Category: Wineries

If you want to know about California winemaking in the 21^st century, you need to get acquainted with the Russian River Valley.  The history of nearby Napa Valley is more renowned and California would not be the powerhouse on the world’s wine stage if it weren’t for Napa Cabernet Sauvignons.  But that is certainly not the whole story; Russian River’s Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs deserve just as much attention.

We say this because we love visiting this corner of Wine Country.  We also have to be honest and say that we actually prefer Pinot Noirs from Carneros and Santa Lucia Highlands.  But Power Tasting is all about the wine tasting experience, and there are few as pleasant as driving the small meandering roads of Russian River Valley.  And there are few wineries where the tasting experience is as pleasant as at Gary Farrell Winery (http://www.garyfarrellwinery.com).

Mr. Farrell began the winery in the late 1970’s and produced wines under his own label in 1982.  He has long-since sold it and the team that owns it now has considerable winemaking chops.  None of this is necessary knowledge for you to enjoy your visit there.  The winery is a wee bit hard to find.  First you have to find Westside Road, naturally enough on the west side of the Russian River.  You will love driving along this shady road, really feeling that you have discovered Wine Country.

The view from Gary Farrell Winery

Then keep your eyes open for a sign announcing the Gary Farrell Winery.  Take a narrow road up a hill and the tasting room is right before you. It’s a handsome, modernist building and most importantly it is nestled above the trees.  If an eagle wanted to go wine tasting, it would land at this winery first.

The interior is also a welcoming blend of wood and windows, with an ample terrace where you can sip your wines.  There’s something about Pinot Noir and treetops that go together quite well.  What you won’t see from the winery are vineyards.  Gary Farrell sources its grapes and does so from some of the better-regarded vineyards in Russian River, such as Rochioli, Baciagalupi, and Martinelli.  They have recently begun sourcing from further afield and now make wines from the great Bien Nacido vineyard in Santa Maria county.

As a result, a tasting at Gary Farrell can be a tour of different terroirs in the hands of a single winemaking team.  That too is an important part of the wine tasting experience.

The winery’s web site now says that they are open by appointment only.  We have never had one and have never been turned away but they do seem more insistent now.  Their web site also says that the tastings take quite a lot of time, a minimum of one and a quarter hours.  We certainly don’t advocate gulping down your wines, but their estimate seems a bit sluggish to us, even with time to admire the view.

 

There is an on-going debate as to whether better wine is made on mountain slopes or valley floors.  There are enough great wineries, high and low, that the issue will probably never be settled.  But this much can be said: Mountain wineries offer better views.  So even if Chappellet didn’t make excellent wines – which they do – it would be worthwhile to take the drive up Pritchard Hill just for the sake of the views you’ll get.

Photo courtesy of Chappellet

If you’re coming from the south, turn right on Sage Canyon Road in St. Helena on the Vaca range side of Napa Valley.  You’ll soon see the vista, not so much into Napa Valley but on the other side towards Lake Hennessy, gleaming off in the distance.  We have most enjoyed this view in autumn, when the grape leaves turn color.   Keep going and you’ll arrive at Chappellet, a towering wooden edifice which, if viewed from above, is shaped like the winery’s logo.  As you enter, you will enjoy the architecture of soaring ceilings and mellow wooden walls, ceilings and beams.

Photo courtesy of Chappellet

As with many wineries these days, Chappellet offers several different tiers of tastings.  Tours and tastings at Chappellet are by appointment only.  Some smaller and less well-known wineries say that but don’t really mean it.  Chappellet is a popular destination and so they do.  We have enjoyed the estate tour which not only includes a tasting in the barrel room but a tour around the vineyards (and more excellent views).  You start out with a glass of white wine and then are offered other wines as you go along.  At the end, you’re in the barrel room sipping Chappellet’s better known wines.  And if you know what to ask for, you may get a chance to try some of their more restricted releases.  Look for their Cabernet Franc which is really a Bordeaux blend, or more properly a California expression of a Pomerol blend.

Photo courtesy of Chappellet

Chappellet’s guides/servers have always been quite knowledgeable on the occasions we have visited there.  Unless you pay for a private tour, you will be with other visitors.  This is not usually much of a drawback, but if you are quite knowledgeable about winemaking already you may find the tour somewhat elementary.  Wonky questions aren’t discouraged, but your tour mates may feel you’re slowing them down.  We have found that to be fair to everyone, it’s best to save these sorts of questions for the end of the tour, when you’re back inside and there is no need to move onto the next spot.

