Napa Valley, where to go…

Just last month I had the opportunity to spend time in Northern California, which of course included time in the Napa Valley. As a visitor, this wine region can be daunting. They have over 100 tasting rooms packed into the 60km of the valley itself.

Navigation is easy:

You will either be on the Silverado trail, or Highway 29 which run parralel to each north/south the lengt of the valley. If you get sick of the line of cars piling up behind you then pull off down one of the connecting lanes which are amazingly beautiful and quiet.

It is world class beautiful wine country:

The place is just beautiful, the vineyards pristine, the wines great and professionalism of hospitality light years ahead of all wine tourism areas I have ever encountered. There are chairlifts, castles, persian temples and iconic showings of wealth everywhere. The vineyards are trained low and, along with the gardens, are kept absolutely immaculate by armies of mexican workers. All this adds up to a place perfectly poised to extract as much money out of you as possible so planning is essential.

– There is a lot of good wine:

Despite what you may hear from many people (who have normally never been there and run their opinions off of the less than spectacular American imports they come in contact with in their home country), Californian wine can be very very very good. Those top wines all have an eager few million American customers with top money ready to buy their wares, hence why you will never see them outside of the country.

If you think Californian Chardonnay is only over oaked and buttery and that all Californian Cabernets are 16% over extracted brutus wines, then you need to think again. With ideal conditions, talented winemakers, a load of cash and smart heads, Californian wine styles have evolved (and is evolving) to finer heights just as much as any top wine producing country.

– Be prepared for Tasting Fees:

pretty much every single winery in the Napa has a tasting fee of some sorts, many non-redeemable or redeemable on purchases over certain amounts. Some include special tasting flights, winery tours, vineyard tours, cave tours and small souvenirs (eg tasting glasses). As the fee can range from $10-$100pp, you need to be quite selective.

– Work in the wine industry?: take a heap of business cards and let them know straight away you are in the wine business. The reception differs from place to place but without going into details, it is worth your while to do this in California. In fact, you should do this at every place in the world anyway.

– Know about the 1976 Judgement Of Paris:

In a nutshell: there was a blind tasting in Paris in 1976 judged by some of the top snobs of French wine at the time with some top wines of France up against some select wines from California. Until this time, France was considered the only place in the world where you could produce top class wine. To their dismay, they voted the Chateau Montelena Chardonnay 1973 best of the whites up against some of the finest Burgundies, and the Stags Leap Wine Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon 1973 best red up against some of the finest Bordeaux wines.

The story of the triumph was broken in Time magazine and introduced a new era in world wine with the revelation that: good and great wine can be made outside of France. The wine world has never looked back and those producers in the Napa involved in that tasting will be sure to remind you of it.

For an absolutely fancified, diluted account of the story watch the movie: Bottleshock

For a more realistic account read the book: ‘ Judgement of Paris’ by George M. Taber (Scribner)

– A good little website I looked through to cull down my list of places to: http://www.napatouristguide.com/wineries.html#

MY FAVOURITE PLACES to go for the WINE:

–Grgich Hills: My tip for first class Chardonnay.

They definitely extract a lot out of their involvement in the 1976 Judgement of Paris (Mike Grgich was the Montelena winemaker at the time for the winning Chardonnay), but they make some good booze to back it up. It was probably my favourite place visited with quality throughout and great organic viticultural and clean winemaking principles to back it up.

– Stags Leap Wine Cellars: Tasting room guy was annoying and patronizing, but their top cabernets are spot on and more than make up for it. I think they just know they are good, they know people want to buy all their wines and they seem a little smug about it. The Cask 23 is world class, and is the descendent of the wine that won best Cabernet at that 1976 tasting.

To avoid confusion: there are 2 Stags Leaps…this one (written with “Wine Cellars”) and one up the road just called Stags Leap which imports to Australia. The Wine Cellars one is the one I am talking about here.

– Miner Family Wines: Cool staff and pretty tidy range throughout topped by their flagship Oracle Cabernet blend…just dont get the sauv blanc forced onto you! Good overview directly into the winery and awesome photo op from their balcony overlooking the valley.

– Clos Du Val: Get your cabernet boots on cause they have some good’uns. The staff were a little awkward but friendly enough.

As with a lot of wineries, their lower range is available in a lot of places, but the good stuff is only at the winery.

I liked their outside vine training nursery exhibit displaying some of the many ways to train a vine on trellis. The get some wine nerd brownie points for that.

– Schramsberg: Sparkling heaven. Some absolutey world class bubbles in hidden little wonderworld. Be smarter than us and book the cave tour in advance.

FAVOURITE PLACES to go for the PLACE:

– Opus One: if you want to feel like royalty go here. This is charming swooning Napa valley at its best. The wine is all class too but $275/bottle is out of my price range.

– Castello Di Amoroso: it is a freaking castle.

Nope, not a plastic one. They rebuilt a real castle.

The greeters at the door already indicate that this is a tourist destination,not a simple place to try and buy wine. You could probably add Darioush to this category.

– Chateau Montelena: Yep, you will note that BottleShock (the movie) did add some fabrications to the film setting (and to the real life Montelena story), but this is a beautiful place. The japanese pagodas on the lake near the vines and in front of this beautiful winery building look kind of surreal. The Montelena Chardonnay 2009 was one of my chosen few bottles to make the journey back to Australia with me.

– Beringer and other legends: Yep another castle, this time a Prussian style with amazing gardens. The places like Mondavi, Beaulieu Vineyards and Beringer are so legendary you at least have to stop there the pay hommage regardless of how commercial they now are.

– Sterling: nothing to do with the wine for me as I didnt get the time for their whole experience for $30pp. However,  the fact your tour fee includes a gondola ride to their tasting rooms alone makes it worthwhile little visit for most who aren’t in the Napa purely for the wine.

 

Apparently this was the first wine destination place ever built in the Napa, and perhaps the world, (in the 70s) which was purely aimed at attracting tourists.

There are SOOOO many other places I didnt get to and will have on my list for next time including: Duckhorn, Rombauer, Frog’s Leap, Inglenook, Beaulieu Vineyards and Groezingers wine merchants in Yountville (who I heard fantastic things about) to discover the small cult places.

Eating Tip:

With so many wineries to visit, who has time to eat? We didnt, but when we did we went all American at a local burger institution called Gott’s Roadside Diner in St Helena.

If you are at the southern end of the valley, get to the buzz foodie insiders place Fremont Diner (http://thefremontdiner.com/). You know a place is trendy these days when they serve their drinks in jam jars. Flavour everywhere and you can even see the free range chickens that supply the eggs and the legs that go into the Waffles and Fried Chicken special. Not one to visit if you are on a diet.

Accomodation Tip:

We stayed at a Best Western in Healdsburg in Sonoma County on the other side of the hill. A 35 minute drive to Calistoga and a lot cheaper that anything I could find in Napa. It also provides access to the gem of an area you need to visit next with great wines and fresh local produce falling out of its ears from Alexander Valley, Russian River Valley all the way to Sonoma.