were the only visitors and the server was able to give us his full attention and quite an introduction to the wines, which were very serious indeed.\u00a0 There\u2019s a top-end Cabernet, not usually available for tasting, that really impressed us. They have a special deal they call the List: sign up for as few as six bottles a year and they lock in the price forever.\u00a0 We don\u2019t understand he business model but it sounds like quite a deal.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, there were others that we didn\u2019t enjoy nearly as much.\u00a0 You may have heard of Cosentino Winery in Yountville.\u00a0 Mitch Cosentino sold it a few years ago and opened pureCru, which can best be called a boutique winery with a hip looking tasting room just off 1st<\/sup> Street.\u00a0 Our server will be a twentysomething in a few years.\u00a0 She knew very little about what she was pouring and so we just had to drink our wine and make our own determinations.\u00a0 Fair enough, but we weren\u2019t that enthralled with what we were drinking.<\/p>\n

The worst of the lot was a dreary room two blocks off 1st<\/sup> Street at Clinton Street.\u00a0 There they serve Havens and Stonehedge wines.\u00a0 The server seemed bored, unwilling or unable to answer questions and gave off an attitude that we were spoiling her Sunday afternoon solitude. We didn\u2019t care for the wine much but that wasn\u2019t the point.\u00a0 If they had been presented to us in a friendly, welcoming manner it would have made for a better tasting experience and we might have liked the wines more.<\/p>\n

There are other tasting rooms and bars with extensive by-the-glass lists in Napa Town.\u00a0 The Oxbow Public Market is made for urban foodies out in the country for the day, which just about describes us.\u00a0 It\u2019s a fun place and you might want to have lunch or a snack at one of the many eateries there.\u00a0 All in all, we spent a very pleasant day of our trip in the town of Napa.\u00a0 We\u2019ll be back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

General rules are meant to be broken.\u00a0 In general, the wines served at in-town tasting rooms are sub-par compared with those at wineries surrounded by lovely rows of vines.\u00a0 Fortunately, there are exceptions and there are good reasons to take a day to visit a town in Wine Country and find out what\u2019s on offer … Continue reading Wine Tasting in Napa Town<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=131"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":132,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131\/revisions\/132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}