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They (photo) shoot horses, don’t they?

Calistoga artist Tom Scheibal and two friends

One of the more bohemian, talented persons I know in Napa Valley, Tom Scheibal, has spent the past six months horsing around, so to speak.

Using pastels, feathers, wool, and whatever else he finds in his studio, the Calistoga artist evolved a series of mixed-media panels, of which the theme is WILD HORSES. (This would be a good time to turn up the volume of The Rolling Stones’ “Wild Horses…”). Many of the images are finished with a luscious, thick coat of clear acetate-like lacquer, which hardens, adding depth to the subject.

 

I was shocked to see how good the series is; Tom, who has become a good friend over the 13 years I have lived in Napa Valley, called one day last summer and said, “I think I am going to paint wild horses.” He announced his decision with the casualness of one who has just skimmed the newspaper, and decided to attend the 8 pm screening of a film. If Tom had earlier been ruminating on the subject of what to paint for months, it certainly was never shared.

I only knew Tom as a sculptor, who had studied in Brighton, England, and as a designer/decorator, who has filled many homes in Napa Valley with brilliant, original and eclectic art. He also designed lawn furniture, which he fabricated on a fairly large scale in Mexico. Until last summer, I never knew the guy had an innate drawing talent, too.

 

This week, in advance of his exhibition at Myra Hoefer Design, in Healdsburg, Tom asked me to photograph some of his newest works for his own portfolio; in a word, they are awesome!

In fact, I was so impressed by his output that I figured napaman readers would want to know about the Healdsburg exhibit, which opens Sunday, January 24 at 2 pm. Tom will be present.

Myra Hoefer Design is located on the town square at 309 Healdsburg Ave., Healdsburg, CA 95448. Tel: 707-694-2121.

 

I asked Tom what piqued his interest in horses, wild or not.

“I grew up next to a farm in Bellingham, WA, where they kept a herd of majestic Arabian horses. I’ve never forgotten these horses, though I have never actively ridden.”

Tom says that he has also been inspired by Robert Redford’s work to rescue wild horses; as such, part of the proceeds of the sale of images in this exhibition will be donated to several wild horse sanctuaries across the country.

 

Save the date! 3 of Italy’s top winemakers coming to the Bay-area…

Here’s a chance to meet, and have dinner with, three award-winning Italian winemakers, each a recipient of “tre bicchieri,” (three glasses), Gambero Rosso’s designation for Top Wine.

The event is billed as “A Tre Bicchieri Journey Through Italy,” and is being hosted February 25, at one of my favorite Bay-area wine stores and restaurants, PRIMA, in Walnut Creek.

(Am thinking that perhaps they should rename the place and call it DUO since it’s both a well-stocked wine store and a fabulous restaurant!)

The winemakers who will be present, pouring their wines:

Cristina Oddero pulls corks from her wines

Cristina Oddero, whom I visited just two months ago at her winery, Fratelli Oddero, in La Morra, in the Langhe region of Piemonte.

I summarized my visit by noting “Cristina produces liquid poetry.” Let’s hope she brings some of her stunning 2001 Mondoca Bussia Soprano, an ambrosial Barolo filled with truffle scents and ripe red fruit.

Felsina winery, in Tuscany

Caterina Mazzocolin, who makes the stunning wines at Fattoria Felsina, in Castelnuovo Berardenga, Tuscany.

Felsina Panorama

I visited her family’s winery a few years ago, and spent a morning with Caterina’s dad, Giuseppe. I was overwhelmed by the quality of reds coming off their property.In fact, if volume is any significance, the largest single selection of Chiantis in my cellar comes from the Felsina property. Their 04, 06 and 07 Sangiovese-based wines are thrilling.

Caterina will pour Felsina’s full line-up at the PRIMA tasting, including Cru Rancia, as well as Wine Spectator’s Number 13 wine of the year, Fontalloro. 

Winemaker Sabino Loffredo

Sabino Loffredo, from Campania, who makes the much ballyhoo’d Pietracupa, in Avellino, is the only winemaker at the PRIMA event whose property I have not visited.

I asked John Rittmaster, owner of PRIMA, to share a few thoughts about Sabrino’s wines, and what guests might expect at the event:

“Southern Italy is less traveled than Piemonte and Tuscany; and while many associate the Amalfi Coast and Napoli with Campania, to me it is the meandering hills around the towns of Avellino and Taurasi.  It is here where some of Italy’s purest, most lovely, whites are made in the shadow of grumpy old Mount Vesuvius and some of the oldest vineyards in the world produce dark, pungent Aglianico wines capable of aging effortlessly for decades. 

Sabino Loffredo’s Pietraculpa wines are some of the best made in all of Campania. The whites are intense, minerally and broadly flavored while Sabino’s Taurasi is a showstopper. His wines will add a distinctly southern accent to this evening’s journey around Italy.”

Highlights of the event

There are really two parts to the Tre Bicchieri  evening.

From 5:30 to 7 pm, you may hob-nob with the winemakers, taste their wines, and nibble on antipasti. The fee is $20 per person.

As well, or instead of attending the in-store tasting, at 7 pm, you may sit down to a fabulous full-course dinner, at which wines from all three producers will be poured copiously. The cost for dinner is $85 per diner, plus tax and gratuity.

Reservations are suggested for the tasting, but required for the dinner.

Sign up by emailing info@primawine.com, or call 925-935-7780 and speak with John.

PRIMA is at 1522 North Main Street, Walnut Creek, CAPS. I was so thrilled with the fall-color shots I took in Piemonte, near Cristina Oddero’s estate, two months ago, that I want to share them with readers.

One More Thing: The Langhe in fall may be the most beautiful wine region I have ever seen. If Wine Heaven looks like this, I won’t put up a struggle to go.

 

You’ll never read about Napa Valley in this magazine – yet it’s a must-get!

Business colleagues, with whom I recently worked, evolved the four-letter name of a new travel magazine -- AFAR. As much as I like the all-caps title, I also like the magazine, which is two-issues-old.

The magazine is such a bold experiment in publishing that maybe they should have chosen a five-letter word for the masthead instead: BALLS! Because that’s what it must have taken magazine founder and CEO Greg Sullivan to start a magazine venture at a time when many popular magazines are folding in the economic swamp – Gourmet, Metropolitan Home, Modern Bride among them last year, and Mcgraw-Hill just sold its money-draining BusinessWeek to Bloomberg.

What makes Sullivan’s move to start a new travel magazine even more preposterous are these two realities:

1. The editorial offices are in San Francisco, not media-saturated New York.

2. The editorially elegant magazine, filled with snazzy photos and alluring layouts, only features destinations OUTSIDE the U.S.

So you will never see a story written by napaman about Napa Valley in AFAR, or a story written by others about Mt Rushmore, Disneyland, or the Badlands of North Dakota, either.

But since other magazines look after these themes, Sullivan’s efforts may attract a xeno-keen audience. (If someone ‘xenophobic’ fears strangers, then someone who is ‘xeno-keen’ would have a love for -- and attraction to -- that which is foreign and exotic, to my way of thinking, and my way of wordsmithing.)

AFAR is what you would get if you threw copies of National Geographic, Food & Wine, and Travel & Leisure into a food processor and pulsed on high for 15 seconds.

The stories are largely functional, certainly make you want to go to the destinations featured and they tell you how to get there.

You have to applaud AFAR’s editorial idealism: No one on the team—no writer, editorial member or photographer – accepts free trips, free lodging or free meals.

On top of which, to offset the carbon emissions generated by flights taken to the places written about, or photo’d, in the magazine, AFAR donates to the Gold Standard Portfolio of Sustainable Travel International. For example, to generate all the stories for Issue Two, AFAR offset 21.62 metric tons of carbon emissions. Them’s a lot of emissions, but how else are you going to get to Russia, Sweden, Burma, Ireland, Netherlands, Ecuador, India, the Seychelles and Spain?

At this point, AFAR is published bi-monthly (6 x/yr). A subscription is $19.95 for one year, $34.95 for two years and $49.95 for three years. If interested, call 888-403-9001.

Napaman’s Best Wines of the Year!

And nearly half of them were not from Napa Valley.

Here are my favorite wines of the year.

If there is any thing to be learned from the list, it is that they are listed in an order which relates to how these wines surprised me and from which I had no expectation. And then BWAM!... poured from the bottle, these wines overwhelmed me for their sensuality, elegance, balance, harmony and overall achievement.

1998 Domaine de Pegau

Good friends from Calistoga, Barry and Lea, brought this perfect, perfectly aged, 11-year-old Chateauneuf du Pape to our home to complement Carol’s roast chicken dinner in the spring.

It was early in the year -- only March -- and it was a crazy thing to say in print, but I eagerly identified this as a probable candidate for Wine of the Year.

And as good as all the other wines on this page were, none brought the surprise, elegance, balance, maturity and pleasure to the dining table as this wine did.

A complete, compelling beverage, filled with fruit, earth, complexity and elegance.

A truly remarkable wine. And opened exactly at its peak – not one day too young, not one day too old. The vinous definition of Perfection. 100 points.

1990 Chateau Grand-Puy-Lacoste

This Bordeaux Pauillac, was served at a kick-ass dinner prepared by my sister-and brother-in-law, Shelly and Mike, in Toronto.

The wine was filled with focused raspberry and mature fruit flavors, which leapt from the glass in a way that I can't ever recall experiencing a Bordeaux wine. It was almost as if some other younger, fresher wine was in this bottle, and yet the provenance of the wine was documented and its origin secure.

There were hints of graphite, minerals and earth beneath the fresh fruit top notes; a very elegant, complex wine in near-perfect pitch and harmony. 98 points.

 2006 Ascheri Barolo, Vigna dei Pola

This was the top-scoring wine of a two-week trip through Piemonte, Italy, in November.

Produced by Matteo Ascheri under the expert winemaking care of Giuliano Bedino, this wine lifted me out of my chair and took me to a place no other Barolo did on my wine tour.

Call this “Beyond Barolo” and you will understand what this wine is about; other-worldly.

The 2006 vintage, which I tasted, is not yet released (which is why a different vintage label is shown above), and probably will only make its way to the US market by this time next year; but put this wine on your calendar for release a year from now and circle in red:

“Get this wine when upon release in the fall of 2010!”

Matteo says that the 2006 vintage for Barolo (made from the Nebbiolo grape) is the best vintage in the region in the last 20 years. It sure-as-hell shows in this wine, a near-perfect example of great fruit turned into great wine.

The wine exhibits fresh ripe fruit flavors, pronounced muscle, chewy meat, flowery scents, and rich fat, all wrapped in an elegant package, handsomely balanced. 98 points.

Collection of nine wines made by Celia Welch

One of my favorite winemakers in Napa Valley, Celia Welch (formerly Masyczek), poured nine of her handcrafted wines at an Acme Fine Wines (St. Helena) event in the spring.

Pictured above are some of the vineyard owners for whom Celia makes these tremendous wines, all which were available to taste at the Acme Event:

Hollywood & Vine, Scarecrow, Lindstrom, Keever, D.R. Stephens, Husic, Cornerstone, Fleming and (Celia’s own label) Corra.

Too much fun, too many wines, every one of them in the 95-98-point range.

(I guess I was being conservative; Parker just scored the 2007 Scarecrow a perfect 100 points.)

 

 

2005 La Vallentina Montepulciano d'Abruzzo

$55 on the menu of L’Altro Buco, a Vancouver, BC, restaurant, which I immensely enjoyed in the company of locals, Scott and Dina Naimer.

Sipping this wine reminded me of a bouquet of freshly cut jonquils at Easter time. Huh, a red wine? How odd. I have never before made this floral connection with any wine, white or red, but immediately upon swirling, and sniffing, the aromas – and implied aromas – were present.

So were other top notes – of fresh, fully ripe red fruits, lots of middle palate texture and a delicious bright finish. What a fabulous and inexpensive wine, largely based on Sangiovese 93 points.

The Ultimate Holiday Wine Gift!

 Vineyard Manager Jim Barbour

Ask a soil expert, climatologist, or biologist and they’ll echo in unison: “Great wines are made in the vineyard!”

But if you’ve grown up reading Wine Spectator, or other popular wine press, you’re likely to think that great wines emanate from the cellar, through the alchemy of an all-knowing, all-tasting, winemaker.

Over the last ten years, winemakers have even become celebrities; people collect the wines of specific winemakers, regardless of the vintage, regardless of the block where the fruit originates.