The late Donn Chappellet founded the winery in 1967, which makes it one of the pioneers of the current era of Napa Valley winemaking and one of the first to exploit the mountain slopes for planting vineyards.  Still family-owned, the Chappellets have demonstrated a commitment to quality for decades.  For the visitor, the combination of quality wines, vistas and history is hard to beat.

 

 

 

If you travel to Montalcino from the north, which is what you would do if you were to approach it from Siena or Florence, you will pass several wineries as you get close to the village itself.  One of these is Val di Suga (www.valdisuga.it/en), which with its long row of towering cypress trees seems to draw you in for a tasting.  By coincidence, the night before we visited there we had had a bottle of one of their Brunellos with dinner, so we were very interested to learn more about them.

The Val di Suga winery.  Photo courtesy of Bertani Domains.

You enter the property on a long driveway lined with the aforementioned cypresses.  The winery building looks, well, Tuscan. It sits among broad, expansive vineyards some of which are theirs.  The tasting room is modern, airy and offers a view across the Val di Suga’s vines, all bearing Sangiovese grapes.  This vineyard, called Vigna del Lago (Vineyard of the Lake) is one of three owned by Val di Suga.  The other two are Vigna Spuntali, south of Montalcino, and Poggio al Granchio (Crab Hill) high above the village, also to the south.

These three vineyards are important to the taster because Val di Suga makes single vineyard varietals from each one.  They also make a blend of the three.  If ever there was an opportunity to experience the relative influence of terroir versus the winemaker’s hand, this is it.  You can taste the same grapes from the same region, no more than 15 kilometers apart, vinified in the same way by the same winemakers.  Even though they are near one another, the three vineyards have different soils and microclimates so the comparison on your nose and in your mouth are distinctive.  We preferred the blend, but that’s in keeping with our overall preference for blended wines.  You go; you taste; you make up your own mind.

In our early days of wine drinking, Italian wine meant Chianti in straw-wrapped bottles.  (The bottle itself is still attractive and brings back good memories.)  It was inexpensive, acidic and of uneven quality, to be generous.  We were left with a distaste for Sangiovese that lasted for quite a while.  And then we discovered Brunello! This wine is 100% Sangiovese and is one of the great achievements of the winemakers’ skill.  It is amazing what great soil, careful production and winemaking pride can do.  And yes, we drink better Chiantis these days as well.

We found the service staff (actually just one young woman the day we were there) to be courteous, eager to show off the comparison of their wines and able to speak English quite well.  You will find no shortage of wineries to visit in and around Montalcino and will be amazed at the variety these Tuscans can create from a single grape in a single locality.  When you visit, we recommend that you include Val di Suga in your itinerary.

Unti Vineyards (www.untivineyards.com) is a small vineyard with a small tasting room located on Dry Creek Road, about half-way up.  If you’re heading north, look for it on your left.  It’s easy to drive by; we know because we’ve had to turn around on several occasions.  It feels as though Unti has been there forever but was only founded in 1997, which means we’ve been tasting and buying there virtually from the beginning.

The Unti winery.  Photo courtesy of The Press.

The winery is hardly a palace.  It’s a house, with an industrial building in the back.  Until only a few years ago, you’d pull into the parking lot and walk into a wood-paneled office.  Someone would be on the phone and another doing some filing and they were delighted to be pulled away from these activities to pour you some wine and chat for a while.  The subject of conversation was often Domaine la Soumade in Rasteau, France.

Huh?

The winery at Soumade has long shelves around the walls with bottles that the owner/ winemaker, André Roméro, had enjoyed.  There among them was Unti!  We felt very international, being fond of both of the vineyards and their wines.

The Unti tasting room.  Photo courtesy of Tripadvisor.

A few years ago, the Unti family decided to build a proper tasting room.  It still isn’t palatial and is a bit industrial with rough wood ceilings and corrugated metal, but the views out over the vines soften it a bit.  It feels homey.  Very often there will be an Unti to pour for you.  The winery is family owned and operated and there is a sense that the vineyards, the wine and the family all grew up together, as an organic whole.  And in fact, they have been farming organically since the early 2000s.

The wines they produce are a rather interesting mix.  Some are Rhône varietals and others are varietals from all over Italy.  Of course, they’re in Dry Creek Valley so they make a Zinfandel, too.  Our favorites are the Rhônes, in particular their Syrah.  Even these have an Italian character when young, with rather pronounced acidity.  Quite a few years ago, we bought a bottle of Syrah, put it away and forgot about it for around five years.  It had mellowed and acquired a more Rhône-like nose and taste.  We’ve been aging the wines we buy there ever since.

