April 27, 2015 – Wildflowers making way for tame flowers

Driving into Napa Valley along highway 29 from the south, I couldn't help but notice that many of the wildflowers that were exploding into bloom last month have since faded, with only the stubborn and persistent golden poppy flashing its fiery orange along the roadside.  I did see the occasional patch of lupine trying to exhibit its purple bloom through the now taller (and browner) grass without much success.  If you don't stop to hunt it out, you won't know that the lupine is growing there.

In place of the wildflowers you'll find the cultivated flowers, most notably the roses.  It is common practice to plant a rose bush at the end of each row of grape vines, and those roses are now taking center stage.  Some vineyards have planted to a monochrome scheme, while others have favored color variety.  Also showing in the vineyards is the beginning of "flowering" (bloom), where the first grape clusters are starting to form.  (The individual berries are less than 1mm across at this point.). This week's rain may have been the saving grace for this fourth dry vintage in the valley, providing much needed moisture just as the fruit is starting to develop.

Roses lining the edge of the vineyard at Saint Clement

March 1, 2015 – My most important wine tools

There are a number of accessories one can accumulate that facilitate the regular enjoyment of good wines.  The number one item to have is a good, hand-operated cork screw.  Along these lines, I would recommend the basic, two-stage cork pull with either a hinge midway down the prop for the bottle lip, or a two piece solution where one slides out of the way for the other.  The fancy “rabbit” cork pull is fun to entertain with and works remarkably well on new corks, but it comes up short (quite literally) when pulling out old corks, often snapping the old cork in two (or more) pieces and leaving the bottle hopelessly plugged.  The number two item that I recommend is a decanter (and a little patience) to let the air soften the wine before serving.

From left: hinged cork screw, Ah So cork pull, and wine screen

When it comes to serving older wines, I have a different set of tools.  To ensure the complete, secure removal of the cork, I prefer the Ah So cork puller, with its two parallel slats that you wedge between the cork and the side of the bottle.  Once fully inserted, you twist the cork, loosening it, before attempting to list it out of the bottle.  Often an older cork will lock in place as crystals and sediment form against its interior surface.  Twisting the cork breaks this lock.  The next most important tool is a fine screen for filtering the wine.  Sediment accumulates in older wines and is unsightly and unpleasant on the palette.  These fine screens are ideally suited to capture nearly all of the sediment in any bottle and rinse clean easily.  Often, in restaurants, the last ounce or two of wine is not poured from an older wine to avoid transferring sediment into the glass, and the screen is a way to enjoy every last drop of your wine.

January 12, 2015 – Revisiting Fall Color

My most recent trip to Napa Valley was on November 24, 2014, and while I captured some amazing autumn color, it is clear that I missed the peak colors by several days.  The weekend before my visit had seen some heavy rains and strong winds that stripped the wines of some of their beautiful foliage.  Still, what remained shimmered and gleamed in the brilliant afternoon sun.  Here are some of my favorite pictures from my afternoon there.  I hope they help to warm you as the trees and vines now lie naked awaiting Spring’s next dress rehearsal and bud-break.

Along the Silverado Trail just north of the Yountville Cross

The view from the balcony at Miner Family Winery in Oakville

Behind the offices at Anderson's Conn Valley Vineyards

The driveway leading to Anderson's Conn Valley Vineyards

Conn Valley Road near Howell Mountain Road (looking south-west)

At Charles Krug Winery in Saint Helena

Lunar eclipse entertains local vines tonight

The lunar eclipse is nearly at its peak here in California.  Fortunately, I live just south of the fog line and was able to grab a shot of the last sliver of light emanating from the full moon.  I struggled for some time trying to capture a good shot, but every picture seemed blurred on the camera's LCD display.  Then I found this shot and looked at it on my laptop and was surprised.  I hope you enjoy it too.

Tonight's lunar eclipse just moments before its peak.

February 7, 2014 – Year Two

So, it has been two years since my first post on February 7, 2012.  In the last year I have posted 163 times and had 5800 visits, which is up 65% from my first year.  So, I’d like to thank everyone who reads this.  This year I have spent more time developing one-day itineraries for those interested in a specific theme or region of Napa Valley.  I have also written about buying wines in a futures program, the patience needed to wait for the futures wines, more experiences with break-resistant stemware, and an observation about rapidly increasing tasting fees.  I have visited 47 wineries in the past year, of which 21 were new visits.  If there is anything you would like me to write about, please be sure to leave a comment about the topic. 