But in wine-country, the debate about whether great wines are made in the vineyard, or in the cellar, elicits a different response; here it’s understood that the unsung hero is the vineyard manager.

In Napa Valley, prominent vineyard managers include David Abreu, Davey Pina, Andy Beckstoffer, and Jim Barbour, all whom I know and whose respective grape-growing skills I respect.

One Napa Valley wine merchant, David Stevens, of 750 Wines, in St. Helena, decided to spotlight the skills of one of these unsung heroes and has assembled what can only be called The Ultimate Holiday Gift: The Jim Barbour Box.

 

This is a signature collection of 12 different wines produced by 5 different area winemakers, but ALL the grapes for these wines were managed, nudged, trimmed, even caressed, by Jim Barbour and his teammates Nate George and Jesus Rios.

 Photo by Jenn Ferrington. The Barbour Team behind the Barbour Box: Jim Barbour (center) and his partners, Jesus Rios (left) and Nate George (right).

I can't think of a time when a vineyard manager was celebrated as colorfully or as commercially.

Jim Barbour has personally signed each bottle in the box. And as there are only a few such boxes to be had, please stop hemming and hawing about what to get that special friend – or how to say thanks to napaman for all his fine wine and food stories this past year! NOW is the time to jump off your sofa, and call 750 Wines to reserve a box.

Jim Barbour at a tasting of the wines in his Barbour Box

Ask proprietor David Stevens for what he calls the “Vineyard Managers Studio Collection.” I call it the Barbour Box. Much easier to recall.

I will share details of the contents of the box below… but FIRST make that call to 750 Wines and stop wavering about what to get napaman for the holidays; you have found the perfect gift!

Each Barbour Box contains:

1. Barbour Vineyards, Cabernet Sauvignon, 2006

   Winemaker, Heidi Peterson Barrett; Vintner, Jim Barbour

2. Ashe Family Vineyards, Cabernet Sauvignon, 2007

   Winemaker, Philippe Melka; Vintner, Kristine Ashe

3. Casa Piena, Cabernet Sauvignon, 2006

   Winemaker ,Thomas Brown; Vintners, Carmen & Gail Policy

4. Chiarello Family Vineyards, Roux Old Vine Petit Sirah, 2005

   Winemaker, Thomas Brown; Vintner, Michael Chiarello

5. D.R. Stephens, Moose Valley Vineyards, Cabernet Sauvignon, 2006  

   Winemaker Celia Welch; Vintners, Justin, Don and Trish Stephens

6. GTS Vineyards, Diamond Mountain, Cabernet Sauvignon, 2006

   Winemaker, Thomas Brown; Vintners Tom & Nancy Seaver

7. Kelly Fleming Wines, Cabernet Sauvignon, 2006

   Winemaker, Celia Welch; Vintner, Kelly Fleming

8. Keever Vineyards, Cabernet Sauvignon, 2006

   Winemaker, Celia Welch; Vintners Olga & Bill Keever

9. La Sirena Wines, Cabernet Sauvignon, 2006

   Winemaker, Heidi Peterson Barrett; Vintner, Heidi Peterson Barrett

10. Parallel Napa Valley, Cabernet Sauvignon, 2006

    Winemaker, Philippe Melka; Vintners, The Chins, Doilneys,  

     MacQuoids & Sargetakis

11.Revana Family Vineyard, Cabernet Sauvignon, 2006

    Winemaker, Heidi Peterson Barrett; Vintner, Dr. Madaiah Revana

12. Wolf Family Estate, Cabernet Sauvignon, 2005

     Winemaker, Karen Culler; Vintners, Jane & Doug Wolf  

The case price is $1,500 plus tax and includes complimentary shipping, but napaman is happy to save you and 750 Wines any aggravation and personally offers to go by the shop and pick up your gifted holiday 12-pack.

 

“I am honored at being featured like this, but I am not normally in the limelight and I’m much more comfortable in the background,” says the 57-year-old Barbour.

Napaman caught up with him, 750 Wines owner David Stevens, wine blogger Roy Piper and St. Helena Star Business/Wine Editor David Stoneberg at a tasting this morning of seven of the 12 wines in the Barbour Box.

Jim Barbour has been planting grapes, and coddling them to ripeness in Napa Valley for more than 45 vintages. By now, he figures – as do his clients – that he must know what he’s doing.

Barbour’s dad, an insurance agent in San Francisco, decided that he wanted to get into the winery world, so he bought Sequoia Grove, in Rutherford, in 1962. Although only a child at the time, Jim was put to work on the 30-acre parcel.

“I got $250 to prune all 30 acres!” he recalls. “It seemed like a lot of money at the time.”

Initially, as a young adult, Jim thought he would become a parole officer; to this end, he enrolled in a police course in Chico, CA, but he only lasted a month into the studies when he realized what the workday of a parole officer would be like. (You can imagine how hellish it must be if you would voluntarily prefer instead to work your fingers to the bone in the vineyards in searing, 104 F degree heat…)

The parole system’s loss became Napa Valley’s gain; Jim graduated in plant science from the University of California, Davis, and got a job with a respected area vineyard management firm.

By 1990, Jim was set to go out on his own; his own earliest clients included Grace Family, Wolf, Pride, D.R. Stevens, and Revana.

Today, Jim and his two business partners farm 500 acres and supervise an additional 460 acres, bringing the total acreage of what they oversee to nearly 1,000. Them’s a lot of acres.

750 Wines assembled a small panel of wine writers this morning to see if they could identify a commonality among the wines in the Barbour Box.

Naturally, each winemaker will impart his, or her, DNA to the finished wine, but I must say that I did detect what I thought was a common element to all these 2005, 2006 and 2007 wines: the fruit is absolutely LUSH. The fruit appears to be as ripe as you can get it without going into sur-mur, or overripe, territory.

 

What we tasted this morning:

 Barbour Vineyards, Cabernet Sauvignon, 2006

Warm, ripe red fruit on the nose with a hint of cedar. You can just sort of guess that there’s a hint of Cabernet Franc in this bottle (turns out to be 3%).

Heidi Barrett makes this wine for Jim Barbour’s own label. This is a good expression of a tight, youthful ’06 Cabernet, with lots of purple fruit, ripe flavors and elegant balance. 92 points.

La Sirena Wines, Cabernet Sauvignon, 2006

For a 2006 Cab, this has quite a mature nose. Complex, with a hint of stewed fruits and raisins. Initially, there are lovely ripe blackcurrant notes, followed by a hint of cedar-y wood, then a series of intriguing twists along the swallow. And don’t forget the long finish. 93 points.

Keever Vineyards, Cabernet Sauvignon, 2006

Wow! Holy winemaking, Batman! This is a rich, textured (silk pajamas), eventful wine, made under the stewardship of Celia Welch, whom we have praised many times on napaman.com. This wine has all the telltale signs of her wizardry: a delicious attack, lush complex flavors, gorgeous balance, sensually elegant. But she had a head start using Jim Barbour’s cared-for fruit. 95 points.

GTS Vineyards, Diamond Mountain, Cabernet Sauvignon, 2006

Black ripe fruits on the nose; on the palate an amazing gradation of different fruit flavors with an exceptionally long finish. Very tight tannins. This beaut needs a few years to integrate and settle down. 92 points.

Casa Piena, Cabernet Sauvignon, 2006

Despite what the label proclaims, this wine appears to be slightly hotter than several of the other wines in the tasting; not obnoxiously so, but this young wine hasn’t developed time to give off complex aromas, so the perceived alcohol is easy to recognize. The wine has a gorgeous, round profile wound around a core with licorice-like flavors. 92 points.

Ashe Family Vineyards, Cabernet Sauvignon, 2007

This wine, limited to 50 cases, has never before been shown to the public; this Cabernet will be released in March, 2010. Of all the wines, tasted, it has the palest “nose,” giving off little more than ”classic Cab” aromas.

On the palate, the wine delivers a lush texture, has an excellent start and a beguiling finish. There’s a bit of spice hidden toward the back end and the faintest hint of cacao nibs. 94 points.

Wolf Family Estate, Cabernet Sauvignon, 2005

The only wine in the limited tasting from the 2005 vintage. The wine has a Cabernet Franc kind of nose, hinting at blue-ish fruit and high-end notes of coffee. Very alluring, very well structured, a hint of soy sauce and oh! – the Barbour-caressed fruit gushes on the palate. 92 points.

That’s it. What are you waiting for?

To order your own Barbour Box, call David Stevens at 750 Wines, in St. Helena, at 707-963-0750. As they say in K-Tel commercials… operators are standing by to take your order….

The Best Holiday Gift You Can Give! A Year’s Supply of Askinosie, America’s Best Chocolate!

Napaman was one of the earliest press aficionados of Shawn Askinosie’s silky-textured, hand-crafted, seriously decadent chocolates.

Shawn Askinosie, lawyer-turned-chocolate-maker

Now Shawn, a lawyer-turned-chocolate maker, has outdone himself with a new product option: A Year’s Supply of Chocolate, shipped monthly to anyone in the country.

Shawn introduced the C (for chocolate) Ration box about a year ago; it’s a handmade wooden box containing everything a serious chocoholic needs for the short haul: A month’s ration of mini-Askinosie bars (21 grams’ worth per day) individually wrapped for daily use. The Emergency Kit also contains four extra daily rations, I suppose for those occasional months with 34 days, or for those days which progress so slowly they seem like months.

In total, the Askinosie C-Ration box contains 96 individual mini-chocolate bars. Some are my personal all-time favorite bars, made with Del Tambo Ecuadorian chocolate, while others are made with Askinosie’s stunning dark Mexican Soconusco chocolate. Either way, you can’t lose.

After-Eight Dinner Mints are so… 2008!

We had a C-Ration box a while back, which lasted briefly in our home; I offered it at the end of Carol’s extravagant home-cooked dinners to guests, asking them to help themselves to an after-dinner chocolate.

A year ago, there was no where locally I could send guests to buy their own Askinosie bars, when they fell victim to Shawn’s sensual chocolates, becoming dependent on them.

My how times change! Today, any of our dinner guests who get hooked on chocolates in the C-Ration box, which I pass around after dinner, can find these superior chocolates – in larger format tablets, or bars - in many Bay-area Whole Foods locations as well as at our supremely well stocked, and well managed, neighborhood grocery in St. Helena, Sunshines.

What you find when you open the wooden box – a stamped message from the chocolate-maker.

What makes Askinosie chocolates so special is that, as far as I am aware, these are the ONLY chocolates made in the United States, which contain NO lecithin (usually added as an emulsifier) and NO vanilla. What you taste is unadulterated, single-origin, fair-trade, handcrafted, silken-textured, sensual chocolate. Do I make my point?

Break off a piece and let it melt on your tongue; resist the urge to chew. The melting fondant is primal chocolate, essential chocolate, the Mother of All Chocolates.

If you know how, or where, to get a richer, darker, deeper, more penetrating hit of chocolate, please share with napaman; as it stands, I think of Askinosie Chocolate as a Basic Food Group; like vegetables or fruits, one should have several pieces of Shawn’s chocolate everyday to constitute a healthy, balanced diet.

To help you live up to this chocolate regime, Shawn has several commercial options: You an order a single month’s C-Ration box online for $68.50 or you can step up to the plate and be a real mensch and give someone – or yourself - a full year’s supply of C-Rations. For $921.50, Shawn will send out one of these wooden boxes with 96 mini-bars every month, 12 times in a row, with delivery included.

Interested? Go to https://www.askinosie.com/p-47-c-ration-month-supply-of-chocolate.aspx to place your holiday gift orders – while Shawn still has time to fill them and deliver the first of 12 monthly boxes to your gift recipient.

“You Deserve a Break Today!” – Piemontese-style

 

Priocca D’Alba, Piemonte

It was as close to a grande bouffe as I have had in years; a 4-hour dinner composed of a series of small plates, and then some BIG plates – 12 of them presented serially, to be exact – and many bottles of regional wine.

The setting: Ristorante il Centro in the tiny hamlet of Priocca D’Alba, run by Enrico Cordero and his family. A restaurant from yesteryear, where they replace your silverware between courses and bring different sized glasses for every wine throughout the course of the dinner.

To give you an idea of what they eat, and how they eat, in Piedmont these days, here is a brief commentary on the highlights of our meal:

It’s not much to look at, but when you pull apart this chunk of braised veal cheek, it reveals a series of brisket-like meat threads, which melt in the mouth; perfectly sweetened with seasonal fresh figs and acidified with what tastes like balsamic vinegar.

