lgsjr – Page 11 – Power Tasting – The Wine Tasting Experience

Darioush Winery

There’s the jewelry store around the corner, and then there’s Tiffany. There’s your favorite diner, and then there’s French Laundry. So there are Napa palaces, and then there’s Darioush.

The entrance to Darioush Winery.

From the time that it opened in 2004, the Darioush “hospitality center” has stood out for its architecture, its wine, its shopping and, to our point of view, its excess. Power Tasting is dedicated to the wine tasting experience. We put the emphasis on tasting wine as a vacation activity and a pleasant avocation. We have found that Darioush places the emphasis on the experience, more so than the wine itself.

Let us hasten to say Darioush does make some very fine wines. Their style runs to big, round, powerful wines. A number of them are based on Bordeaux grapes: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc. In our opinion, the strength of Darioush’s list resides in their Rhone grapes: Viognier and Shiraz. At Darioush, the grape is called Shiraz, not Syrah; what animates the Darioush winery is the glory that was once Persia, where the grape originated.

The name of the founder, Darioush Khaledi, harkens back to the great Persian emperor Darius, which not coincidentally is the name of their top-of-the-line Cabernet Sauvignon. The proprietor is an Iranian immigrant to the United States who made his fortune in the grocery business and then entered the world of wine. He built his Persian temple alongside Napa Valley’s Silverado Trail so that it would be noticed.

Tasting at Darioush.

It certainly can’t be missed. Out front, there is a flaming cauldron that heralds a colonnade of pillars topped with Persian-like double sculptures of horses. These lead to a large building made of warm, honey-toned stones. The interior is equally commanding, with more columns holding up a high ceiling and a skylight, over a large, square tasting bar. Scattered around are small rooms and nooks for private seated tastings; these too are furnished in Persian style.

Along the walls and in the corners are items for sale: purses, scarves, knick-knacks and wine-related implements. All of them are exquisite and, as we were told by a Darioush representative, “our clients expect the items we sell to be expensive”.

And that says everything about the winery. Everything about it, including the wine, is designed to overwhelm the visitors’ senses. You are certainly invited to try and enjoy the wines, in the context of beauty, refinement and luxury.

It is notable that the building is called a hospitality center, not a tasting room. The owners say that the experience at their winery is based on the culture of “Tarof”, a Persian word that can indeed be translated as “hospitality” but also with connotations of an emphasis on deference and social rank. You are surely welcome, in the same sense as a visit to your wealthy uncle. You are introduced to many wonderful and precious things, but in the end you feel smaller, rather than enriched.

Sparkling Pointe Vineyards and Winery

There are no wineries on Long Island’s North Fork that are anything like the palaces that have grown up in some parts of California’s Wine Country. The closest is Sparkling Pointe, in Southold. In fairness, the architecture is not palatial. From the outside, the building that houses the tasting room is reminiscent of a mansion in an upscale suburb. The interior is grand without being overwhelming, with widely spaced tables, crystal chandeliers and lively contemporary artwork.

The exterior of Sparkling Pointe. Photo courtesy of The Knot.

However, if you visit on a day with fair weather (which we have been lucky enough to find when we’ve been there) you’ll walk through the tasting room, note the wide bar and allow yourself to be seated on the spacious patio overlooking the vineyards. Ahh, this is wonderful…and it can only be improved by being served some sparkling wine. Which, as the name indicates, is what they make at Sparkling Pointe.

The view from the terrace in front of the vineyards.

Although Sparkling Pointe advertises openly that they use the méthode champenoise, it’s not Champagne, which can only be made in the eponymous region of France. There have been other North Fork wineries that have made wine with bubbles in it, but to our tastes there’s nothing else there that approaches the quality of Sparkling Pointe. We at Power Tasting do not review wines, but rather the wine tasting experience. That said, we find that this winery’s sparkling wines can stand up to those of their California cousins.

All tastings are seated, with service offered from a fairly wide cross-section of Sparkling Pointe’s wines. Flights are available as are individual glasses. There are assemblages of the three Champagne grapes: Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. They also make blanc de blancs, blanc de noirs and a rosé.

Of course, each sparkling wine has its own characteristics and each taster will find some that they prefer to the others. We were taken by the rosé, but there’s no reason for us to believe that everyone will agree with us. But, wow, it is fun to have six small flutes in front of yourself and get to make a choice.

