Author: lgsjr

Planning Your Napa Valley Vacation

You’ve decided you’re going to go wine tasting in Napa Valley.  Maybe you’ve never been or it’s been a while.  We’d like to offer some tips on getting the most out of your vacation by investing some time planning before you go.  Believe us, it will pay dividends.

  • How much time do you have? It makes a big difference if you’re going for just a few days (and if those days are a weekend) or more time, including weekdays.  Don’t try to pack in too much in a short time.  For one thing, you’re dealing with alcohol, so you’d better know your limits and not even get close to them.
  • Which part(s) of the valley do you want to visit? There are 17 appellations in Napa Valley, and while a few such as Atlas Peak and Wild Horse Valley don’t have wineries to visit, most of the rest have plenty.  There are more than 400 tasting rooms in Napa Valley.  You’re not going to get to them all in one vacation, so it makes sense to choose a sector (like Oakville or Calistoga) and focus on just one per day.  You want to avoid driving from one end of the valley to the other, potentially in bumper-to-bumper traffic.

The view from Viader winery on Howell Mountain.

  • Choose a hotel that’s convenient to the places you want to go. The chain hotels are clustered to the south end of the valley, in Napa Town and environs.  Carneros and Yountville have many spas and resorts these days and tend to be pretty pricy.  There are bed and breakfasts scattered everywhere.  In general, the further north you go, the fewer hotels and inns there are to choose among.  Napa Valley is a very popular tourist destination these days, so don’t rely on finding a place when you get there.  Reserve in advance.
  • Plan out your days. When do you usually get out of bed?  It’s your vacation, so don’t plan on getting up with the roosters unless that’s what you usually do.  Eat breakfast!  You’re going to be sipping alcohol all day, so have something in your stomach before your first wine tasting stop.  Figure you’ll taste at, say, four wineries in a day.  Leave time for a nice lunch; dining in Napa Valley is almost as much a part of your vacation as wine tasting.  Think about what you’ll do between the closing of the wineries and dinner.  Your usual vacation plan of a pre-prandial cocktail may not make sense if you’ve been sipping wine all day and will probably have some more with your evening meal.

Bistro Jeanty.  Photo courtesy of Sonoma Magazine.

  • Make dinner reservations. It is hard to get a table at some Napa Valley restaurants.  Some are just impossible (e.g., French Laundry).  Others are very popular and fill up their reservations well in advance (e.g. Bottega).  There are quite a few that are local favorites, like Bouchon, Mustards Grill or Bistro Jeanty where it’s difficult to get in on weekends without a reservation.  So it’s a good idea to reserve before you travel; you can always cancel if you change yourmind.  And if you don’t mind waiting, the Bounty Hunter and Ciccio don’t even take reservations.

Have a great vacation and drop us a note while you’re there.

Château Montelena Winery

Almost as far north as you can go and still be in Napa Valley sits the Château Montelena Winery.  It’s in Calistoga and it has been there for a long time, though not always as an active winery.  It was established in 1882 by one Alfred Tubbs and to this day Château Montelena is located on Tubbs Lane (which unfortunately gave its name to the disastrous Tubbs fire in 2017).  The current history of the winery begins with the acquisition of the property, then in disuse, by Jim Barrett in the early 1970’s.  He was one of the winemaking pioneers who led the renaissance of Napa Valley at that time.

It is fair to say that Château Montelena was the original Napa Palace.  Palatial it is and was designed to be by Mr. Tubbs.  Legend has it that he imported architects and stonemasons from France to build his château.  It has been a working winery, a private home and now a tasting room.  This pseudo-Gothic masterpiece is certainly a reason in itself for visiting Château Montelena, but it is only one of the attractions there.

In a period when the château was a private home, beginning in the 1950s, the then owners created magnificent gardens in a Chinese style.  Today they are called Jade Lake and are a sanctuary for a variety of fish and wildlife.  Visitors are welcome to wander in the gardens and on a beautiful day, even with fellow tourists alongside, it is a source of peace and restfulness.

Oh yes, and they make wine.  Oh boy, do they ever.  For one thing, they were the winner in the Chardonnay category of the storied Judgment of Paris wine tasting in France in 1976.  They don’t let you forget this fact at Château Montelena; George Tauber’s famous book on the event is prominently displayed throughout the tasting room.

