When we first started going wine tasting as a recreational outing, everyplace we went, everything we tried was a discovery. We will never forget the wonderment we felt as we drove along Route 29 in Napa Valley. All those wineries! Such famous wines and they come out of those buildings! And they let you try what they make (for free in those days)!
We have recreated that feeling often in our travels and it’s always the same. Aha, so this is really Bordeaux or Burgundy or Paso Robles or Montalcino! In a way, it has been the same rush as we once felt on Christmas morning. But over the years, as we have returned to our favorite corners of Wine Country, that initial thrill has given way to pleasures of familiarity, of knowing what we were going to taste and knowing that it would be good.
There is still plenty of opportunity for discovery as we make our way through Wine Country. They never happen where you expect them to be; they always come as a surprise.
- Discovering wine making where we didn’t expect it – There have been occasions when we were travelling for business or even on vacations where we didn’t expect to find vineyards – and suddenly we found wine making going on. Perhaps the best example of that was finding Testarossa Winery in Los Gatos, the heart of California’s Silicon Valley. Another would be our first trip to Temecula, just north of San Diego, in a desert setting.
- Discovering new wineries in familiar locations – This kind of discovery is the exact opposite of the one above. How many times had we been to Sonoma County’s Russian River AVA? More than we can remember, but although we had driven past Baciagalupi Vineyards and Moshin Winery many times, we had never stopped there. These small, out of the way wineries, and others like them, sometimes produce wonderful wines (Chardonnay and Pinot Noir in these cases) and reward a little adventurousness.
William Hill Winery.
- Discovering new wines at familiar wineries – Of course, many American wineries are producing new offerings all the time, but we don’t consider a new wine at Robert Mondavi or Etude to be true discoveries. But there have been cases in which we have given a winery that we know produced widely sold commercial wines and were well surprised to discover some excellent offerings in a surprisingly pleasant location that we’d never seen before. William Hill Winery and Clos du Val fall into this category.
- Discovering that winery you hadn’t appreciated in the past had returned to form – Often when there is a change of ownership or winemaker, a winery that we had liked had disappointed us. It’s a good idea to give these a second or even a third chance. Perhaps the new owners took over in a particularly bad growing year, as happened at Limerick Lane Cellars. Or it may take several seasons for a winemaker to align his or her techniques with what the terroir has to offer.
And these sorts of discoveries don’t even include the pleasing response to a winery where the wine may not be to your taste, but the overall experience makes a visit worthwhile.