Wine Country Journal - Winery I

Let’s continue on with more talk of my trip, which I have found memories of. I guess today I will talk about some of the wineries that I visited to do tasting during my trip to the wine country.

As we arrived to San Francisco in the morning on Wednesday, and we would pass by many wineries before we reach our hotel, we thought we might as well hit some wineries first before checking in to our hotel, Honor Mansion, which is a topic worth another blog all by itself. Anyway, my plan was to hit 4 wineries on Wednesday afternoon, but realizing that we might not have the time to do that, with all the driving and looking for direction and everything. We did manage to hit two on Wednesday afternoon though and they are: Arrowood and J. Rochioli.

Arrowood is pretty easy to find, and is located at this big white mansion looking thing. The tasting room was spacious and clean, and there were not much people there, probably because this is no the high season and it is on a Wednesday afternoon. We chatted with the people there and they poured us everything that they have, more than what they had from the standard tasting menu, and the wine ranges from Chardonnay to Gewürztraminer to Cabernet Sauvignon to Rosé to dessert wine made out of Rieslings. The offering was quite good, and I was particularly impressed by the Chardonnay (which I generally do not like the California version of it), the Cabernet Sauvignon, the Syrah and its rather amazing Rosé (the Arrowood 2005 La Rose Sonoma County – you really should seek it out – and would have been a perfect wine to go with the duck sandwich and the cheese and pate platter that we had in a nice picnic setting on a breezy summer day). We were so impressed by the quality of their wine that we ended up buying almost a whole case of random mix of the different wines (with 3 of the Rosé). This is really a place worth visiting. Other wines that I had and were impressed are: 2002 Syrah Saralee's Vineyard; 2004 Chardonnay Alary Vineyards; and 2001 Cabernet Sauvignon Réserve Spéciale.

J. Rochioli is a place in Northern Sonoma famous for its Pinot Noir and also for its Chardonnay. They make limited productions of their wine, and unfortunately, when we visited, we did not get a chance to taste some of its top offerings, but instead only had 3 wines to taste from, a Rosé made with Pinot Noir, a Chardonnay and a Pinot Noir. Those 3 wines are just ok, nothing really to write home about, even though the Chardonnay was a little distinct enough for me to buy a bottle. However, I know those 3 wines are nothing compared to their top offerings, and it was really a shame that I was not able to try some of their top offerings. The place was a little harder to find, but I thought the winery is well constructed, a very quaint and low key type of place, with hardly any décor in the tasting room. However, they have a beautiful view of vineyards and a very nice picnic area that would be awesome to come and hang out.

Thursday was the heavily scheduled wine tasting day, and it was planned that way. We had reservations at two of the wineries, and planned on hitting several more that does not require reservations. Our first reservation is at Shafer Vineyards at 10am in Napa Valley (Stag’s Leap District), which is about an hour away from where we were staying in Healdsburg. So we were late for like an half an hour, but good thing we did not miss much of the tasting. This is a sit down tasting with 6 awesome wines: 2004 Red Shoulder Ranch Chardonnay; 2004 Napa Valley Merlot; 2003 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon; 2003 Relentless (Syrah based wine); 2002 Hillside Select Napa Valley Stag's Leap District Cabernet Sauvignon; and a Port made of the same Cabernet Sauvignon grapes that made the Hillside Select. I was extremely happy with all of the wines. The Chardonnay was amazing, one of the absolute best Chardonnay that I have ever tasted. The Merlot and the Cabernet Sauvignon are all good and decent offerings. The Relentless Syrah was also amazing, one of the top wines that I have ever tasted. The Hillside Select just blew my mind, I have hardly ever tasted wine this good. Word cannot describe the feeling that you get from drinking this wine. In addition, this is a very expensive wine, cost $190, which we get quite a bit of it when you pay the $25 tasting fee that covers all six wines. We could not be happier after drinking this Hillside Select. As an additional treat, we had the Port that was made out of the same grape that goes into the Hillside Select, and that was also a wonderful wine, and only available at the winery. We bought 5 bottles from there, awesome awesome place.