Too many Long Island vineyards attract visitors with rock bands, pizza trucks and an overall carnival atmosphere. Sparkling Pointe is all about the wines, so there’s none of that. However, like many Long Island wineries, Sparkling Pointe has a side business as a venue for weddings. For the most part, this shouldn’t affect wine tasters, unless they happen to be there near the end of the day when revelers are beginning to assemble.

To a degree, this problem is ameliorated by a “by reservation only” policy. However, we have never had a reservation and have never seen a crowd at Sparkling Pointe. That may be because of our policy of tasting at Long Island wineries on weekdays, just as we try to do in California. If you know that you will be there on a Saturday afternoon in high summer, a reservation is a good idea.

As is the case with several of the newer North Fork wineries, Sparkling Pointe is showing how dedication and money can help the Long Island corner of Wine Country reach its potential. It’s well worth traveling from New York City, or elsewhere, to be a part of the journey.

White Dessert

A few issues ago, we focused on red dessert wines that you might encounter at some wineries, where they are almost an afterthought compared with the table wines made there. Of course, there are certain parts of the world where dessert wines are the main event and some of those are red: Port from Portugal, vin doux naturel from the south of France, Recioto from Italy’s Valpolicella region and Mavrodaphne from Greece.

In the United States, there are few if any wineries that specialize in dessert wines, and those who do usually make them from white grapes: Reisling, Vidal, Rousanne and sometimes Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc. There are many renowned wineries that do have white dessert wines on their lists, sometimes. They don’t have the proper climatic conditions every year to make these wines so visitors won’t always have a chance to try them. As is often the case, if those who come to taste the main production show genuine interest and some knowledge, we have experienced that the server “just happened” to have a bottle of their dessert offering in the refrigerator that could be shared.

Grapes that have been attacked by botrytis, the Noble Rot. Photo courtesy of Vinoble.

Unsurprisingly, California produces the most white dessert wines in the US. But they are also to be found in Washington and New York states. Some are the result of what is known as the Noble Rot, botrytis cinerea, a fungus that attacks the grapes, sucks most of the water out of them and leaves very concentrated sugars behind. Naturally, it takes a lot of shriveled grapes to make even a half bottle, so that’s why producers are a bit reluctant to share tastes. Botrytis doesn’t always occur – another reason it’s hard to find and get a chance to taste these wines, but in the Sauternes region of France it’s routine. A trip to the Bordeaux region is incomplete without visiting Sauternes.

Making ice wine. Photo courtesy of New York Upstate.

Another common way of making dessert wines is to let the grapes freeze. The resulting ice crystals puncture the skins of the grapes, also letting out much of the water when they defrost. In the US and Canada, we call these ice wines. Of course, this requires very cold conditions while the grapes are still on the vines. This does happen in Canada every year, so the Canadians are the world champs of ice wine, mostly in Ontario but also in Québec. These wines tend not to be as sweet and are better at accompanying fruits and cheeses than with chocolate.

Lastly, there are late harvest dessert wines, made from grapes that are left on the vines to dry out. They tend to be a bit raisin-y for that reason. They are more frequently made in Europe than in North America. Late harvest wines are known as Vendage Tardive in France (particularly in Alsace) and Spätlese in Germany. Visitors to those places will surely get a chance to taste their dessert wines, after sampling Reislings and Gewurtztraminers.

Wine tasting in regions that specialize in white dessert wines can overload the senses a bit, but you can be certain to try them. In regions of Wine Country where dessert is not the main reason to visit, tasters need a bit of luck.

Wine Tasting at Parties

Fine wine goes with fine dining. No one serves an ’05 Latour at a barbecue (well, at least no one we know). When anyone is planning a party, in the office or at home, he or she rarely scans the cellar to find the finest. Alas, there are too many people who figure that the beer and the hard stuff are the beverages of choice and, if they serve any wine at all, it comes from one of two jugs – red and white.

Photo courtesy of Zonin Prosecco.

At the same time, there is no reason that the wine at parties has to be plonk. With a little thoughtfulness and a budget just above rock bottom, it’s quite possible to offer a variety of wines that can please both the knowledgeable taster and someone who just wants a pleasant beverage to pass the time.