A serving of braised veal cheek, which was better than any barbecued pork, or barbecued brisket, that I have had this year; the four-hour, slow-cooked, cheek of veal, sweetened with seasonal figs, and served atop a bed of pureed white sweet potato, easily pulls apart with a fork, separating into delicious, delicate threads.

You want original, tasty, local? THIS is the dish. Owner Enrico Cordero said: “This dish is so complicated that we can only put it on the menu for a month each year – it’s too much work!”

 

Porcini soup, garnished with a tablespoon of fried chicken liver snippets; this velour-textured, slurp du jour was the color of chestnuts, and as silky and satin-y as high-gloss house paint. The soup was scented with uber-fresh porcini, which diners can smell as the dish leaves the kitchen, long before the server ever gets it to the table.

If I were as rich as this soup, I could justify eating at il Centro seven nights a week. In fact, if I were as rich as this soup, I could afford the gall bladder surgery required from eating it seven nights a week.

Il Centro owner Enrico Cordero shaves white truffles atop anything you wish to have blanketed by them – tagliatelle, fried eggs, or porcini soup.

Tajarin is the Piemontese word for thin strands of tagliatelle. A mound of these homemade noodles is served, barely buttered, and then, at tableside, covered with a cascade of freshly shaved, heavenly scented, white truffles. Oh boy.

Other highlights of the meal in pictures:

 A delicate puff pastry shell filled with a forcemeat of leeks, some more leeks and probably even some more leeks, served with a green shmear of pureed —what else? -- leeks. Major yum.

Tiny, tender, melt-in-your-mouth raviolis filled with a forcemeat of the finely chopped caps of fresh porcini, potato, and fresh burrata, crowned with a slice of crisply fried, local speck.

A simmering, saucy stew of rabbit-y parts, including delicate, delicious homemade rabbit meatballs – first time I’ve even heard of such a presentation.

A delicious grape gelato, made from one specific local grape.

A tongue-clacking combination – rich chocolate crème atop a thin, crackly giandujia (crushed hazelnut) wafer.

Napaman's recommendation:

Should you find yourself in Piemonte anytime soon, make plans to eat at Ristorante il Centro, Via Umberto I, No. 5., Prioccca D’Alba. Tel: 0173-616112.

Napaman’s Top Wines - from a Two-Week Trip through Piedmont

For winemakers, of whom I am one, and wine-lovers, finding a new wine to grace the dinner table is a never-ending treasure hunt.

My recent two-week travels through the Nebbiolo- and Barbera-producing countryside of Piemonte (Piedmont to those who don’t have Italian spell-check on their computer) produced many new discoveries, which I want to share. I will look for these wines in the US now that I am home, and I would encourage you to do so, too.

For the record, the trip also introduced me to some mighty fine winemakers, whose company I much enjoyed.

CANTINE ASCHERI GIACOMO

I stayed at a really neat, 4-star, lodging in Bra, a medium-sized town of 28,000, in Piemonte.

Albergo Cantine Ascheri is the brainchild of wine producer Matteo Ascheri, whose sense of detail is as evident in the rooms he builds as it is in the wines he crafts. There are 27 rooms in the inn, which Matteo built and opened in 2005.

Guests are accorded most of the pleasures of a four-star hotel; everything works, the bed is comfortable (I didn’t try out the other 26 beds so can’t pluralize by saying “the beds are comfortable”) and you can get smart examples of traditional, local dishes in the hotel’s courtyard Osteria Murivecchi.

The on-site Ascheri Osteria Murrivechi, in Bra, Italy.

As for Ascheri’s wines, they are delicious, and expertly crafted.

I was really impressed with the modern cellar and tasting room at Ascheri; winemaker Giuliano Bedino prepares a tasting session for Carol, my imbibing companion, and me.

2006 Ascheri Barolo, Vigna dei Pola

The top-scoring wine of my entire trip to Piemonte, by quite a margin. Produced by Matteo Ascheri under the expert winemaking care of Giuliano Bedino, this wine lifted me out of my chair and took me to a place no other Barolo did in my wine tour.

Call this “Beyond Barolo” and you will understand what this wine is about; other-worldly.

This 2006 wine is not yet released (which is why a different vintage label is shown above), and probably will only make its way to the US market by this time next year; but it is something to put on your calendar and circle: “Get this wine when it is released in the fall of 2010!”

Matteo says that the 2006 vintage for Barolo (which is made from the Nebbiolo grape) is the best vintage in the region in the last 20 years. It shows in this wine, a near-perfect example of great fruit turned into great wine. This wine has fresh ripe fruit flavors, pronounced muscle, chewy meat, flowery scents, rich fat and all of this is wrapped in an elegant package, handsomely balanced. 98 points.

2006 Ascheri Barolo, Sorano

Like the two other 2006 Ascheri Barolos reviewed here, this particular wine has not yet been released. It, too, will only hit the US market in the fall of 2010, or even later. But what a wine to wait for!

Winemaker Giuliano Bedino says this is his favorite of the three Barolos he fashioned in 2006. This wine has extreme structure, more tar, and more balsamico essence than either of the other two Barolos (Vigna dei Pola, above, or Coste Bricco, below). 93 points.

2006 Ascheri Barolo, Coste Bricco

Ascheri only produced 325 cases of this stupendous wine and it won’t be released until the fall of 2010, so make a point of telling your favorite wine shop to put you down for a case upon release (which is why a different vintage label appears above).

This is a blend of Nebbiolo fruit from two blocks on a Langhe hillside – the Bricco portion, or top-most crown of the hill, and the Coste portion, or middle strata of fruit on the hillside.

Winemaker Giuliano Bedino says this wine needs 15 to 25 years to mature; today it appears to be a Barolo on steroids with lots of everything to reach its predicted old-age in tact; it has loads of fruit, loads of spice, and loads of stuffing. 92 points.

2004 Ascheri Montalupa Langhe

Italian DOC laws prohibit the winery from putting the word “Syrah” on the label of this purple potion, but that’s exactly what is in the bottle – 100 percent Syrah from the Langhe wine region. And oh, what a fabulous Syrah this is!

The aroma of pure Syrah jumps out of the glass, shouting “I AM SYRAH!” and it never lets you forget this fact. While still too young to exhibit tar, or leather, or any of the elements of a classic older Syrah, this is a tremendous effort, certainly the best Italian Syrah that I have ever tasted. 92 points.

PAOLO CONTERNO

Daniele Pallaro, responsible for commercial contacts, and his uncle, Giorgio Conterno, winemaker at Paolo Conterno, who looks a lot like songwriter Paul Simon.

There are six Conterno families making wine in Barolo country; at one time several may have been related, but this is not the case any longer today.

I enjoyed s morning with Giorgio Conterno, sixth generation winemaker, and his nephew, Daniele Pallaro, who graciously opened the best of the best of their wines for me.

1999 Paolo Conterno Barolo Ginestra

Most Barolos, made from the Nebbiolo grape, are meant to age for a long period, easily 10 years. In some exceptional vintages like 2006, wine lovers may have to wait 15 or 20 years before popping the cork to experience the full complexity and “reveal” of Piemonte’s top wine.

To show how a ten-year-old Barolo from an exceptional vintage can age, Giorgio Conterno, winery owner, and his nephew, Daniele Palaro, opened a 1999 Barolo for me.

All the classic Barolo aromas leapt from the glass – tar, mushrooms, ripe red fruit, even a hint of chestnut. Many of these same notes were found all the way through the sip and eventual swallow (this stuff was too good to spit out). The overall impression of this wine: one of silken sensuality. 94 points.

2005 Paolo Conterno Barolo Ginestra

Giorgio Conterno says that he makes Barolos to strut their stuff at age 10, but that certain vintages, like 2005, just happen to drink beautifully at a much earlier age.

I couldn’t agree more, especially with this wine. It already has a gorgeous aroma; you can virtually “taste the vintage,” as Giorgio puts it.

My notebook highlights this wine’s elegance, dark ripe fruit and twice I used and underlined the word “stunning” to describe the wine’s middle palate and finish. 93 points.

Enough, already with the wine labels! This was going to be a shot of the 2008 Paolo Conterno Barbera D’Alba, Ginestra but I’m already bored with the wine labels, and I figure so must you be So instead, here’s a sweet shot of Giorgio’s old dog.

 2008 Paolo Conterno Barbera D’Alba, Ginestra

Very spicy, very racy, very tasty. (Sounds like Twitter tasting notes!) Gobs of dark ripe fruit, spicy cherry and appealing length. 92 points.

ODDERO

There are no XY chromosomes at Oddero Winery. Owner/winemaker Cristina Oddero (right above) and her niece, Isabella Boffa (left above), who cares for commercial aspects of the business, are turning out spectacular wines in La Morra.

 I’d summarize their efforts by saying that they’re producing 10,000 cases of liquid poetry, based on the wines I tasted.

2001 Oddero Barolo, Mondoca Bussia Soprana

An ambrosial wine. Truffles leapt from the glass before I even had it to my nose; scents of rich white, just shaved truffles, mixed with great ripe red fruit. There is lovely extraction here and the finish is redolent of fresh porcini. 94 points.

2005 Oddero Barolo, Rocche di Castiglione

Cristina only made 200 cases of this unfined, unfiltered, thrilling Barolo, which had me note “wow!!” with two exclamation marks in the margin of my notebook.

I loved the truffle scents, and full onslaught of fresh ripe red fruit. Plenty of tobacco and geranium scents, too, and the texture was silken and elegant. 93 points.

2005 Oddero Barolo, Bussia Soprana, Vigna Mondoca

The fruit for this Barolo comes from vines in nearby Monforte D’Alba. The wine has a new-world style, yet exhibits many old-world charms, including hints of tobacco, and a mint-y, almost eucalyptus-type top note. 92 points.

  

SOBRERO FRANSESCO & FIGLI

Settimo (named because he was the 7^th child in his family) and his son, Flavio, two generations of Sobreros. They make old-style, seriously rich, gorgeously balanced, traditional Barolos.

Young 27-year-old Flavio Sobrero has taken over the reigns at this three-generation winery from his dad, Settimo, and is doing a masterful job at building on his family’s former successes.

Sobrero’s next-generation leader, Flavio Sobrero.

Some of Flavio’s winemaking processes are, to say the least, unique, but they result in wines of rich depth and alluring texture.

Sobrero is often considered one of the last hold-outs of “traditional-style” Barolo winemakers, which just may be why I love what Flavio is producing. Some things you just can’t improve on, and the way they used to make Barolo – and which Flavio continues – is one of them.

2005 Sobrero Barolo, Ciabot Tanasio

A “ciabot” is a farmer’s tool shed. Young Flavio Sobrero’s ciabot must be where he keeps his winemaking secrets, because this wine has plenty of them.

The wine is a blend of fruit from three different vineyards in Castiglione Falletto; but how does Sobrero load the blend with such complexity, such charm, such spice, and such pleasure?

There are no hints of the typical scents, or flavors, you expect in a Barolo – no mushrooms, no truffles, no tar – and yet this is not a New World Wine by any stretch of the imagination. 94 points.

2007 Sobrero Barbera D’Alba, Villero

A delicious, rich, fruity, elegant example of Barbera – and when was the last time you saw anyone describe a Barbera “elegant?”

I loved the silky texture of this wine and its delicious finish, as much as I did its flavors. 92 points.

ENOUGH WITH ALL THE NUMBERS AND SCORES!

WE INTERUPT THIS LONG POSTING TO BRING YOU A MOMENT OF VISUAL BLISS.

THIS IS WHAT THE LANGHE DISTRICT LOOKS LIKE IN A RIOT OF FALL COLORS.

PIEDMONT HAS TO BE THE MOST BEAUTIFIUL WINE REGION I HAVE EVER VISITED – AS THESE SHOTS ATTEST.

 

WE NOW RETURN TO THE SERIOUS BUSINESS OF MACRO-REVIEWING THE TOP WINES OF MY TWO-WEEK TRIP THROUGH PIEMONTE.

MALVIRA

One of the breathtaking vineyards that surrounds Malvira and its accommodation facility for guests, Villa Tiboldi.

Napa Valley has done such a great job of marketing itself and its wines that the public generally assumes that the wines of other California regions, like even next-door Sonoma, must be inferior.

