Hestan Vineyards, March 31, 2014

Winery - 8 / Wines - 7
Range:  1 to 9 (9 is best, 5 is average)
Beautifully decorated tasting room in central Yountville. Cabernet blends and Chardonnay.
www.hestan.com

When I first discovered Meyer Vineyards Cabernet (the 2003 vintage), I went looking online for their tasting room.  I learned that Meyer was part of the Hestan Vineyards project, which was situated in the remote hills on the south-eastern side of the valley.  Because of their remote location, they offered no tasting facility.  Then, two years ago, I received a newsletter announcing ground-breaking activities in Yountville for their new tasting room.  On every visit to the valley I would drive past the construction site in anticipation.  Of course it would take four more visits to Napa Valley after its completion before I would have an opportunity to stop in for a tasting, but it was well worth the wait.  Not to be one to complain about the rain during a severe drought, but I was caught in a heavy downpour as I was pulling into the small Hestan parking lot.  The heavy rain lasted about two hours before easing back.  While grateful (for the vines’ sake), it was really a wet blanket tossed on my afternoon.  Still, visiting this new tasting room helped me forget about the rain for a while.

The Hestan Vineyards tasting room in central Yountville

As the tasting room was being built, I could tell that it was going to be an eye-catcher.  I just was uncertain whether it would catch my eye because of its luxurious design, or its vein attempt at stand-out design that went horribly wrong.  It ended up somewhere near the middle of those two extremes.  The building makes good use of glass and modern lines for most of the building.  The oddity is the half-arch abutting the entry to the building, which attracts the wrong kind of attention to the building.  The designers managed to make this all work, incorporating just the right balance of weathered metals, dark glass, and creamy stucco.  Inside, the design is unquestionably agreeable.  Multiple textures and surfaces bring a rich palette of colors to the room, from the warmth of the wooden tasting bench in front of the window, to the soft putty of the upholstery, to the rust-colored accent wall, and the genius tile work on the floor.  Surrounding the tasting room where one might expect to find bottles of wine proudly displayed, you find instead the parent company’s shiny gourmet cookware set out for those with kitchen ambitions to admire.

Inside the Hestan tasting room

While I have enjoyed several vintages of the Meyer Cabernet and recently relished a 2003 Hestan Cabernet half-bottle, I have longed to experience the entire line up of wines made by the Hestan projects.  I started off with the 2010 Hestan Chardonnay, which was amazingly rich.  Then I sampled the 2009 and 2010 Stephany Merlots.  Next was the 2009 Meyer Cabernet Sauvignon, the 2008 and 2009 Stephany Cabernet Sauvignon, and lastly the 2008 Stephany Proprietary Red blend, which was my favorite wine of the flight.  I was able to sample so many wines because the tasting room uses the new (and pricy) Coravin tool to extract the wine from the bottle directly through the cork (via a narrow syringe).  The device displaces the wine removed by argon gas, leaving the remaining wine unexposed to air.

Based on this experience, I would rate the winery as a 8 and the wines offered as a 7.