lgsjr – Page 28 – Power Tasting – The Wine Tasting Experience

Visiting Napa/Noma in December

December’s weather is very unpredictable in the Napa Valley and Sonoma County, which we elide to be Napa/Noma. We have been there at times when it is absolutely springlike and on other occasions we have frozen in temperatures much colder than that which we left behind in New York. So before you come, by all means check your favorite weather app to learn how to pack.

A chilly December morning just off the Silverado Trail.

There are many advantages to a visit in December and a few drawbacks. It’s a rather relaxed time for the local folks. The hardest work of the harvest is over and the new wine is sleeping soundly in barrels. If you’re taking a tour, you won’t get to see people actually making wine (come in September and October for that) but on the other hand, you’ll be able to see all of the winery. It’s not safe to traipse around when the destemmers and fermenting tanks are in full operation, with workers busy everywhere.

The big plus is the celebration of the holidays. Many if not all of the wineries decorate for Christmas, some rather splendidly. We can recommend Robert Mondavi and Beringer in Napa Valley and Arrowood in Sonoma County for the attractiveness of their displays. Wine tasting is a rather festive pastime by itself; it gets downright merry at Christmas.

In addition, many of the wineries have private parties at this time of year, often on the first weekend of the month but later if that weekend is early in a given year. Most of them are for their club members and are often called “pickup parties”. The members from nearby are expected to pick up their December shipments in person and they get a little extra. If you show up and you’re not a club member, they will almost never shoo you away. On those days, they normally have their best wines available for tasting.

Also, many wineries hold fancy dinner parties for their club members, usually for a stiff price. If you’re in a mood for a banquet dinner – always with great wine – you can join one club before you go and then sign up for the dinner. Many of them sell out early, so give yourself some time in advance if you choose to do this.

Yountville at Christmas. Photo courtesy of The Wine Stay.

Some wineries have rather extensive (and often expensive) gift shops. What better time to shop for gifts than December? The shops are extensively decorated and of course many of the items are Christmas-themed. Among the best are Mondavi and Beringer, once again, but also Darioush and Rubicon. Moreover, the same can be said for the towns as well, where they are selling things to the local people, not just the tourists. (Yountville is especially beautiful at this time of year.) Among things we have bought over the years have been a gilded grape leaf to hang on a sturdy branch of a Christmas tree and a wreath made of grape vines.

Of course, you may be rather cold if you visit Napa/Noma in December, but the crowds will be sparser (except on party days). Hotels are more available, as are restaurant tables. With much of the previous release’s wines already sold, you may have some difficulty tasting your favorites, but consider that a chance to discover something different.

Don’t let the weather deter you. December’s pleasures overwhelm the few disadvantages.

Contrasts: Wine Tasting in California and in Europe

In some ways, wine tasting is the same experience wherever you do it. Someone offers you a glass, fills it with wine and tells you what you have in your glass. You sip the wine, think about how it smells and tastes and try to remember how much you liked it. But in many other not quite so fundamental ways, the experience of wine tasting varies greatly depending on what part of Wine Country you are in when you do it. Of course, different places make different kinds of wine but let’s put that aside. We are talking here simply of the differences in the experiences you have, which after all is what Power Tasting is all about.

Opus One winery, one of the most European tasting experiences in California. Photo courtesy of the Napa Valley Register.

Wine tasting in California is rather straightforward, with a few big exceptions. You drive up to a pretty building, enter a well-decorated tasting room and sample several wines. In most places, there are a variety of wines to choose among – red, white and rosé – and most tasting rooms allow you to try four or five of them. In a few wineries there is a dessert wine to top it all off. If it’s not too busy and if your server has some knowledge of wine, you might also have the chance for an interesting discussion about what you’re being served.

As to those California exceptions, more and more wineries that sell highly priced wines now only offer seated tastings by appointment. Often a tour is a prerequisite for a tasting. There will be a smaller number of wines available, but they will all be well-made expressions of the terroir and the varietal.

Domaine la Soumade in the Southern Rhone Valley, one of the most Californian tasting experiences in Europe. Photo courtesy of the Our House in Provence blog.