This is what happens when you cross the Tanaro River in Piedmont, and head north of the fabled Langhe region; you enter the” Sonoma of Piedmont.” Wine drinkers just assume that the wines will be inferior. But they’d be wrong, certainly based on my experience.

A

 2008 Malvira Trinita Arneis

The only white wine to make my Top Wines Wine List, and what a doozy this wine is!

I enjoyed this stunning white wine at a four-hour luncheon at Villa Tiboldi, an agriturismo inn/dining room on the Roero side (left bank) of the Tanaro River.

Usually, Arneis is filled with licorice and/or fennel top notes, but this beaut is vinified to guard all the inherent tropical fruit notes. Bright lemon jumps from the rim to the nose – lemon juice, lemon peel, lemon rind, lemon everything except lemonade.

Hard to imagine that this wine has seen any oak, but it has had a judicious tweak of 10 percent new oak which helps set up the stepped profile and lengthy finish. 93 points.

2006 Malvira Langhe Nebbiolo

Aged 18 months in French oak, this very well structured wine has a stupendous bead, a honed focus; there’s a striking attack, a good middle palate of pleasure and a definite, lingering finish. I liked the whole package. 92 points. 

2005 Malvira Renesio Nebbiolo

Wow, these folks from Malvira are making some fabulous wines.

This 100 percent Nebbiolo spent two years on wood and two years in bottle before being released. My summary note says it all: “A fabulous wine!” 92 points.

GIANFRANCO ALESSANDRIA

Bruna (mom) and Vittoria (daughter) Alessandria.

I found the wines of Gianfranco Alessandria as warm and inviting as his family. Gianfranco’s wife, Bruna, and their daughter, Vittoria, graciously walked me through a tasting of their contemporary portfolio. Like the wines, the family exudes charm, finesse, and a particular joie. 

Gianfranco was in New York the day I visited the family winery in Monforte D’Alba, but Bruna and Vittoria made me feel at home, pouring generously from their selection of wines.

2006 Gianfranco Alessandria Barbera D’Alba, Vittoria

Named after the precocious 19-year-old daughter who helps her parents run the winery, this wine has the kind of deep purple color that belongs in a rich, warm, wool sweater in a Milan fashion window.

This Barolo is aged for 18 months in French oak, of which 45 percent is new. The wine is round in the mouth, supple, complex and the finish is long and filled with plum and dark cherry flavors. 93 points.

2005 Gianfranco Alessandria Barolo San Giovanni

An extremely elegant, focused Barolo, filled with dark cherries all along the swallow (hard to spit this one…), suggesting that it will age seamlessly, not to mention sensually. 92 points.

 

BARTOLO MASCARELLO

A contemporary shot of Maria Teresa Mascarello at her very traditional winery in town of Barolo.

The last time I was in this cantina, in Barolo, Piedmont, il padrone, Bartolo Mascarello, was alive and well and making guests feel right at home.

In fact, on a visit in 1982, Bartolo descended into his cellar, producing a 30-year-old, perfectly aged, 1952 Barolo, which he opened. It turned out to be one of the top five wines I have ever tasted in a 40-year career of tasting, and writing about, wines.

So it was a bit like a pilgrimage to return to the scene of that experience. Bartolo died in 2005 and his daughter, Maria Teresa, has assumed winemaking responsibilities.

2005 Bartolo Mascarello Barolo

The 2005 Mascarello Barolo has earned high praise in recently published wine journals, including the influential, L’espresso Italian wine guide.

But I thought the bottle Maria Teresa opened for me was slightly compressed and way too polished, not like the Barolos of yesteryear. The tannins were soft, and the wine very cherry. This wine appears awfully approachable, something I doubt Bartolo would have designed for his wine. 92 points.

  

That’s all folks!

 

 

The Roero – is this Piedmont’s Sonoma?

Piemonte, Italy

When you cross the Tanaro River, north of vineyards in Barolo and Alba, you leave the prized production zone known as the Langhe and enter a wine region called Roero. It’s a bit like leaving Napa Valley proper and heading to Sonoma county.

And just as Napa Valley has done such a great job at marketing its wines to the world, so locals in the Langhe want you to think of Roero wines as coming from “the other side of the tracks.”

Land is cheaper in the Roero, and wines produced in the yellowish, sandy, limestone and marl soils here sell for less than similar wines produced in the Langhe (Alba, Asti, Barolo, Castiglione Falletto, etc.).

But on my recent visit to Piemonte, knowledgeable local winemakers told me that professional tasters and sommeliers often cannot distinguish between Roero and Langhe wines when tasted blind.

Sort of like what happens when you sit down and blind taste a group of wines from Sonoma and Napa Valley. Often you can’t tell which comes from which appellation.

As it turns out, one of my favorite wine discoveries in Piemonte was a Roero wine – and even more shocking, it was white.

The wine was the 2008 Malvira Arneis Trinita, which I scored 93 points. This lovely, lemony, fruited wine comes from Malvira, a strikingly modern winery owned by Roberto and Massimo Damonte, two brothers whose families own the vineyard where the Arneis grape was first planted in – are you ready for this? – 1478.

If you are not so hot at math, that’s 531 years ago. In wine-speak, that’s an awfully long time ago to have planted grapes.

Roberto Damonte, co-owner of Malvira, standing in the Renesio vineyard, planted with Arneis 531 years ago!

Arneis, pronounced ar-nays, usually has wonderful hints of licorice or fennel and is, like Argentina’s Torrontes, an inexpensive white wine, to which I often turn for summer drinking pleasure.

Arneis fruit, left on the vine into late, late fall, to make a late-harvest Arneis.

But the Arneis wines from Malvira are unlike anything I have ever experienced from this grape. It’s almost like Malvira should have it’s own DOCG, or Denominazione di origine controllata e garantita for the grape as it sets a different standard for how Arneis is meant to taste.

The winery makes three different Arneis wines. The 2008 Malvira Arneis Renesium has the most typical Arneis flavors, with herbal, licorice and earthy notes appearing at the finish.

Half the 2008 Malvira Arneis Saglietto is aged in large, older French foudres for 10 months, which adds finesse and complexity to this wine; I loved the apricot-y top notes and tropical finish.

The St. Trinita church is the end-point of a one-day-a-year pilgrimage by local Catholics. The church is only open that one day a year, which certainly keeps down the heating bill!

And then there is that 2008 Malvira Arneis Trinita, named for the small church on the winery estate to which pilgrims venture one day a year (the only day of the year that the church is even open).

Lemon, lemon zest and lemon juice are the first hints that this is not your daddy’s Arneis. The wine unfolds with rich, tropical notes. I rated this fabulous wine 93 points, the highest rating accorded any white wine during my trip to Italy.

I spent half a Sunday at Malvira, most of the time in the winery’s sensational dining room, called Villa Tiboldi, which mostly caters to guests in the winery’s small, adjacent agriturismo inn. Anyone visiting Piemonte wine country would be smart to make a reservation and put this dining destination on his, or her, calendar.

The setting, high in the Roero hills, is breathtaking, but no less so is the food. I was served a succession of dishes for four hours, and think I used up all the exclamations in my laptop to describe the wines and courses.

The Villa Tiboldi wine list boasts 600 wines, 98 percent of them from Piemonte, all of them reasonably priced.

Highlights of a 4-hour meal at Villa Tiboldi:

 + A soft-boiled egg with a runny, school-bus-yellow yolk, is crowned by the knowledgeable sommelier, Silvia Aiassa, with a cap of freshly shaved white truffles.

+ A very tasty leek tart, made with leeks from Cevere, in the region, set in a delicious, house-made, pastry shell.

+ 2006 Malvira Langhe Nebbiolo. Having spent 18 months in French oak, this wine sports great structure, youthful tannins and promises great complexity. Really liked the focus and bead on this beautiful wine. Dried rose and tobacco on the nose. 92 points.

I had intended to illustrate the dessert described below with a close-up shot, but we inhaled the dessert so quickly that I couldn’t get the photo; it’s easier to catch the photo-finish of a horse race than it is to capture the speed at which the dessert, billed as “Coffee Three Ways” was devoured! So you’ll just have to content yourself with this shot of a corner of the Villa Tiboldi wine cellar.

+ “Coffee Three Ways.” That’s how the dessert is billed on the menu and as original and cheeky is the description, that’s how good, original and tasty is the dessert. Here’s affogato, granite and a semifreddo, all made with a high-quality coffee. Loved this dish.

Villa Tiboldi’s restaurant is closed Mondays and Tuesday for lunch. As there are only 12 tables, and they are meant to first serve inn guests, reservations are required. Case Sparse Canova, 144, 12043 Canale, Italy. Tel: + 39.0173.978145, or fax + 39.0173.959154, or write 
malvira@malvira.com.

Greetings from the White Truffle Capital of the World!

Alba, Italy

Gastronomes and chefs have flocked to this remote corner of northwest Italy for 79 consecutive Octobers, in search of fall’s premiere food, the highly prized white truffle. Hallelujah and pass the truffle slicer!

Alba is the home of the world’s only International White Truffle Fair, attracting anyone who cares about the world’s most-prized fungus.

Called “the grey diamond,” because of it’s rarity, astronomical price, and difficulty to find, the tuber magnatum pico is one of ten different varieties of truffle found in Italy – but the white truffle is the one considered “king” by connoisseurs.

Truffles grow at the base of certain trees, chief among them oak, black and white poplar, willow, hop hornbeam, linden and hazelnut.

Hunters train dogs to sniff out white truffles (the dogs can be any breed – not any one has a particularly better sniffer for truffles, which grow underground on the roots of host trees at a depth of between one- and 24-inches below the top soil).

This young woman and her family actually were out in the wee hours of this very day, digging up a dozen truffles, of which this was the largest.

Trifulau, or truffle-hunters, as they are known, take their tabui, or truffle-trained dogs, and head to the forests in the early morning when the air is brisk and there are few other scents to compete for the dog’s nose.

Why anyone would pay $2,000 wholesale to a trifulau for a nodule of brownish-grey fungus that is 82 percent water and 15 percent mineral salts, is not immediately evident if you go by sight alone. These things don’t sparkle like diamonds, and you sure as hell can’t hoard them like gold. But buyers are lined two-deep at the truffle fair, engaging hunters to negotiate a good price for their gems.

What drives diners crazy about the greyish, brownish, tuberous nodule, which we inappropriately call a “white truffle,” is that it is like catnip for humans; there is something wonderful, exotic, original and peculiar about the scent that drives people – well, nuts.

I have read dozens of stories and articles, even a book, about white truffles and they all tell you where truffles grow, how they grow, how they’re dug up and how they’re to be used (raw, never cooked), but I have yet to see a full paragraph anywhere explain, in detail, what truffles smell like.

Why hasn’t a Robert Parker of white truffles come along to wow us with colorful descriptors in the fashion of how wine writers describe wines they experience? You know, they may describe a wine as having “a nose of strawberries, or blackberries,” or of finding a wine with “a forward expression of ripe red fruit,” or they may detect “notes of leather, tar, and pitch.”

With this in mind, I will make an attempt to describe the scent of a white truffle:

A fresh white truffle, not more than several days old, has an intense perfume of garlic, fresh hay, and mushroom, mixed with a delicate amount of the scent of slightly soiled undergarments. There are nuances of sweat in the middle whiff, and end scents resemble those of the underside of a man’s scrotum after a long bike ride. In a really fresh white truffle, there may even be a hint of musk, of tar or of exotic wood.

There! Now do you understand what makes a grown man weep when he comes within the proximity of a fresh white truffle?

More to the point, do you now understand why someone would happily fork over $250 an ounce (at retail, or in a restaurant) for this experience? (It’s cheaper to go to the gym, steal someone’s jockstrap after their workout and sniff it on the bus ride home... but somehow, that’s just not part of the Slow Food culture… )

The International White Truffle Fair has been held in late October every year since 1929 in the town square of Alba. What is so spectacular about the event is that, even before entering the fair’s covered tent, you can smell white truffles a block away.

Entering the structure is like swinging open the doors beside the perfume department at Neiman-Marcus – your nose is thwacked by a succession of heavy scents.

In addition to white truffles, vendors at the fair hawk fresh, canned, preserved and dried porcini, fresh hazelnuts and everything you can do with them, fresh regional cheeses and hundreds of local wines, meant to wash down aromatic white truffles.

