lgsjr – Page 37 – Power Tasting – The Wine Tasting Experience

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 67^o. 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?

Cain Vineyard and Winery

There’s a lot to be said for knowing what you do well and only doing that. Cain Vineyard and Winery makes Bordeaux blends, three of them to be precise. No single varietals. No white wine. Just red blends. Even if you’re not a big fan of big California wines, a visit to Cain can be very rewarding. (And why would you visit Napa Valley if you don’t like big California wines, made from the signature grapes of the region?)

You don’t go to Cain just because you happened to be passing by. For one thing, visits are by appointment only and they mean it. More important, Cain is near the pinnacle of Spring Mountain, way up in the Mayacamas range. There are a few other wineries higher on the hill, but in general there’s no way that you’d ever be just passing by. If you do go wine tasting at Cain, you mean to go there.

Be prepared for a winding drive of 45 minutes to an hour if you’re coming from down in the valley. But what you get when you arrive is worth the trip. First and maybe foremost, is the view. The Cain web site (https://cainfive.com/) makes much of that view and rightly so. The terraced vineyards nestled in the high hills make a stunning sight. Much though we don’t like getting up early, not even to go wine tasting, we recommend that you make an appointment for the 10:00 tasting. On many days, you will be greeted by the view of the vines above the clouds. It is truly a unique Napa Valley vista.

Cain’s vines above the clouds. Photo courtesy of Edible Arts.

The winery itself is a stylish stone building, more interesting for its restraint than for any particular architectural flourishes, of which there are more than enough in Napa Valley. Once the group of reserved visitors has arrived, they are taken on a tour of the working winery. It is essentially the same as any such tour, but we have found the guides to be quite knowledgeable about the way that Cain makes its wines, so you do get an interesting perspective on the wines you are soon to taste.

The Cain tasting room. Photo courtesy of Cain Vineyards and Winery.

The seated tasting is your chance to taste their wines in a rather grand salon. As noted, they make three wines. The best known is Cain Five, which is always made of the five Bordeaux grapes: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and Malbec. Cain was among the first to honor the wines of Bordeaux in this fashion, although ironically the Bordelais themselves rarely use all five. Importantly, all the grapes in Cain Five are estate grown up on Spring Mountain.

Cain Concept is made from grapes grown down the hill, in “the Benchland” as they say. And Cain Cuvée is made from sourced grapes from both mountain and valley vineyards. While there is no question that Cain Five is their premier wine, a tasting at Cain gives an unusual opportunity to compare wines made from the same grapes in the same manner by the same winemaker, varying mountain and valley fruit.

For those interested in such things, Cain Five regularly receives high numbers from the ratings magazines. For those just interested in a unique wine tasting experience, take the drive up the mountain to Cain.

Wine Tasting Resolutions

This is the time of year that every newspaper and magazine features articles on New Years resolutions. There are always suggestions on losing weight, learning to play the piano and buying a dog. Why should Power Tasting be left out? Resolute as we are, we are looking forward to living up to some our own expectations in 2019.

Enjoy a part of Wine Country where we have never been before. In recent years we have discovered wines in Sicily, Tuscany and Languedoc. Maybe in this coming year we will be sampling Blaufrankisch, Tempranillo or Jacques Capsouto reds. There are no plans yet, but we are eager to go wine tasting wherever the road takes us. We hope that all our readers are open to the experience of discovery that makes wine tasting such a tantalizing pursuit.

Visit the new homes of old favorites. There are a few Napa Valley wineries that have built new tasting rooms because of the damage wrought by earthquakes (Trefethen), the terrible fires (Signorello) or just because they wanted a new place to welcome visitors (Joseph Phelps). We haven’t been to see them yet and would really like to do so. And when we do, we’ll report on them in the pages of Power Tasting.
Go back and try a few places we didn’t like that much in the past. Taking our own advice, we’ll go back, because we may fall in love again. It won’t be just little, out-of-the-way wineries that we hadn’t heard about before (although we’ll try a few of those as well). There are some internationally known wineries that changed hands, usually in corporate takeovers. We haven’t always been happy with the changes they made, but now that they’ve been in place for several years, it’s worth giving them a second chance.
Find wine tasting adventures close to home. Power Tasting is based in New York City. There have to be some wonderful wine bars that we haven’t tried yet. Actually, there are a lot of wine bars where we haven’t been. Wine tasting is a part of travel but it should also be a part of staying home.
Do at least one international comparison. We’ll open bottles of wines made from the same grape or grapes from different parts of the world. We’ve done this before, but it’s been a long time. So maybe Syrahs from Australia, the US and France. Or French, American and New Zealander Sauvignon Blancs. It’s a great way to see how different terroirs lead to unique expressions of the same grapes.
Go to San Francisco. We’ll certainly be in California again this year. After all, we’ve tasted there every year since the 1970’s so why stop now? But in recent years we’ve gone straight from the airport to the vineyards and haven’t passed any time in the City by the Bay. It’s time we went back.
Eat well when we go wine tasting. We always have. We’re not going to change now.