{"id":2185,"date":"2022-09-29T18:30:08","date_gmt":"2022-09-29T18:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=2185"},"modified":"2022-09-29T18:30:08","modified_gmt":"2022-09-29T18:30:08","slug":"visiting-napa-valley-for-the-first-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=2185","title":{"rendered":"Visiting Napa Valley for the First Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

Decades ago we visited Napa Valley for the first time.\u00a0 It was a life-altering experience\u2026well, vacation altering, at any rate.\u00a0 Traveling to winemaking areas for the purpose of visiting wineries and tasting their products is an experience we have relived many times since.\u00a0 Napa Valley was not only our first destination but also the one we have returned to the most often over the years.<\/p>\n

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The iconic Stag\u2019s Leap winery in the 1970\u2019s.\u00a0 Photo courtesy of The Rainbow Times.<\/em><\/p>\n

It is a very different experience today than it was then.\u00a0 In those days, wine tasting was much more casual.\u00a0 The founders of many namesake wineries were alive and pouring tastes for visitors.\u00a0 The servers \u2013 owners and workers, generally \u2013 stood behind a plank stretched between two barrels and poured a few thimblefuls of wine into tiny glasses that we were urged to take home with us.\u00a0 No one thought of charging for a tasting.<\/p>\n

As first-timers, we were in awe.\u00a0There were rows and rows of vines stretching, so it seemed, in all directions as far as the eye could see.\u00a0 There were no Napa palaces at that time.\u00a0 All the wineries were combinations of factories, warehouses and working farms, much as can be seen in less-discovered parts of the world these days.<\/p>\n

The wines that were available for sale were a great deal less expensive.\u00a0 The best in the house could be bought for ten dollars or less.\u00a0 (To be fair, $10 sounded like a lot more money in the 1970\u2019s and \u201880\u2019s.)\u00a0 Some of the wines that we bought then are still among our favorites, such as Robert Mondavi<\/a> or Louis M. Martini<\/a>.\u00a0 (Although we never had the pleasure to meet Mr. Mondavi, Mr. Martini once served us wine.)\u00a0 The cost of their top wines are now counted in the hundreds of dollars.<\/p>\n

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Stag\u2019s Leap winery today.<\/em><\/p>\n

We try, with some difficulty, to imagine what the experience of a first-time visitor (and novice taster) must be like today.\u00a0 Almost all the founders have passed away.\u00a0 Warren Winiarski of Stag\u2019s Leap<\/a> and Mike Grgich of Grgich Hills<\/a> are approaching the century mark, but they are virtually the only ones left.\u00a0 Most of the major wineries are the property of multinational corporations.\u00a0 The vines are still there but the tasting facilities are in many cases \u201cvisitors centers\u201d architected to impress.\u00a0 Impressive they are, but visitors\u2019 encounters are starkly different than ours was.<\/p>\n

Even before the pandemic, the cost of a tasting had become rather steep in many wineries, enough to be prohibitive for tasters as young today as we were then.\u00a0 Of course, the price for a glass of wine in a restaurant or bar has also increased, so wine tasting is not that out of line in dollar terms.\u00a0 Since the pandemic, almost all Napa wineries are available for tasting by appointment only and the price for tasting has increased tremendously. \u00a0That prohibition was once a ruse to keep rowdy crowds away; today the tastings are seated and the limitation is for real.<\/p>\n

We still have a sense of wonder when we visit sectors of Wine Country we\u2019ve never encountered before.\u00a0 And we still have a great time in Napa.\u00a0 But it will never be our first time again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Decades ago we visited Napa Valley for the first time.\u00a0 It was a life-altering experience\u2026well, vacation altering, at any rate.\u00a0 Traveling to winemaking areas for the purpose of visiting wineries and tasting their products is an experience we have relived many times since.\u00a0 Napa Valley was not only our first destination but also the one … Continue reading Visiting Napa Valley for the First Time<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2185"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2185"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2185\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2188,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2185\/revisions\/2188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}