Wine Country

It's been a long week as we had clients visiting from NYC. They came in on Tuesday and left yesterday, finally. Tuesday, was the longest day, starting at 8:30am with meetings throughout the day and then dinner in the City at Town Hall. When dinner was finished, I got home around 11:30pm. If there was one happy note, I was able to sneak home for about 15 mins. to see the family before dinner. That made it a little better.

Wednesday, we had morning meetings until 11:30, then we boarded a shuttle bus for an hour ride north to Napa, good 'ol Hwy 29 right into the famed Napa Valley. We scheduled 3 visits, but were able to add a bonus visit.

We started at Opus One. Famous for the collaboration winemaking effort of Robert Mondavi and the Baron Rothschild (Mouton Rothschild). The building and winery is beautiful, great view and excellent wine...but lacking the personable nature found in other wineries. We tasted the 2004 Opus, they make only one wine, $180/bottle. The taste was $30 each. We had 10 with us. We should have just bought 2 bottles. The wine was really complex, supple tannins, lots of fruit. A nice wine with great potential. We walked around, it was so....lacking. Overall, this was the least favorite place of the four.

We were making good time so, we made an unscheduled stop at Silver Oaks..."Life is a Cabernet" They were going through a major renovation, so the tasting was in a rented trailer. It wasn't bad at all. My director was hesitant to visit due to the construction and he wanted to show our NY clients a nice Napa experience. But, when I asked the VP (client) if he was game, "Hell yeah!!! " was his answer. So, we went and sampled both 2003 cabernets, Alexander Valley and Napa Valley. AV cab was like most young cabs, you drink it and, it's OK. The NV cab was a different story. Similar to the Opus One, but bigger tannins. this will be a very good wine in the next 8-10 years. I'd get 2 bottles of this vs. 1 bottle of Opus. The hosts were really friendly and they were the kind of people you'd expect at most Napa/Sonoma wineries...friendly and love and passion for wines. I always enjoy talking to folks like these.

Next up, Groth. We set this one up with a tour. Our VP in our agency knows the people here and she helped set this one up. The building and estate was really nice with many pieces of art displayed prominently. We tasted the Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc (everyone's favorite). Both wines are extremely nice drinking wines especially with Summer around the corner. I will be stocking up some SBs for the upcoming summer grilling parties. :) We toured the facility, saw the bottling line in action, walked into the barrel rooms and pretty much saw the entire process. Ending the tour with a taste of the 2006 Cabernet Oakville. Very nice cab, similar to the Silver Oak cab, but not as intense. But at $60/bottle, it's a very good wine. I may pick some up at Costco for about less than $40/bottle...maybe even less with some help from our VP. :) This was my favorite stop.

Finally, we ended our wine tasting at Francis Ford Coppola's Rubicon Estate. This is one of my favorite places. I love the outside trellis and garden...it's got some "Godfather" vibe to it. The castle is enormous, and upstairs is a museum featuring the Tucker automobile from his movie. A lot has changed since I last visted (5-7 years ago) They brought in more Inglenook (original founder of the estate) historical pieces and removed FFC's movie memorabilia such as the Godfather desk, Dracula's outfit, FFC's Oscar statues. So, since the last visit, they've removed most of the "everyday" wines and only offered tasting for wines made with estate grown grapes. We tasted 3 of the wines, starting with the RC Reserved Syrah, Loved it. Syrah's are usually a great, easy-going wine to drink. This was not to disappoint. Next, we had the Cask cabernet. At this point, I don't remember much as I had a nice subtle buzz by then. but I vaguely remember it was like the Groth, but with a hint of the Rutherford dust. Finally, we had their flagship, Rubicon. My palettes woke up with this one. My fave of the 3. The last time I had the Rubicon was over 10 years ago, when we attend the release party (FFC was there too!). It's a great wine similar, lots and lots of fruit with nice rounded tannins...not as supple like the Opus. I'd get this instead of the Opus.

Ending the trip was an outdoor dinner at Cindy's Backstreet Cafe. What a nice way to end a great trip to Napa. Gotta come back soon!!! Check out more photos in my album.