Monday, November 30, 2009

From the Cellars and Vineyards of Napa and Sonoma (Part 3)


Our third day in Napa was fairly laid back. We started the morning off in St. Helena for a bit of shopping and then for a lunch at Taylor’s Automatic Refresher. If you haven’t had a chance to do lunch at Taylor’s you are missing out on the best expression of the classic American take-out burger and shake. Pick a nice day when you can linger with your milkshake or beer at one of the many picnic tables in the yard surrounding the small building that is the kitchen and choose from an amazing menu of modern American classic sandwiches and burgers.

After we waited in an order line that stretched to the parking lot, I went back and forth over the menu and ultimately chose Taylor’s BLT (Bacon, Lettuce & Tomato) sandwich with a Pistachio milkshake. After we picked up our order and dug into our food, I realized I needed to go back for a spoon because my shake was so chocked full of whole pistachio nuts that it was impossible to enjoy it through a straw. This is the kind of generous fresh ingredients that you can expect to find at Taylor’s Refresher which is why this place draws a steady crowd here in St. Helena and in their Napa location and their location at the Ferry Building in San Francisco.

Our stomachs girded, we left Taylor’s to head up Howell Mountain to Robert Foley’s new winery. Our friends Jeff and Rita had recommended we pay Bob Foley a visit and we were pleased to find him and his team bottling wine on his open-air crush pad. Robert Foley Vineyards does not offer conventional tastings and tours, however he will make appointments when he’s not on the road at wine events or on tour with The Robert Foley Band, a band he founded and which remains his passion and diversion from the hard day-to-day business of making yummy wine.

Most wine buffs remember Bob Foley from his days at Pride Mountain Vineyards but since 1998 he has been bottling wine under his Robert Foley Vineyards label, starting with a Claret that continues to be a strong seller in a small portfolio that now includes a Petite Sirah, a Pinot Blanc, and a reasonably-priced red blend called the Griffin. He specializes in “big, monster” reds but we really enjoyed his Pinot Blanc which was equally well extracted and ample bodied.

Although Bob clearly has his fingers in every aspect of the wine-making business from choosing the grapes to designing the crush pad and cellar to his exacting, though unconventional, specifications his wife Kelly is a true partner in this endeavor and functions as the family and business CEO. She had family in town that day so Bob took us on a tour of his cellar which includes a performance cave and soon-to-be recording studio.

As we departed Robert Foley Vineyards and wound our way through the town of Angwin, California, I couldn’t help but marvel that so many great wines are coming from a place on Howell Mountain known for its large of community of tee totaling Seventh-Day Adventists. An increasing number of wine makers and wine drinkers agree with these folks that Howell Mountain truly is God’s country.

So it was with that kind of veneration that Robert and I left Napa Valley days later to make our way to the rival California wine region known as Sonoma Valley. Sonoma has long been considered the poor step-child to Napa but that is quickly changing as Sonoma’s diverse microclimates produce wines worthy of all the accolades they are garnering thanks to Chateau St. Jean, Quivira, and Williams & Selyem and other noted producers who consistently craft wines of a quality prompting worldwide attention and acclaim.

Thankfully our time in Napa had primed our livers for a two day wine splurge that would include a reserve tasting at Chateau St. Jean, a private tour and food pairing at Ferrari Carano, a release party at Skipstone, and a farm to table dinner at Quivira. Our hosts and friends Sharon and Steve Riedel made most of these arrangements but wine events such as these are frequent in this valley and equally hospitable. In fact, Sonoma has the well-deserved reputation for making good wine accessible to all, not just in the reasonably-priced tasting fees but also in their more laid back yet dedicated commitment to wine appreciation and education.

Every one of our visits to Sonoma has included a stop at Chateau St. Jean, not only because of their terrific lineup of top-shelf wines but because Chateau St. Jean happens to have one of the most beautiful wine shops and gardens in Sonoma. The same can be said of Ferrari Carano, the grounds of which are regularly featured in ads promoting this picturesque region. Both wineries are exceptionally tourist friendly and tastings are available most days without appointment.

Sonoma valley proprietors and winemakers are also leaders in sustainable viticulture as evidenced by the farm and vineyard tour we received at the Farm to Table dinner Quivira Vineyards hosted where Quivira’s winemaker Steven Canter and farm manager Andrew Beedy outlined the many ways they utilized on-farm resources in ways that were ecologically beneficial to the land, animals, grape, and consumer. Nothing is wasted here and I’m sure any table scraps from the dinner that night went into Ruby the wild pig’s food trough the next day.