Here are the most visited posts to date:

Hewitt Vineyards, May 12^th, 2012
Unbreakable Wine Glasses
Wine Decanters
Wine:  2007 Joseph Phelps Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon


Here are the most visited winery reviews to date:

Hewitt Vineyards, May 12^th, 2012
Corison Winery, December 28^th, 2012
Gary Farrell Winery, July 25^th, 2012
Summers Estate Wines, August 24^th, 2012


I look forward to my third year of providing information.  I’ll try to build out more of the one-day itineraries with interesting themes, such as those that feature restored old cars.

Top 5 Winery Visits of 2013

If you drink a lot of bottles of wine during the year, it is easy to put together a list of your top five (or ten) favorite wines from the year.  Then I realized that I visited 30 different wineries during 2013 and figured I should pick my favorites from that list.  This turned out to be nearly as difficult as selecting just five favorite wines from the year.  I narrowed the list down to my favorite nine wineries, and then had to start dropping off some notable wineries.  The five left standing are truly a remarkable list.  Four are located in Napa Valley, while the fifth is perched above the Russian River.

Larkmead, March 25, 2013
St. Clement Vineyards, March 1, 2013
Gary Farrell Winery, July 5, 2013
Hess Collection Winery, August 14, 2013
Ehler's Estate, May 14, 2013

Though this last winery did not make the list, it was the best of those that did not and is worthy of mentioning here for its intimate setting (underground in a working cellar) and scale.


Anomaly Vineyards, March 25, 2013

January 20, 2014 – Drought in California affects Napa Valley

The lack of rain in Northern California is readily apparent in Napa Valley today.  Ordinarily, the vineyards are lush with a green cover crop, surrounded by rich mounds of wet, dark-chocolate colored soil.  By mid February, the cover crop starts to bloom as the vineyards glow yellow in the low winter sun.  This year, all of the vineyards are dry.  There is no cover crop and the soils are a dusty gray.  This will be an important year for vineyard management techniques. 

Below is a photo from December 28, 2012, and one from today.  I have never seen the valley this dry.

Lush vineyards at Saint Clement in Napa Valley on December 28, 2012

Endless dry vineyards seen from Silverado Vineyards on January 20, 2014

My Top 5 Wines of 2013

Everyone who writes anything about wine seems to publish a list of the top wines they tried in the last year.  So, I decided to review my tasting notes and put together a list of my favorites that I opened in 2013.  Since I don’t actually rate the wines I taste, the list is a little more subjective than others.  Still, like all such lists, it represents my opinion of my experiences.  To form this list, I pulled out any stand-out wines that I opened during 2013 and found 14 of them.  Then I narrowed the list to just these five:

2002 Hewitt Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon 750ml
2001 Ridge Monte Bello 375ml
2002 Rudd Estate Red 375ml
2002 Rubicon Estate Red 375ml
2007 Gary Farrell Russian River Selection Pinot Noir 750ml

There were three others that are really worth mentioning (I could only select my top five):

2005 Pahlmeyer Proprietary Red 375ml
2002 Opus One 375ml

2003 Hestan Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 375ml

2013 Fall Color Almost Gone

Live from Howell Mountain ...

Driving through the valley just an hour ago, I was a little disappointed.  The fall color appears to be on the same schedule as the fall harvest.  It appears that the best of the autumn color was washed off the vines in the last rain and wind events.  While a few colorful leaves still cling to the vines, the vineyards are mostly reduced to stringy stumps.  Don't visit Napa Valley this Thanksgiving holiday to catch the autumn color.  Come instead to enjoy some excellent wines.

Wine Tasting Fees

Originally, wine-tasting was a marketing function of wineries.  If the wine they made was good enough, it would sell on its own when presented to the consumer.  Then a number of party-happy folks from the San Francisco Bay Area learned you could visit Napa Valley and get partied up on wine for next to nothing … and on quality wine to boot!  So, nominal tasting fees were put in place to curb the party goers and save room at the tasting counter for actual customers.  Often, these tasting fees were returned to the customer upon purchase of wine.  Lately, it seems that profit-motivated wineries are now turning to the tasting fees themselves to make a substantial impact on the bottom line and driving up wine-tasting prices dramatically over the past decade.  Rather than a cost of marketing, wine-tasting has become a profit-center in the business of operating a tasting room.  Of course, this leads to more lavish tasting rooms sprouting up around the valley, but that is a point for another discussion.

