lgsjr – Page 7 – Power Tasting – The Wine Tasting Experience

Peju Winery

We have driven up and down Route 29 in the Napa Valley many, many times. Often, we have passed the Peju Winery (www.peju.com). That’s exactly what we have done, passed it by without stopping in. We guess that’s because we have never seen their wines in stores or on wine lists so, we thought, why bother? On a recent trip, we did bother and we are glad we did.

The rather distinctive Peju winery.

The winery is named after its founder, Tony Peju, who only recently passed away. He was credited with being the father of direct-to-the-consumer wine sales. Thus we hadn’t heard of his wines because he bypassed stores and restaurants. Peju wines are for sale only at the winery and through their wine club. The winery is still owned and run by the Peju family, which is something depressingly rare in Napa Valley today.

The winery is distinctive. As you approach, you see a rather oddly shaped building or, as they prefer to call it, a tower. Surrounding it are lush gardens which visitors are free to roam. There is also a spacious patio where visitors are offered seated tastings. You can also stand at the bar at Peju, which is rather rare these days. We arrived without an appointment and so had our tasting indoors, in the barrel room. However, the winery does urge reservations.

The stained glass mural in the winery.

Peju makes an enormous variety of wines. Of course, not all are available for tasting on any given day, but we did find that the servers were liberal with little extras that weren’t on the official tasting lists. Located in the heart of Napa Valley in Rutherford, they do specialize in the Bordeaux grapes, especially Cabernet Sauvignon. But there are also Malbec, Pinot Noir and Sangiovese in the red wines. Their selection of white wines includes Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc (of course), but also sparking wines and French Colombard, a rarity these days. We are usually of the ABC (anything but Chardonnay) persuasion, but we rather enjoyed Peju’s.

The servers seem quite knowledgeable, if a bit chatty. They are attentive, which can be a problem in some wineries. Combining the renewed popularity of wine tasting tourism with a shortage of staff everywhere, we have often found ourselves sitting and waiting for a server to notice that we wanted to be on to our next wine. This was not the case at Peju, much to their credit. For a winery that makes its market with visitors and club members, it is only sensible that they make the tasting experience as enjoyable as possible. It leads to purchases and memberships. We would only wish that more wineries would adopt that attitude.

Our visit to Peju is an example of why it is a good idea, from time to time, to take a chance on a winery you don’t know. We enjoyed our visit, bought some wine, and will gladly return on another trip. The next time we might even make a reservation.

The Evolution of Wine Tasting in Napa Valley

We’ve been visiting Napa Valley for the purpose of wine tasting for a long time, since 1977 to be exact. Needless to say, the valley has changed greatly over nearly a half century. In some ways, the wine has stayed the same, but in others it has developed quite a bit. And thus, the way that visitors engage in wine tasting has evolved tremendously.

St. Helena in the 1950s. Photo courtesy of Cinema Treasures

Napa Valley was primarily agricultural, and of course it still is. But towns like Napa, Yountville, St. Helena and Calistoga are unrecognizable from what they once were. For example, we can remember when the French Laundry in Yountville used to source its produce and poultry from farms just across Washington Street. Calistoga was known for mud baths, not wine. St. Helena was a village for locals and Napa was nowhereseville. What changed them? Tourism, of course. And what brought the tourists? Wine.

In the earlier times, growers and wine makers would offer tastes of their wines for free as a form of advertising, in hopes that visitors would buy some. Wine tasting was an afterthought in the commercial scheme of things, conducted in a barn or a barrel room. The visitors were attracted more by curiosity (“Do they really make wine up there?”) than advanced oenological expertise. And while there were always exceptions, the wines were predominantly Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay.

St. Helena today. Photo courtesy of Visit Napa Valley.

By the 1990’s, tourism was well established. There were plenty of excellent restaurants to feed the visitors (quite well), though hotels there were primarily chains and bed-and-breakfasts. Wineries began charging for their tastings, enough at first to cover their tasting costs. These had begun to climb as they had to improve facilities, hire more staff and improve the glassware. And the varietals had expanded. Everyone seemed to have a Pinot Noir from Carneros and Sauvignon Blanc from all over the valley. And the visitors were interested in sipping some of all the wines. The tastings went from a little of one or two wines to flights of four or more.

