Napa Adventure - a 10th Anni Treat - UPDATED

My wife and I first went to Napa to celebrate her 21st birthday. I couldn’t believe I had the opportunity to go…on her parents dime…to Napa. The details made the trip even better. Harvest Inn cottage, and my Dad was relatively new into collecting wine and had a bunch of wine purchased at various wineries that needed update shipping info and scheduling (Texas heat issues). I was treated like a prince everywhere I went, and especially Pride and Chappellet. It was magical. So magical that upon my return, I convinced my parents to take a family trip with my sister and me so she could experience it. During the years after I worked my way into a Sonoma trip, Oregon, and then again Napa.

Even so, I’d not been back in 5 years and my wife and I had our 10th anniversary coming up. She was the one who suggested Napa and I jumped all over the opportunity. First, this was an interesting trip to plan. A client and some of my work contacts were adamant about helping me setup neat tastings at their haunts. That created opportunity but also some obligation. Second, my wife does not do wine country like, say, my dad and me. There would be no 4 or 5 tastings in a day with a sack lunch and case of water bottles. My wife is far more interested in a neat tasting experience (with good wine) than trying a whole bunch of different offerings, taking notes, and going deep-nerd with winemakers. So, the goal was a great hotel, great food, neat tasting experiences, and no more than 2 wineries on any given day (I’ll admit to struggling with this but we had a phenomenal time).

The Stay: Vintage House – Yountville
Vintage House is a newly redone inn/hotel in the Villagio/Vintage House complex along Yount Street in Yountville. We had an individual cottage right along Yount Street and it was absolutely fantastic. Room had high vaulted ceilings, was totally apart from the rest of the hotel, had its own semi private patio, and was a very large room with a fireplace, king, window sitting area for reading, etc. Just a great place to stay and an excellent location. Walking distance to Bouchon, Bouchon Baker, Redd, Bottega, Bistro Jeanty, JCB Salon, JCB Atelier, and V Cellars wine shop (which price gouges but has good stuff). Only down side was service just outside the pool area, which was largely non-existent.

Day 1 - Lots of Travel, B Cellars, Vilmart, Bottega, Raen
My wife and I love champagne and hoped to hit up Domain Carneros on the way in from SFO. Unfortunately, road construction quite literally doubled our drive time to Napa so we had to cross that off the list, dump our bags at Vintage House, and scoot to B Cellars.

B Cellars
I’ve read good things about their higher end wines and have read, repeatedly, that their tasting experiences are interesting, informative, and fun. We were slated for the Oakville Trek. The “trek” is really just a short walk around their property, into their caves, and then back into their tasting room. Even so, it was informative. Curtis, our guide and part of their blending committee, showed us around some relatively new vines and took questions and deftly explained lignification, canopy management, and pruning. A plus to Curtis for how well he listened and how he answered questions. It was laid back and inviting, which was good as there was a wide range of wine knowledge among the group of 8 or so taking the trek. Next was the cave tour and an explanation about wine making. Mostly basic stuff. Barrel sample tasting of an unremarkable pinot noir next, followed by the walk back into the tasting facility.

The focus of B Cellars tours is wine and food pairing. You can have lunch with wines out there or go with a 6 wine tasting that comes with 5 small bite pairings. Our tasting had the 5 bite tasting, which I would recommend. The tasting was 2 whites, then 3 reds and a barrel sample of pinot. I asked if I could try another of their cabs, and they said no problem and brought it right out, which was very nice service.

2017 Jewell Vineyard Sav Blanc – Paired with little fried shrimp nugget with citrus cream or something. Good mouthwatering acidity props up this relatively light sav blanc. Shows passion fruit, melon, and a cut of citrus. Nice little wine to get things going. 89-90.

2017 Blend 23 White - 60% sav blanc, 35% chard, 5% viognier – Paired with crisp pancetta, shaving of ricotta salata, basil infused honey, melon, hazelnut. Okay, the food part was the shit. The pancetta with the cheese, honey, and hazelnut was killer. The melon with pancetta was great. The wine was underwhelming and my wife and I agreed that the parts were likely better than the whole, but the whole did not showcase any of the great aspects of the individual wines. A bit flabby, hint of saline, some melon and apple and peach, but muddled and lacking brightness. 87

2016 Manzana Vineyard Russian River Pinot Noir – Paired with Asian BBQ duck with stir fry. Again, the food bit was on point and the five spice and sweet Asian flavors were a nearly perfect match with the pinot. The pinot was rich, with nice spicy cherry and raspberry driven aromatics. Good but uninspiring. 89

2016 Blend 24 - 60% cab, 32% Sangiovese, 8% Petite Sirah – Paired with a chicken skewer with wild rice and pine nuts. This skewer was delicious, and the pine nut “sauce” was to die for. Not sure it was a great pairing, but it was delicious. The wine was fine. Black cherry punched up with pepper steak and lead pencil. Medium weight with spice. My wife enjoyed it and I thought it was okay. 89-90.