Not to take anything away from the current releases of their Chardonnay, we are more enamored of their reds, especially the Estate Cabernet Sauvignon.  They also make a Zinfandel that we have quite enjoyed in the past.

The main tasting room is an attractive stone and wood space, with a long bar and ample space for quite a few visitors.  There is also a secondary area used on busy days at the winery.  The servers have always seemed knowledgeable about Château Montelena’s wines although on occasion we have found a few of the servers to be a bit haughty.  For the most part, even on weekends, they seem eager to inform you as well as to pour wine for you.

Now, Power Tasting is not in the business of reviewing wines themselves.  We are all about the experience of going wine tasting.  That said, it is rare to find a winery that offers the combination of top-tier wines along with natural and architectural beauty.  It may take a little while longer to get up to Calistoga from San Francisco, but for anyone seriously interested in knowing the history and quality of California winemaking, a visit to Château Montelena is a must.

Napa Valley at Night

Most people who think of spending time in Wine Country visualize it in daylight.  That’s when the wineries are open for tasting and when the sunshine kisses the vines and makes the grapes grow.  If you are going to spend more than a day, then you’re going to encounter at least one night there.  In most parts of Wine Country, outside the principle cities and towns, there’s nothing to see or do because, well, it’s dark.

Famed for its restaurants, Napa Valley has a nocturnal side for visitors.  One of its two main thoroughfares, Route 29, is well lit and there are attractions that are also illuminated.  The smaller roads are only lighted up by passing headlights, which also creates an atmosphere rather spookier than that experienced by day.

Sunsets can be spectacular in Napa Valley.  The wide-open spaces between the Vaca and Mayacamas mountains create a backdrop for the setting sun that can be quite dramatic.  We think there must be something in the air there that brings out the best around 5:00 in the winter and 9:00 at the height of summer.

Sunset in Carneros, from the Etude winery.

Driving north on Route 29 you’ll pass a lot of hotels and commercial establishments at the widest part.  Where the road narrows, you can see the lights of Yountville to your right.  Popular restaurants such as Brix and Mustards appear on your left not much further on.  Of course, they’re there during the day as well, but their rapid appearance out of the dark is a reminder of what were once called roadhouses, gathering spots out in the countryside with hints of racoon coats, bootleggers and late-night parties.

Mustards Grill.  Photo courtesy of the Napa Tourist Guide.

 These days, the action is to be found in the towns such as Yountville, St. Helena, Calistoga and especially Napa Town.  The first three mentioned are really just villages, with one or two commercial streets including a few restaurants.  Besides restaurants (and some very good ones) the town of Napa has the additional nighttime advantage of a beautiful walk along the river.  The town leadership has refurbished the old buildings on the southern bank and erected a promenade.  Passing down the walkway adds a very romantic after-dinner touch.

Nocturnal walks outside the towns are probably not a good idea.  For one thing there are no sidewalks, so your only path would be in the roads themselves.  Now, this is California where nobody walks if they can help it.  So you’ll be traipsing along poorly lit roads. (Did we say, “poorly lit”.  For the most part there’s no light at all.) Because most drivers aren’t expecting to see pedestrians, there’s an appreciable danger in taking a walk in the back roads.  If you are intent on doing so, wear reflective clothing.

Napa Valley is a pretty magical place, day or night.  Because daytime activities predominate, not many give consideration to seeing it by starlight.  If you’re there, enjoy it.

The walkway along the Napa River.  Photo courtesy of napawineestates.com

 

 

Visiting St. Helena

When you’re out wine tasting, travelling from winery to winery and taking the vineyard views, it’s easy to forget that real people live there, buying food and hardware, getting their clothes cleaned and generally living ordinary American lives.  When we go to Wine Country, we always try to see some of the local life as well as the wines.  That’s true overseas in places like in the city Bordeaux and the village of Montalcino, though those are tourist destinations in themselves.  In Napa Valley, it’s St. Helena.

The Richie Block.  Photo courtesy of Noe Hill Travels.