Our next stop was Pine Ridge, which has a picnic area that I thought we can stop and eat some food there. However, it rained that day, and even though it had stopped for a little while now, it was still not nice enough to be eating outside, with the weather been gloomy and all. We decide to taste more wine instead. The offering at Pine Ridge is also strong, and the person who is pouring us our wine is really funny and enthusiastic too, which help the matter. The wines from Pine Ridge are not that expensive, with interesting Rosé that has a guava note and taste, tasty reds that will work really well as dinner companions (a blend and also a Cabernet Franc), good Cabernet Sauvignon (not as good as Hillside Select, but cost 1/3 the price, but not 1/3 the wine) and a pretty awesome Chardonnay (comparable to the Shafer Chardonnay, better than the Arrowood Chardonnay). Not so sure why we are getting all these good Chardonnay on this wine trip. Usually I much prefer the Burgundy Chardonnay instead of the California one, but this trip has really changed my perception of California Chardonnay, good producer can really produce good wines. We bought a whole case of wine from here too, man, too much wine. Another very happy visit.

Next stop is Del Dotto, with the barrel cave visit that I was very excited in going to. The site is located at kind of a weird place, as they it is just this random structure on the side of the road. I don’t really see any vineyards around it, but that could be because the either buy their grapes from others or their own vineyards are further away. The one thing that struck me about this tasting room when I first enter is the classical opera music that keeps on playing at the back, and it is the same music the whole entire time. That was probably the most annoying thing throughout the entire Del Dotto experience. That music is fine, but it was played way too loud and gave me quite a headache. After some impressive wineries, I thought it would be hard for Del Dotto to top it. The wine that was first poured for us was a Cabernet Sauvignon, which is fine, but nothing really special after the wine we have tasted in the morning. However, once we enter into the cave where all the barrels are at, everything changed. The same annoying music can still be heard, but at least what we are tasting and experiencing was far more interesting. We first learned about all the different barrels (not only French or American oak, but the different type of oak barrels from the different oak barrel producers) and the different way of toasting the barrels, including toasting the head of the barrel, toasted head. I just think that term is funny. Anyway, we then tasted various wines from barrels that have not yet been bottled. Some of the wine are to be bottled soon, while some of the wines are to be combined with other barrels, such as a wine made from a certain vineyard oaked in a particular oak barrels, combing with other wines made from other vineyards and oaked in another different type of barrels. We got to taste the different components that eventually make up the final products that Del Dotto sells. By the way, Del Dotto wines are not distributed nationally, but only sold through their winery and their wine club. We tasted a really amazing Pinot Noir that are only going to be one part of a puzzle to a Pinot Noir that the winery is making, and we also tasted a Cabernet Sauvignon oaked in Colbert French oak barrels which is so amazing. We are able to have wines we tasted bottled especially for us, as some of the wines are going to be blended and not going to be bottled individually, or we can blend our own and have them bottle those, creating wine that are really one of the kind for us. That is really something quite fun and amazing. In addition, when we are tasting wine, we are able to throw away the wine from our glass against the cave walls or in between the barrels, which is another part of the fun. I recommend this tour to anyway, even though it is slightly expensive at $40 a person, however, you would really have fun. Also, the tour guide individually the tour for you, and each group would taste different wines from different barrels, depending on what you tell them you like and etc. Oh yeah, two other things to note on our Del Dotto visit. One, our tour guide’s dad is the CEO of Cigna, you know, the big healthcare company. Two, the couple who were on the tour with us carried with them the Black American Express Centurion Card . . . . . this is only the second time I have actually seen this card live, with another time in a bakery on Upper East Side (Madame M is the name of the bakery / tea shop). Also, the couple recently bought a vineyard and are going to be making grape too . . . very exciting. Finally, the couple knows many people who happened to be next door neighbors of our tour guide while he was growing up, geesh, what a small world. Finally one last thing, when we were talking to the couple, they mentioned they and a bunch of friends went to eat at Per Se one night, after deciding earlier that day to eat there, so they just hoped on a plane and went . . . . . Anyway want to take a guess whether they took commercial airliners or private jet?

Well, this is getting to be a long blog. The last winery we visited for Thursday was Cardinale, which is located on sort of a hill and have a really nice tasting room with a gorgeous view of a vineyards on the slope. They only produce one wine, Cardinale, which is a Bordeaux type blend dominated by Cabernet Sauvignon. I don’t remember much of the wine that I tasted, after way too much Cabernet Sauvignon from Del Dotto earlier, I mean, geesh, we must have been poured from all the different barrels the equivalent of a bottle of wine.

The rest of the wineries to come another day . . .