2016 B Cellars Rutherford Cab – Worst pairing of ostrich burger slider with a mild but stinky cheese. I don’t think cheese pairs very well with wine, and think aromatically offensive cheese is a really bad call with red wine. I also generally do not like it on my burger. Food pairing aside, this wine is okay. It is lush and yummy, with plum, blackberry, and a hint of vanilla. Tannins are soft and acid a touch low. It appears well made and is a nice expression of cab. Smooth, yummy, but not a long hauler or a cellar gem. $125 a pop is a bit steep here. 91-92

2016 B Cellars Oakville Cab – No pairing here as I just asked the tasting hostess if I could try it. It was on the for purchase list, though not our tasting list. No hesitation from our host, just a “yes sir” a smile, and a later return with another glass and a fresh bottle. Great service. This is a superior cab to the Rutherford. Where the Rutherford is soft, the Oakville has more punch. It shows nice black cherry and currant, with a hint of mineral, a touch of mint, and more structure. This is good. 93-94 here.

The food and wine matching was really fun. Worthwhile tasting experience with delicious food, great staff, extremely friendly hosts. Excellent service here and a fun and different type of tasting.

Back to the hotel so wife could get ready for dinner. I popped over to V Cellars (100 yards from our hotel) to grab a bottle of bubbly.

2012 Vilmart Grand Cellier d’Or Not really sure what to think about this wine. On entry, it is really quite acidic with explosive lemon oil, lime leaf, apple, and vanilla cream. The vanilla cream finish offsets the rather significant acid with a rather significant sweet taste, but without a seamless transition, resulting in almost a sweet tart type of sour/sweet exchange with a little harshness in between. I want to love it because it has some complexity and is mouthwatering with bracing acidity, but I cannot say that this is a well integrated wine. 91?

Bottega - Yountville Michael Chiarello’s flagship rustic Italian restaurant just about 100 yards from our hotel.

We started our meal with Yellowtail Crudo. This was simply prepared over pink himalayan sea salt with olive oil, onion, capers, and orange. It was exceptional. The flavors were on point and this really sang. Just wish there was a bit more. For our mains, I had the Costolette Brasate e Affumicate, which is Smoked and braised short ribs with grilled Treviso, polenta-spec polpette and smokey jus. My wife had Ricotta Gnocchi della Nonna, which were Ricotta “pillows” with old hen tomato sauce and Pecorino Romano. We both loved our own dish, but did not particularly love each other’s dish. That’s pretty normal for us as we have quite different tastes in food. My short rib was excellent, but the polenta spec polpett with smokey jus was bonkers good. Melt in your mouth insanely delicious. Tiramisu for dessert was yummy. With dinner we had about half a bottle of RAEN Royal St. George Sonoma Coast.

2016 RAEN Royal St. George Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir I really didn’t know much about this producer and took a flyer off the list because of this website. I had an inkling that I’d seen it referenced a number of times on here with some decent praise and so took the shot. I’m glad I did. Wonderful aromatics cherry and raspberry and spicy grilled meat and sous bois and tobacco leaf. Succulent without being heavy. Nice acidity and lift made this both substantive and mouthwatering without being the least bit heavy. Got my attention! 93

Nice notes John. And Happy Anniversary!

Fun read and happy anniversary. I’m taking notes for our next Napa trip.

DAY 2 - Bouchon Bakery, Schramsberg, Auberge du Soleil, REDD, Rivers-Marie

Day 2 was all about relaxing and the Mrs., who loves pastries, champagne, pinot noir, and massages. Luckily, I love all of those things too. What I don’t love is (i) not being able to sleep late due to 9 years of work, kids, and dogs forcing me up before 7:00 literally every day; and (ii) also being on Dallas time, which is 2 hrs ahead of PST. Even despite a fair amount of wine and a relatively late night, I woke up at 5:00 on the dot (7:00 Dallas). By 6:00 I was showered, shaved, smelling good, and ready for coffee. Unfortunately Bouchon Bakery didn’t open until 7:00 so I forced myself back into bed. Tough punishment. After another nice little nap I was ready to roll and by 7:30 was walking back to our little cottage with a massive box of food that no two people could ever hope to consume at one sitting.