St. Helena has a unique charm.  We have found it a worthwhile to interrupt our wine tasting adventures to take an hour or two to look around this town.  A portion of the only street of note (Main Street, also known as Route 29 and also Route 128) is a registered Historic District.  There are several restaurants, a few tasting rooms (which we have never tried), and then the usual: a few grocery stores, clothing shops, a movie theater, jewelers and some offices.  In other words, St. Helena is just like everywhere.  Except there’s this architecture, with 34 buildings of note.  Particularly notable are the Richie Block, a fine Victorian structure built in 1892 and the St. Helena Star building, from 1900.

The St. Helena Star Building.  Photo courtesy of Noe Hill Travels.

Then there’s this really neat hardware store (Steve’s, no relation) where we’ve often found something or other that was just what we needed and couldn’t find at home.  There was a nicer than usual champagne preserver, a salt grinder, some random cookware all at lower prices than at fancier cookware stores.

Many of the “downtown” restaurants are quite good.  We have enjoyed lunch at Market, which specializes in the classics of American cuisine with a bit of a Wine Country twist.  Sure, they have a burger, but the beef is from an “all-natural” butcher and the cheese is from a special farm in Modesto.  In fact, that summarizes St. Helena: It’s just like everywhere, except it’s not.

There is one eatery in St. Helena that is a must for visiting wine tasters.  Just south of the commercial district is Gott’s Roadside, the place for burgers and fries.  Oh, they have other things too, but stick with the Americana.  You sit outside, under umbrellas, and order from a window.  It   If you want to feel like you’ve gone back in time for a great burger, this is your place.

Photo courtesy of Gott’s

 One nice thing about stopping in St. Helena is that you are very near to many of the wineries you might want to visit.  Beringer is just five minutes away by car (20 on foot).  Markham and St. Clement are just a bit further.  The grand buildings give evidence that St. Helena has long been an important town, even before wine became a major business in itself.

Visiting Napa/Noma in March

Maybe March comes in like a lion where you live, but it’s definitely lamb-like in Napa/Noma.  The US Weather Service says that the average daily temperature in Napa tops out at 67o.  There’s just enough rain to make the flowers – and the grape vines – grow.  Everything is coming alive again, and all’s well with the world. And if you travel to Napa/Noma in March you can see it and even participate in it a bit.

Bud break in March.  Photo courtesy of flickr.com.

In particular, March is the time of year in winemaking known as “bud break”.  The leaves are on the vines and the tiny buds on the vines begin to swell up and send out shoots.  The brownness of winter gives way to a light green.  The annual cycle that leads to barrels full of wine starts anew.

However, it’s not all green.  There’s a lot of yellow, too, in the form of mustard flowers, which begin to blossom in late January and reach their peak in March.  Some people think (okay, we used to think) that this was a trick that vineyard managers used to enrich the vines.  But no, it’s just because it’s pretty and vineyard managers like things to be pretty as much as tourists do.

Photo courtesy of Wine Country Inn

March is an especially good time of year for tasting the new releases from many of the best vineyards.  If you do the math, you’ll see that wines aged in barrels for 16 months from harvest (i.e., September) reach maturity at the end of January.  Allowing a month for getting it out of barrels and into bottles, you’ll have the chance to taste many of the newest wines in March.  At the same time, there will probably be many bottles left from the previous vintage at some wineries, so you’ll have the opportunity taste wines that have a little maturity to them.

With the crazy weather patterns that are typical of Napa/Noma, you may well want a winter coat in the mornings in March, as well as in the later evening.  But by midday, you’ll shuck the outerwear and visit wineries in your shirtsleeves.  Overall, it is wise either to wear a sweater or wrap it around your neck.

There are no national holidays in March, so hotel rates are a little lower than in the high summer season.  On the other hand, crowds do begin to show up on weekends, so be prepared for more crowded tasting rooms than you will find in the coldest winter months, but less so than in summer.

There is, of course, St. Patrick’s Day in March.  Napa/Noma doesn’t do it up like New York or Chicago, but there are places that celebrate rather boisterously.  One such is Hurley’s in Yountville.  Now, a hurley is the lethal instrument used to play Gaelic football, so this restaurant/bar is honor-bound to make a St. Pat’s statement.  (It’s also one of our favorite restaurants in Napa Valley.)