Let’s look at the financials.  If the average cost per-bottle of wine on a tasting room’s menu is $50, and each bottle can pour 16 samples (at 1.5 ounces each pour), and each tasting flight consists of four wines, then the retail cost to taste those four wines is about $12.50.  Keep in mind that the winery has already made a substantial mark-up on the retail price of the wine, as evidenced by the discounts they offer:  20% off to wine-club members, 30% off to wine industry tradesmen, and 50% off to employees.  When I started visiting Napa Valley back in 2005, the tasting fee for this flight was on average $10 to $15.  Today, the tasting fee at many places for this same flight is about $20 to $25, which represents a mark-up on top of a mark-up.

At some wineries, this tasting fee is actually used to turn folks away.  They only want top-dollar clients coming into the tasting room and then prey on them with vertical tastings paired with gourmet hors’ devourers or designer desserts.  A few years back I tried to visit Quintessa Winery (without an appointment).  At the desk I was told they could accommodate me for a $65 tasting fee, which included a food pairing.  The math suggests that the retail price of the wine offered was less than $25; and for $60, I could enjoy an entire half-bottle of their wine without the tasting room’s pretense.  So, I passed on the opportunity, but I felt like they just didn’t want me (or anyone of ordinary financial means) to have access to tasting their wines.  They wanted to present an air of exclusivity, even though their wines are highly distributed across the country.  To be fair, the 2003 Quintessa Red Wine was an amazing wine in the half-bottle (not so much the 2005).


So, if money is something that you have to work for, and you choose to spend it on quality wines from Napa Valley, it pays to shop around, even for tasting.  Check the tasting fees on winery web sites before planning a visit, or a simple day trip for you and a good friend could end up costing more than $500 in tasting fees alone.  It is possible to plan a trip for two to four wineries for less than $50 if you look around.  And ask if the tasting fee is recovered with a purchase, especially if you find a wine you adore.

Waiting for Wine Bought on Futures

A few months ago, I posted about buying wines on futures.  In that article, I talked about some of the reasons you would consider buying domestic wines and import wines using a futures program.  Specifically, buying Bordeaux wines on futures can mean the difference between getting the wines and missing out on the vintage.  It can also mean the difference between being able to afford wines in a good vintage or not.  Of course, buying wines on futures has one noticeable drawback: it requires patience.

I bought 2009 Bordeaux wine futures from three different wine retailers in my area.  One giant has a prominent internet presence, while the other two are smaller operations.  All of my purchases were for half-bottles.  While browsing another site that specializes in half-bottles, I noticed the same 2009 wine for sale that I had ordered from one shop in San Francisco.  When I called to see if my order had arrived, they assured me that it would arrive in the next month.  I waited and it arrived as anticipated.  The same wine (in the same format) sent to different vendors arrived months apart.  Across the bay in Oakland, where I have placed far more futures orders, all but one of my 2009 futures have arrived and been picked up.  In fact, all but one of my 2010 futures have arrived and been picked up.  When I asked about the remaining two wines, I was given exact dates for their anticipated arrivals (both should be in by the New Year).  That leaves one last order from a shop in Berkeley.  Every time I have asked about the delivery date for my 2009 Bordeaux wines, it got pushed out further.  I was originally told in the spring, then the summer, and now the delivery date is sometime in December.  (I will be notified via e-mail when my shipment arrives.)  So, all I can do now is wait.

Americans have been associated with being an instant gratification culture, and when I consider my impatience with the arrival of these wines, I have to wonder if that is not part of what is causing my angst.  On the other hand, there is a great deal of inconsistency of the arrival dates for wines being shipped across the globe.  Much of it depends upon the retailer and the wholesalers they work with.  Of course, I have to remind myself that even if these wines arrive tomorrow, I still won’t be uncorking any of them before 2016.  So, even though I know there is no rush, I’m the type of person that just likes to know.  Are they here yet?