By the millennium, wine tasting had become a profit maker unto itself. Napa palaces were erected from one end of the valley to the other. And the tasting fees had risen to the point that they were a consideration – along with alcoholic sanity, of course – as to how many wineries could be visited. Many tasting rooms offered two lists, with the premier wines available at a higher price. Increasingly, the visitors demonstrated significant knowledge and taste buds.

Today, especially with the aftereffects of the pandemic, much of the tourism in Napa Valley is directed to resorts, with wine tasting almost a sideline. Of course, Napa Valley wines had long achieved eminence in the world and preeminence in California and the US generally. But the cost of tasting in Napa Valley had made other winemaking areas, such as Sonoma County, Santa Barbara and the Central Coast attractive alternatives. The wines of Napa Valley are still superb, but the tasting fees at the finest wineries are a deterrent for some potential visitors.

Napa Valley will long produce great wines and the scenery will forever be beautiful, but the nature of wine tasting there may never be the same.

Tasting Value Wines in Napa Valley

One definition of value is “whatever someone is willing to pay”. By that token, the most valuable wines in Napa Valley are those that are unavailable for tasting by the average visitor to Napa Valley. These would include Screaming Eagle, Dalla Valle, Harlan Estate or Schrader. By reputation, we’re sure that these are great wines, but we haven’t had the opportunity to taste them.

But another way to look at value is the ratio of quality to price. While some would have you believe that the more something costs, the better it is, this is not necessarily true and certainly not when it comes to wine tasting. In these days when a wine tasting trip to Napa Valley is bound to be costly, it is well to consider this definition of value as you choose which wineries to visit and what to try while you’re there.

Photo courtesy of What the Fab.

Lesser known wineries can make very good wine. Sure, the big labels you read about in the wine columns of your newspaper make good wine (usually, but not always). But we have discovered that smaller, less renowned wineries often have a few wines that offer excellent quality. Our recent experience at Black Stallion falls into this category. In many instances, these better wines are only available at the winery or to their club members. If they are opening them at their tasting rooms, it is often to entice you to join their clubs. But you can enjoy them without joining.
Some wineries that make mass production wines can also have a few that excel. Even though you may have bought some of their easily available wines and not cared much for them, it’s worth giving these wineries a chance when you’re in Wine Country, especially in Napa Valley. We have tried – and bought – some gems from Clos du Val and William Hill, for example, that really exceeded our expectations.
With the prices for seated tastings running so high, it might make sense to include a few lower cost wineries when you’re in Napa Valley. Remember that the overall experience provides as much pleasure as the wines themselves. If you know of a tasting room or patio that has something extra to offer, such as art or an attractive setting, you may choose to just relax with a few tastes of wines that don’t leave you in awe, but are enjoyable in themselves. And you may find that there is one wine that is better than you anticipated. Our experience at Cosentino, with a tasting fee of “only” $30, falls into this category.
Visit wineries that you already know make less expensive wines you know you like. Many people have a few go-to wines you buy just for an informal meal or an easy afternoon outside. Visit those wineries. You know in advance that they make at least one wine that suits your tastes. It may well be that they have others you haven’t had the occasion to try. It’s certainly worth taking a chance with them.

Napa Town

As you travel up the Napa Valley, you drive through several small towns, including Yountville, St. Helena and Calistoga. They are charming, but they are generally one main street, four or five blocks long, that feature restaurants, tasting rooms and galleries. They are not small cities. But at the bottom of the valley there is the town of Napa. With a population of nearly 80,000 people, Napa is a small city with all the plusses and minuses the term implies.

The view from the Napa River. Photo courtesy of Hotels.com.

Napa has a distinct downtown of about thirty square blocks. Unlike the other towns mentioned, there is a definite urban feel to Napa. At one time, not so long ago, there wasn’t much to interest the visitor. Those days are long past. Today there is a vibrancy there that owes a lot to wine tourism, of course, but also to some civic decisions to make the town more attractive to visitors. Alas, this has resulted in nearly impossible parking near places you might want to go, although valets and large parking lots have eased the situation.

In 2015, we wrote about wine tasting at Napa’s in-town tasting rooms. The overall tone was, well, less than exultant. There weren’t many places to go and the quality was spotty. At last count, there are now about thirty places in downtown Napa where you can have a tasting. We haven’t visited all of them by any means, but we can say that there are some fine wines to be tried there. Some of the better known labels are Alpha Omega, Buena Vista and Mayacamas.