Bouchon Bakery: Over the course of three breakfasts I had some or all of an order of: Monkey bread, chocolate almond croissant, strawberry rhubarb danish, cinnamon sugar donut, a raspberry and cream cheese pastry that was something like a muffin made of croissant with raspberry filling and cream cheese icing on top of the filling, and a peach jam filled donut that was perhaps only a moderate success though still delicious. I had one savory item, a pork belly fouee, which was insane. Pork belly, chevre, chives or something. So good and so obviously horrifically bad for you given the juice pouring out as I ate it. Highlights were the chocolate almond croissant, the raspberry cream cheese pastry, and the pork belly fouee. Those three were top of their class. Everything, though, was fantastic. There is no line early.

My one knock on Bouchon Bakery is that the coffee is utterly unremarkable. Rather, my only and immediate remark was “this is watery” and “I’m shocked at a place like this the coffee is not very good.” Needs improvement. Needs to be stronger.

After coffee and establishing a very sturdy base we were off to Schramsberg for a cave tour and reserve wine and cheese tasting.

Schramsberg
Our tour guide, Lindsey Burrell, was amazing. She was fun, serious at times, very knowledgeable, and a great host. I was stunned to learn that Schramsberg’s caves were hand pick axed in the late 1800s by laborers left over from the railway crews. You can see the pick marks in the barrel vaults and on the walls. Really neat. The caves have 3.1 million bottles of sparkling wine stacked up seemingly everywhere, and the sheer volume of it is truly incredible and stretches the imagination. And it’s a small operation. After a tour, Q&A, etc. we returned to a tasting room for our reserve wine and cheese pairing.

2012 Schwarze Vineyard BdB – 100% chard aged 3.5 years before disgorgement. Great wine to start the tasting. Bright, fresh, with citrus driving the bus. Very good cut of acidity with nice mineral, lemon oil, and green apple. A touch of ginger on the back end. This is about bright, refreshing cut. Lovely stuff. 91

2008 J. Schram – 82% Chard, 18% Pinot Noir, aged 7 years before disgorgement. This is really serious sparkling wine. The nose reminded me a bit of Taittinger Comtes. Just beautiful nose of fresh baked yeast roll, apple, lemon curd, graham cracker, and honeysuckle. Nice acidity keeps things clean. I’ll be honest, I just loved it and it was my easy winner for the flight. And then I walked out and bought a bottle to take to lunch. It’s serious stuff. 94-95

2009 Schramsberg Reserve – 82% Pinot Noir, 18% Chard, aged 7 years before disgorgement. This is, in essence, the inverse of the J. Schram. My wife, who does not like most still chardonnay but loves most pinot noir, expected this to be her favorite. I’d kept my opinions to myself but she openly admitted that, despite her expectations, she thought the 2008 J. Schram was the clear winner. I agreed. This is a solid sparkler with apple, peach, bramble, honeysuckle, and poached pear. It has fair complexity, a fine mousse, and nice acidity. It is simply not as compelling as the prior wine and doesn’t taste as good to my palate. 92

2009 J. Schram Rose – 65% Chard, 35% Pinot Noir aged 7 years before disgorgement. This is a nice wine as well and marries the bready and apple focused chard notes with good spicy red fruit from the pinot top up. Strawberry, pomegranate, yeast roll, jazz apple, toast. Nice. 92-93.

2014 J. Davies Diamond Mountain Cab Sav – 80% cab sav, 17% malbec, 3% petit verdot. Interesting wine and obviously well made. It is on the lighter style with soft tannins. A predominantly red and blue fruit profile is enriched with chocolate and smore notes, presumably from time in oak and the malbec addition, and a hint of mineral. Moderate acid, integrated tannins make this ready now or a wait 5-10 years. 91

I’m not really a cheese person, but the Andante Fresh Goat Cheese from Sonoma was brilliant, as was the Cowgirl Creamery Mt. Tam Triple Cream. If you like cheese, find them.

I STRONGLY recommend this tasting/tour and Lindsey Burrell was amazing. She has a wonderful wit and depth of knowledge. And the wines were really strong. I’d never had any of them and was really impressed by what they’re doing with their reserve wine program.

