Last weekend I traveled to Napa for the first time with some friends for a long weekend. Last year we visited Sonoma (Holdrege, W-S, Copain), but the trip this year was a little different. My wife and I traveled with 2 other couples who enjoy wine quite a bit, but don’t share my OCD relative to learning about all things wine and collecting. I’m glad they went along and pulled me along to some places I may not have visited, the diversity was fun. I didn’t take notes (I never do), but I enjoy reading these type of posts to learn about other’s trips so maybe this is useful to a few newbies.
Thursday:
Flew into Sacremento to make life easy, and we beat the rest of the group coming thru SFO to the rent house. Scored the best bedroom. 
We rented thru VRBO and the house was really great although a little off the beaten path on the the Silverado CC golf course. First stop was Gott’s for a hamburger and the Oxbow market for a little dessert and shopping. I would recommend both as worthwhile stops. Next stop was Del Dotto. This was the second location (not in St. Helena, but next to our house) and though the staff was fun, the wines were very dull. A few 2011 cabs, a syrah, a chard and a pinot. No one bought anything.
Made our way to NV Wine and Cigars to say hello to Randy and Carrie Bowman. Randy saved us a bunch of money by pointing us to high QPR cigars versus the recommendations I had from a friend and Carrie set us up with some nice drink-at-the-house wines: Chappellet Cab, Two Old Dogs by Herb Lamb Cab, and cab. Randy and Carrie were a hoot, with Randy giving me gentle lecture on contributing here instead of lurking. Go visit when you can.
Off to dinner at Tra Vigne which was great out on their patio because the weather was perfect. The short ribs and salmon were great and we paired it up with a 2008 Skipstone Cab (I know, Sonoma) which was really showing nicely. Back to the house for cigars.
Friday:
Met our driver at Dean & Deluca while we loaded up on picnic supplies. Great store, kind of like a mini-me Whole Foods. Then we set off to Plumpjack which is a favorite of one of the other couples. The tasting room was nice enough, but we sat out on the patio. The 2011 Plumpjack (Estate Cab, Syrah & Merlot) and Cade (Howell Mountain & NV Cab) wines were fairly typical of the vintage to my taste and a little underwhelming straight from the bottle. We tried to get them to open a bottle of the Odette cab for us to taste, but the best they would do was pour us some of the 2012 Adaption Cab. To my palette, this wine was much better than the '11’s we had from Plumpjack and Cade and a really nice QPR. The other couples did purchase here and they bought more of the Adaptation than anything else.
Then up north to Viader for a tasting. I wasn’t familiar with this producer, but we had a recommendation. The mountain setting and the back story on the winemaker/owner are both really great. Some of the vineyards are as steep as double black diamond ski slopes. The wine here was very much patterned after Bordeaux with a heavy emphasis on Cab Franc. The Cab Franc bottling was quite good as well. Although we enjoyed the wines and enjoyed the setting for a picnic, we were not buyers based on price/value and because I warned the group to hold back until our next stop.
Further north to Calistoga to visit Mike Smith at Envy Cellars (home of Carter Cellars). Mike hosted us and about 10 other folks in the barrel warehouse and poured through a selection of his Myriad and Quivet 2012 cabs. It was fun to taste with the group and get opinions. First, these are all really good and all surprisingly ready to go despite some pop and pour and some Corvain. The Myriad NV is a great "value"wine and showed all the characteristics of the line. I could keep my nose in the glass all day with the Kenefick Ranch. Just a perfect cigar/leather/tobacco nose. I preferred the Georges III over the Three Twins, but I think it is was because the Three Twins really could have used more air and time. Everyone was happy with the wine and enjoying themselves and then Mike had to go and ruin it. Out came a Carter Las Piedras and Carter To Kalon Three Kings. Thanks a lot, Mike. ![[swearing.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/8/8a0d3f3461d40641d294442fc2be78039bf94d19.gif "[swearing.gif]"){kind=small}
Although the Las Piedras fit right into the Myriad/Quivet line up, the Three Kings seemed a cut above to my wife. Order time: 2 Three Kings & 1 “O G”. Summary: great visit, my friends became fans and buyers of Mike, I failed at my “I’ve got too many pending to buy more wine” goal. I hope you went deep on his 2012’s (and he mentioned that '13 will be excellent as well).