The Oxbow Public Market. Photo courtesy of Candlelight Inn.

We have written before about the Oxbow Public Market. It falls somewhere between a tourist attraction and a local food and wine resource. A bit away from the downtown area (or maybe now an extension of it), the market is certainly worth visiting, both for wine tasting and dining or both together. And the views of the city are superb.

Napa is the seat for the county. Therefore, there are all the public services there such as the county government, police and fire departments. In that same vein, it’s where you will find doctors, dentists and barbers. It is unlikely you will need them and they aren’t among the reasons for which you would visit Napa, but it’s good to know where they are, just in case.

Much of the renaissance of Napa Town has been led by the restaurants, of which there are many. We have long had our standbys, including The Bounty Hunter and Cole’s Chop House. We also like to experiment with new places, and as with all experiments sometimes we have been happy and sometimes not. As with much of California, there is a large Mexican population in Napa, so there are now several Mexican restaurants. In fact, as you drive into town along Soscol Avenue, you will see truck after truck selling Mexican fare.

If you are touring Napa Valley, you ought to include some time in Napa Town. As we have previously counseled, it is often a good idea to avoid Route 29 on weekends and spend time doing in-town tastings. For that, Napa should definitely be on your list.

Oakville Grocery

We have a weakness for old grocery stores that have metamorphosed into gourmet shops serving the wine tasters who have flocked to Wine Country. There’s Lombardi’s Love Lane Market in Long Island’s North Fork. We can remember when the Dry Creek General Store was a place to buy work clothes, tins of nails and sandwiches (served only on sliced white or whole wheat). We still mourn the demise of the Jimtown Store. The grandaddy of them all is the Oakville Grocery on Route 29 and the Oakville Crossroad in Napa Valley.

Photo courtesy of Destination Wineries.

There’s an Oakville Grocery in Healdsburg and it’s a fine shop. We go there when we’re in Sonoma County. But the real deal is located, of course, in Oakville. According to their website (https://oakvillegrocery.com/) there’s been a store at that spot since some time in the 1870’s. At various times it specialized in dry goods and farming supplies; then it was called Oakville Mercantile. Since wine lovers (re)discovered Napa Valley in the 1970s, it has supplied excellent lunches to visitors and locals alike.

Oakville Grocery’s story has intersected with the wine trade over the decades. Prohibition almost put them out of business; only nearby bootlegging saved the store. It hosted a Great Chefs cooking lessons program run by Margit Mondavi, the wife of Robert Mondavi. For many years, beginning in the 1970s through 2003, Oakville Grocery was owned by Joseph Phelps, who also owned one of Napa Valley’s great vineyards. It t is now owned by a Frenchman, Jean-Charles Boisset, whose roots are in Burgundy’s Côte d’Or.

Photo courtesy of Oakville Grocery.

Today – and for as long as we can remember Oakville Grocery – it specializes in upscale fare. There’s an espresso bar where you can get freshly ground coffee. There’s a selection of imported and local cheeses, with California’s products standing up quite well against the French and Italian imports. Freshly made salads are available, as are hand-made pizzas fired where the hardware was once stored. This being Napa Valley, they also have a great wine selection.

But the main attraction is the deli counter which occupies almost the entirety of the middle of the store. Yes, you can get a ham and cheese, but why bother? You can do that at home. There’s a California-fied Muffaletta, the glory of New Orleans reinterpreted for the wine folks. How about a hot Chicken and Gruyere or Rocky’s Reuben? A word to the wise: The sandwiches are enormous, enough for sharing. It’s important to put food in your stomach if you’re going to continue wine tasting in the afternoon, but there are limits.

There is a (mostly) shaded area next to the store where you can eat and drink your purchases. They try to style it as a picnic area, but there is neither grass nor trees to be seen. Make sure to get a table in the shade – midday in Napa Valley gets quite hot – but don’t plan on lingering.

We know places in New York and Paris that are as rich in history as in cuisine. The Oakville Grocery is one of these too, but it is a great deal more rustic than those places, as it should be. This is a deli in Wine Country, after all. But if you’d like a great meal in a place your great-great-grandparents might have frequented, then the Oakville Grocery is for you.