Europe is too big a place with way too many wines to make any meaningful generalizations…but we’ll try anyway. In some places, the experience is quite Californian. Wineries have built pretty buildings (or taken over quite impressive old buildings) and serve their wines at a stand-up bar. In terms of the experience, you could just as well be in Mendocino as Montalcino. The conversation may be somewhat more limited, depending on your language skills and that of the server. The range of wines you may taste could be very much more limited; in some places such as Bordeaux, Burgundy or Chianti they only make a red and a white and the only variety is based on the level of quality.

There are several other variations in Europe. The biggest, best known producers only offer tastings by appointment, if they do so at all. The service will be in well-spoken English, because you reserved it that way. There may be only one wine to taste and it will be very good.

At the other extreme, there are many instances in Europe where a tasting, such as it is, is held in the winemaker’s kitchen, with that fellow or his aunt serving you whatever they make. In some places that may be only one wine, but more likely you find a fairly broad selection of the same type of wine from their properties around the region.

Since these generalizations are so broad, we recommend you do a little homework before you travel to taste wine in Europe. It will save you from misunderstandings and disappointments.

Pine Ridge Vineyards

People who visit the Stags Leap district of Napa Valley often drive past Pine Ridge (www.pineridgevineyards.com). Maybe they’re looking for the eponymous vineyards or maybe they’re just hurrying back to Napa town, but they really ought to pull over and stop at Pine Ridge. We have been there many times and have had diverse experiences, all wonderful.

Another reason people may pass by Pine Ridge is that the building itself cannot compare with the Napa palaces up and down the Silverado Trail. To us, that’s a positive. The winery itself is a pleasing structure, in a sort of Spanish mission style. The tasting room is also attractive but low-key. It has a bar and some wine on the walls and that’s about it.

What makes a visit to Pine Ridge come alive is the wine. They are best known by far for their Cabernet Sauvignon. As you can see on their web site, they have Cab, better Cab (which they call Fortis) and Other Red Wine. Interestingly, Pine Ridge produces Cabernet Sauvignon from three AVAs other than Stags Leap (Howell Mountain, Rutherford, Oakville) as well as several blends from their properties. It is unusual for all of them to be offered for tasting but of those we have tried, each has distinctly different characteristics.

Don’t miss some of those “other” reds. There’s a very fine Merlot and although we’re just getting used to California Malbec, theirs is pretty good. We’re not as fond of white wine as red, but some of their white varietals are quite interesting. They have a Rhône blend of Chenin Blanc and Viognier that isn’t quite like anything else we’ve tried in Napa Valley.

These sad days, all the tastings at Pine Ridge are outdoors, but when the pandemic passes and you can taste inside once again, ask for a tour of their caves and their tasting lounge for wine club members. By itself, that lounge is enough to make us consider joining their club.

We must tell a few stories about the service we have received at Pine Ridge. On our most recent, and most impressive, visit on a cold December afternoon, we had a true educator who showed Pine Ridge’s wines to their best advantage and then led us on the aforementioned tour. In all our tastings there, this was the best.

But it was not the most memorable. We came there once near the end of a hot summer’s day. It was pleasant to sit out on their terrace and have the server bring us wine from inside. The fellow knew absolutely nothing about wine (when questioned, he brought us the book he was supposed to have already read) but he sure wanted us to have a good time. He was a host extraordinaire. There was a few other couples on the terrace at that time and we were treated to a real party.

By the way, when you pull into the parking lot, look to your left. There’s a hill with some rows of vines. At the ridge of the hill, there is a row of pine trees. Aha!

Seated Tastings

Because of the restrictions necessitated by the pandemic, all tastings in California’s wineries are by appointment and they are all seated, outdoor tastings. [As we went to press, California allowed some indoor tasting.] If the weather is right, these can be quite enjoyable. But they are different than bellying up to the bar and trying what’s available that day. Seated tastings were beginning to be a trend even before Covid-19, with distinct plusses and minuses.

Photo courtesy of TripAdvisor.

So, in the spirit of the times, we’d like to offer a few tips for seated tastings.