Some of Unti’s Italianate wines are familiar, from grapes such as Montepulciano and Barbera.  Others are, according to their web site, otherwise unknown in the area.  These include Segromigno (from Tuscany) and Fiano (a white grape from southern Italy).  We are pleased to see Unti and a handful of other California growers (Seghesio, David Coffaro and Ramazotti come to mind) are focusing on making Italian wines.  If other people can be Rhône Rangers, why not Italian Stallions?

We don’t think of Unti as a destination winery, but we do consider Dry Creek Valley that way.  So if you’re planning a day in Dry Creek, you ought to consider stopping at Unti.  They have a “By Appointment Only” policy, but never once in twenty years have we been turned away.  Still, you’d better check with them on busy weekends.

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.

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.

 

 

 

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.

 

Vino Nobile de Montepulciano occupies an unusual place among the wines of Tuscany.  It is not as well known as Chianti, nor as esteemed as Brunello, as trendy as Maremma nor as expensive as Bolgheri.  But the Noble Wine is quite ancient, well respected and very delicious, in our opinion.  If you want to really learn about it, you have to visit the town of Montepulciano, the name of which causes considerable confusion.

There is also a grape called Montepulciano, best known in the form of a different wine, Montepulciano de Abruzzo, from the section of Italy east of Rome.  That wine is hearty, a bit rough and very widely available.  Quite often if you simply order a glass of red wine in an Italian restaurant in the US, you’ll get Montepulciano de Abruzzo.  The wine from Montepulciano is Vino Nobile.  If you visit the town, you’ll find many enotecas where you can try the local wines and also several tasting rooms from some of the better producers.

We recommend that you walk all the way up the hill to the Piazza Grande, home to the cathedral and the imposing city hall.  And tucked into a corner of the square is a stately palazzo where you can taste the wines of Contucci.  This was not our first encounter with these wines; we had ordered them in restaurants in both New York and Siena.  So the enjoyment we had in the elegant tasting room was in learning about the range of the wines that Contucci produces: notably several different Vino Nobiles, a Rosso de Montepulciano, and a Vin Santo dessert wine.  However…

The Contucci tasting room on the Piazza Grande in Montepulciano. Photo courtesy of Cantine Contucci.

If you go down the hill at the same corner of the piazza you will almost immediately see a door with a big sign above it announcing the Cantine Contucci.  No disrespect to the fine building on the piazza, but this is the place to visit.  Here you get a much more rustic and warmer welcome and you see the caves where the wines are aged in huge oak casks.

The other location to taste Contucci wines.  Photo courtesy of tripadvisor.it.

You will learn about the history of the Contucci family (over 1000 years in Montepulciano), their role in the development of Vino Nobile (attested in the 18^th century), the popes who have visited and how Vino Nobile is made.  It has to be made with at least 70% Sangiovese (in Chianti it’s 80%) but then they mix in other local grapes such as Canaiolo Nero, Mammolo or Colorino.  Just to confuse matters further, in Montepulciano Sangiovese is called Prugnolo Gentile.

The wine casks in the cellars of Cantine Contucci.  Photo courtesy of Cantine Contucci.

We told the nice gentleman who was pouring wine that we had tasted his wines at the palazzo up the hill and he said we should just try them again.  We objected, he insisted and, oh well, why not.  If you want to combine good wine, good stories and some interesting history, a stop at the Cantine Contucci is just your thing.

 

 

Napa Valley is Cabernet Sauvignon country, and has been since the 1970s and before.  Duckhorn Vineyards (https://www.duckhorn.com) goes back to those days and indeed makes some fine Cabs.  But from the beginning it has been Merlot for which Duckhorn is best known.  In the early years, Duckhorn was little more than a shed high up the Silverado Trail in St. Helena.  If you stopped by, you might have run into Dan Duckhorn himself filling orders.

The Duckhorn winery.  Photo courtesy of Gould Evans.

Some things about the “good old days” are best left to the past.  Today a wine taster visiting Duckhorn will find a graceful grey building, looking very much like a farmhouse as Norman Rockwell might have imagined it.  Surrounded by vines, the scene just invites you in for a warm welcome, some wine and relaxation.

