{"id":491,"date":"2017-02-28T19:03:29","date_gmt":"2017-02-28T19:03:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=491"},"modified":"2017-03-01T00:46:35","modified_gmt":"2017-03-01T00:46:35","slug":"491","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=491","title":{"rendered":"Etude Wines"},"content":{"rendered":"

On a pleasant country road in Carneros, the southern end of Napa Valley, you\u2019ll find the Etude winery.\u00a0 It is at the end of a long lane, in three buildings more evocative of New England than California.\u00a0 It is surrounded by vines although not for the grapes that go into the wines you will taste there.<\/p>\n

Etude is unusual in that they make top-end Pinot Noirs, thanks to Jon Priest, their winemaker, but not only from Carneros.\u00a0 They produce Pinots from the Santa Rita Hills in Southern California, Willamette Valley in Oregon and as far away as New Zealand, all under the Etude label.\u00a0 They are all very good, but our favorites are their estate wines from Carneros, especially Heirloom, their premium vineyard parcel.<\/p>\n

Etude is distinctive in another way, as well.\u00a0 They also make several highly rated Cabernet Sauvignons, all from the Napa Valley.\u00a0 Generally, Cabernet houses don\u2019t do Burgundy grapes well and Pinot specialists can\u2019t quite seem to get their Cabs right.\u00a0 Etude is one of the few to do both equally well.\u00a0 Oh, yes, they have Chardonnay and Pinot Gris too, for white wine drinkers.<\/p>\n

The tasting room is spacious, woody, well-lit and has an imposing wall of wines behind the bar.\u00a0 There are tables and sitting areas inside and you can also have a seated tasting outside (for a charge).\u00a0 Or just take your glass, walk around the yard or sit in some strategically placed lawn chairs.\u00a0 We have found the servers to be rather knowledgeable and able to explain what is in your glass in such a way that you appreciate the wine a little more.<\/p>\n

\"etude\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Photograph courtesy of justluxe.com<\/em><\/p>\n

There is generally a convivial mood to tastings at Etude, fostered by the servers to be sure but also by the atmosphere of the winery.\u00a0 More so than at many of the Napa Valley wineries further north on route 29, there is more of a feeling that you are in the country, surrounded by vines, where the focus is on the quality of the wines than on the imposing architecture or Fifth Avenue merchandise for sale.<\/p>\n

A plus (and maybe a slight negative) is that Etude is one of the first high-quality wineries one finds driving north from San Francisco.\u00a0 So if you don\u2019t have a lot of time for a Napa Valley visit, Etude and a few of its neighbors can make for a fast and easy trip.\u00a0 The downside is that Etude is well-known both for its wines and as a destination, so a lot of groups arrive there.\u00a0 If you can avoid weekends, particularly holiday weekends, you\u2019ll enjoy your visit to Etude all the more.<\/p>\n

We have been members of Etude\u2019s wine club for many years and are happy to introduce you to it.\u00a0 It\u2019s the sort of place that, if we were going to design a winery, it would be a lot like Etude.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On a pleasant country road in Carneros, the southern end of Napa Valley, you\u2019ll find the Etude winery.\u00a0 It is at the end of a long lane, in three buildings more evocative of New England than California.\u00a0 It is surrounded by vines although not for the grapes that go into the wines you will taste … Continue reading Etude Wines<\/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":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491"}],"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=491"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":512,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491\/revisions\/512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}