Some tastings are just for you. Assuming that you are travelling with your significant other, that means the tasting is made up of the two of you, a table, several glasses and bottles and the server. It is very difficult in these circumstances for the two of you to share candid appraisals of what you are being served. You probably can’t even be comfortable frowning after sipping and then pouring the wine out. If you came intending to try their famous Cabernet Sauvignon and they insist on starting you with the Chardonnay, you’re stuck. So just remember that’s the way they do it and move ahead.
Other tastings are with a group. It may feel like a party, but it’s not a party. A little polite conversation is always acceptable, but your opinions are best kept quietly to yourselves. We two know each other’s tastes and may say, “I think this is your style”. But when some previously overserved stranger is intent on singing the praises of a Sauvignon Blanc that turns you off, reply with “Glad you enjoy it” and turn your attention to the person you came with.
It’s harder to have any little special somethings. One of the benefits of being an informed wine taster is that good servers often have something hidden away that they save for people who they think will appreciate it. It’s tough for a server to reach under the bar when there is no bar. What has worked to our advantage on a few occasions is to ask for something that isn’t on their list (a dessert wine, for example) and if it’s available, the server may bring you a little at the end. But it’s difficult to do that when there are still people at nearby tables.
The best seated tastings make you feel special. As is often the case, the pleasure of a tasting comes down to the quality of the server. We have experienced a server who just radiated that we were her tenth seated tasting of the week and she couldn’t wait for Friday afternoon. But we have also had more than a few who drew out our interest in wine, shared theirs with us, and generally made us feel more like a guest than a customer. Of course, it helped that they were serving very good wine, which is often the case with seated tastings. We left with a warm feeling not just for the server, but for the winery itself.

Contrasts in Places to Visit: California and Europe

The Places to Visit feature in Power Tasting is about the other things to do when you’re making a trip to somewhere in Wine Country. Since most of our wine tasting experience (and maybe that of our readers) is in California and in Europe, we thought we’d compare the two in terms of non-wine visiting.

Photo courtesy of Patch.com.

Woody Guthrie sang that “California is a Garden of Eden, a Paradise to live in and see”. He went on to say less positive things, but let’s leave it there because it’s true. The Golden State has it all: sandy beaches, rocky coastline, desert, mountains, farmland and cities. It is also unquestionably the source of the finest wines made in the United States, which makes it the premier American destination for wine tasting. And it has lovely places to visit that aren’t about wine. There are great cities, ski resorts, and charming towns that speak to American history. We love it and travel there often. But for places to visit, it’s not Europe.

Reims Cathedral in Champagne.

Now, as noted elsewhere in this issue, Europe is a big place with a lot of locations where wine is made. Perhaps somewhere in Europe there is an area where they make wine but there is nothing else of interest. Perhaps, but we doubt it. In our experience, everywhere wine is made, there is a cathedral or a church worth visiting somewhere nearby. There is a café with delicious coffee and pastries. There is a market somewhere in the area almost every day. And there are a few millennia of history.

Somewhere around the vineyards – sometimes in the vineyards themselves – a battle was fought. Particularly in France, there is a monument to the glorious fallen heroes of each village. We have always found it moving to read the names and visit the local cemetery to see those same names echoed over decades and centuries. The same names are now also over the butcher shop and the bakery. And on the labels of the wines made there.

In many of the places where wine is made there are castles to see from the road and to visit. In many cases, the descendants of the nobles who built the castles still live there while others now are used as bed-and-breakfasts. Or both. We once had the experience in the Dordogne of sleeping in an 11^th century castle and having breakfast served to us by the Count himself!

The overall point of this comparison is that wine tasting in California is primarily about wine. Almost anywhere you can taste wine in Europe you can experience something else that is wonderful. Even in places where everyone you see is in the wine business, one way or another, they have lives and histories that transcend wine. The place is in their stones and in their bones. So if you’re fortunate enough to go wine tasting in Europe, make sure to immerse yourself in the places and people and try to share their lives as much as is possible for a visitor. If for no other reason, it will give you a special appreciation for their wines that you can’t get any other way.