So see if you can find a shamrock among the mustard flowers and enjoy your time wine tasting in Napa/Noma in March.

 

Château des Estanilles

In southwest France, up in the hilly area not far from the Mediterranean, you’ll find the winemaking sector called Faugères.  Because of the terrain, made of rocky soil called schist, the wines tend to be full-flavored with a minerally cast on the tongue. By the way, there is a very fine St. Emilion called Chateau Faugères, but to the best of our knowledge there is no relationship with this area.

Now, sadly, the wines of this area – in fact, all of the Languedoc – used to have the reputation for being harsh, overly alcoholic and sour.  Fortunately, many wineries in the area have discovered that sound growing techniques and sanitary winemaking can produce excellent wines that reward the growers more than the production of plonk used to.  One such is Château des Estanilles.

We sought out this winery because we had enjoyed one of their wines in Québec.  The provincial wine stores keep it well-stocked on their shelves, but we haven’t been able to locate it in the United States.  We learned that the wine we liked is in fact the bottom of their list.  Called “The Impertinent”, this wine in both red and white is mass produced (at least as “mass” as Faugères ever gets) and so there’s enough to satisfy foreign demand.  Their finer wines are made in more limited quantities and are only sold in France, mostly within the region.

Chateau des Estanilles winery

North American visitors to Château des Estanilles will feel right at home.  The winery is not a magnificent castle nor is it a rustic farmhouse.  It’s a cream-colored building with a tiled roof that would be right at home in Napa Valley.  Beyond it are extensive vineyards and the aforementioned hills, rising up on the horizon.  The interior is sleek and modern, with a tasting room that is a large white table, not a bar.  The setting makes you feel more like a guest than a visitor.

A very helpful attendant (it would be hard to call her a server) will fill your glass with any or all of their wines, topping out with their Raison d’Etre, made of Syrah, Grenache and Mourvèdre.  At 48 euros ($55), it isn’t cheap but it’s a lot less than a wine of equivalent quality would be elsewhere in France.  [It isn’t Power Tasting’s usual practice to discuss wine prices.  However, we want to give an idea of the value you can get for your money with Languedoc wines.]

As might be expected, you will get more out of your visit if you can speak French.  But at Château des Estanilles, as elsewhere in the area, the people are used to having English-speaking guests and will gladly accommodate you.  It would help if you try to at least pronounce the name of their winery correctly: ESS-ta-neel.

The working area in the Chateau des Estanilles winery

When you visit Château des Estanilles, be sure to take a look at their winemaking facilities.  They are all modern, with lots of stainless steel and clean as a whistle.  This is instructive, because it shows how the Languedoc’s vintners have advanced.  You won’t be able to see the natural techniques they use in the vineyards, eschewing pesticides and fertilizers. But you can give respect to the modernity of their winemaking practices.

 

 

 

Verona

You’re planning a vacation in northern Italy.  And you’ll certainly want to spend some time in Venice.  Lucky you.  As a wine lover, you’d like to do some wine tasting.  Right around Venice are Soave and Venetzia-Friuli, both famous for their white wines.  Oh, but you wanted to taste some major league red wines?  In that case, you can drive about an hour and a half west and you’ll be in Valpolicella, where you can sip Amarone to your heart’s content.  We’d like to suggest that you take more than a day trip and enjoy the pleasures of the main city of Valpolicella, Verona.

It’s an ancient city, as evidenced most of all by the magnificently intact Roman stadium on the grandest of Verona’s wide plazas, the Piazza Bra.  They still stage an opera festival there every summer.  Even if you can’t get a ticket, it is quite a pleasure sitting in sidewalk caffe on the piazza, sipping a cappuccino and admiring the stadium and other grand buildings of a more modern era.

The ancient Roman Arena on the Piazza Bra.

In fact, Verona is a city of many wonderful piazzas, much like Venice.  The Piazza d’Erbe was the herb market in the Middle Ages.  Today it is lined with restaurants, all with tables in the open air.  The middle of the square is full of carts selling all sorts of touristy items, most importantly little puppets of Pinocchio, a famous local resident of the past.