Cool report, thanks for taking the time to write it up. We always overdo it at Bouchon, take some stuff home with us, but it’s best consumed that day. You were lucky to have Andante, a local producer, her cheeses are excellent, but hard to find. There is literally always a Mt. Tam in my fridge

Thanks for the notes; will have to check out Schramsberg sometime, and specifically the J Schram. Also the fouee at Bouchon is maybe in my top 10 pantheon of baked goods and I’m glad you had a chance to try it

DAY 2 - Continued

Auberge du Soliel
We were pretty early for our reservation and showed up with a cold bottle of 2008 J. Schram and big smiles. The host at Auberge offered us a rail seat at the outdoor bar patio while we waited for a rail table in the outdoor dining area. I strongly recommend requesting a rail table. The views are truly stunning ad offer what seems like miles of vineyard and valley floor views. It’s lovely, well shaded, and was about 76 or so when we were there. Just perfect outdoor dining weather. I enjoyed a half dozen oysters and then some roasted white corn soup with terragon creme fraiche to start. Just perfect with the champagne and absolutely delicious. My wife enjoyed a Kampachi Crudo with cukes, tomatoes, and sea beans. She loved it. I then had the Kurobota Pork Chop that was on the prix fixe menu. I honestly don’t recall what it came with. My wife had the Day Boat Scallops. They were absolutely to die for. The scallops were michelin star quality food. For dessert my wife had a trio of sorbets, which were vibrant and delicious, and I had a lemon curd tart thing that was exceptional.

So here’s my take on the Auberge for lunch. Do not order off the prix fixe. Each of the prix fixe items is missing something or is slightly different than what they have on the set menu. My pork chop was prepared differently than the normal pork chop entree and was, unfortunately, overcooked. My white corn soup lacked the crispy fried oysters of the normal app item (which was fine because I had a half dozen oysters anyway. I just don’t think the prix fixe items really give you the full scope of what the Auberge chefs can do, and they can do some damn fine things if the Day Boat Scallops is their wheelhouse. I’ll go back.

REDD – Roy Piper and Will Segui both recommended Redd for a nice upscale dinner in Yountville that is not French Laundry. I was nudged to go heavy on appetizers and happily did just that. Glazed pork belly with apple purée, burdock, and soy caramel was amazing. Smoky, rich, delicious, with a nice acid offset from the apple and burdock. Killer. Sashimi of hamachi with sticky rice, edamame and soy ginger sauce. Yes, we ate some raw fish everywhere. This was also killer. Nothing unusual about the preparation, just very well executed with on point flavors. Lovely. Yellowfin tuna tartare with asian pear, avocado, chili oil, fried rice and cilantro. This was the most novel of the group and a very interesting dish. The fried rice was more like puffed crispy white rice, as opposed to what you’re probably thinking. It was light, puffy, crunchy, and oddly satisfying. The dish seemed lightly seasoned, but the chili oil left a slow, late burn. The pear and cilantro made things light and clean despite the avocado which added a nice rich note. I really liked it and it was a novel preparation. It wouldn’t be my go to, but it was a very interesting and nice dish.

For mains, I had the Roasted chicken with corn, piquillo peppers, pancetta, potatoes, chamterelle mushrooms. My wife had Alaskan halibut with squash, heirloom tomatoes, fregola sarda, mojo de ajo. My chicken was cooked just about right and was delicious. My only issue was that the piquillo peppers added next to zero pop. The result was a very delicious but very salty dish that needed a little acid to brighten things up. Still, very enjoyable and I ate it up. My wife’s halibut was, in my opinion, slightly overcooked. The flavors, though, were wonderful and had tons of pop. The mojo de ajo was beautiful and flavorful without being overwhelming. We were both rather satisfied. A few things on the main could have been executed a little better, but it was a nice meal. Dessert was Apricot Cheesecake with burnt honey ice cream for me, and “Assorted Cheeses” for my wife. My cheesecake was excellent with great “real cheesecake” texture and wonderful apricot flavor. The burnt honey ice cream was the jams, and I’d like a pint to go, please. The assorted cheeses as a dessert was a problem. It was prepared with a big ball of arugula in the middle, and one of the assorted cheeses was a very salty and very bleu and meaty stinky cheese. Perhaps she needed a strong port, but the cheese selection and presentation looked better suited for an early meal charcuterie board, and not a dessert presentation.