Editorial: Wine Tasting Then and Now

We have gone wine tasting for many years, decades actually. It is our avocation and it enriches our lives. As Americans, we taste the wines of California more frequently than any other part of Wine Country, but have also visited many other locations. We often go to European destinations, especially in France and Italy.

But not this year.

Because of Covid-19, we have curtailed our travels and do not go to places with crowds. We’re sure many of our readers are imposing the same restrictions on themselves. So, for example, this will be our first year without wine tasting in California since 1976. Alas, but there are worse fates than skipping tasting rooms and there have been too many sad cases to feel too sorry for ourselves.

Many wineries have been forced to close their tasting rooms for various periods of time. As we write, many Napa and Sonoma wineries are open for seated tastings outdoors, by appointment only. We’re sure that must be fun, in its way, but it is a different experience than the ones we have enjoyed over the years.

Like so many people, for reasons more important than wine tasting, we eagerly await the conquest of this disease so we can return to Wine Country. In the meantime, we are supporting our favorite wineries by ordering remotely and refilling our cellar. We’re making a point to open some of our better bottles and using wine to add pleasure to our lives. We remain confident that there will be better time ahead and that we will see the vineyards in bloom again…soon.

Preston Farm and Winery

Preston (www.prestonfarmandwinery.com) isn’t like other wineries and that’s because Lou Preston and his wife, Susan, aren’t like other winemakers. The Preston winery is…different, verging on odd and definitely unique. They’ve been making wine there since 1975 and once were into some serious production. And then in 2001, Lou decided he’d rather be a farmer as well as a winemaker and cut down to 8,000 cases a year. The land that wasn’t left under vine was used for olive trees, grains, vegetables and lambs. Lots of vineyards used to be farms; only Preston that we know of has a farm where there were once grape vines.

The Preston Farm and Winery tasting room.

There are many reasons why a visit to Preston is worthwhile. For one, the winery is very intentionally in touch with the history of Sonoma County. The building itself looks like an old farmhouse, with clapboard sides and pitched eaves on the roof. The tasting room is functional and decorated with farm implements, books and the occasional cow horn. That latter is because everything at Preston is organic. (The cow horn is used for…well, it’s a long story.)

The grounds are a well-kept garden, much as you’d expect for a visit to your rural grandparents, if you ever had them. There are also picnic grounds in a wooded area, so stop at the Dry Creek General Store on your way to bring lunch. But be sure to bring extra, because you will have to feed some of the many importunate cats who prowl the grounds. After lunch or your tasting, you can play a little bocce on their court.

Thankfully, Lou didn’t eliminate wine altogether and we always come home from a visit with a supply of bottles. In the pre-farming days, Preston made an inexpensive red Rhône blend called, cleverly enough, Faux. It was widely shipped so we never bought it at the winery because we could get it at a local wine shop back home. In its place today is a powerful blend of Syrah, Mourvèdre, Cinsault, Grenache and Carignan, called without pretension simply L. Preston, which is stenciled on the side of the bottle…and nothing else. Did we mention that Preston Farm and Winery is a bit eccentric?

As may be seen, the specialty at Preston is Rhône grapes. The partner to L. Preston is a white blend called Madame Preston, with a similarly simplistic label. It consists of Roussanne, Marsanne, Viognier and Grenache Blanc. All the varietals are bottled individually. The Mourvèdre is our favorite, but we haven’t been able to buy it for years because it’s always sold out when we visit.

As you’re tasting, you can usually sample some olive oil and freshly baked bread. For sure, Lou bakes bread too, though we’re not sure that every loaf available for sale at the tasting room has passed through his hands. As you leave the tasting room, turn right and there’s a little country store featuring whatever was recently harvested on the farm. We’ve never bought any vegetables because we don’t have a kitchen in California, but they do look good.

We miss some of the old wines, especially the aforementioned Faux and a dessert wine that they called Moscato Curioso, with the emphasis on the cat. Still, we keep coming back to Preston and always will, whenever we come wine tasting in Dry Creek.

