I’ve done a few of the experiences/learning series at Phelps. They are fun and interactive.
Barrel tasting where you go through and taste wine from neutral oak, french oak, american oak, medium toast, etc… Each barrel gives the same wine different very distinct profile.
Insignia blending where they give you most of the components that go into Insignia (3-4 base cab, some PV, some malbec) and you try to blend it to make the Insignia. Of course with the time constraint and skill, your blend is usually horrific.
Aroma challenge where you smell 10 different things in black glasses and try to figure out what they are. Fun to drink wine from black glass and guess what it is.
Does anyone know if any other wineries do these fun experiences?
Chateau Montelena used to do a tasting experience where you match scent/flavor to their wine profiles. Not on the website anymore so don’t know if still available.
I think Bell still has something similar, but haven’t looked recently.
Conn Creek has a blending experience based on AVA blends and blenders (Malbec, cad Franc, Petit Verdot, Merlot) where you walk away with a wine you make.
Dare I say, Del Dotto’s cave experience was informative on barrel toast, but we were toast by the time we were done.
Raymond Vineyards has a ‘Winemaker for a Day’ blending experience like Conn Creek. They also have a ‘Theater of Nature’ outside where biodynamic farming is exhibited and explained.
Slightly differently, a couple of years ago, we were at Ridge at Lytton Springs in Sonoma where we went around with them on a cart and got a tour of the vineyards, seeing things like 100+ year old vines. Found that pretty neat.
Never been there, but I have heard from people I know that Del Dotto does the different types of new oak things. I have also gotten the sense from people who have visited that if you go there you get a real hard sell on signing up for one of their wine programs.
Not in Napa, but when in Burgundy last year, one of our visits was to Domaine Yvon Clerget where Thibaud Clerget had us try his 2017 Clos Vougeot from three barrels, one with one year old oak, one with new oak with a light toast, and one with new oak with a medium toast. I liked the wine from the one year old barrel the most, but my wife liked the one from light toast. However, I think we agreed that the best wine was where he blended the three together and gave us that to taste. Really excellent wine.
At the end, they give the cheat sheet for all of their vintages which has the % breakdown. They really handicap you by removing one or two of the components from the blending session.
They have 4 cabernets from 4 different vineyards, each has very different profile. You taste them separately first. Then you build your base according to what you like, then you build the second, and third, etc… Then you add malbec for acidity or structure or whatever. Then you add PV for spiciness. Something like that. They didn’t have one more cabernet or a cab franc for my session.
Too much PV or malbec really take the blend off the cliff. Too much of certain cabernet also make it all about that cabernet. You use a pipette to source from each component to the main glass, so accuracy is down to mL level. You have a glass of the real one to compare to. My best blend out of 5-6 probably tasted like an Insignia knock off. My worst blend, probably similar to the cheapest BV.
It’s fun to do with friends, you try theirs, they try yours. Then you come out with higher appreciation for wine makers.
A few years ago I really enjoyed the wine tasting seminar at Corner 103 in downtown Sonoma with the owner Lloyd. It was a great introduction to understanding how to pair food to wine effectively. Highly recommended.
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