Visit to Silver Oak

My wife and I were in Healdsburg for a winery event, and decided on a whim to head over to the Napa side for dinner. She had read about the new Silver Oak facility in Alexander Valley, so why not stop and check it out. I remember the old Alexander winery fondly, off 101 in Geyserville. We used to go there years ago, even took a Christmas picture with our young kids one year. It was fairly small and quaint, friendly, always had drinks for both adults and kids.

The new Alexander tasting facility isn’t exactly “small and quaint”, but it is quite elegant and tasteful, very open, with full length windows that make you feel you’re right in the vineyards. I kind of expected the tasting fee to be higher, so we were happy to pay $20 to share pours of three wines (plus they came around and asked what our favorite was, then poured a nice refill).

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We tried the 2013 Alexander Valley Cabernet, which I found to be quite nice, with plenty of dark red fruit, fine structure, not overly ripe or overly oaked, a wine I’d be happy drink now and then. The 2013 (going from memory) Napa Cab was a bigger, deeper wine, came across a bit riper, with more noticeable oak notes. Pretty typical, quality mainstream Napa Cab, though a bit bigger and richer than my preferences. Even then, I’d much rather drink this than its competition Caymus (regular, or Special Select).

This thread, asking “which winery would you skip” got me to post on this

I know Silver Oak gets a lot of grief for being the popular steak house wine that us geeks like to rag on. But a) I have always enjoyed the bottles that friends have opened, and b) this was a very nice experience, with quality wines. Tasting room staff was friendly and knowledgeable. If someone has an interest in Silver Oak, and Napa Cab in general, I would encourage them to visit the new Alexander winery. There are tours available as well, which I assume venture into the winery itself. And, it’s a beautiful drive up 128 to the southern Alexander Valley.

“Hot Take” Alan strikes again!!!

I did leave out that it was a hot day

Nice pics and the facility does look tasteful, open and close to the vineyard. Walk in tasting in Napa is $30, so that makes Silver Oak Napa and Sonoma very reasonable.

Thanks for the notes and photos, Alan - looks like a very nice new tasting room.

I visited Silver Oak in Napa in late 2015 and found the wines more enjoyable than I’d expected, even though they’re not really my style preference. They’re actually quite modest in alcohol compared to a number of California Cabs (in 2015, I found that the wines over the past ten years ranged from 13.0-13.9% for the Alexander Valley Cabs and a few tenths of a percent higher for the Napa Valley bottlings). I always recall American oak dill aromas - which I don’t particularly like - from previous Silver Oak visits but couldn’t detect a trace of that in the wines I tasted in 2015. More notes from that visit here: Visit to Silver Oak, December 2015

Thanks for the pics Alan. Its on the bucket list. Silver Oak has a soft spot in my heart as an “Ah Ha” wine for me 8-10 years ago which started me down this journey. The new tasting room looks lovely. That said they had a tasting at Rootstock wine bar next to infamous “Golden Triangle” in Los Gatos maybe 6 weeks ago. I prefer’d the Twomey Merlot to either of the Silver Oak Cab’s and won’t disagree with your notes on the two Cabs. For me that night the Alexander valley was more approachable than the Napa. The Vanilla on the napa was very strong.It needed of some time in the cellar. Then after that went over to the bar and had a glass of 2010 McCarthy Estate Cabernet which at 1/3 the price of the Napa bottling was far more to my liking these days. Hanging out with Y’all is certainly evolving my palate.

Thanks again for the photo essays as always.

Sean

Thanks for the post Alan. Looks pretty cool and I’m making a mental note to visit next time I’m in Napa Valley.

Agreed alan. We went to silver oak in napa in 2015 and it was a good experience. They opened older stuff and current and you just hang out along the patio. They come around with refills. One of the best “napa” experiences.

The last time I tasted Silver Oak wines (about five years ago), I found the wines to be not offensively oaky or anything over the top, but pretty mild-mannered and without any real distinctiveness. My main problem with them is that the prices seemed way out of whack for simply pleasant wines that were nothing special. I would rather drink Ridge Estate Cabernet or Chateau Montelena Napa Valley Cabernet, for example, for a lot less money. For me, these wines show a lot more complexity and flavor interest.

Nice pics! Looks like a very inviting tasting experience. Not a fan of the wines, but I’d give it a whirl.

I’ve always enjoyed the Alexander more than the Napa. We bought them many years ago and still enjoy one occasionally.

OK, that was a great note and the pics were very motivating.

There are on my “go” list!

Definitely cool to have this across from Stonestreet. Really interesting comparison back to back I bet

Nice, Alan. I think Silver Oak had some rough years in the early 2000s. We stopped in during a 2015 trip, I think it was, and the wines were excellent. Had bottles of 1998 and 2000 Alexander Valley in the past couple years that showed really nicely, actually.

Isn’t Nate Weis (wine board guy for years) the Winemaker for Silver Oak? Can’t say I’ve seen him post for a while but he was active in the past.

Yup

Geez, guys. I’d be careful. Saying halfway nice stuff about Silver Oak may find you with your membership here revoked. Or at least lacking street cred.

Agree. Moderators, I think it’s past time Alan be banned. He better re-up his Northern Rhone thread pronto to stand any chance of showing his face around here again.

Quick, Alan - post a mature Bordeaux tasting note ASAP!!

You could not find a better guy than Nate Weis!