I’ll go back to Redd, but may not make it a top priority. Attire was all over the map. I come from a land of slacks and dress shirts and often jackets at nice restaurants and Redd purports to be that. My wife and I were rather over dressed. While there were maybe three other men with slacks and jacket, there were more with shorts and dress shirt with sleeves rolled back, or in jeans and a dress shirt. While I like to err on over-dressed, we were easily the most dressed up couple in the restaurant. Slacks and a dress shirt or even chinos and a dress shirt would have been plenty nice.

Cocktails at Redd are delicious. Damage Control and Purple Haze are strong recommends.

2015 Rivers-Marie Silver Eagle Vineyard Pinot Noir – It’s big, it’s TRB. Big nose of rich black cherry and pomegranate and spice box. Moderate to mid-low acid, but enough to keep it reasonable fresh and not just big and thick. Quite a departure from the RAEN, but also good in its own way. 91-92.

Thanks for the report . I really liked watching the riddling process at Schramsberg .

Glad you enjoyed Redd. I can’t imagine going there (at least for dinner) dressed in shorts, that’s unusual. But summer tourists, who may have been out all day and didn’t get back to their hotel to change probably explains it.

One more thing about Redd and Bottega…the meals were both relatively inexpensive for fine dining. I was surprised to see cheaper prices in Yountville than you’d see in Dallas for food of similar quality. The dining experiences were great. $25 corkage for the first two bottles and food prices that are on the lower end of expensive dining. I know they weren’t French Laundry, but 16-20 for apps and 25-35 for mains is pretty reasonable, all things considered.

John, thanks for the notes and happy anniversary!

DAY 3 – Alpha Omega, Charter Oak, Hall

This was an interesting tasting schedule. A couple of contacts of mine have ownership interests in Hall and strongly suggested I get setup at Hall Rutherford for a special tasting. Unfortunately, the Hall Partners meetings were there at the same time, and there was no chance for us. We were punted to a normal tour and tasting at Hall, which I did not want to do. I worked with the contact at Hall, who was very helpful and gracious, and setup an “Ultimate Cab Collector’s Experience”. The other connection was with Alpha Omega, who I’ve known of for quite a while now, but had strangely never actually tried one of their wines (that I can remember). Having seen Mike Grammer’s insane notes about tasting with Jean Hoefliger, the winemaker, I was very excited. My contact put me in touch with Rick Patton, who I’d read about in other threads as being an amazing host and Berserker friendly. Then, Mike put me in touch with Jean. An introductory email turned into about a 20 email exchange about all sorts of things from kids to basketball and even a tiny bit about wine. What a great group.

Alpha Omega
We walked up, Rick Patton swooped in, led us to a private room set for four, and sat us down. I was surprised to see a setting for 4 but Rick later explained he always does that so he can use all the extra glasses should thins get fun, and it did. I really can’t stress enough how great a host Rick was. He was fun, knowledgeable, attentive, and did a great job balancing my geekiness with my wife’s not-geekiness. Great guy with a great story.

2015 Unoaked Chardonnay - Clean pear and apple notes with a hint of honeysuckle and floral notes. My wife does not like chardonnay much, but enjoyed this light, bright version. 88 or so and that’s not an insult. Porch Pounder.

2014 Chardonnay - Creamy but with decent freshness, showing nectarine, apple and a touch of vanilla. Nice wine. 89-90

2016 Tolosa Primera Edna Ranch Pinot Pretty big pinot with mid-low acid. Freshened with a mineral undertone. Focus is clearly on the massive cherry and currant profile with a hint of orange peel and spice. It’s big, but not quite my preferred style. 91 ish.

2014 Proprietary Red sweet red and blue fruit profile with a soft entry. A little freshness here helps. Some oak notes, but a nice tidy package and a solid wine. 91

2015 Cabernet Sauvignon More black cherry and blackberry fruit profile with nice structure and balance. The red and black fruit profile is offset by subtle sharpened pencil notes. I preferred this to the 14 prop. 92

2016 ERA Proprietary Red Big, rich, creamy black currant and plum notes drive a lush mouthfeel with vanilla cream, soft licorice, and oak notes pushing this along. Long finish with well integrated tannins. No hard edges here. I’m guessing this will score big. 94-95 here.