Here are some tips for potential hosts.

Don’t serve anything you haven’t tasted. Sadly, you can’t always trust the advice of a clerk in a wine store. The wine so highly spoken of may be just the one the store couldn’t get rid of. There are plenty of worthy wines under $20 and even some that are under $15. Wine Spectator and the New York Times generally have issues each year dedicated to available bargains. Use it as a guide.
Plan to serve at least four wines. Why four? If you assume that most people who choose wine at a party will select either a red or a white, there may well be someone who doesn’t care for one of your choices. If there’s only one offering, that person is stuck. If you have two of each on hand, it significantly raises your odds to please most people.

If you find yourself a guest at a shindig organized by a thoughtful host and are confronted by a small array of interesting wines, here are some tips for you.

To begin with, try a little of each wine. Even if you’re partial to white wines, try those and the reds. It shows respect for the hosts and the effort that they put in to please you. It enables you to say, “I’m generally not into big red wines, but that Beaujolais really appealed to me”.
Think of the party as an impromptu tasting. Try to appreciate the wines for what they are, not comparing them to other labels of the same grapes. And if you’re being served something from somewhere you never heard of, think of it as an adventure.
If there’s a wine you find particularly pleasing, don’t hog it. In fact, recommend it to other guests. If nothing else, it gives you something to talk about with people you don’t know. Again, your host will appreciate you talking up one (or more) of the wines served.
Don’t worry about the glassware. If it’s a catered affair the glasses will be of the sturdy restaurant variety. At someone’s home, expect plastic cups. After all, you’re not going to be the one washing up afterwards. Sure, good goblets enhance good wines, but party wine can survive inferior goblets.

Orange

Americans have a lot of difficulty with the word, orange. We’re not sure if it’s two syllables or one or whether the first two letters are pronounced ah, aw or oh. With Orange counties in New York, California and Florida, we’re not even sure where it is. So a discussion on Orange, a city in France’s Rhône valley, ought to start with the pronunciation, which is oar-AHNZH, with the r sort of strangled at the back of the throat and the n stuck in the nose.

The city of Orange has a lot of history. First there were the Gauls. Then when Julius Caesar won his war, some Roman veterans set up what became Orange. The name is based on the Gallo-Roman name for the fort that was there and over time it’s morphed into the color we know as the Syracuse University basketball team. Oh, yes, and that fruit of the same name.

The Roman Theater in Orange, in performance. Photo courtesy of All About World Heritage Sites.

There are no Gallic ruins that can be seen but there is a lot of ancient Rome still in Orange that can be visited and admired. The best known is the Roman Theater, still in use for concerts and plays (in French, not Latin). The seating was restored in the 19^th century, but the stage – overseen by a statue of the Emperor Augustus – is original. The theater accommodates 10,000 people to this day.

There is also an Arc de Triomphe that had been incorporated into the walls of the medieval city and now stands alone in restored glory. The triumph in question was Caesar’s victory over the Gauls, which does seem a bit like rubbing it in.

Orange sits very much in the midst of Provençal Wine Country. Châteauneuf du Pape is the next town over; Beaume de Venise, Vacqueyras and Gigondas are due east, twenty minutes’ drive on small rural roads. There is no shortage of great wine to be had if you’re in Orange.

The market in Orange. Photo courtesy of The Good Life France.

As wine tasters, you’ll certainly take advantage of travelling through the environs of Orange. But be sure to leave time to enjoy this fine little city. It is much more than ruins. Of course, there’s a museum and a cathedral, as there are in virtually every French town and city. But the people of Orange (Orangians? Orangeois? Orang-utans?) live there in leisure and comfort.

We have had the occasion to shop and cook in Orange, due to the pleasure of having friends there. The chickens are plumper and more flavorsome than we’re used to in America. The bread and pastries are indescribable. And they grow more than grapes in the region around Orange. If you manage to be there on market day, make sure to have some apricots, prune plums, figs and an incredible fruit called mirabelles. They put whatever you buy at your local grocery to shame. And for all you know, they could have been grown in an orchard only a few blocks away.

At those same markets, you can find the fabrics, table cloths, herbs, pottery and honey that Provence is famous for. Take advantage of them while you’re there; you never know when you’ll pass that way again.