Based on several recommendations we set-up a private tasting appt with Dennis at Frank Family. Dennis is quite a legend after 31 years there and it was a really amusing experience. The 2011 Frank Family line-up is OK with the reserve cab being the best of the bunch. The experience though was unlike any others during the visit since Dennis is so gregarious and full of wisdom and opinions. His takes on cellphones, TFL, other winemakers, traffic, etc. were classics. He did open a bottle of their (2010?) Promise cab which was very, very good. It would be hard to justify the price compared to other alternatives, but the wine was excellent.
Dinner at Press. We did a family style dinner of their whole chicken and salmon entrees and both were excellent. We also enjoyed a bacon “five ways” selection from their bar menu that rocked. Corkage at $25 and an excellent bottle of 2012 Quivet cab was consumed.
Afterwards, cigars and a pretty funny game of Cards against Humanity at the house.
Saturday:
Driver picked us up a little early so we decided to wing it on Silverado Trail. We stopped in at Darioush to see the palace and to taste (although the wives opt’ed out). Although the staff was good, the wines were meh. I’ve enjoyed their cab at a steakhouse or two before, but found it muddled and lacking on this trip. Quickly moved down the road to Pine Ridge to eat some bread, crackers and cheese while tasting, but had to work hard to do it. They only wanted us to taste inside, so we said we would just buy a bottle and take it outside to drink. Fine, but you can’t sit on the nice patio, that’s reserved for club members…but there isn’t a single person out there…still reserved for them, not you. Oh well, beautiful day and we made due with a picnic table up beyond the patio. The wine was solid.
Set off to our appt at Jarvis based on a recommendation that, “you have to see their cave”. There isn’t a building up there, just a door built into the mountain like a Jame Bond villian’s lair. The entire winery is built into a wagon-wheel shaped tunnel system. It really is something like Willy Wonka’s Wine factory. They also know how to do their tasting (a separate glass for each wine, a quiet room, a mix of old and new release). The wines were very good and the cab franc stood out as well as the (2006?) reserve cab. We didn’t purchase here, but that wasn’t because we didn’t like the wine. I’d highly recommend a visit based on the spectacle of the tunnels.
Last appt was made via email with Jean H from Alpha Omega. The tasting room was packed and they were setting up for a club party. I didn’t have a good feeling walking in since we were 25 minutes late due to Saturday traffic. Our host, Curtis, was just awesome. We tasted in the barrel room and sat there for 2 hours with Curtis just talking and enjoying really great wine. Curtis asked me what I liked, I said we’re here for cabs and so he didn’t bother with the usual tasting. Straight to their 2011 cabs and blends which were quite good across the board. Then came out the 2012 barrel sample bottles of Georges, To Kalon, Dr Crane, Stagecoach. Wow. This isn’t going to go well for me since that is what my wife said about ToKalon, “Wow!”. I ordered some, should be bottled in November. Again, all these 2012 samples were nose candy. I think I finally get the To Kalon, Dr Crane, Beckstoffer vineyard hype. It does match up with my preferences quite well. Highly recommend a visit to AO, can’t speak highly enough about Curtis and Jean.
Dinner at Mustard’s. Corkage was $15 and a nice bottle of AO was consumed. The pork chop was great and the desserts were really worth saving some room for.
Cards and cigars at the house.
For all of my bragging all weekend about the sage choice of flying out Sacramento, karma kicked in on Sunday. Our flight out was cancelled due to storms at DFW, so we were rerouted through LAX. It took about 15 hours to make it from Sacramento to Austin. That will harsh your vacation buzz.
I had some trouble making the appt times work with Rivers-Marie and Aaron Pott this trip, so I’ve definitely got something to look forward to as we plan next year’s trip.
Ashley
![[welldone.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/f/fc9709a841aa9379fd892a9cf0b535b05f473b86.gif "[welldone.gif]"){kind=small}
and it seems you had an awesome trip! You should include the photos I took of you and you your merry band! 
![[berserker.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/8/8600bbd4810d342b8fbd4ffb62b4f0026275fd37.gif "berserker"){kind=small}
![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}