Then we tasted the ERA components individually:

2016 Beckstoffer To Kalon This is amazing juice. The slight increase in black cherry notes and acid in this wine give it a lift and freshness that is to die for. Bright, explosive floral aromatics pair with pure red and black fruits and layers of complexity. I thought this was a must buy. Great structure, great balance, beautiful fruit, explosive aromatics, and great complexity. 97 or so. Probably the best wine I tasted on the trip.

2016 Thomas Vineyard I can see the influence from this component in the ERA. This is much softer, feels lower in acid, and has a deep, black currant and big plum note to it. It’s more of a bass beat, if that makes sense. This is rich, creamy fruit with sweet oak and less structure and verve. 92

2016 Dr. Crane Back to business. This is in between the two. More lift and structure than the Thomas, slightly darker fruit profile with blackberry, hint of cocoa, some minty lift on the finish, and some nice savory notes that pull together this wine with really nice waves of complexity. This is a very slight step down for me from the To Kalon, but is excellent in its own right. 95

Then some other single vineyards:

2016 Las Piedras I thought this was excellent. Slightly lighter fruit profile, showing some blackberry, currant, raspberry, decent acidity and good tannic structure. Good verve here and a nice complex wine with some good spice and potpourri notes on the finish. This is slightly lighter in profile than the Crane and Thomas, but still full bodied. Really nice. I had To Kalon the winner, then Las Piedras with Dr. Crane right on its heels. 95-96 range here. Lovely.

2016 Stagecoach This is full bodied black and purple fruit with big plum and black currant, sweet vanilla, spice, and maybe a hint of charcoal. Some structure. A lovely wine, but lacking the depth and complexity of the TK, LP, and DrC. 92

After noting I preferred the To Kalon and its fruit and structural profile, Rick sneaked out and returned with two bottles in his hand. I’m telling you, he’s a great host.

2010 Beckstoffer To Kalon – Beautiful sappy black cherry, blackberry, lavender, licorice, sweet oak profile with nice lift from decent acid and lovely structure. Napa cab. Good sized wine without being heavy. 94

2011 Beckstoffer To Kalon – Obviously lighter weight wine with explosive licorice and twizzler aromatics with canned jellied cranberry sauce and bright cherry fruit and underlying oak. Smooth tannins with good acidic cut. Really nice bright fruit here without herbaceous notes creeping in. Again, massive cherry and licorice aromatic! Not as dense as other vintages, but a winner in its own right and a really fun wine to drink now. It’s good. One of the better 11s I’ve had of late. 93

I like what they’re doing here and the customer experience is first rate. A big thanks again to Rick Patton for his incredible hospitality. A very fun tasting and Alan, I did spit. Just not everything.

****DAY 3 – Continued

Charter Oak – Lunch in St. Helena
I was very excited to try Charter Oak. I’ve heard good things about the food quality and presentation and the laid back “big room” environment. We arrived a bit early for our reservation but were seated promptly. The table settings are stowed in a neat built in drawer in the table, which is very cool. Water is provided in an old glass and pewter pitcher. The wine list is extensive and has some nice picks. Prices range from fair for some bottles to rapacious for others.

The menu for lunch is mostly very casual dining. Fried chicken sandwich, smoked beef rib, hamburger, etc. The sides are mostly grilled on the hearth and the pitch is good, fresh ingredients and great execution. My wife and I both had a glass of Schramsberg Rose ($25 a glass, which seems very high given the locale, but okay) and a fried chicken sandwich.

For starters we ordered the goat cheese and honeycomb with grilled bread (champagne and cheese, or even just “assorted cheeses” is always a go for my wife. The grilled bread is the easy star of the show. Hearty, thick cut and nicely buttered grilled bread was both crusty and soft. Absolutely killer stuff with just the right char and smokey flavor. The honeycomb is just that, and so obviously delicious. The cheese was Andante (goat) but a hard goat cheese in big lumps. Not spreadable at all, and required a fork and knife to get a slice to eat with the bread. It was good, but not particularly interesting or even very user friendly, and getting cheese, bread, and honey together was a bit of a task.

The fried chicken sandwich with ember oil, mayo, and iceberg lettuce was next. My wife went with the house made chips and I went with greens. The chicken sandwich was executed perfectly but could have used a touch more salt. They serve it with a bottle of house hot sauce which I thought was piquant and bright, but not particularly spicy. I had about half the sandwich with and half without. I thought it was a very good sandwich and was really juicy. I’d recommend the hot sauce because the sandwich could use just a touch more pop. The chips were not very good, but I tend to think that most bagged chips are much better than house made chips which never seem to taste just right to me. The greens looked fresh and tasted fresh. They were very simply prepared and tossed with a decent dressing. My wife commented that it looked like the most boring side dish made for a rabbit that she’d seen in a while and that’s probably an apt description. I should have gone with fries, which would have gone nicely with the champers, but the greens were okay.