The scent of the aromatic truffles on display (this must be the largest collection of white truffles under one roof anywhere on earth), waft through the tented hall, scenting your clothes.

In the car, on my way out of Alba, I found I had a desire to lick my hat, and tear off a piece of my puffy down vest to eat it. (If you forgot the part about “white truffles make you nuts,” go back to paragraph eight and start reading over….)

Napaman Finds the World’s Greatest Food Hall!

Imagine a supermarket where there are no freezer cases; where you find eight in-store restaurants serving expertly prepared entrees, one even serves thinly shaved, fresh truffles; where everything and everyone is environmentally conscious; where they make cakes on premise that rival the best of Vienna, where they make chocolates on premise that rival the best of Switzerland, where they display fresh fruits and vegetables as though they were jewels in the window at Tiffany.

I was in such a food hall today. It is called Eataly, a 27,000-square-foot complex on the outskirts of Turin, Italy, housing many different food areas, or halls.

Eataly offers fresh produce, groceries, house wares, a pizzeria, a smart European café, a bar area for beer, and seven restaurants, including one serving fresh shaved white truffles on your choice of seven different entrees (risotto, fried eggs, etc.).

Doesn’t sound like your neighborhood Safeway does it?

And yet, despite the premium-quality of goods, the careful selection and helpful, courteous, conscientious staff, nothing here is priced beyond what working class and middle-income earners can afford.

Eataly is the brainchild of an Italian entrepreneur who sold his chain of 100+ electronic stores and decided to do something good, and socially conscious, with part of the proceeds. The aim of Eataly is to dispel the notion that high quality farm products are the birthright of a privileged few.

Eataly attempts to popularize the availability of clean, tasty, additive-free foods, leaning largely on the motifs of “local” and “seasonal.” The concept of “organic,” is not part of the mantra.

Today there are Eataly food halls in Turin, Bologna, and Milan, Italy; there are two in Tokyo and one will open in New York City in late spring of 2010. Lucky are those who live in one of these neighborhoods.

Recipe for Eataly:

Eataly, as a concept, is what you might get if, in a Cuisinart food processor bowl, you added together a Whole Foods store, one of Movenpick’s Marche concept stores, three or four pavilions from Disney World’s EPCOT Center, spiced the mixture with a dash of Conran and a sprinkle of IKEA, then pulse the mixture on high for 30 seconds. 

I peppered my five-hour visit to the food market today with many edible pauses; I stopped in the market café and fought my way to the packed bar, to order an espresso. It was the single best espresso that I have had on my travels in Italy this trip.

The truffle chef picks through the day’s treasures, which will be sliced and served with seven, or eight, different featured entrees, including a risotto made with fresh chicken stock.

I stopped for lunch at the seasonal in-store restaurant serving fresh, shaved white truffles. I ordered two perfectly cooked farm-fresh eggs sunny-side-up and reveled in the taste (there is something about white truffles that is like catnip to humans; the scent wafts up your nose and makes you giddy).

For this luxury lunch, I paid $30, a pittance when you consider that a pound of fresh white truffles commands $2,700 a pound in the marketplace.

I chose a glass of local Barbera, a tasty red wine, to complement my truffled eggs and it was superb, yet only cost 3 Euros ($4.50). None of that $15-a-glass nonsense here. And the price quoted on a menu at a restaurant in Italy is the final price you pay; there is no tax added to your booze, or your restaurant bill and guests are not expected to leave a tip.

As the M.O. of Eataly is pure – to increase the awareness and availability of high-quality produce and products and to feature those which are minimally (if at all) processed – the acclaimed, non-profit, Slow Food Movement has signed on to consult to Eataly, offering educational classes on site and helping to identify regional producers of “clean” products, which may be offered for sale at Eataly.

The big themes here are local, seasonal, high-quality, environmentally conscious products, preferably brought to market with sustainable growing practices.

One of the original, big ideas at Eataly is to create a direct contact between the producer and the consumer, cutting out as many intermediary stages and handlers as possible, which helps to keep prices down and quality up.

They appear to be having quite a success on both fronts at the Turin location. They are making the best breads on site that I have found in Italy over my last three years’ of visits to this country. The rustic loaves rival the sorts of breads to which we have become accustomed in the Bay-area, rustic loaves from the ovens of Acme Bakery, Bouchon Bakery or Model Bakery.

The pastries here are tasty, tender, and the cakes are decorated as though by master patissiers.

The hand-made chocolates look as though they came out of le magasin of a fine Swiss, or Belgian, chocolatier.

The home-made ice cream, made with milk that is free of antibiotics, and all that jazz, is sensually rich and creamy.

Weird items, too. I liked the pinched, unusual shape of these small bottles of carbonated water.

Eataly was built on the site of the former Carpano Vermouth factory. A. B. Carpano invented Vermouth in Turin in 1786 and built a huge factory on the outskirts of the town in which to manufacture it.

A display in the upstairs Carpano Museum – the history of vermouth, how it’s made, and what are the secret ingredients.

To honor the former tenant, the Carpano Vermouth Museum has been created on the upper floor of Eataly, easily worth a 20-minute visit. If you’re really cleaver and take notes, you just might crack the firm’s secret formula for making vermouth and start your own vermouth venture.

Who pulls days-old containers of milk from a supermarket shelf any longer? In Italy, at Eataly, you fill your own bottles from a bulk vessel of just-delivered-to-the-store fresh whole milk.

Eataly boasts 10,000 different foods and beverages; you can buy or bring empty glass bottles and fill them with wine kept in large vessels; you can buy or bring empty bottles and fill them with fresh whole milk, straight from the farm.

The Beer Bar -- multiple types of beer available on tap and a huge selection of bottled beer to take home.

Tired of shopping? Settle into a chair in the small library corner of the store where there are numerous cookbooks and food-related books to keep you busy.

As well, there are six Apple desktop computers here on which you can surf the Internet for free for an hour. Quite possibly this is the only such place in all of Turin. (I certainly have been unable to find any free public WIFI hotspots in the city, making Turin the only city as poorly WIFI’d that I have been in this year as Vancouver, BC. Even Dublin, Ireland, I found to be better equipped for public WIFI than Turin or Vancouver, and that’s saying something!)

But WIFI, SHMIFI – the goal is to visit Eataly and learn how the other half lives, not computes. And you sure don’t need a fancy computer to tally up what they’ve got and what we’re missing in North America. But that disparity only lasts until spring next year, when Eataly opens in New York.

Eataly is on the southern outskirts of Turin, called Lingotto. Via Nizza, 230 / 14.  Visit the web site at www.eataly.it.

You can reach Eataly on the Turin city bus #1 from the main train station (Porto Nuovo).

Eataly Torino is open daily 10 am to 10.30 pm. The seven on-site restaurants, pizzeria and bars are open from noon to 3 pm daily and again from 7 pm to 10:15pm.

Oakville Grocery - One of Napaman’s Top 100 Napa Valley Attractions

How do they get so much stuff – and so many people – into such a small space?

Since the early 1880’s, Oakville Grocery has been a pitstop for weary travelers and hungry neighbors. The store, on the corner of Oakville Crossroad and Highway 29, is a “grocery” the way an Apple retail location is a hardware store. Which is to say hardly at all.

When I lived in Canada in the mid 1980s, I made a point of visiting Oakville Grocery to get new product ideas for a line of food products I was developing. In those heady, early-foodie-days, Oakville Grocery was light-years ahead of other retailers in America, offering gourmet products – sauces, syrups, pretzels, pickles, olives, cooking ingredients – which you couldn’t find elsewhere.

In the late 1990s, during the dot-com boom, and before the bust, some 3,000 people would cram into Oakville Grocery on a summer Saturday. Into an 800-square-foot space! You had to go outside to get enough space to lift your elbows to be able to put your hand in your pocket to pay for the exotic sandwiches, or olives, or wine, you wanted to buy.

Times have changed; the throngs are thinner and the present owner, Leslie Rudd (of Rudd Vineyards) is trying to reshape the mix of products at this venerable food shop. His issue: How does he make it different from the other food emporium he owns just up the road, Dean & DeLuca?

For as long as I can remember, locals have been stopping and shopping at Oakville Grocery. Naturally, we cherish the quieter, off-hours, when the store is relatively calm. My fondest memories include the numerous times that I’d be in the store getting a coffee and one of the incredible chocolate-cherry cookies, and Bob Mondavi would come sailing up to the store in his car, leave the motor running and his door aflappin’, he’d amble in, and order “my regular!”

There are bigger food stores in Napa Valley (Whole Foods), there are cheekier food stores in Napa Valley (Trader Joe’s), there are superior food stores in Napa Valley (Sunshines Food Market), there are sexier food stores in Napa Valley (Dean & DeLuca), but there is only one classic, vintage, must-experience food store for visitors in Napa Valley  -- and you’re looking at it above (illustration by Lisa Livoni) – Oakville Grocery.

Oakville Grocery, 7856 St. Helena Highway,
Oakville, CA 94562
. Tel: 707)-944-8802.

The espresso bar opens at 7 am daily. The store is open 8 - 6 pm daily.

Local Color, a regular feature of napaman.com, is illustrated by Lisa Livoni, one of Napa Valley’s most talented watercolorists.

For reprint permission, or to obtain copies of this, or any other Local Color image, please contact napaman@me.com.

In many respects, this series could be called Napaman’s Top 100 Napa Valley Attractions. These are the places I send family and friends, and which I personally endorse as being the Best of the Best of Napa Valley.

Post Script – “Psst! Have I got 750 Wines for you….”

Wine merchant, David Stevens

You may recall a story posted here last April, a review of the “Wine Event of the Year.” (Go to http://www.napaman.com/napamancom/2009/04/the-wine-event-of-the-year-and-its-only-april.html)

 It was hosted by Acme Fine Wines, in St. Helena, and featured some of North America’s very best winemakers who poured their top cuvees.

Shortly after that purple-teeth-staining blowout, the two principals of the business, David Stevens and Karen Williams, parted company.

“I wanted to get back to basics. I want to spend quality time with our winemakers, one-on-one, and more time with clients,” says 58-year-old Stevens. “Business was getting out of hand.”

David’s new venture is called ‘750 Wines.’ I asked why?

“Think about it; my ‘brand’ appears on nearly every bottle of wine in the world – 750 mL. I figured this would be a good, subliminal message to reinforce my brand!”

The tall, long-haired, Stevens is soft-spoken; you’d never guess that, when he’s not talking about fine wine, which he also makes, he’s a near-out-of-control, wild, rock-and-roll bass guitarist. And a helluva good one at that.

David’s band, Wristrocket, features other valley wine personalities: Jeff Smith (Hourglass) plays lead guitar, Mike Hirby (Relic, Realm, Winter) also plays lead guitar and Scot Turnidge (Silenus) plays drums.

David Stevens – who knew? The soft-spoken wine merchant is also bass guitarist for a rock and roll band.

You may know David from his many years in wine activities in Napa Valley. For seven years, he was director of wine programs at Tra Vigne; for six-and-a-half years, he ran Acme Fine Wines, which he co-founded.

Now, at 750 Wines, many of the best winemakers in Napa Valley are regrouping around David, based on their mutual long-term relationships. Here you will find treasures of the liquid literati, crème de la crème wines made by winemakers such as Heidi Barrett, Russell Bevan, Celia Welch, Andy Erickson, Sarah Gott, Mark Herold, Mike Hirby, Craig MacLean, Philippe Melka, Robbie Meyer and Pam Starr.

While David will not turn away walk-in traffic, he would prefer to have clients make an appointment to taste wine. 750 Wines will be open six days a week.

Finding the property is a bit tricky on your first visit; even a Google map won’t put an X in the right spot, so pay attention!  Go to 1224 Adams St., in St. Helena, and when you are facing the clothing store Sportago, look for an unmarked alley on the west side of the building.

The alley leads to an unmarked entrance at the back/side of the building. Do not pass Go, do not collect $200; this is the home of 750 Wines. Push the door open and expect to be thrilled by the wines you are going to discover and taste.

Operators are standing by to take your call. Okay, scratch that. “David Stevens is standing by to take your call….”

Initially, David is launching two monthly wine subscriptions:

Planet Wine – 3 bottles/month, a combination of domestic and imported wines. 12 x / yr, $125/month for your three pack, shipping and taxes included.

Wow Factor Wines – 2 or 3 bottles/month, mostly domestic, mostly Napa Valley. 12 x / yr, $350/month for wine only, shipping and taxes additional.