Follow up on the Break-resistant Champagne Flutes

I just got off the phone with Wine Enthusiast.  What a great experience this is.  I had dallied a bit in ordering the replacement stems that my sister had done in, giving her ample time to demolish the remaining two stems.  So, all four stems now require replacement.  I explained that my sister was using the glasses outdoors and they are now all broken.  It took about half a minute to look up my order, a couple of questions about which shipping address to use, a quick thank you, and we were done.  The only question remains … should I commit the remaining stems to a certain death at my sister’s house, or give them a safe haven in my home and bring them out when she visits?  (If she breaks them again, it will cost $8 a stem to replace, which is not cost-effective.)  What would you do?

An Update on Break-Resistant Stemware

While attending a backyard barbecue at my sister’s home, I accidentally soccer-kicked her champagne glass that was standing on the concrete patio.  The glass faced certain destruction at the hands of my foot.  After sweeping up the chards of glass, I decided to give her a set of the Wine Enthusiasts’ break-resistant champagne flutes.  Since I started using the Cabernet glasses from the same product line in 2009, I have only broken one stem, so I figured she might benefit from these stylish, sturdy stems.  I ordered a set of four to replace the one stem that I had demolished and left the package at her house.


Now, about 1 month later, she has already broken two of the stems.  Each time, the flute was resting on the concrete patio and somebody unknowingly gave the glass a decent soccer kick.  (At least this time it wasn't me.)  So, now I have to call Wine Enthusiast and try to get the glasses replaced.  Their policy allows for one free replacement, while subsequent replacements require that the purchaser pay for shipping costs.  If she breaks any more, I think I’ll recommend acrylic flutes, or perhaps, wrapping the glass flutes in bubble wrap.

August 14, 2013 – Early Harvest Underway

There is one feature that you notice right off as you drive up American Canyon on Highway 12 leading into Napa Valley.  As the white grapes near maturity, the vines are covered with plastic netting to keep birds away from the ripening fruit dangling just inches below.  Today I was driving along this route half-expecting to see the netting, but it was absent.  But then, so was the fruit.  Later, pulling into the Provenance driveway, I noticed that the Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon vines had all been harvested too.  It would seem that most of the white grapes in the valley have already been harvested, which is remarkably early for as many years as I have been coming here (since 2005).  There have been reports in the local news about the harvest being two weeks ahead of schedule and the vineyard managers need to be careful not to over ripen the fruit this year.  On the plus side, I sampled a few red grapes from different locations and the flavors are already wonderful.  I just hope the acidity is there to make these wines perfect.  Dismissing any unforeseen hail storms (check the 2012 Burgundy harvest and just recently in 2013), I’ll bet that 2013 turns out to be another excellent vintage in Napa Valley.

Buying Wine on Futures

The time between when a grape is harvested and ends up on a store shelf can last from weeks (for lighter wines) up to years, sometimes four years or more.  During this time, the winery has to harvest, transport, separate, crush, soak, ferment, barrel, rack, bottle, box, and store the wine (just a few of the processing steps involved).  To produce a higher quality wine, the steps are often more labor intensive (or rely on expensive high-tech automation), pushing up the winery’s operating costs.  To recover some of those costs ahead of schedule, some wineries will offer a fraction of their wine under production for sale shortly after it has been stored in barrel and the quality can be assessed.  To motivate buyers to engage these wines early on, a discount is usually offered.  Alternatively, it may be the only means by which the wines can be obtained in certain formats (such as magnums or half-bottles).  By selling wines ahead of their release using futures, wineries can get some operating revenue and customers can get better access to the wine.

If, like me, you buy wine to drink, then you may be wondering whether to participate in a wine futures campaign.  (If you are buying wine as an investment, then there are superior sources of information than this post.)  Whether you participate in a futures campaign differs for domestic and import wines.  Most domestic wineries offer their wine futures at a substantial discount, so the opportunity to save money on a case or two of nice wine is sufficient motivation.  (If there is no discount, then the wine is probably in such high demand that this is your only means to secure a bottle, but you should confirm this.)  When visiting a winery, especially a smaller operation, ask if they have any futures wines available.  It is rare when they do, but well worth asking.  If a futures offering is available, make an effort to taste from the barrel before buying so you can get an impression of the wine’s potential.  (Expect wines from barrel to have much higher tannin levels and less refined fruits.)  If you cannot taste the wine before purchasing, then try to read the harvest reports online for details about the anticipated quality of the year’s wines in general.