Here’s the problem: The service at The Charter Oak was dog shit. Absolute garbage. I’ve never paid so much for a lunch or dinner and received worse service at any restaurant I’ve ever been to. We sat with our water and no waiter for 10 minutes. We sat with no drinks, no more water, and empty plates for 10 minutes before I had to ask a passing hostess to find someone to take our check. I didn’t even see our waiter in the restaurant for those 10 minutes and it’s one large room. Either he needed to take a major dump in the middle of the lunch rush, or was out smoking a cigarette and dicking around. We couldn’t even consider dessert because there was no one to offer or even to clear our main plates. During that same time, a couple called over the manager and lit into her because they’d NEVER had their order taken, had another tasting appointment, and would miss it if they stayed to eat. They spent 20 minutes with NOTHING but a water pitcher. We recognized another foursome at our next tasting stop who were running in late and THEY were apologizing for the restaurant delay. I’ve seen a forgotten table, but I’ve not seen 3 massive failures at 1 lunch session at a purportedly “great” restaurant in an area where upcoming appointments are the norm. The service was legitimately shameful for a restaurant that purports to be of top caliber.

This was my first experience with a no-tip higher end restaurant. A “service charge” is built into all of the item costs. The result for us was the appearance of very expensive casual food ($12 for some mini lettuces with simple vinaigrette, $20 chicken sandwich) and horrific service. I will not go back to Charter Oak and cannot recommend Charter Oak.

Day 3 Continued – Hall St. Helena
I’ve actually been to Hall 3 times over 13 years. Once when it was a tiny little building next to the old Flora Springs stop in tasting room. Back then it was nice QPR and making some big but solid merlot and cabs. Then 5 years ago on a drop in with no appointment at its slightly larger room when it was full stride seeking 100 point scores. And now again at its utterly gargantuan glass, steel, and exposed concrete mega-building laced with an odd but visually appealing assortment of art ranging from a huge fabric piece to small pencil and pastel pieces, to a lifelike camel sculpture. The wines seem to have grown with the buildings and coffers.

I like more intimate tastings in Napa and Hall St. Helena is like walking into a crazy rock concert with a less wine-geek crowd and just an immense number of people. It’s more of an ongoing party than any kind of sit and learn and explore type of deal. Jamming music, million people walking in an out. So much action. Some of my all-time favorite tastings, like a million barrel samples at Benovia when it was just getting off the ground, or an intimate deal at Pride, or Brick House with the winemaker, are made all the better by the intimacy and by how things start rolling when you and the host realize there is a really serious mutual interest between folks who care. Hall St. Helena is just not that. This was an interesting tasting because of the wines and because the group (my wife and me and 4 others) was funny. For instance, the young woman to my right at the tasting, who was probably 5’1" tall and a few months married to a guy who was maybe 5’ 7" touched my arm and said, “Can we all just address the elephant in the room?” That made me very nervous, but “sure,” I said. “You’re like, super tall. Did you play pro sports or something? What did you play?”

Um, lol. I’m only 6’3" but I guess that’s super tall, relatively speaking. I didn’t know that was an elephant in the room, but at least the build up and question was a nice diversion. I guess I don’t yet exude desk-jockey, so that’s nice.

Hall - Ultimate Cab Collector Tasting
The tasting is about the cost of a bottle of wine, and you’re poured about the content of a bottle of wine so in that sense, you’re getting your money’s worth. The tasting is one wine on arrival, then 4 wines across various vineyards and vintages, followed by another wine from their “Platinum” collection, which they consider their truly top tier cabs.