Affordable Tasting in Napa Valley

Less than four years ago, Power Tasting’s January 2020 issue contained an article entitled, “How to Enjoy Wine Tasting in Napa Valley without Spending a Fortune”. It makes rather odd reading today, since at least half the piece is no longer true. Of course, when that was published, we didn’t know that a deadly pandemic, which closed down California wine tasting for many months, was just ahead. On this side of those dreary times, as we have noted in a previous edition, wine tasting in America’s prime winemaking region has become so expensive that it prices out many potential visitors.

Photo courtesy of Napa Valley Tours and Transportation.

Today, there are no longer any free tastings; buying a bottle won’t result in waived fees; and the less expensive tasting flights offered are as costly as the pre-pandemic reserve tastings. Sharing a tasting glass is far more difficult when almost all tastings are seated and served. Nonetheless, there are some things wine lovers can do in Napa Valley to make the trip more affordable, if not cheap.

Pass up the “big names”. It is not unusual to find tasting fees of $125 or more per person at the better known wineries. Lesser known wineries, such as Cosentino (reviewed in this edition) or Hagafen offer tastings at far lower prices. You should do some comparison shopping online before you leave home.
Look for discoveries. The reason to visit the wineries you’re already familiar with is that you know what you will get. There is an alternative approach. If you are already experienced in going wine tasting, try to cast your mind back to when you first started coming to Napa Valley. You have the chance to discover wonderful wines that you didn’t bother with in the past. In many ways, we have found that we have gotten the most pleasure from enjoyable wines we had never heard of.
Maybe splurge on one expensive tasting. Yes, the fees wineries charge are outrageous. But that’s what’s happening to many other forms of entertainment. Consider what you would pay for a Broadway show or a hockey match. With the way tastings are presented today, it is not unusual to spend more than an hour sipping wine. Add the time to walk around and look at the gift shop, and you can be at a winery for quite some time. It doesn’t make the price of tasting easier to take, but it is easier to understand.
Choose wineries with interests other than the wine. In addition to tasting, you might find it fun to take in some interesting architecture and beautiful grounds. Chateau Montelena or Stags’ Leap might be good candidates. If you’re a shopaholic, Robert Mondavi and Darioush might be just the ticket. These won’t reduce your cost for sipping wine, but will expand tasting experience.
And as we said, there are other great places for wine tasting. Napa is wonderful but it’s not to everyone’s taste. If you prefer your tastings to be more rustic and laid back, you might find Sonoma County, Central Coast or Amador County more amenable. Take your dollars elsewhere and maybe the owners of those Napa palaces will lower their prices.

Cosentino Winery

In a sense, there are two Cosentino Wineries (www.cosentinowinery.com), the historical one and the winery as it is today. It was established in 1980 in other parts of California and settled in Napa Valley after ten years. The founder was a fellow named Mitch Cosentino, who was both a pioneer and a rather different sort of winemaker. For one thing, he was a self-taught winemaker (not quite that rare in those days) but more so because he made the wines that he wanted to drink. If you agreed with him, fine. If not, buy from someone down the road.

What he particularly liked were Italian-style wines. He made a Sangiovese and a Nebbiolo, and his best known wines were well-rated Zinfandels that harkened back to a time when Napa Valley wines were made for local consumption by Italian immigrants. He was also the first to sell a Bordeaux blend labeled “Meritage”.

In 2010, Mitch sold his winery to a big conglomerate, which leads us to today’s winery. In one way, it is as it was, at the same location as ever at the edge of Napa Town. The winery building is still there, an Italianate (of course) structure covered in vines. But the name and the building are the main links to Cosentino’s history. Yes, they do make Zinfandel, but it’s not what they are known for any longer. Today, their premier red wine is the one that Mitch introduced, “The Poet”, a Meritage, about which more later.

The wine tasting experience at Cosentino is quite pleasant. The winery is easy to find, right next to Mustards restaurant along Route 29. There is a wide patio with a large stone wall at one end in which there is constantly lit fireplace. Seating is well spread out and the view of the traffic passing by is softened by a large hill just across the street with a Victorian mansion on top. If you go, try to have your tasting on this patio; in our opinion the indoor tasting room is far less inviting.