Buying international wines on futures involves more risk and research.  Above all, buy your futures from a trusted wine retailer that is well established in the futures market (like JJBuckley and Zachy’s).  Often times, the larger retailers will send their own sales team to places like Bordeaux to assess the vintage early on and can weigh in on their personal favorites.  Wine journals like the Wine Advocate, Wine Spectator, et al, attend the same tasting functions and rate many of the wines.  You can use the retailers’ assessments and the professional reviews as a guide until you discover a few wineries that you come to know. 

Bordeaux wines are highly speculative around the world, which can affect their prices and availability in better vintages.  If a vintage is previewed with unanimous praise (as were the 2009 and 2010 vintages), buying the wines on futures can mean the difference between getting a bottle and missing out, or simply being priced out of the market.  As an example, one wine that I wanted to acquire was the 2009 Chateau Pontet Canet Pauillac, which had been rated in the range of 97 to 100 points in early 2010 from the barrel.  I was able to secure a few half-bottles at about $60 each, which was below my are-you-insane??? limit.  Upon release, the wine scored 100 points from the same reviewer and the price shot up to $150+, which is well beyond my limit.  So, buying this wine on futures made it possible to acquire the wine in the first place.  This same experience happened with five of the wines I ordered from the 2009 futures campaign.  Price changes like this help you to understand why there is so much speculation in the futures market.  It is worth noting that in less impressive vintages, the value of ordering futures diminishes, especially during years of currency-exchange turmoil.  You may end up saving $5 to $20 a bottle, but not much more, and with an increased level of risk.  In an ordinary vintage, you might consider futures as an affordable way to acquire a few bottles of first-growth Bordeaux for your collection, but buy the other wines at release.

March 1, 2013 – Mustard Time in Napa Valley

Second to the golden, orange, and scarlet hues of the vineyards in autumn is the shimmering yellow of the naked vineyards as the mustard blooms. If you can make it to Napa Valley in the coming days, you will be able to catch the last of the winter color as the Napa Valley transitions into spring. But it won't be long before it all gets mowed down and mulched into the soil to feed the 2013 vintage. (nearly half the rows have already been mowed.)  In addition to the fields of yellow, you will find fluffy fruit trees shimmering in pink and white in the late afternoon sun. The biggest surprise was the tulip patch that popped up along the Rutherford Cross Road near the Napa River. This picturesque color palette won't last but a few more days, so make a point to go soon.

Mustard weed in full bloom at Robert Biale Vineyards

I was in the valley to pick up wine club shipments at three different wineries, as well as checking out a new place (for me).  I stopped at Robert Biale, Elizabeth Spencer, Freemark Abbey, and ended up at Provenance Vineyards.  The weather was spectacular, reaching up to about 72F degrees by the end of the afternoon.  It was quiet before the Napa Valley Marathon being run on March 3^rd.

One Day Wine Tasting - The Cult Wineries

The wines from these places are highly sought-after wines that often sell out completely before the next vintage is released.  Often times you need to join the winery’s mailing list just to get an allocation of wine that you can purchase.  In a good vintage, these wines command staggering prices, but offer up a quality that is hard to find elsewhere.  Because their cult status attracts more attention, expect to make a reservation weeks in advance and be prepared to pay more for the opportunity to taste these wines.  Also, expect a more formal, orchestrated tasting experience than you would find at wineries that pour at a tasting bar.  Not every cult winery welcomes visitors on a regular basis, but these few are usually open to the public.

To see the list, click on One Day:  The Cult Wineries from the links on the right.

Check the end of the page to see which other cult wineries welcome visitors and under what conditions.

November 2, 2012 – Fall Color on its Way to Napa Valley

If you are a fan of autumn’s annual festival of color, then the time to visit Napa Valley is fast approaching.  (My fascination with fall colors must be hereditary as both my parents originate from Upstate New York.)  During a visit to Napa Valley today, I noticed the change starting to take place.  Nearly every vine has already been harvested and is starting to develop yellow colors in its leaves.  While the days have remained fairly warm (in the upper 60’s and lower 70’s), the temperature at night is dropping into the 40’s.  This should lead to some spectacular colors in the days ahead, especially in about two weeks (Nov 14^th-ish) as we get some really cold night temperatures.  This is about a week earlier than in the past few years.