Planning for a Napa/Noma Trip, Updated

For more than four decades, we would travel to California at least once a year to go wine tasting. Occasionally we’d go to the Central Coast or a smaller, outlying sector of California’s Wine Country, which means most of the state. But usually our destination was either Napa Valley or Sonoma County, sometimes both. Then the pandemic came along, and like a lot of people, our travels were interrupted for a few years.

For a long time, planning for a wine tasting trip was fairly simple: flight, car and hotel. The rest was mostly a matter of serendipity. We’d choose an AVA, drive there and stop wherever we wanted. We would park, walk in, belly up to the bar and taste. When we were finished, we’d get back into the car and head up the road to do it again.

For better or worse, more planning is required these days.

It still makes sense to limit a day’s tastings geographically. We want to be tasting, not driving from Calistoga to Napa and then back to St. Helena. Why waste time behind the wheel when we could be in a tasting room? More important, when the purpose of the day’s activities is sipping alcohol, it’s really advisable to minimize driving as much as possible.
Appointments are necessary. Many wineries now have a “By Appointment Only” policy. Smaller wineries – and some of the larger, snootier ones – have long been that way. That prohibition was once a ruse to keep rowdy crowds away; today the tastings are seated and the limitation is for real. Since the pandemic, almost all Napa/Noma wineries are available only with a reservation.

A seated tasting at Black Stallion. Photo courtesy of the winery.

Expect fewer but longer seated tastings. Many wineries, as a by-product of their appointment requirements, now only offer seated tastings. Bellying up to the bar is not an option anymore or there is no bar to belly up to. Therefore, we taste on their schedules rather than our own. The ambiance is more guest than bar patron, which has plusses and minuses.
Sharing is more difficult. Since they are seated tastings, two people can’t occupy one chair. As a result, both will have a full tasting. Sure, we can each sip only a little but the temptation to take a few more sips is quite apparent and the cost of tasting becomes more expensive.
Lunch is more important than ever, but harder. If we are likely to drink a little more at each tasting, we need to get some food into us. But fitting in a restaurant between winery visits is a challenge, especially in areas where restaurants are few and far between.
Packing a picnic may be the only choice. There are no restaurants and often not even delis in certain areas. For example, there used to be the Jimtown Store in Alexander Valley, but there isn’t anything now. And try finding a restaurant in the further extremes of Russian River. Even with a packed lunch, there aren’t that many wineries with picnic tables in Sonoma County and hardly any at all in Napa Valley. Dining in the car may be necessary but it’s unpleasant.

All of which is to say, Napa/Noma still has some of America’s best wineries available to visit. They just take more preparation to enjoy them than it used to.

Écluse Wines

Écluse Wines (www.eclisewines.com), in Paso Robles, offers wine tasting the way it used to be in the long gone Napa Valley times. The tastings are held in the barrel room. The bottles are laid out on a plank between two barrels. And if you’re lucky, your glass will be filled by the owner and winemaker, Steve Lock.

Steve Lock, proprietor and winemaker, Écluse Wines. Photo courtesy of the winery.

Mr. Lock and his wife Pam started their vineyard in 1997 and began making wine from their own property in 2001. They have focused on Bordeaux and Rhône grapes ever since. And, of course, since they’re in Paso Robles, they grow Zinfandel.

The setting of Écluse, atop a hill off a back road in Paso Robles, is quite rustic. However, there’s nothing bucolic about the winemaking. They are quite proud of the awards they have won, especially those from the San Francisco Chronicle’s annual wine competition.

The Central Coast climate leads to very high sugar concentrations. The Locks believe in letting their grapes ripen to their peak flavors, so the alcohol content of their wines tends to run quite high. Since they offer a significant number of their wines at each tasting, a bit of restraint is in order for the visitors.

Those wines fall into two categories. There are single varietal wines, such as Merlot, Malbec and Zinfandel. But then there are blends. For a few examples, Ensemble is Écluse’s five-grape Bordeaux blend. This you will find elsewhere. The others are like nothing else you’re likely to find in the Central Coast, or in all of California for that matter. Improv is Zinfandel, Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Petite Syrah, Merlot, Malbec and Carignan. Insider has Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec (not so unusual) but half the wine is made from Tannat grapes! A visit at Écluse is like a trip to Australia, without having to cross the Pacific.