As everywhere in Napa Valley, Cosentino is “by appointment”. We were seated without one, perhaps by luck or the fact that we got there before the crowds did. The servers are eager to please, what we would call “hosts” as opposed to “educators”. A typical tasting flight is two whites and two reds, one of which is the aforementioned “The Poet”, which brings us to the issue of price and quality.

In all honesty, Cosentino does not make the best wines in Napa Valley, but they are pleasant and easy to drink. They fit the surroundings in that they are the types of wines you might enjoy sitting on your patio with friends on a sunny afternoon. They cost considerably less than wines made at the better known wineries in Napa Valley, and the tasting fee is also lower, currently $30. The Poet is unquestionably their top wine (so they say and we agree). It too is priced well below other wineries’ best offerings.

So if your plan for wine tasting in Napa Valley is to visit the Big Names, by all means do so, but be prepared to pay for the experience. If, however, you want to have a pleasant experience, sipping tasty wines and at least one that’s worth savoring, Cosentino may be what you are looking for.

Vineyard Tastings

The model for most of our wine tasting experiences over the years was having a drink in a bar. We would stand up and taste selected wines. More recently, especially in Napa Valley, the model has been restaurant style. We sit at a table and servers bring us wines to try.

There’s another model that we have encountered more rarely but have enjoyed quite a lot: a wine tasting in the very vineyards where the wine comes from. This way of wine tasting is often, but not always, combined with a tour of the winemaking facilities. There is quite a lot of variety, in fact.

The vines of Chimney Rock

For one thing, many wineries are situated in the middle of or adjoining their vineyards. There is nothing to stop anyone from picking up their glass and wandering out among the vines. This is especially fun during the days just before the harvest, when the tasting can be paired with a few stolen grapes. Once, on a slow day at Chimney Rock in Napa, our server went with us and showed us around the vines. (We understand that this winery now offers a vineyard tour with a tasting, though we have never taken it.)

Chappellet is a winery that incorporates a brief walk through the vines as a part of its regular tastings. From experience, we can say that this is a more pleasant experience from March through November. It gets cold up on Pritchard Hill in the winter.

Most American vineyards are rather protective of their properties, but in many places in Europe, it’s easy to walk through vineyards on your own. So we have sometimes made ourselves a picnic, bought a bottle of the local wine and sipped while eating and walking. Those Burgundy wines aren’t bad, y’know, and actually being there added to their luster.

Some wineries, including the recently reviewed Black Stallion in Napa Valley and Dry Creek Vineyard in Sonoma County have model vineyards so that visitors can get a sense of what the vines and, in season, the grapes actually look like. These are not the ones that wind up in your glass, but learning to recognize the vines, leaves and grapes is valuable anyway.

Winemaker Jon Priest explains Etude’s way of making Pinot Noir, at their flagship Heirloom vineyard in the Grace Benoist Ranch.

We recently had a unique vineyard tasting experience. Etude hosted a members-only tasting in its Pinot Noir vineyards in Carneros. Interestingly, although the Etude winery is in Napa County, their premier vineyards in the Grace Benoist Ranch are in Sonoma County. We were bussed from the winery to the vineyards and had a barbecue lunch under some shady trees with about 35 fellow members. The vineyards for the wines we were served were right nearby! There is a thrill for wine lovers to marry the sights, smells and tastes of the wines we enjoy with the sights and smells of the vineyard. Added to the pleasure, we were joined by the winemaker, Jon Priest, who explained what we were looking at in terms that satisfied both the wonkiest of wine lovers as well as those who cared far more about what is in the bottle than how it got there.

As noted, there are a lot of ways to combine wine tasting and vineyards. We heartily recommend taking one.

Pay Attention to Farming

Essentially, wine tasting is all about what’s in the glass, plus the amenities and architecture of the wineries themselves. But it’s also about the factory that is often found right behind the tasting room. And it’s about the farms (we call them vineyards, of course) that produce the grapes that ultimately wind up in that glass.

Wineries offer tours of their industrial facilities and occasionally take visitors into the vineyards, but they do not emphasize the farming aspect of wine. In some part that’s because many wineries source their grapes so the farming is someone else’s job. But more so, it’s because there really isn’t anything to see, except perhaps at harvest time, when the best a visitor can do is stay out of the way of the workers.