As well, David is going to email his client base with details about two different monthly limited offerings:

Winemaker’s Studio – 3 to 6 different labels from the same winemaker will be assembled each month, bottles signed by the winemaker. This is a great way to learn about the talents of any particular winemaker. This month, for example, David is offering three wines from Bob Foley, who has been making impressive wines in Napa Valley since 1977. Included in the October 3-pack ($306 plus tax and shipping) are the 2007 Foley Vineyards Claret, the 2007 Switchback Ridge Merlot, and the 2007 Hourglass, Blue Line Vineyard Cabernet.

Tried and True – The classic winemakers in Napa Valley tend to get overlooked by the press and by wine merchants who are always chasing the “next new wine.”  These are winemakers who make stellar wines, year after year, and who may have lost recognition for their spectacular wines. I put Spottswoode, Togni, Grgich Hills and John Arns wines in this category. David has his own list of classic winemakers who, year in and year out, rarely falter. Their wines are not over-ripe, over-extracted, over-alcoholized, overindulgent, and, for sure, not overpriced. But they get lost in the Spectator/Parker race to discover new sipping thrills.

David ‘s first example of a Tried and True winemaker is Robin Lail, whose Lail Family wines have been making mouths happy for decades. Robin has personally touched the great wines of Mondavi, Dominus, and Merryvale; her family’s history in the valley is legendary. Yet contemporary wine writers, wine merchants and wine drinkers tend to forget how good her wines can be.

David won’t let us forget. He’s selling three different wines from Robin this month for $360 plus tax and shipping.

In many respects, David Stevens is like the canary in the coalmine; we send this guy down the dark wine shaft of life to check out the viability of certain wines. He resurfaces, offering to sell only what he has tasted and personally likes. That’s my kind of canary!

750 Wines. 1224 Adams St., Suite C, St. Helena, CA 94574. Tel: 707-963-0750.

Tastings by appointment only, six days a week. Closed Sunday.

The Stars Align – A Magical Moment in Napa Valley

They say that when the stars are properly aligned, one can experience a sense of magic.

This seems to be true in wine circles, too. Last week, two super stars were brought together on Pritchard Hill; the event was magical and the wines poured memorable.

Cinzia Merli and Tim Mondavi

The superstar winemakers were Tim Mondavi, the driving force behind Continuum, a new winery project atop Pritchard Hill, in the eastern hills of Napa Valley, and Cinzia Merli, proprietor of Le Macchiole, in the Bolgheri wine region of Tuscany.

Le Macchiole, which means, “the place where it was at the beginning,” is considered one of the top wine estates in the world.

Tim Mondavi (center) and Marcia Mondavi (right) welcomed Cinzia Merli (left) to Napa Valley.

Cinzia was in Napa Valley – her first visit here – to promote her wines and to get a personal tour of Tim’s new project. Napaman was the only journalist present.

With a small group of wine industry colleagues, we walked Tim’s highest vineyard, at 1600-feet elevation, and afterward, dusted rocky red volcanic soil off our shoes. We talked about the many things, which Tim and Cinzia have in common:

+ Their passion for Cabernet Franc

+ Their common Italian heritage

+ Their drive for wine perfection – they like their wines soft, silky, balanced and elegant.

There’s not a lot to see just yet on the crest of Pritchard Hill, where Tim Mondavi (with map) and Marcia Mondavi (listening to Tim explain the contours of the property to assembled guests) are plotting World Domination through Wine, relying on Cab Franc as their secret weapon.

Tim, his five children, and his sister Marcia, are all part of the Continuum story. They chose the name for their new winery project because it perfectly describes the family’s progression in Napa Valley – from wine-makers (grandfather), to wine-makers (father) to wine-makers (Tim) to wine-makers (his children have various roles at Continuum). You get the family picture?

Tim’s first wine under the Continuum label was a 2005 release, made mostly with fruit from the To Kalon Vineyard from the Robert Mondavi winery, where Tim was head wine-maker for several decades.

A block of Continuum’s Cab Franc vines, at about 1500-feet elevation.

But now that Tim and his family have acquired two parcels on Pritchard Hill, bringing their holding to 64 plantable acres, they will rely more heavily on their own vines going forward to produce generously ripe fruit.

“The blend for Continuum will always be Cabernet Sauvignon (50 to 60 percent), Cabernet Franc (15 to 20 percent) and the balance Petite Verdot. We do not use any Merlot or Malbec in our blend,” notes Tim.

Tim Mondavi to Cinzia Merli: “Hmmmmm… let’s see… where on the property do you think we should put the Starbucks drive-thru….?”

By contrast, the Macchiole cuvee called Paleo is always 100 percent Cabernet Franc. As a consequence, the essence of this grape is more pronounced in Cinzia’s wine than in Tim’s. But both wine-makers profess an undying love for Cab Franc, largely for its ability to make a structured, age-worthy wine resplendent with plush, silken tannins.

Tim’s love-affair with Cab Franc began in the late 1990s while he was making the wines at Tenuta Dell’Ornellaia, a Tuscan winery, in which his father, Robert, had bought an interest from Lodovico Antinori.

After s brief period, the Mondavi family bought all outstanding shares in the Tuscan winery, requiring Tim to head to Italy many more times. During this period, he says, he realized just how good a blending grape Cab Franc can be.

Tim Mondavi, explaining the soil composition at Continuum  -- two-feet of red volcanic topsoil over a large rock base.

“The wineries in Bolgheri (the Tuscan region where Ornellaia and Macchiole are located) are famous on the world stage for their Cabernet Sauvignon, “ says Tim. “But having produced many vintages there, I began to realize that what they grow that is REALLY special is…Cabernet Franc.”

Tim continues: “I intend to inch up the percentage of Cab Franc in Continuum in years to come. Like Bolgheri, Napa Valley is known for its Cabernet Sauvignon, but I believe the soils and elevation of our vines at Continuum will permit us to make a profound wine relying on a core of Cab Franc.”

“Profound” is a good word choice. Many of Tim’s Pritchard Hill neighbors make profound wines, so one suspects, he may, too. His neighbors include Chappellet, Ovid, David Arthur, Colgin and Bryant Family. Not a dud among them.

At a luncheon on the patio at Martini House, in St. Helena, guests were served two vintages of Le Macchiole Paleo, including the stunning 2005 vintage, which is 100-percent Cab Franc.

Following a morning tour of the Continuum vineyards on Pritchard Hill, we returned to St. Helena where we had lunch on the patio at Martini House. Cinzia’s 2000 and 2005 Le Macchiole Paleo wines, and her dreamy 2005 Messorio (100% Merlot) were served. For taste comparison with the Paleo wines, we were served the 2006 Continuum.

All of these wines compelled me to write colorful tasting notes, in which the words “silk,” “silken,” and “silky” cropped up more times than I have used in a year of wine reviewing.

For readers wishing to try these wines, they can be found at a retail shops across America. Continuum generally retails for $140/bottle and Le Macchiole Paleo for $125.

Not cheap, but production is limited and demand is – like the elevation of Continuum’s vineyards – high.

Taylor's Refresher - One of Napaman’s Top 100 Napa Valley Attractions

Think inside the bun!

 That’s what Taylor’s Refresher, in St. Helena, makes you do – think about what you are going to put in that airy, egg-y bun.

Is it going to be a juicy grilled hamburger, the one that wine–writer Robert Parker called one of the best in America, or is it going to be that memorable ahi tuna sandwich, napped with the house’s famous secret sauce.

“House” is a bit of a misnomer because “house” suggests you are “inside” a building. At Taylor’s original location, in St. Helena, you can only eat outside, because that’s where all the picnic tables are, though a few are covered.

We send all our visiting friends and relatives to Taylor’s for at least one lunch and I admonish them NOT to return to our home if they fail to order one of Taylor’s outstanding milkshakes, large enough, by the way, for two to share.

My favorite milkshake has always been “espresso bean,” but many friends return to our home, raving about the chocolate, chocolate mint, or vanilla versions. I guess, at heart, everyone’s a milkshake maven.

Taylor’s Refresher has been dishing out grilled burgers since it opened in 1949, but it only went from a modest local hangout to a seriously popular tourist attraction and mini-chain after the Gott family bought the business about ten years ago.

There are now satellite stalls in Napa town and in the Ferry Building, in San Francisco. But be forewarned: the line-ups at these locations aren’t any shorter – so don’t think of them as shortcuts to hamburger heaven.

Taylor’s Refresher, 933 Main St. St. Helena, CA, 94574. Open seven days a week.  Tel: 707-963-3486 or check out www.taylorsrefresher.com for information on the Napa town and San Francisco locations.

Local Color, a regular feature of napaman.com, is illustrated by Lisa Livoni, one of Napa Valley’s most talented watercolorists.

For reprint permission, or to obtain copies of this, or any other Local Color image, please contact napaman@me.com.

Go Fish - One of Napaman’s Top 100 Napa Valley Attractions

If I were reviewing Go Fish on my Twitter account and wanted to rave about this St. Helena restaurant, here’s what I’d say in fewer than 120 characters: “Go Fish - Every Dish, Major Delish!”

Leave it to Cindy Pawlcyn, who already operated two of the most successful (and tastiest) restaurants in Napa Valley (Mustards Grill and Cindy’s Backstreet Kitchen) to open a third, specializing in fish.

And not just “fish,” but two kinds of sea meats – raw, as in sushi and sashimi, and cooked, as in stews, or grilled.

Dining at Go Fish is like going to two different restaurants under the same roof. Sit at Ken Tominaga’s long sushi bar and eat uber-fresh, delicious seameats, or sit in the colorful salon and order from a menu filled with sea specialties.

Naysayers opined that a seafood restaurant could never make it big in Napa Valley “because it’s red-wine country.” Looks like they were wrong. Mostly because Cindy got it right.

Cindy has ample help around the stoves at Go Fish to insure consistency. We have dined here since opening week several years ago and the food and service are better than ever.

And the desserts are memorable meal closers. Napaman.com previously rated the Roasted Banana-Rum Ice Cream Sandwich as one of the Top Three Desserts in Napa Valley. Every time I make a reservation at Go Fish, the first thing that pops into my mind is “I’m having that roasted banana ice-cream sandwich for dessert!” I cannot disassociate a visit here from this joy-making, tasty dessert.

As comfortable as the interior is, don’t miss the fabulous patio, which is open in warmer months (which in Napa Valley, means  most months).

I often tell first-timers to Napa Valley to put Go Fish on their “eatinerary.” I hear back from many that they have had such a great experience that they are putting Go Fish on their “Must Do” list for their next visit, too. Which tell you everything you need to know about the nature of this (sea) beast.

Go Fish, 641 Main St., St. Helena, CA 94574. Tel: 707-963-0700.

Check hours, directions and menus at www.gofishrestaurant.net.

Local Color, a regular feature of napaman.com, is illustrated by Lisa Livoni, one of Napa Valley’s most talented watercolorists.

For reprint permission, or to obtain copies of this, or any other Local Color image, please contact napaman@me.com.

In many respects, this series could be called Napaman’s Top 100 Napa Valley Attractions. These are the places I send family and friends, and which I personally endorse as being the Best of the Best of Napa Valley.

 

Ad Hoc – One of Napaman’s Top 100 Napa Valley Attractions

Ad Hoc, in Yountville, initially opened as a temporary concept, a place-holder restaurant, if you permit. Owner Thomas Keller (of French Laundry fame) intended to turn it into a first-class Burger Joint, and so he chose a name to indicate the slap-dash effort to get the doors open.

But something funny – and wonderful – happened in the interim. Ad Hoc became one of the most original, most delicious, most highly traffic’d dining rooms in Napa Valley. It’s become one of my favorite dining spots in the whole valley.

Upon entry – and upon leaving – you must rub the metal pig sculpture on the hostess’ desk for good luck. (Reader alert - Spoiler! The closer you rub the rear of the pig, the more luck you will have!)

The four-course, prix-fixe menu changes daily at Ad Hoc ($49/person) so there is no point in listing specific dishes to look for. (Though there is a degree of menu rotation; locals drool for every other Monday night’s stunning fried chicken.) There are substitutions for allergies but that’s about it. Four courses are served, no questions asked.

Many of the dishes are so good that they are worth a detour from San Jose. We have had organic salads studded with nuts, or fruit, or cheeses of incomparable complexion. They are so good, in fact, that, on occasion, we ask for seconds of salad!

