Wine Country Journal - Winery III

Saturday is the last day for our wine tasting trip, and it is another Napa Valley winery day. We are meeting up with my cousin Richard today, but unfortunately, we didn't make it to the schedule that I have planned, since we got on a hot air balloon ride in the morning that took up way too much time (see my video blog), and we ended up having to cancel a bunch of the wineries that we were suppose to go to. So by the time we got to the Napa Valley, it was around 1:30pm already, and we did not yet have lunch. Our first winery was Rudd Vineyards, a sit down tasting composed of 4 wines. We were served the Crossroad Sauvignon Blanc, the Bacigalupi Chardonnay and two Bordeaux blend red wines. The Crossroad Sauvignon Blanc was quite wonderful, crisp with lots of fruit, not as acidic as the New Zealand version, but comparatively more elegant and soft and cost only $20. The Bacigalupi Chardonnay was made from grapes in the same vineyard that won Chateau Montelena the 1976 blind Paris Tasting for their 1976 Chardonnay. That 1976 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay beat out all other top French white wines to win the competition, and is one of the wines that help put California winemaking on the map. Tasting this Chardonnay is quite an amazing experience I have to say. This Chardonnay is the hands down best Chardonnay I have ever tasted in my life. I had some pretty good Chardonnays on this trip, but nothing compare to what I am drinking now. It is the most expensive one too, at $60, but the pleasure that I derive from this wine is otherworldly, so naturally, I bought some. Words cannot do this Chardonnay justice, so you really ought to locate a bottle and try it out yourself. The reds at Rudd are pretty good, but again, having too much of the good things the last couple of days made me not want to buy any more red wines nor did the Rudd red stood out too much from the other wineries. In addition to the wonderful wines, Rudd Vineyard is a beautiful place to visit. First, you would drive up to a gate, and once you enter, you are surrounded by vines as you drive down a narrow road to reach an unobtrusive building in the middle of all the vines. The building is country cottage, with a beautifully appointed sit down tasting room. It was a nice day and it would have been very wonderful to walk around the grounds and to the vineyards but unfortunately we had to leave for our next appointment, but otherwise it would have been really quite a treat. Oh yeah, by the way, we saw Warren Moon there, he was hosting a birthday party in their private cellar/cave.

Next stop is Cakebread Cellars. This winery has a more commercial feel to it. I was told that they do not sell their wines to distributors, but only to restaurants or through the winery. So I had some high expectations but it turns out to be disappointing. I guess their distribution method is part of their marketing angle, but their wine are only average, nothing compared to some of the other wineries that we have visited on this trip. In addition, their wines are not cheap either. We tasted Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel. Many are good and decent wines that would make nice drinking, but not at the price that they sell them for, typically from around $45 - $60 a bottle. There are many more wines you can buy that greatly outweighs the offering here at cheaper or equal price. For example, the Rudd Chardonnay that we just had for $60 compare to the Chardonnay Reserve that they sell here for $52. One is otherworldly (the Rudd) while one is bland and too much oak (Cakebread). In addition, another problem with the tasting here is that they held the tasting in a spot that is just way too cold for the enjoyment of wine. By the third or fourth wine, I could no longer smell anything that is coming from the wine, a big part of the whole tasting wine process. Two of their wines are not too bad though, the Sauvignon Blanc and another is their Zinfandel, both on the cheaper side of the lineups that was offered to us.

Next we decide to visit Beringer, but before we go, we stopped by KFC for some fried chicken. You know, I think chicken is often the best food/snack to go with wine tasting. For example, for one of the wine tasting I hosted in New York, the most popular item was the chicken nuggets, just absolutely delicious with wine. This time it was no exception, the fried chicken we picked up from KFC was absolutely delightful, chicken has never tasted so good. We woofed down everything in a matter of minutes, it was quite a sight to be behold. Crumbs were flying all over the car, bones were chewed clean, just a finger licking good meal. Speaking of food, I kind of wish
In&Out burger have a location here, and I think they would do very well too. What better food are there than some absolutely declicious In&Out buger and their fries animal style?

Beringer is a huge operation with every category of wine available, from wine-in-a-box to upscale serious wines. The ground of Beringer is quite beautiful and cover a lot of space, with nicely decorated gardens and charming structures. There are two tasting rooms in Beringer, one serves up the lower and more common end of their offerings, while another serves up higher priced offerings with more serious wines. We decide to hit the tasting room that serves the higher priced wines. They had 4 options to taste from, but they are not cheap, with the top options been around $25 for 3 flight of Cabernet Sauvignon. I have to say, I think Beringer makes good Cabernet Sauvignon, not great, not spectacular, but just in general across the board good. My first encounter with a California Cabernet Sauvignon is a Beringer Knights Valley Cab 2000, and it was velvety smooth and bursting with chewy fruit. The several Cabernet Sauvignon I had here all drank very well, but unfortunately, they are all pretty expensive at $90 and one at $125, not sure if that is worth the price as many of the other Cabernet Sauvignon I had on this trip are equal if not much better than the Beringer offerings, some at a lower or equal price (I don’t really count Hillside Select here, that wine is just expensive). Nonetheless, Beringer was a wonderful end to our trip in Napa, ending the trip with some good Cabernet Sauvignon, carefully decorated wineries and some good company, not much could be better.