Wine Tasting in Sonoma County, Only Yesterday

Sonoma County has unique attractions for wine lovers: an enormous variety of, well, varietals; beautiful scenery; great restaurants; and of course some very fine wines. But earlier in our years of wine tasting, Sonoma County was often viewed as simply an adjunct to its more “refined” neighbor across the Mayacamas range.

Chateau St. Jean. Photo courtesy of Sonoma County Tourism.

Whenever we wanted to visit Sonoma County, we would take a day out of a trip to Napa Valley and traveled across the Oakville Grade to the southern end, known today as Sonoma Valley. Our experience there was limited to the wineries right along Route 12 (Sonoma Highway) so that later on we could get back easily to the Napa side. That wasn’t very restrictive because there were some pretty good places to taste wine. A typical visit would start at B. R. Cohn, move on to Arrowood, then Kenwood and finish at Château St. Jean. (Come to think of it, that’s not a bad selection even today.)

But Russian River? Alexander Valley? Dry Creek? We seem to remember that we had heard of them, maybe, but we had no idea where they were or what they produced. Then, some time in the 1990’s, we thought we’d spend an entire trip in Sonoma County. Friends looked at us quizzically. “Why go there? Why not just stick with the good stuff in Napa?” they would say. Ever adventurous, we took off across the Golden Gate and along Route 101 only getting a little lost around the town of Sonoma.

The view across Dry Creek Valley.

Yes, we discovered all sorts of wonderful wines and wineries. There weren’t as many then but there were lots of well-established wineries, without any of the fancy-schmancy buildings and tasting rooms that were then being erected in Napa Valley. What some might have called rustic we interpreted as authentic. Instead of fighting the traffic on Napa’s Route 29, we were traveling along beautiful country roads, lined with vines.

However, there were some drawbacks. It was hard to find a meal. There were no restaurants at all along those country roads, and even on Route 101 all we could find were fast food joints. Hotels weren’t a problem; we stayed at the Hilton in Santa Rosa, now sadly lost to the 2017 fires. But as recently as the year 2000, we pulled into Healdsburg at midday and had trouble finding a restaurant where we could sit and enjoy lunch and a glass of wine.

Today, the best of Sonoma County is still there while the shortcomings have been eliminated. The scenery is till ravishing. There are quite a few wineries that make world-class wines. Chards, Cabs, Zins and Pinots to be sure, but also wineries that specialize in grapes native to the Rhône and to Italy, as well as California’s own Petite Sirah. And there is no longer any difficulty finding a good meal, we can assure you. In recent trips, we’ve dined excellently in Sonoma, Santa Rosa, Windsor and of course in Healdsburg, the culinary mecca of Sonoma County.

We miss a bit of the anything-goes nature of the Sonoma County of yesteryear. The rough edges have been knocked off, and there are some full-fledged palaces for tasting. But Sonoma County’s charm and quality have persisted and even improved, so there’s really no comp

Jimtown Store, Farewell

The Jimtown Store had permanently closed at the end of 2019, so this is not late breaking news. But its passing, as well as the 28 years in which it served travelers in the Alexander Valley, tells a tale about what Sonoma County was and what it is now.

Photo courtesy of Alexander Valley Winegrowers.

The best that can be said about the Jimtown Store is that it served really good food in a beautiful general store setting, along a country road with views of the mountains. We always looked forward to lunch there when we went wine tasting in the area. They had a few tables in the store aisles among shelves packed with goodies, gifts and old fashioned toys. They also had a charming outside seating area. It was a relic of another age, with its somewhat dilapidated exterior and the old red Ford pickup parked outside. The sign outside touted “Good Food” and the store delivered on its promise.

But it was a fake.

Yes, there had been a general store there back in the late 1800’s but it had been closed for years when John Werner and Carrie Brown bought it in 1989. They refurbished the place, but not too much, to retain the feel of what it had been. They were not starry-eyed beginners but experienced entrepreneurs in the gourmet food trade. They opened the store not to serve the local population but rather wine-loving tourists who needed to put some food in their bellies as they hopped from winery to winery.

