We went to Napa in May but I was waiting for the new site so I could post pictures easily
I happened to take the most pictures at Seven Apart, plus it’s not as well known since it’s new.
I think I first first heard about it from an ad on Facebook offering their entry level wine, Expedition. Early on the ads were sort of like “we assert that this is a great wine, plus we have Andy Erickson” - so I was kind of skeptical that it was all just marketing. Plus the Expedition was not inexpensive, so I ignored it for a while. Then some critic ratings came out (98 I think without digging around too much) but more importantly some friends I trust on wine said it was terrific, so I ordered some. Drank a bottle of Expedition as soon as I got it, to decide whether to keep buying, and agreed it’s a great wine. So - I was excited to visit.
View of some vines growing on the valley floor. They had to make some changes to get more favorable drainage, I think (can’t remember for sure) these were just planted maybe last year:
Jan was our host and was very nice and a lot of fun. In the background are the modern stainless tanks, which are fully automated, e.g. pump over is run from the computer.
Here’s the control panel that runs it all.
Bunch of fittings.
Barrels - from various coopers, with different toast levels, and note a few from Beau Vigne which was previously on this property
Indoors, nice modern decor and glass cellar.
In the tasting room - I believe they were out of Shale so we had Expedition 2018, Expedition 2019, Basalt 2019, and Summit 2019.
Without a ton of tastings, they use a Coravin, but they have an impressive “mega coravin”. Basically an adapter that lets you buy Argon in bulk. You can contact the guy who makes it with the info on the box:
Throughout the building, they did a nice job of opening up the outside - this is the large window in the tasting room.
I’ve been buying each release - I have to guess that the list is going to fill fairly quickly based on the small production and quality of these wines. They have recently raised prices a bit (general economy) but also I would guess because they can as they get more recognition.
My rough notes on the wines we had:
Expedition 2018 - Black cherry, leather, blackberry, bramble, clove. Some barnyard and eucalyptus on the palate.
Expedition 2019 - Red and black cherry, graphite, blueberry, cinnamon, caramel. Flint, dried cherry, leather on palate.
Basalt 2019 - Oregano, anise, dried blackberry, fig paste, maple syrup. Dried blueberry, chalk, stems on palate.
Summit 2019 - Red cherry, raspberry, red plum, bramble, black pepper, graphite. Black cherry, blueberry, Cocoa on palate.
They are all great wines. We bought 12 of Expedition 2018 and 3 more Basalt 2019 (already had 3 on order from recent offer). Expedition is their entry level, from vines mostly at the main facility on the valley floor. The other three wines are from mountain vineyards. I believe I am remembering that Basalt and Shale are from two different sides of their vineyard, with different character. Summit is a blend from those two parts of the vineyard. Summit was great but for me not worth the higher price over Basalt.
All in all, highly recommend visiting or purchasing these wines.