Potential Wineries to Visit in Napa

WINE TALK
21

Clos Du Val spent millions on a new tasting room (just reopened) and their wines have improved dramatically the last 5 vintages.

22

Alpha Omega, Fontanella, Krupp Brothers.

23

Damn. I gotta play the lottery more often [dance-clap.gif]

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24

Anyone have any thoughts on visiting Fantesca, Gandona, or Hourglass?

25

I tasted at Fantesca in February of 2018 as I wanted to taste some wines made by Heidi Barret, when I was booking my tasting with La Sirena they offered to do it at Fantesca and allow me to add on a tasting of Fantesca afterwards. I see now that both are $100 each so if you really want to get an idea of her style and don’t mind spending the money I’d say do both. For the Fantesca portion they walked me around the grounds a bit, let me taste a pinot (not made by Heidi) out of the barrel, showed me the spaces they have for members to do events (which was nice and overlooks the vineyard). Then I tried each of the current bottlings. I was offered to purchase all of the bottlings as a non-member, except for the estate cab. The wines themselves were good, with the cab and cab blend (All Great Things) being better than the pinot and chard. I don’t know if things have changed, but from what I remember the grounds/tasting room are nice, but nothing special (i.e. no gimmicks or fancy gardens).

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26

Vincent Arroyo for their petite syrahs. Really good juice. Tasting is free.

27

Hourglass is a really nice visit. Gorgeous property and the tasting area in the cave is one of the prettier settings I’ve seen. They took us through some barrel samples afterwards which was really nice. Love the wines and while the cabs are great, I think their merlot and Cab franc are stars.

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28

:+1: for Hourglass.

29

Thanks for the info. Hourglass is our first stop next month, so it sounds like we will kick thing off right. We have a couple of Napa first timers in our group, so that should be a great way to kick things off.

30

Two of the most impressive tours (IMHO), and at opposite ends of the spectrum, are Schramsberg and Palmaz.

Schramsberg is amazing with the old original hand dug tunnels and the hand riddling of the bottles. There are only a very few others where the caves are not modern machine made. As well the history of being the first US Sparkling Wine in the White House is really cool.

On the other end of the spectrum is Palmaz, possibly the most high tech, yet classic feeling winery on earth, and the Cabs are really good as well.

31

Following as I’m planning a trip for mid May

32

+1. And the history of the property and the family is quite interesting as well. And the lower end sparklers are readily available in the US retail market, which allows you to continue the Napa experience and not get locked into mailing lists .

33

I have been wanting to visit Schramsberg ever since I read James Conaway’s first book, a great read for any lovers of Napa wine.

34

I worked and lived at Seavey Vineyard for 4 years. It’s an amazing place and very personal. It’s a good 15 minutes outside of St Helena but it feels like a different world. Only 4 wines, so the pace is slow. They were very under-the-radar until ~3 years ago, and have increased their prices ~50% (deservedly).
Secluded areas like Conn Valley (Seavey) or Prichard Hill (Chapellet, David Arthur, etc) are remarkably far off the beaten path, especially as one needs to drive slowly and carefully down winding country roads while 1/2 the traffic may have chosen not to spit. I would focus on one of these areas and hit up 3 wineries in that location. There isn’t a good way to get from Conn Valley to Prichard Hill (save by boat).

35

How are the Davies wines that they serve at Schramsberg? I love sparkling but my wife does not so figure that may be a good stop so we can both get our fix

36

+1 to this question. Went to Schramsberg back in the day before they were serving the still wines, and currently bidding on a tasting package at Davies (someone give me an answer in the next 7 days! [cheers.gif])

37

I enjoyed the Davies wines when I tasted there. Worthwhile to me

38

J Davis has their own tasting room, separate from Schramsberg. The reds are a fun tasting to attend - my wife and I enjoyed it. The J Davies Jamie is a pretty nice bottle of wine.

39

I really like aesthetic tastings as well as solid wines. Some of these for me are

Lokoya
Cade
Ovid
Continuum
Nine Suns

40

I also recommend Rarecat, they have a wonderful selection of wines and are great people. The tasting is very intimate at the owner’s home. I work with the winemaker, Joel Aiken, on other projects. Joel was the winemaker at BV for 27 years. So if you enjoy the GdL’s from 1985-2010 then you will have an idea of what to expect. And of course I can always host tastings for my Chiron wines in Calistoga if you are looking for some mountain cabs and grenache.

Other Recs:
Theorem
Paravel
Aiken Wines
Flint Knoll
Sarah Francis
And I love what Todd and Tom have created at Dakota Shy
And make sure you get Tanner if you go to David Arthur, he’s one of the best hosts in the valley