In many ways, the Piazza d’Erbe is best appreciated at night, when the Renaissance buildings and towers are lit up.  It’s a dramatic backdrop for a bowl of spaghetti or big fat pici, the locally popular pasta.  (A word of warning about the food in Verona: horse and donkey meat are very popular there.  So if you see cavallo or asino on the menu, think twice.)

Just beyond the Piazza d’Erbe is the Piazza Seignoria, with a large statue of Dante looming over it.  He was a Florentine, but was exiled there for his political views and settled in Verona.  The Veronese adopted him quite readily.  In those days, Verona was a possession of the Venetians so anyone that Florence was against, Venice was for.

Piazza Seignoria, with its statue of Dante.

Verona has a special place in the hearts of lovers of Shakespeare’s plays.  For one thing, there were the Two Gentlemen of Verona.  And then there was a notorious feud between two Veronese families, the Montecchi and the Capeletti.  You may know them as the Montagues and the Capulets.  Today you can visit Juliet’s balcony, where single women have taken to leaving little messages on the wall asking Ms. Capulet to help them find a lover as true as Mr. Montague.  In fact, you can have dinner in a restaurant in Romeo’s house.

As you wander through Verona’s medieval and Renaissance section, you will find a high gate with a clock in it, that turns an ordinary street into a special place.  At its base is a bust of Shakespeare with this inscription in both English and Italian:

“There is no world without Verona’s walls, but purgatory, torture, hell itself.  Hence, banished is banish’d from the world, and world’s exile is death.” Romeo and Juliet, Act III, Scene III

 

What’s for Dessert?

With rare exception, no one goes wine tasting with the exclusive purpose of sipping dessert wines.  Sure, that’s the idea if you’re going to Sauternes in France, and maybe in the Canada’s Niagara region, but that’s about it.  On the other hand, almost everywhere in Wine Country, there will be winemakers who make a bit of sweet wine as a little extra.

In Australia, they call them “stickies”, and with good reason.  In Italy, they make Vin Santo in Tuscany, Reciotto in Valpolicella and Passito in Sicily.  Canada and upstate New York have their ice wines.  Of course, there’s Port in Portugal.  And in California, as you might expect, many wineries have a dessert wine available and they’re all very different.  Among our favorites are Grgich Hills’ Violetta, Dry Creek Vineyards’ Soleil, and Beringer’s Nightingale.

There are a lot of different types of dessert wines.  The best, in many people’s opinion, are the wines affected by the botrytis fungus that sucks almost all the moisture out of the grapes.  The resulting shriveled fruit is very sweet and very concentrated.  In Sauternes, it happens almost every year, but elsewhere it happens sometimes and sometimes not.  Ice wines are made in climates where the grapes can freeze in late autumn.  In warmer places, they just leave the grapes on the vines and produce late harvest wines.  In our opinion, Port only comes from the Douro Valley in Portugal, but many others make a wine they call Port, made from Zinfandel and other white grapes.

Photo courtesy of Royal Design.

So wherever you travel, if you want to tickle your sweet tooth after drinking dry wine, here are some tips.

  • Most of the time, you’ll have to ask. Many wineries don’t make dessert wines and of those that do, many keep them below the bar.  After you’ve completed your allotted tastes of table wines, you can politely mention, “Do you make a dessert wine?”.  Some visitors are shy about asking, especially if they have paid for, say, four tastes and they’ve had them all.  Don’t worry about it.  The mere fact that you knew enough to ask is enough to show a server that you care.
  • Sip it like it’s the nectar of the gods. You’re often getting something extra so show your appreciation.  They don’t call it dessert for nothing.  Unless you buy some, you may never taste this wine again, so make every drop count.
  • Drink these wines differently than you would a table wine. You’ll probably get a small glass with a small lip.  Take just a little liquid in your mouth and roll each sip over your tongue.  Let your sweet sensors do the work.  Then remember you’re drinking wine and look for the complexities.  It’s that complexity that makes the botrysized wines like Sauternes stand out from the others.
  • Remember you’re drinking it young. Most wineries sell out their “stickies” very rapidly, usually to their club members.  It is rare to find an older library dessert wine.  Many change character as they age and some (not all) people like them better when they’ve gotten brown and mellow.  You’ll be sipping honey and fruit juices and sugar.  Enjoy it while you can.