Fall color commencing in the Sauvignon Blanc vines at Provenance on November 2, 2012.


If you are planning a drive through the area, there are a few special stretches that are my favorites.  On the south end of the valley, the drive along Highway 121 east near Domain Carneros is my all-time favorite as it develops more of the rusty red colors.  Second is the view of Oakville from either Silverado Vineyards or Miner Family Vineyards – both offer seating elevated well above the vineyard level.  I also enjoy the view from St. Clement vineyards just north of the town of St. Helena, the vineyard view from Cuvaison winery in Carneros, the roof of Opus One Winery in Oakville, and the gondola ride up to Sterling Vineyards in Calistoga.  Of course, if all you did was drive north along the Silverado Trail to Calistoga and return south along Highway 29 to Napa, you would still catch the majority of the fall color that Napa Valley has to offer.  Just try to go on a day that is at least partly sunny to catch it in all its glory.



The view from the Cuvaison tasting room in Carneros, November 27, 2009



Space Shuttle graces Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyards (video)

In its only pass over the San Francisco Bay Area, the Space Shuttle Endeavour, mounted atop a Boeing 747, graced the skies over the Santa Cruz Mountains this morning (September 21, 2012).  As part of its final mission, I’m nearly certain that the purpose of this flight was to add a magical touch to the wines made from grapes grown in these mountains, especially the Ridge Montebello harvest for 2012.  This video was taken from a parking lot just three miles from the foothills below Montebello.  As a big space geek, the fly over gave me goose bumps.  I’ll have to open something special tonight to commemorate the event.

(wait about a minute for the video to load)

Winery, Vineyard, or Garage?

Today I was doing business in the quaint town of Healdsburg, towards the northern end of Sonoma County.  Directly across from the office I was visiting was an operation receiving shipments of Nitrogen and Argon gases.  The first business that came to mind that works with both of these gases was winemaking.  Sure enough, as the truck drove off, a large label on the backside read Clos du Bois.  Occupying the adjacent office space to my visit was another winemaking operation, as evident from the wine barrels tucked neatly inside.  I took the opportunity to chat for a moment with the winemaker, who works for (and owns) Roadhouse Winery.  They produce a scant 1,500 to 2,000 cases of Pinot Noir each year.   Inside the warehouse they have constructed an insulated, cooled barrel room (aka cave) that is not apparent from the outside.  They have no dedicated tasting room, but instead offer their wines alongside other brands at a tasting room in downtown Healdsburg.  This is the quintessential Garage Wine, in that it is a small operation that either purchases small lots of grapes or harvests a handful of acres in the area and has no facilities on the vineyard land for processing the grapes once harvested.

This brings up an interesting distinction between a winery and a vineyard.  A winery is a winemaking operation where grapes are processed after harvest.  Processing includes sorting, crushing, fermenting, and aging the wine in barrels or tanks.  The finished product is bottled and labeled, then boxed for resale.  There may also be a tasting room where the winery can offer direct sales.  A vineyard is the land where grapes grow on the vine each year.  Think of this as a grape farm.  Not every vineyard has a winemaking operation.  A number of wineries are situated on vineyards.  Wines produced by the winery from grapes grown on any property owned by the winery are called estate wines.

A number of garage wineries buy their grapes instead of growing them.  Some vineyards produce more grapes than their winemaking operations can process.  Other vineyards sell their grapes to the highest bidder or by contract and produce no wine under the vineyard’s label.  Napa Valley’s famed Beckstoffer To Kalon vineyard in Oakville is a good example of this.  This arrangement allows the winemaker to provide growing objectives to the vineyard without having to monitor the daily operations.  The other model is probably best typified by Charles Shaw wines of Trader Joe’s fame.  These wines are made from the leftover grapes in the vintage.  In a good year, there are more good grapes than can be made into fine wine that winemakers are able to bottle, and so the excess juice gets sold off.  This in turn improves the quality of the wines made from the excess grape juice on the market.  In an off vintage, you are taking more of a chance with these cheaper wines.