DAY 1:
We are staying at a cottage on 1 acre on land on Deer Park Road. Beautiful setting and great location, but the roosters get us up each morning at around 5:15.
Today we started with a Cellar tasting at Chateau Montelena. It was held in the large reception room with some great art work and a nice fireplace. We tasted a semiilion, chard, zin and 3 cabs. We bought picnic supplies and reserved one of the island on the lake. very peaceful setting. They had is set up with plates, silver ware and nice stems. We bought a bottle and had our lunch there.
We then went to Neal Vineyards. If you like cali cabs, you really need to try their wine. It is one of my favorites (the 2006 Howell Mountain is awesome). We tried several cabs, and they even take requests.
We ended up at Covert in Napa. Unfortunately, they had us down for August, not July, so they weren’t set up for us, but they rebounded with some good wine. They have a beautiful new tasting room on the property. The Covert cab is very smooth.
DAY 2:
We started the day at Silver Oak at 9:00 am (thanks roosters). We just did the walk in tasting. For $25 you get three nice pours (2011 Napa, 2007 Alexander and 2006 Napa) and get to keep the glass! (They give you a new glass in the box as you leave).
From there we went to the Far Niente chardonnay release party. This was first class. They were pouring many different vintages of chardonnay, one cab and Dolce (a sweet wine). The had several tasting stations set up, and even had a guy walking around with a 6L bottle outing 2006 chard! They had a band, ice cream machine, wood fired pizza and your typical cheese trays everywhere. I am not a chard drinker - but I may be now. This is the best chardonnay I have had (although I admit I am no connoisseur).
Next was the Nickel & Nickel cab party. This was a PARTY atmosphere. They had burgers, cheese, etc, and all 15 of their cabs were poured. I really liked the DRAGONFLY, MARTIN STELLING and the SORI BRICCO. They sell futures and I will probably buy some when I go back today.
We then did a Caymus tasting. Always good.
We ended up at Jordan for dinner under the stars. Very nice event (although it was a little cool). They started with a sparkler, then a chard and three different cabs (the 2005 was real good).