A Letter from Andrea Contucci

In the December 2018 issue we published a review of Cantine Contucci in Montepulciano, Italy.  That town is best known for its voluptuous red wine, Vino Nobile.  We received a letter from Andrea Contucci, which points out an error we made, which has already been repaired.

I have just commented your nice article about Vino Nobile and Contucci winery on Power Tasting.

I’ve also shared it on our Facebook page.

Many thanks for your delicious words about Vino Nobile appellation, about Montepulciano and about Contucci.

In the article I noticed a detail to correct; when you speak of grapes for Vino Nobile, the Trebbiano Toscano and Malvasìa grapes should not be mentioned, because they are actually used for white wine and Vin Santo, not for Vino Nobile.

I really invite you to return here to have a real meeting and toast with one of our Vino Nobiles.

 

Happy holiday seasons and see you soon in Montepulciano.

The Side Streets of Napa Valley

If you look on a map at the winemaking area of Napa Valley, it’s shaped like a ladder.  The uprights are Route 29 and the Silverado Trail.  The rungs are the Oakville Cross, the Rutherford Cross and so on (with a few others with names like Zinfandel Lane thrown in).  When you drive along these roads, you have the opportunity to see many of the most famous wineries in the region and, in fact, of the world.  We’ve traveled that way many times and have tasted some spectacular wines.

On occasion, though, it’s a good idea to take some of the side roads. Because they are off the main drag, some of them are less visited, meaning smaller crowds and easier traffic.  On the other hand, some of Napa Valley’s most renowned wineries are to be found on these smaller roads.  For example, you can taste Joseph Phelps’ Insignia blend on Taplin Road, Caymus’ Special Selection on Conn Creek Road or Chateau Montelena’s Chardonnay, the winner of the famous Judgement of Paris, on Tubbs Lane.  All of these are perhaps a bit out of the way, but the rewards of heading there are self-evident.

We are not including among these side streets the many wonderful wineries up in the Vaca and Mayacamas mountains on either side of Napa Valley.  They too are out of the way but require a great deal more time and effort to visit them than those discussed here.  One such is the subject of the winery review in this edition.

There are other wineries established on the side streets that are well worth a visit for several different reasons.  As always, it’s a pleasure to discover wines you haven’t heard of and may very well enjoy.  However, Power Tasting is about more than just the wines; our objective is to encourage wine tasting as an overall experience.  In many cases, these out of the way wineries enhance the experience in order to attract people to their tasting rooms. They are less likely to have visitors who were just passing by, so they need to make themselves destinations.

A few examples on just one such side road make our point.  Andretti Winery (http://andrettiwinery.com/) and Monticello Vineyards (http://www.corleyfamilynapavalley.com/) are side by side on Big Ranch Road in the southern Napa Town end of the valley.  If you’ve ever even heard of motor racing, the name Mario Andretti will be familiar to you, and if you are a racing fan, you will enjoy looking at all the trophies and maybe buy a souvenir.  Mario was part of the group that founded his namesake winery, which is deliberately reminiscent of a Tuscan villa, in honor of Mr. Andretti’s heritage.  While they do make the widely encountered California wines such as Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay, they are differentiated by the availability of Italian varietals including Pinot Grigio, Barbera, Dolcetto and a sweet Moscato.

The Jefferson House at Monticello Vineyards.  Photo courtesy of the winery.

Monticello has an entirely different vibe.  Instead of celebrating an Italian-American race car driver and his background, Monticello Vineyards is a tribute to America’s illustrious third President, Thomas Jefferson.  Thus, although the tasting room is also in a gracious, neoclassical building, the real gem of the property is what they call Jefferson House.  Not a true replica of the building that is imprinted on the nickel, it is nonetheless evocative of the real thing.  Unlike many of the nouveau palaces in Napa Valley, this building is beautiful enough in itself to attract visitors.  And oh, yes, you can taste wines, the usual combination of Burgundy and Bordeaux varietals that are typical of Napa Valley.

Maybe these aren’t the first choices you would make for wine tasting if you have never been to Napa Valley.  For those seeking to expand their experience of this corner of Wine Country, they are an easy trip to make.  And why would you not want to go?