Tamber Bey Vineyards, February 8th, 2012

Winery - 7 / Wines - 6
Range:  1 to 9 (9 is best, 5 is average)
Sunny outdoor tasting patio for dry weather visits.  Cabernet Sauvignon and blends.
www.tamberbey.com

Tasting room relocated to Calistoga
(check out the web site above)

My third stop was to the tasting room of Tamber Bey Vineyards in St. Helena.  If you are already planning to explore downtown St. Helena, then you are steps away from the Tamber Bey tasting room.  Anyone with an affinity for horses and cabernet should consider planning a visit here.  There are no winery operations here, just wines.  The winery is located just north of Yountville off the main road and is not open to the general public.

From the outside, the tasting room presents a humble adobe façade bathed in neutral colors.  Inside is another story.  A large, open, and well-lit tasting room offers sit down tasting at a spacious counter or in a cozy living room setting in front of a faux fireplace.  Horse lovers will appreciate the décor, which suggests the inside of a Beverly Hills stable – very elegant and spotless.  Colors are all neutral, allowing the natural copper and wood tones to grab your focus.  A painting of three horses that appears on one of their wine’s labels is prominently displayed on the wall of the living area.  A westward facing window floods the tasting room with natural light in the afternoon.

The tasting room offers two wine-tasting experiences.  I chose the simpler flight of three wines.  The wines offered include a Yountville Cabernet Sauvignon, a Bordeaux-style blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, and Petit Verdot, and a single-vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon from Oakville.  The wines were all well balanced, with good weight, nice fruit and complexity.  The wines are young and begging for a couple of years of aging.  My favorite was the Rabiconao Bordeaux-style blend.

Based on this experience, I would rate the winery as a 7 and the wines offered as a 6.