The barrel room at Écluse. Photo courtesy of Paso Robles Wineries.

Another distinguishing feature of a tasting at Écluse is that all of them include a barrel tasting. If they’re not too crowded and you show genuine interest, Mr. Lock may treat you to an extraordinary experience. He’ll draw wine from three barrels, each with oak of a different origin: France, Hungary and the United States. The wine you taste will be from the same grape and vintage so the only differentiator is the wood. This is an unforgettable experiment that offers proof of Écluse’s commitment to their wines.

Écluse is only open from Thursday through Sunday and reservations are advisable. But we have found that if you’re not going to be in Paso Robles on the weekend, a call might win you a private tasting, if they can accommodate you.

There’s a sly play on words in the name. Écluse is the French word for lock, of the sort that are found on canals to raise and lower the boats. Pictures of a lock are on the labels and considering the family name of the owner…

Visiting Napa Valley for the First Time

Decades ago we visited Napa Valley for the first time. It was a life-altering experience…well, vacation altering, at any rate. Traveling to winemaking areas for the purpose of visiting wineries and tasting their products is an experience we have relived many times since. Napa Valley was not only our first destination but also the one we have returned to the most often over the years.

The iconic Stag’s Leap winery in the 1970’s. Photo courtesy of The Rainbow Times.

It is a very different experience today than it was then. In those days, wine tasting was much more casual. The founders of many namesake wineries were alive and pouring tastes for visitors. The servers – owners and workers, generally – stood behind a plank stretched between two barrels and poured a few thimblefuls of wine into tiny glasses that we were urged to take home with us. No one thought of charging for a tasting.

As first-timers, we were in awe. There were rows and rows of vines stretching, so it seemed, in all directions as far as the eye could see. There were no Napa palaces at that time. All the wineries were combinations of factories, warehouses and working farms, much as can be seen in less-discovered parts of the world these days.

The wines that were available for sale were a great deal less expensive. The best in the house could be bought for ten dollars or less. (To be fair, $10 sounded like a lot more money in the 1970’s and ‘80’s.) Some of the wines that we bought then are still among our favorites, such as Robert Mondavi or Louis M. Martini. (Although we never had the pleasure to meet Mr. Mondavi, Mr. Martini once served us wine.) The cost of their top wines are now counted in the hundreds of dollars.

Stag’s Leap winery today.

We try, with some difficulty, to imagine what the experience of a first-time visitor (and novice taster) must be like today. Almost all the founders have passed away. Warren Winiarski of Stag’s Leap and Mike Grgich of Grgich Hills are approaching the century mark, but they are virtually the only ones left. Most of the major wineries are the property of multinational corporations. The vines are still there but the tasting facilities are in many cases “visitors centers” architected to impress. Impressive they are, but visitors’ encounters are starkly different than ours was.

Even before the pandemic, the cost of a tasting had become rather steep in many wineries, enough to be prohibitive for tasters as young today as we were then. Of course, the price for a glass of wine in a restaurant or bar has also increased, so wine tasting is not that out of line in dollar terms. Since the pandemic, almost all Napa wineries are available for tasting by appointment only and the price for tasting has increased tremendously. That prohibition was once a ruse to keep rowdy crowds away; today the tastings are seated and the limitation is for real.

We still have a sense of wonder when we visit sectors of Wine Country we’ve never encountered before. And we still have a great time in Napa. But it will never be our first time again.

Mustards Grill

Power Tasting does not review restaurants. This article is about a restaurant, but it’s not about the food, the drinks or the service but rather a special restaurant as a destination in itself.

Mustards Grill has been sitting alongside Route 29 in Yountville since 1983. It was opened by Cindy Pawlcyn back then as a self-described “deluxe truckstop”. We’ve been to truckstops, and that’s not what Mustards is. Truckstops have big rigs in the parking lot, showers, and large persons more intent on nourishment and a quick getaway than on fine dining.

Photo Courtesy of Open Table.