Photo courtesy of Wine Australia

But when someone is visiting a winery, especially one with vines right outside the window, it’s a good idea to learn a bit – maybe only a bit – about its farming practices. Here are a few things to think about.

What accommodations does the winery make for their specific micro-climate? We remember being at a renowned Bordeaux château and asking why their wines were so much more expensive (and better) than the one that adjoined their property. The answer was, “Do you see that little hill between the vineyards? We get the morning sun and they don’t.” A few questions about the siting and orientation of the vines can provide a lot of insight as to why one particular wine tastes the way it does.
What is the winery doing about climate change and sustainability. Of course, everyone is concerned about the environment. Noticeably hotter summers and wetter winters are challenging winemakers to find year-to-year consistency in the wines they produce. Even more, these conditions are making it increasingly difficult for vineyard managers to grow the same amount of grapes in the same varietals with the same quality every year. As a visitor and wine lover, we think you’d like to know what they’re doing about it.
Along the same lines, how do they use water? It seems that wine growing regions are experiencing either drought or floods. The way in which they use water – or protect themselves against it – are important factors in the quality of the wines you taste. Despite perennial panic about running out of water, California winemakers did pretty well during the drought years, but how long can this go on? Dry farming works in some climates, but others are virtual deserts and need irrigation. It’s worth asking how they do it.
How do they deal with cool springs or excessively hot summers? You may know that the pruning and trellising practices of various vineyard managers differ. It’s interesting to find out how each winery’s approach leads to what winds up in the glass. An average server may not know, but if the winemaker or some farmhands are around, they can explain it. Even if it all seems a bit geeky for the average taster, it’s worthwhile to know what’s going on in the fields.

Seated Tastings – Plusses and Minuses

In the not very distant past, a typical wine tasting would involve entering a tasting room, finding a space at the bar, getting the server’s attention and sampling a few wines as slowly or as quickly as one pleased. The server would explain what each wine was, very briefly on busy days, with more detail and conversation on slower ones. The trend in wineries these days, particularly but not exclusively in Napa Valley, is to take a seat at a table (by appointment, if you please) and be served a selection of wines by someone who acts more like a waiter than a bartender.

Photo courtesy of Medlock Ames.

In some ways, we like this experience, but in others we miss the way things used to be.

Beginning with the upside, a seated tasting more closely matches the way you would enjoy these wines in your own home. You might stand up and sip some Chardonnay at a party or a barbecue, but the wine would not be the center of attention, nor would the wines in question be of the quality you expect at a wine tasting. Especially if the server offers you something to eat, even a few crackers, you get a better sense of how you would enjoy each wine were you to purchase some.

Almost without exception, the interaction with the servers is cordial and as informative as the server’s knowledge can make it. That’s because they aren’t being pulled from one visitor to the other, trying to serve as many people in as short a time as possible. In the worst days of the pandemic, wineries were forced to seat their customers at widely spaced tables. Finding employees was more difficult as well. Both these trends are still apparent now that Covid has ebbed. As a result, with seated tastings, servers have more time, less pressure and can give their guests more attention.

It must be said that the facilities, in or out of doors, are more attractive. Visitors can look around rather than stand at the bar facing the scurrying servers.

However, there are some negatives. At a bar, if you were served a wine you don’t especially care for, you could pour it out at strategically placed buckets and move on to the next wine. At a table, you may have to ask for a bucket and then wait your turn for the next wine to be served. (A few wineries, such as Duckhorn and Black Stallion, both in Napa Valley, serve the entire flight at one time, so visitors can drink at their own pace.)

Yes, you have more of an opportunity to speak with the servers. What you want from them is their knowledge of wine in general and that winery’s products in particular. But you didn’t come there to hear their life stories, which teams they root for and where their kids are going to school. (Honest, these have happened to us.) One of the big plusses of seated tastings is having the chances to sip at your leisure. Having some stranger dominate your time eliminates that advantage.

Finally, seated tastings take more time, an hour at a minimum but often more. This significantly reduces the number of wineries anyone can visit in a day. That’s a plus for sobriety, but for those who sip and pour, as we do, it’s not so positive. And we find that in sitting and waiting for our servers, we drink more of what’s in front of us than we would have otherwise.