After a week in Napa and Sonoma I felt not just a tad hoggish as I recalled all the decadent meals and great wine we consumed, the highlight of which was a dinner in a small hole-in-the-wall gem of a restaurant called Mosaic in Forestville. The fact that such a place could thrive in this tiny town with little else to boast signaled a dedication to excellence that belied its humble storefront and said to me “Don’t be fooled by Sonoma’s casual ambiance. These people take their food and wine very seriously!”

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

From the Cellars and Vineyards of Napa and Sonoma (Part 2)


On our second day in Napa we had made two appointments for tastings—one for Reynolds Family and one for Del Dotto.

Reynolds Family Winery is owned by Steve and Suzie Reynolds who gave up their dental practice to fully embrace the challenge of turning a chicken ranch into an award-winning winery. Their hard work and determination shows in their wines, one of which is aptly named Persistence.

As we sat outside at one of the tables overlooking their duck pond, we tasted five of their wines. I particularly enjoyed the’07 Napa Chardonnay which was long and silky on the palate with notes of citrus, melon, roasted pineapple, and vanilla. We also enjoyed the ’05 Estate cabernet, and the ’05 Persistence, a blend of Cabernet, Cabernet Franc, Syrah, Petite Verdot, and Merlot.

Both of these reds were very well-balanced, with dark fruit, chocolate, spice, and mineral components and enough tannins to see you through to a long finish. We bought a few bottles to take back with us to the rented house in Calistoga and ended drinking one right there, as we nibbled on the bread and cheese we had brought along with us.

When we finished our picnic lunch we realized we had enough time before our next appointment to do a quick tasting at Turnbull. Turnbull has been a favorite of ours ever since we happened upon one of their Napa Valley cabernet and instantly fell in love. In 2008, we just couldn’t get enough of their ’05 Napa Valley Cabernet and went on a search for every last bottle in stock in Roanoke, Virginia, our home town. Even though the ’05 cab was their largest production to date, when we arrived in the tasting room in October 2009 they only had five cases left of this wine in stock.

Part of the reason for the success of Turnbull wines is that despite producing some very quality wines they have managed to keep prices down to a reasonable level for Napa. All wines are made from grapes grown on Turnbull-owned properties and at present they have 200 planted acres of vines. I was surprised to find some Tempranillo along with the Merlot and Sangiovese in their ’07 Old Bull Red. Later I would find that Vincent Arroyo, a well-known Napa grower and winemaker is also growing Tempranillo, but it’s not something you see everyday in Napa. Old Bull a well-priced juicy, crowd-pleasing kind of wine that would be a very welcome guest at your next Super Bowl party. The Barbera, Cabernet, and Cabernet Franc in this wine give it enough testosterone to pair with a spicy chili or chicken wings.

Up until now Robert and I had been sharing tastings but when we left Turnbull and arrived a Del Dotto, we decided to have our own glass thank you very much. Robert and I had visited this tasting room the year before and we had tasted enough Del Dotto wine to know that we didn’t want to be wrestling each other for the last sip in the glass.

Del Dotto is a family-owned winery with properties in both Napa and Sonoma. David Del Dotto is the son of Dominic Del Dotto a native of Lucca in Tuscany and he credits Dominic for instilling in him an appreciation for good red wine.

David and his wife Yolanda started out with a property on Zinfandel Lane in St. Helena and initially sold most of their grape off to other winemakers but eventually decided to keep the good stuff for themselves and make the best wine they could make. Gary Galleron consulted at the beginning and since 1997 Nils Venge has been the consulting winemaker.

The Del Dotto family had recently opened a stunning Venetian-style tasting room in St Helena. However, since our family had never been to Napa before we opted to go to the Del Dotto historic winery location in Napa where we could get barrel tastings in their 120 year old wine cave, the second oldest wine cave in Napa. We were fortunate to get the facility manager as our tour guide and he proceeded to fill our glasses with ten or so wines thieved from the barrel. This was more wine than we could swallow, literally, but he encouraged us to splash the sides of the wine cave with any leftover wine in our glass.

David Del Dotto has been experimenting with various cooperages for years and during the cave tour your are invited to sample the same juice from two different barrels—one French oak, one American oak—and taste for yourself how barrels made of different oak impart vastly different characteristics to a wine. We were asked to vote for our favorite and in our tour group of eleven the votes were pretty well evenly split. This just shows that there is no universally superior oak—it’s just a matter of taste and what you want the oak to bring to the wine.

I was particularly enamored with the '08 Del Dotto Cinghiale Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir. Our barrel taste so impressed us that we bought futures. Of course, the wine will be a different wine once it makes it into the bottle but I was blown away by the complexity and elegance of this Pinot Noir even at this young stage in its’ life.