The prime course is protein-based and we have yet to go home hungry, or disappointed. If you want to see what's on tonight's menu, for example, go to http://adhocrestaurant.com/menu.php and sign up to receive a daily emailed menu... it's one of the things I most love finding every day in my inbox; I ruminate over the meal I am missing (if it's one of the nights I am passing up this special restaurant.)

The protein course is followed by an unusual, artisanal cheese course, often served with an artisanal honey or compote. 

Then you are into the home stretch, a homemade dessert with seasonal overtones.

This is a bistro tres casuel where you serve yourself from family-style platters brought to the table and where you pour your own wine. Don’t expect waitstaff to top-up emptied glasses; you serve yourself. This is a tasty, and successful, version of home-style cooking - and serving - brought to the restaurant scene.

We love the originality, the food, the service, the ambiance, and the experience. Just remember to pat the pig sculpture on the rump on your way out if you want good luck – which is what you'll need to get a reservation the next time you want to dine here.

Ad Hoc, 6476 Washington St., Yountville, CA. 94599. Tel 707-944-2487.

Local Color, a regular feature of napaman.com, is illustrated by Lisa Livoni, one of Napa Valley’s most talented watercolorists.

For reprint permission, or to obtain copies of this, or any other Local Color image, please contact napaman@me.com.

In many respects, this series could be called Napaman’s Top 100 Napa Valley Attractions. These are the places I send family and friends, and which I personally endorse as being the Best of the Best of Napa Valley.

Dollarhide Ranch - Bees, trees and 10% of Napa Valley’s Sauvignon Blanc!

In Napa Valley, where egos, formidable family names, and highly visible patriarchs are the norm in the wine business, you’d have to call St. Supery “the inside-out winery.” Because they sort of do things inside out.

Like quietly. Without fanfare. Without broad ego brushstrokes.


St. Supery in Rutherford.

While St. Supery is a first-class winery on Highway 29 in Rutherford, at the epicenter of the valley, one is not urged to visit for reasons so many area wineries compel: for extravagant architecture, or for an amassed art collection, or for a chance to shake hands with a celebrity owner.

No, the attraction at St. Supery is, quite simply… da-da!… the wine.

No ego, no architectural wonders, no photo gallery. Just great wine. Produced with care.

Even behind the behind-the-scene, you have to work hard to find out that the Rutherford winery is owned lock, stock, and fine oak barrel by a French wine family, the Skallis, who make wine in Europe from more 900 acres planted in the Languedoc region of France and in Corsica.

You also have to work hard to find out that that 27 years ago, when Robert Skalli landed on these shores, the first thing he bought was a 1500-acre ranch in a valley on the east side of Howell Mountain. Where nary a grape vine had ever been planted.


The entrance to St. Supery’s hidden valley ranch, Dollarhide.

One-hundred years earlier or so, the Dollarhide Ranch had been a horse trading property owned by Andrew Jackson Dollarhide.

Skalli, who had a vision, bought the property and planted 485 acres with his favorite Bordeaux reds: Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, Malbec, Merlot, and for whites, he planted Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon.
(Yes, Virginia, there is a small production of un-oaked Chardonnay, Muscat Canelli and Syrah on the ranch today, too, but that’s not what St. Supery wants to be known for and they don’t promote these wines.)

Skalli kept the original name, Dollarhide, but as new owner, he could easily have renamed the property “Skalli Valley.” Or something as equally goofy. Instead, in his quiet manner, he chose not to. So Dollarhide is still Dollarhide.


Geoff Gatto, assistant director of vineyard operations, stands beside one of 1,000 peach trees planted at Dollarhide.

“The valley is actually quite a diverse bio-system,” says Geoff Gatto, assistant director of vineyard operations. “Although this is one of the largest contiguous wine properties in Napa Valley, there is a huge diversity of soil and microclimates.”

How diverse? Well, there are seven distinct soil types on the ranch, which move through a spectrum starting with flat alluvial soils (great for Sauvignon Blanc) through to steep shale hillsides (great for Cabernet Sauvignon).



As well, Dollarhide Ranch is a natural setting with seven large lakes (the source of irrigation for the vines as well as for frost protection in the winter).


From afar, the vines, which look like a cushion of green, run downhill to two of the seven lakes on the ranch.

The ranch runs a gamut of elevations, too, from 600 to 775 feet above sea level. Different grapes, like Syrah and the meatier Bordeaux reds, prefer the higher elevations.



Little immodest St. Supery doesn’t shout this, but Dollarhide is planted with 10 percent of all the Sauvignon Blanc planted in Napa Valley. You only find out details like this when you are napaman – or read his column!

If you saw this shot out of context, by itself, would you ever guess this was Napa Valley?

As Geoff and vineyard director Josh Anstey wanted to add some bio-diversity to the ranch, they planted fruit trees. They started with peach and nectarine trees. And then they planted some more.

Today, they grow 60 varieties of peach, many which end up in the kitchens of Napa Valley’s finest restaurants.

If you’ve had peach desserts in the past month at Ad Hoc, Cindy’s Backstreet Kitchen, Mustards Grill, Go Fish, Meadowood, French Laundry, or even as far south as Chez Panisse, in Berkeley, there’s a good chance that you enjoyed the fruit of Josh and Geoff’s labors. So to speak.

One of the benefits of supplying fruit at no, or next to no, cost, to the restaurants is the desire to put St. Supery/Dollarhide bottles on the wine list of the respective restaurants. In effect, turning a peach into a consumer reach.

Bee hives at Dollarhide dot the crown of a small knoll – where the bees can easily find them. Not to mention worker bees like Geoff and Josh, too, who need to find the hives to harvest their honey twice a year.

One recent effort made by Geoff and Josh to stretch for bio-diversity, was the introduction of half-a-million bees to the property, “to help pollinate the peach and nectarine trees and to produce a delicious honey,” says Geoff.
(Grape vines are self-pollinating and do NOT need bees for pollination.)


Honey-heads will find Dollarhide Late Harvest Wildflower Raw Honey at www.stsupery.com and the winery’s tasting room in Rutherford.
The 10-ounce jar is $15.

My honey tasting notes:

“A delicious, old-fashioned tasting honey, rich with honey and glycerin notes, and exhibiting a very long Golden treacle-like finish. (Did I say “long?” I meant “l-o-n-g!”)

If you knew you had some of this in your cupboard, you wouldn’t mind getting a sore throat next winter! What a throat-coater! Rating it as we do wines, I’d have to say this is a 95 point honey!”

Montelena and Marcoux shine at Benchmark Dinner

33 is the name of a brand of beer I used to drink in west Africa.

33 is the atomic number of arsenic.

33 also happens to be, in French, Italian, Romanian, Spanish and Portuguese, the word a patient is asked to say when a doctor listens to their lungs with a stethoscope (Trente-Trois… Trentatrè… Treizeci şi trei… Treinta y Tres… and Trinta e Três).

More significantly, to readers of this column anyway, the importance of 33 is this: it was the number of very lucky individuals invited to the annual Benchmark Wine Group dinner in Yountville last week.

Fortunately, for these 33, there was no beer, arsenic or stethoscopes present.

“Invited” is such a loaded word because 33 guests “were invited” but they each had to pay $185 to attend the event.

Benchmark Wine Group is one of the Bay-area wine merchants from whom I personally buy a lot of wine…. rare stuff, premium stuff, pre-arrival stuff, and cellared stuff from private collections. But always GOOD stuff. And, for the record, I never get a trade break or inter-winery discount; I pay full retail, or e-tail, like everyone else.

Dave Parker, founder of Benchmark Wine Group.
Hey, Dave, lose the tie! This is Napa Valley!

Benchmark Wine Group was founded seven years ago by Dave Parker, whose earlier claim to fame was that, in 1998, he launched the first-ever, continuous online wine auction house (Brentwood Wine Company). 

Dave’s even earlier claim to fame was success in the high-tech venture world. Some guys buy vineyards with their new wealth; others buy wine companies. Dave, who’s a maverick, did both.

Anyway, back to 33.  For as long as anyone can remember, Benchmark has been holding special event dinners like the one last week. The annual dinner in Napa Valley is held during the first week of June, to coincide with Wine Auction Napa Valley.

And so, 33 guests from Florida, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Minnesota, Arizona, and nearby Bay-area towns assembled for a taste of the good life last Wednesday.

While there were not 33 wines served (too bad you missed that theme, Benchmarkians!) there were more than enough wines opened, all out of the Benchmark cellar.

Dinner was served at Bistro Jeanty, in trendoid little Yountville, which, in case you have been living in a cave, has the highest number of great restaurants on a per capita basis in America. Whitney Farris, from Benchmark, selected a wide range of young and aged wines from many countries to complement the fare.

Here’s what we ate and drank, with my tasting notes added:

Hors d’oeuvres
Gruyere cheese croquettes, pear and endive salad on endive spear

NV Schramsberg Blanc de Blancs

It’s always festive and refreshing to start a multi-course dinner with a great sparkling wine. For starters, this is the only time in the evening when there is no pressure to evaluate the beverage at hand. Why is that?

Another observation: Sparkling wine – and this Schramsberg is a really good one – acts as a sort of transmission fluid, helping lubricate social gears, ease guests forge new relationships, and awaken one’s palate for the courses to follow.

Entree
Salade de latitude or beet and mache salad 

2006 Aubert Vineyards Chardonnay, Lauren Vineyard WA96-98

A pale, straw-colored wine, with the hue of pear juice. Only paler. A very French-style Chardonnay, with good attack, a beautiful balance of acidity and fruit and great length on the finish. 93 points.

One of my observations from dinner, where guests assembled to judge wines, pair them with food, and really get into the analysis of what’s being poured:

EVERYONE AT THE SAME TABLE SHOULD BE POURED WINE FROM THE SAME BOTTLE.

I noticed – and experienced throughout the evening -- that wines poured for guests at our table often came from two different servers who descended on our table at the same time. Or when a bottle was emptied halfway through serving our table guests, the waiter went to fetch a fresh bottle, which was poured for the rest of the table.

This really makes evaluating wine – and sharing the experience with one’s tablemates – frustrating, if not downright impossible.

My glass of wine may have come from a challenged bottle, while the person sitting directly next to me may have a textbook-perfect example of the wine, poured from a different bottle.

Remember, folks: THERE ARE NO TWO IDENTICAL BOTTLES.
There is really just similar wine in similar bottles.

So, at the Benchmark dinner, I started to riff poetically about my Aubert and someone at our table, who was poured from a different bottle, had a totally different reaction to the wine than I did.  When we tried to share what we thought was a common experience, we each first thought that the other guy must have a lousy palate. In fact, I only discovered halfway through dinner that we had been drinking totally different wines with the same name, but poured from different bottles.

2002 Peter Michael Chardonnay, Cuvee Indigene IWC94+


Much more yellow than the Aubert, a New World bruiser with steroidal features: wood, spices, oak all nicely integrated but all of it shouting, cubed to the power of 3, certainly relative to the Aubert. Even so, judged on its own merit, this wine was also a 93-pointer. Or at least MY wine was. I am not sure everyone at my table had the same experience, as some were tasting Peter Michael Chardonnay from a different bottle.

First Main
Coq au vin or Daube de Boeuf

1996 Jadot Bonnes Mares WA94-96
A somewhat challenged bottle, producing a slightly tired wine with touches of saddle leather, sauerkraut, mushrooms on the floor of a forest, a bit of dankness, soy, and then a sweep of sweetness in the middle palate. My wine showed a hint of oxidation. When I tasted the wine served to another guest, poured from a different bottle, the revelation was dramatic. The second bottle was brighter, there were no hints of oxidation, the fruit was stronger, more focused and there were spices in the middle palate that just weren’t evident in my glass of this wine. Overall, I’d score the combo of these wines 92 points. Don’t ask about the math, or algebraic formula, to reach this numerical attribution – it’s lost in the scribbles of my dinner notes.

2004 Kosta Browne Pinot Noir, Cohn Vineyard WS97


Aromas of fresh latex paint (in a good way!) and of leather seats in a new car (also in a good way!). Had a Port-like attack, very syrupy, very BIG, very reduced. Concentrated flavors of fruit, chocolate, but almost a parody of what Pinot Noir should be like. This represents a style of winemaking, which produces over-extracted, over-concentrated, over-alcoholized wines. The finish on the Kosta Brown was mostly hot, rather than pleasant. 90 points.