What Mustards is and always has been is a roadhouse, a great American throwback, and that’s what makes it a Place to Visit. If you feel as though you’ve heard of roadhouses, that’s probably because you came across the term in the works of F. Scott Fitzgerald, who was the ultimate chronicler of an emergent upper middle class in the 1920’s, now a century past.

A roadhouse was a drinking and dining establishment in the rapidly changing outskirts of major cities. The boys had come marching home from World War I and having seen Gay Paree wanted no more of life on the farm. Prospering in the post-war boom, they had snazzy roadsters and straw boaters and wanted to get out of town and have a good time. The girls of the time were no less eager, with their bobbed hair and turned down hose. Roadhouses spring up to meet a market demand.

Which brings us to Mustards. Napa Valley was making some pretty fine wine in 1983, but once the sun went down, there was no place of any quality to get a meal or a drink. Like the soon-to-be-suburbs of the 1920’s, Napa was changing its identity from a rural sector not too far from San Francisco into a winemaking (and tasting) mecca. Ms. Pawlcyn started Mustards to meet a latter-day market demand for a simple place with not so simple food and lots of wine. (It’s also worth visiting for its vegetable gardens, which we addressed in a previous article – still worth reading.)

She tipped her intentions on the side of the building, announcing that steaks, chops, ribs and “way too many wines” are to be had within. From that day to this, Mustards has kept its promise.

There was a seamy side to roadhouses back when, including dancing flappers , gambling, bar fights and prostitution. None of that is present at Mustards, of course, but for out-of-town visitors there is a sense that you’ve happened upon something only the insiders know about, something like a speakeasy (the urban equivalent of a roadhouse). That’s because you’re as likely to be dining at a table next to locals and winemakers as other tourists.

A Stutz Bearcat. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.

We always drive up to Mustards in a car we rented at the airport. Please excuse us if we pretend that we’re in a Stutz Bearcat, the quintessential roadster, wearing racoon coats. We’ve been stopping at this bit of Americana through all the years of its existence and we can’t thinking of being in Napa Valley without going there.

McCall Wines

Driving along Route 25 on Long Island’s North Fork isn’t much like motoring up Napa Valley’s Route 29. Yes, there are wineries on both sides, but the California version is much grander. There are a few wineries in Long Island with architecture that’s impressive, such as Raphael and Pellegrini, but most are understated. Architecturally speaking, McCall is understated to the point of a whisper. As you drive up to the winery, it seems like it could be farmhouse or a stable.

The tasting room at McCall Wines.

Well, it was a stable. The owner, Russell McCall, is a horseman. The tasting room has retained its equine charm, with a décor of saddles, farm implements pictures of Mr. McCall playing polo. Two of the stalls have been retained and you can taste your wine in them, if that’s your wish. There is a small bar but tasting is done as table service, outside in the summer.

The site has historic interest. It was once a meeting place of local Native Americans, known hundreds of years ago as Fort Corchaug. The vineyard at the winery (they have another nearby) is still known as the Corchaug. In good weather, we prefer to leave the stable behind us and sit at a picnic table on an expansive lawn overlooking that vineyard.

Tasting by the vines.

McCall also raises cattle on the property. One of the popular attractions at the winery is Burger nights on seasonable Thursdays and Fridays, with the main attraction made from their own Charolais beef. It may be a little unsettling to know that what you’re eating once lived just over there, but we recommend you wash down your concern with some wine.

We were first attracted to McCall by their Pinot Noirs, of which there are four. It’s not a grape that is generally found on the North Fork, where Bordeaux grapes are more commonly grown. These wines are not Burgundies, nor are they much like Pinot Noirs from Russian River. They have their own local character. You’ll have to judge for yourself how Long Island terroir plus maritime breezes work for these wines.

There are also Chardonnays and Rosés to sample. But the star of the show, to our tastes, is a Bordeaux Blend they call Ben’s Blend, named for their founding winemaker. McCall ages these wines – the youngest available for sale in 2022 is the 2014 vintage – and we find it more Californian in character and quality than any other red wine we have tasted from a Long Island winery.

One thing we appreciated when we last visited was that the winemaker, Miguel Martin, walked around to each table and had a few words with the patrons. Mr. Martin is a Napa Valley veteran, transplanted to the East Coast. We were quite impressed with the experience of wine tasting at McCall and urge visitors to the North Fork to include it on their itineraries.