That told the story of what Sonoma County was becoming in the 1990s and into this century. Wine grapes were long grown there. The area was focused on farming and winemaking, but there were few tasting rooms, much like Napa Valley 25 years before. Werner and Brown could see what was coming and filled their store with fancy foodstuffs and gourmet sandwiches. Now we like fancy foodstuffs and we always enjoyed the gourmet sandwiches but we knew quite well that this wasn’t what the farmhands were eating.

Jimtown Store wasn’t an ol’ time general store any more than Jordan Winery is an English manor or Ledson Winery is a haunted castle. But all of them were built on the proposition that pretense plus wine equals tourist dollars.

As indicative of Sonoma County as was the Jimtown Store, so was the cause of the store’s closure: wildfire and its effect on tourism. The recent Kincaid fire came awfully close and it frightened away many wine tasters during the high tourism season. That, combined with Covid-19, is also a part of what Sonoma County and many other areas of Wine Country have become: a tourist destination starved of visitors.

Again, we want to emphasize that we are among the tourists who in the past have added to Sonoma county’s economy. We won’t be going this year because of the pandemic and many wineries have only limited openings anyway for the same reason.

The Jimtown Store wasn’t just good food; it was fun. And Sonoma County isn’t just good wine, either. The pleasures of going wine tasting are being forced to change, but we who love to do it must always preserve the fun.

Farewell, Jimtown Store. We eagerly await the next chapter of visiting Wine Country, Sonoma County very much included.

Tips for Wine Tasting in Sonoma County

A fair question is why there’s any need for wine tasting tips, specifically for Sonoma County. How is it different than Napa Valley, for instance, or Bordeaux or the North Fork of Long Island for that matter? The answer is the combination of size and variety.

You can go wine tasting in Napa Valley along two parallel roads and the crossings between them. Yes, there are wineries up in the hills on either side, but the wineries are all generally concentrated along Route 29 and the Silverado Trail. As far as the geography is concerned, the same can be said of the North Fork or the Cote d’Or in Burgundy.

As to variety, while there are ample exceptions to the rule, the majority of wines made in Napa Valley are made from Chardonnay and Bordeaux grapes. In Oregon, you’ll get Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, as you will in Burgundy. It will be Gamay in Beaujolais. But in Sonoma County, Alexander Valley is dominated by Cabernet Sauvignon, Russian River by Pinot Noir and Dry Creek by Zinfandel. There are pockets of Rhône grapes and Petite Sirah. And yes there’s Chardonnay everywhere, but you’ll find a healthy amount of Sauvignon Blanc too, especially in Dry Creek.

So if you are new to wine tasting in Sonoma County, here are a few things to think about.

Focus on one area per day. You really can’t get a taste (pun intended) for Sonoma County as a whole in a short trip. Each area can be viewed as a separate outing. Moreover, if you are tasting in Russian River, for example, you can compare wines made from the same grape varietals and understand the difference between microclimates on the northern end of Westside Road and its eastern extension. And of course, you can compare the talents of different winemakers as well.
Think about lunch. Of course you’ll want to eat, for safety’s sake if nothing else. But there’s only one place to buy a sandwich in Alexander Valley (highlighted in this issue). The same can be said for Dry Creek. There are some in Russian River on River Road in Guerneville, but they’re quite a way out. You can always drive into the towns: Sonoma, Santa Rosa or Healdsburg. But that takes you out of the way and adds to the driving. So either pack a picnic or plan for a stop where you know you can get some food.
Try to ascertain the specific character of Sonoma County wines. It’s inevitable that you would compare the wines you are tasting with those you’ve had elsewhere. And you may decide that you prefer the Cabernet Sauvignons of Bordeaux or the Pinot Noirs of Oregon. That’s okay, but there is a distinct Alexander Valley style of their Cabs or the Pinots of Russian River. You’ll enjoy your tastings – and the bottles you buy back home – more if you can pick up on the uniqueness of the Sonoma County style.

Don’t just drive. Enjoy the scenery. From the views of the mountains to the east of Alexander Valley to the magnificence of Chalk Hill Road to the town squares in Sonoma and Healdsburg, we have always found the views in Sonoma County to be among the prettiest in Wine Country. Let your eyes drink, not just your mouth.