There are a number of things that make the wine tasting experience at Duckhorn different than at other wineries.  First, you pay for your tasting on your way in.  Of course, you pay first at the movies or the theater and wine tasting is more like entertainment than bar-hopping.  Nonetheless, it does feel a bit commercial.

Once you’re inside, there’s something you notice right away: ducks.  There are murals of ducks, paintings of ducks, decoys, statuettes, paraphernalia of ducks, everything but live quackers.  There is no doubt that you are at DUCKhorn.

All tastings are seated, served affairs in a sun-filled, high-beamed tasting room.  You will have a selection of Duckhorn wineries and often those of some of their sister wineries such as Paraduxx and Decoy.   You will always have some of the signature Merlot, as well others of their wines, which include Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc.  The servers, for the most part, are well versed in the wines they pour and can explain a lot about what you sample.

Tasting on the veranda.  Photo courtesy of Duckhorn Vineyards.

Another option is to take your glasses out to the wrap-around veranda and sip while you take in the vines and the Napa Valley hills.  There is something about the ambience, the quality of the wines and the interaction with your server that just relaxes you.  A walk around the gardens in warm weather only amplifies the feeling.

A particularly pleasant time to visit Duckhorn is around Christmas.  They decorate the winery beautifully, which adds to the “coming to the country for a visit with friends” atmosphere.  You almost expect to see a present under the tree with your name on it.

We at Power Tasting are not in the business of reviewing wines.  However, we can say that Duckhorn has made some very fine wines for a long time.  We do write about the pleasures of wine tasting from the perspective of the visitor and we can recommend a visit to Duckhorn quite without reservation (although reservations are required).  In our opinion, it is one of the best overall wine tasting experiences one can have in Napa Valley.

There are so many French wines called Château This and Château That that it’s a surprise to find out, when you visit, that the chateau is little more than a farm house, if that.  Château is the French word for a castle and you would expect that the building on the premises of the vineyard would be at least a great house, if not a palace.

In California, the desire for such grandeur is reflected in some of the wineries’ names, such as Chateau Saint Jean and Chateau Montelena.  (To be fair, the winery at Chateau Montelena is quite grand.)  You can visit Castello Amoroso in Calistoga and see a recreated Tuscan castle, but remember this is the Disney version and all of it is fake.

Or you could go to the Languedoc, in Faugères region, and visit Château Grézan.  From the main road you will see a sign pointing towards the winery and if you look quickly, you’ll see the tops of a few towers.  You’ll drive up a long lane and then, suddenly, King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table are just before you.  This is the real deal, a castle.  You’ll drive through the large stone gate and park and someone will come to welcome you to taste the wines of Château Grézan (http://chateaugrezan-famillecrospujol.com/).

You’ll have a chance for what the French call a degustation and we call a wine tasting, of which more later.  But first a few words about the chateau.  There has been an edifice here since the 14^th century.  In fact, the Cros-Pujol family, owners of the chateau and the vineyards, say that this has been a crossroads since Roman times.  It was a stopping place for pilgrims going to Compostela and it was an important regional base for the Knights Templar during the Crusades.  However, the castle fell into disrepair.  What you see now was reconstructed in 1824, inspired by the romantic vision of the Middle Ages that was rampant at the time.  Okay, Château Grézan is not an 800 year old chateau, but nearly 200 years is good enough for us.

You can sip Château Grézan’s wines in a stone-walled tasting room that is somewhat reminiscent of those in Napa Valley or Sonoma County.  There’s a bar and a table featuring giftware and there’s a rack of t-shirts.  The wines you can taste are red, white and rosé and they come in four categories: Les Icones (icons), La Collection, Les Appellations and Les Secrets de Famille.

The soil of Faugères is rather poor and stony, with schist being the predominant factor.  It gives the wines a spicy finish and they tend to be big round wines in this region.  Château Grézan’s top wine in the Faugères appellation (at least in price) is Les Schistes Dorés.  Oddly enough, we preferred their least expensive wine, the Grezan Rouge, which is a bit softer and more approachable.

There is one wine in the Family Secrets category, called Seculaire, that is 100% Carignan.  It is an unquestionable power hitter and should be aged for eight to ten years before drinking.  It cannot be marketed as a Faugères, since the appellation requires all wines to be blends.

The prices are a shock to Americans.  The Les Schistes Dorés is 25 euros ($29.50) and our favorite, the Grezan Rouge, is only nine euros ($10.60).  All that and a castle too!  How can you pass it by?