2014 Jack’s Masterpiece Cab – Rich, deep black fruit, slightly bitter cocoa, significant tannins, lower acid. This is an extracted, big oaked rich cab with plum and currant dominant. Lots of fruit, lots of tannic structure (a theme). Hard to deny this is well made, albeit missing some elegance. 93

2011 Kathryn Hall – Dried basil, licorice, blackberry, anise seed, fennell, and coffee. Medium tannins and acid. Decent 2011 that’s an interesting sip. Held up decently in the lineup and was not entirely dominated by a fruit profile. 91

2012 Bergfeld Cab – Pepper and black cherry, more loaded black fruit, clove/spice, slight heat, mid-low acid, medium high tannins. 92

2014 Howell Mountain Cab – Black currant, chocolate, spice, and big tannins. A burly deep fruited cab for those that like big wines. Maybe a hint of sharpened pencil. I thought this was a little too big, but imagine those who like big Napa cabs will think this is wonderful. Tough to deny there is serious stuffing here so objectively, 92-93?, but I did not buy any.

2015 Diamond Mountain Cab – This was easily my favorite of the group and my wife’s as well. It is, like seemingly all of the Hall wines, very big. But this wine at least had a beautiful undercurrent of minerality that kept things fresh. The loaded blue fruit, plum, and currant profile went well with the minerality. Spice box and a hint of cedary oak on the finish. Stout tannins. [94-95]

2014 Sacrashe Cab – I think this is rather huge and extracted and driven by deep black currant, plum notes, maybe a touch of fig newton, vanilla, cocoa, and licorice. Deep, luscious wine that is dense and velvety on the palate. For those who like rich, big fruited Napa cabs, this is a home run. I imagine various critics will score this very highly. For me, it’s missing a bit of aromatic complexity and explosiveness that I’d hope for on a wine at this price point. 94

Tough to kick shit on Hall. They’re undeniably making really good wine, even if not to everyone on this board’s preference. The wines are clean, rich, have structure, and are appealing wines. Not particularly elegant, perhaps, but big, dense wines of not insignificant complexity. And certainly huge critical acclaim. Financially, it’s obviously working for them.

What a dreamy trip you’ve had John—sounds like all goes well so far! Nice notes on the A&O wines where we do differ on preference but that’s more than OK. I had the time of my life on my 17 day trip. It sounds and reads as though you’re doing the same right now. Keep up the good work!

Sante

Mike

We had a blast. We’re back to the real world again. Sort of. It actually seemed like I brought Napa back to Dallas with me. I stopped in at Grailey’s on Tuesday to pick up a mixed case or so of wines I’d bought earlier in the year and guess what? Riana Mondavi was there pouring 08, 09, 11, 12, and 13 Aloft Howell Mountain, made by TRB. Since I had to wait a few minutes while Grailey’s finished packing my boxes at their warehouse across the street I figured hell, might as well keep the ball rolling!

I’ll post those in a bit. Fascinating experience. 08 was their inaugural vintage. They clearly tried to make changes in 09. The wines are amazingly different, though both enjoyable in their own right. Then 11 is altogether a different animal. It took to 2012 for them to find a style and presentation they really wanted to reflect the brand. 12 and 13 are pretty similar. Big, well structured. The others were all over the map, which was really, really fun to taste.

Thanks for the recommendations. Just booked at Vintage House for a January visit.

Trip itinerary as it currently stands: *(any and all feedback welcome)

Jan 10: Fun day in SF - SFMoMA, Swan Oyster Depot, dinner at Progress, Foreign Cinema, or Rich Table
Jan 11: Drive to Napa; wineries TBD (suggestions particularly welcome!!!); dinner at Bouchon (fond memories for us there - we met Thomas Keller last time we were there); stay at VINTAGE HOUSE (Thanks!!) x 2 nights
Jan 12: AM tasting at Kistler; PM tasting at Ridge Lytton Springs. Will throw in some walk-ins if there is time (e.g. Stonestreet)
Jan 13: AM tasting at Failla; drive to Los Gatos. Dinner at Manresa; stay at Hotel Los Gatos x 2 nights
Jan 14: AM tasting at Ridge Monte Bello; lunch in Cupertino; PM tastings on Monte Bello road
Jan 15: Still TBD but involves tooling around Bay Area then going back to SF and having a nice dinner

Currently trolling the boards to pick places for Jan 11. Tons of great material here.

I’ll note for those looking at this thread in the future that Redd is closed.

Looks like a great itinerary, plenty there, but not overdone. Unless you have something in mind in Cupertino, think about buying sandwiches and having a picnic up at Ridge. They have remodeled, with plenty of nice picnic spaces.

If you want something other than wine, I always recommend Mumm and Turnbull for their wonderful photography exhibits.

Thanks for the feedback, Alan. On the Cupertino picnic, we may have to call an audible based on the mid-January weather.