Of the two wines served with the daube, the Jadot from my tablemate’s glass, was the most complementary. It fed into the rich dish, cleansed my palate, made me want to go back to the beef dish. The Kosta Brown behaved like Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler, attempting to Smack Down the daube and keep it down for the count of three. No let up, no relief. Just a bruiser.

Second Main
Tuna au Poivre or Filet au Poivre

1987 Chateau Montelena Cabernet Sauvignon Estate WA98

I had six bottles of this wine in my own cellar and finished the last bottle years ago, when I thought the wine had hit its peak. When I saw this wine on the dinner menu, I thought, for sure, it would be over the hill.

But the wine poured at dinner exhibited monumental freshness – like the thing has another 10 years to go!

For me, this was the Surprise Wine of The Night. I had so few expectations about this 22-year-old California Cab, yet it exhibited a powerful, fresh nose, with loads of ripe black and red fruit. On the palate, it was delicious, hinting at roasted nuts, cherries, and blackberries. Very youthful. If others at the tasting read these notes and think I am on drugs to make these comments, all I can do is remind them: NO TWO BOTTLES ARE ALIKE and my Chateau Montelena was sensational. Period. 95 points.

1982 Gruaud Larose WA96

Let’s be clear about the filet au poivre. It should have been called “poivre au filet” – pepper with steak. Because there was so many freshly crushed black peppercorns on both the top and bottom sides of my filet that the fiery blackness obliterated the wonderful Gruaud that was in my glass. NOT a successful pairing.

I resorted to Damage Control to revitalize my palate – hunks of bread liberally smeared with butter.

My suggestion to Jeanty – lightly roll only the edge of the filet in crushed peppercorns, not the top and bottom sides of the filet, which provide too much exposure. The beef had way too much pepper for ANY wine that might have been selected to complement the fare.

In fact, the only beverage that might have complemented my “poivre au filet” would have been water forced through a fire hose.

But back to the Gruaud. Leather, pencil graphite, and rose petals on the earliest whiff. But underneath, and certainly evident over time, was the appearance of brett-y, sweaty, vegetal elements that ultimately result in this being the only sub-90 pointer wine of the evening. 89 points.

1996 Gaja Langhe Conteisa WA93-95
This wine, according to Parker (Robert, not Dave), falls well within the window of drinkability, yet the bottle poured at Jeanty was so tight, so young, so closed that there was little over which one might wax poetic.

The nose was tight. The early sips were tight, revealing little. The wine showed no characteristics to reveal origin or age. I found myself asking: “Is this one of those wines that is ageless… or never-ageable?”

Every once in a while, one finds a wine that just never, ever wants to evolve; it kind of gets stuck in time and is either unwilling, or unable, to mature (sort of like me). This Gaja Barolo might just be one such wine. At 13 years of age, there is not a hint of evolution, or movement. 90 points.

2003 Marcoux Chateauneuf du Pape, Vieilles Vignes WA99


Wine of the Night. I predicted it, because almost every time you pour a killer Chateauneuf du Pape, the harmonious Grenache-Syrah blend eclipses all the other wines on the table. This evening’s Benchmark dinner was no exception.

The 2003 Marcoux is still young. It exhibited bright ripe red fruit on the nose, and delivered a BIG Grenache bomb hit on the initial sip. This wine has so much fruit that it hides the 16-plus percent alcohol. The wine has layers of complexity, a rich, pillow-y middle palate which soars, and a finish that makes you beg the waiter to go find another short pour. 97 points.

Dessert
Crepe Suzette or Seasonal Bread Pudding


1932 Massandra Red Port 

Massandra sounds like an Internet radio station, something akin to Pandora. But, in fact, it’s a near-200-year-old winemaking collective near Yalta on the Black Sea, in the area known as the Crimea.

In the 1890s, seven football field-length tunnels were bored deep into a Crimean mountain, creating the region’s largest wine cellar.

Not long after, a certain Prince chose to cellar his private wine collection at Massandra, in the passively chilled underground cellars. The Prince’s library became known as “The Massandra Collection,” which contained thousands of wines from all over the world.

When rich folks weren’t storing wine at Massandra, they were making it there. These locally made wines were notated, as being from the “Massandra Collection,” though “being from the Massandra Collective,” is more accurate.

Wines from the Massandra Collective have always tended to be sweet. The area boasts 4,400 acres of Muscat, Tokay and Pinot Gris vines. There are also a handful of wines made from grapes that sound like the names of Japanese baseball players -- Ekim-Kara, Lapa-Kara and Metin-Kara, to name a few. (Aren’t these the Dodgers’ First-, Second- and Third-basemen?)

For dessert at the Benchmark dinner, two examples of really old Massandra Collective wines were served. Dave Parker had made it a personal quest to get them for the Benchmark cellar. Whitney chose to serve them at dinner.

The 1932 Port is the color of maple syrup. The use of the word “Port,” by the way to describe this beverage is somewhere between modestly inaccurate and poetic license. I, for one, think of “Port” as coming from Portugal and being made from the classic grapes from that region. I tend to treat the word “Port” as I do “Champagne.” Sparkling wines made from Chardonnay or Pinot Meunier grapes from other parts of the world should not be  called “Champagne.” Same, too, for Port, but this is only MY way of thinking.

So this 1932 Massandra “Port,” has none of the color, depth, or intensity of flavor of old, real Ports. (I am thinking specifically of the classic vintage of 1927, which produced “Ports,” of forehead-slapping intensity.)

By contrast, the Massandra is a weak sister (okay, brother, in these gender-challenging times). More like a “curio” from the past, than a “Port” from the past. But when you are lucky enough to be tasting a handmade, 77-year-old, artisanal wine – this is a time to reflect, a time to be humbled, a time to be thankful. Hallelujah. 90 points.

1923 Massandra Kuchuk Usen Madeira

The color of apple cider, this beverage tastes as though the bartender has mixed an old Madeira with some middle-aged tokay, and thinned out the concoction with some fresh Muscat. The bottles poured were imported by Sothebys, resold to Bonhams and bought by Benchmark. They’ve traveled a fair bit from their origin in the Crimea.

This Massandra “Madeira” (again, you can question the appropriateness of the term “Madeira” for a Crimean wine…) has touches of mint, spearmint, and pear. It is another “curio” wine, and I am grateful for the opportunity to taste such an old, rare, world wine. 90 points.

… and just when you thought it was over….

… Whitney brought out one more dessert treasure, another wine, which I  had never tasted. But this one from the New World.

2002 Sine Qua Non, Mr. K Noble Man.
From the ever-inventive Manfred Krankl, comes this sweet dessert wine made from Chardonnay plucked from the Alban Vineyard. The wine was sweet, young, deliciously acidic and, at the end of a very long, very vinous dinner, overkill.

The wine exhibited flavors of maple, and the juice you might get if you crushed fresh walnuts and removed the oils. Sounds weird, I know, but that’s what you find in the inventive wines of M. Krankl. 90 points.

If you were not one of the lucky 33 to attend the Benchmark Private Dinner in Yountville, fear not – your chance may yet come!

Benchmark hosts similar dinners in different cities across the country throughout the year.  In fact, Benchmark has just announced the schedule for the remainder of the year:

Minneapolis dinner September 24. 
Chicago dinner September 26. 
New York City  - the date is not yet firm, but the event will likely be held in October or November. 

You wanna find out more? Contact Whitney at wfarris@benchmarkwine.com.

If you’re a big shot with lots of friends, you might even invite Whitney into your home to conduct a private tasting – no matter where you live. 

“If someone assembles eight to 12 people, I will work with them to co-host a dinner in their home or at their favorite restaurant. I bring wine from Benchmark, and work with the chef, or caterer, to design the menu. The cost of such a private event, to cover the wines, ranges from $150 to $250 per head,” says Whitney.

Sounds like one helluva special birthday gift or unique surprise party. Just make sure you invite napaman!

Auction Napa Valley Gets Under Way…

Call this America’s best (fill in the blank)*.

*(Party? Annual wine auction? Charity fund-raising event? Four-day food and wine love-in?) Some how, each of these definitions is correct.

Whatever you call it, the 29th Auction Napa Valley is half over, having started Thursday. Guests paid $2,500 per person for full-attendance privileges. The climax is always a spirited live auction, which includes individual lots for wines, trips, and even cars, often surpassing $500,000-plus per lot.

Napa Valley Vintners, the non-profit trade association responsible for promoting and protecting the Napa Valley appellation, organizes this annual event to raise funds for local charities.

Since inception, the event, the country’s premier charity wine auction, has raised more than $85 million, pledged by thirsty bidders. While the wines they bid on generally leave the valley, their funds stay here to subsidize local healthcare, youth services and affordable housing.

Napa Valley Vintners, which represents 350 area wineries, invited napaman to attend the first half of the weekend’s events. So consider this a half-time update.

Thursday

 

Under the auspices of Napa Valley Vintners, many local wineries opened their doors for auction attendees. Some offered special events. But every winery poured its top wines and offered complementary appetizers. Auction guests zoomed around the valley, from 11 am to well after dusk, checking out the many winery parties.

Napaman used the opportunity to update tasting notes on the wines of three wineries.

First stop was Round Pond, in Rutherford, the home of judicious Cabernet.

Winemaker Brian Brown and Round Pond owner Miles MacDonnell.

Round Pond is a family affair, owned by a brother and sister team, Miles and Ryan (that’s a her) MacDonnell. They have owned the 360-acre property for some time, but until recently, sold all the fruit to top Napa Valley wineries.

A few years ago, the MacDonnell’s decided to keep five percent of their fruit to craft a signature blend for their own label.

The setting of Round Pond is glorious. The architecture of the main building is memorable, as are the wines.

2007 Round Pond Cabernet Sauvignon
I really liked the barrel sample of 2007 Cabernet, which is Cab and a squeak (three percent) of Petit Verdot. This wine, crafted by winemaker Brian Brown, is beautifully structured, expressive and not overpowering. When released this fall, it will retail for $60.

I would love to find this wine blindly inserted into the July Rutherford Dust Society tasting to which napaman is invited; it would be fun to see if I like it as much then and discover, too, if I can pick it out blind in a line-up of 20 unknown Rutherford Cabs. Don’t know how I’d like it then, but sure did like it Thursday: 94 points.

Next Stop – The Lore of Tor was in Store

I jumped at the chance to attend Tor Kenward’s open-house: More than a dozen different blends of Tor’s delicious wines were poured at one of my favorite victual venues in Napa Valley, Mustards Grill.

Amidst Mustards’ raised organic vegetable beds, Tor Kenward set up tasting tables.

Tor winemaker Jeff Ames and Brittany Savory pour the winery’s top Syrahs, and Cabs at Mustards Grill.

Napaman doesn’t generally love outdoor tastings; gusts of wind whip essential, compacted aromas out of the glass and the heat of a Napa Valley midday sun can makes one’s palate lazy. So my appreciation of Tor’s wines was probably challenged, but of the 13 wines I tasted, two really stood out:

2006 TOR Cabernet Sauvignon, Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard
Love the wine, don’t love the price. You expect a wine of this price -- $150 – to deliver the goods, and this one does. But in this economy, how many wine drinkers are rushing out to buy triple-digit wines?
I found this to be a sensuously rich – ethereal really – wine, filled with fresh ripe red fruit and a hint of Virginia tobacco (given Jeff’s roots, maybe it was Alabama tobacco?). Gawjus jus.  94 points.

2006 TOR ROCK Syrah, Hudson Vineyard
A thrilling wine. The best of the Syrahs poured, a truly pleasurable purple paean. I adore the intensity of this Syrah, the balance and elegance. And, oh yes, the price – back in the ballpark of reality: $60 for this 95-point wine.

Later the same day…

Julie Johnson, owner/winemaker of Tres Sabores

To round out the day, napaman visited a hidden Rutherford winery, Julie Johnson’s Tres Sabores. She hosted a party for friends, and loyal customers from around the country, offering five different wines to taste.

Her 2007 Pourque No? (the question mark is on the label) brought to mind a famous Paul Masson marketing line: “We will sell no wine before its time.” Because this 2007 wine is being previewed, and sold, before its time.

The background: Last year at Auction Napa Valley, Julie offered her 2005 Pourque No?, which was a delicious, solid, 92-pointer. This blend of Zin, Cabernet, Petit Sirah and Petit Verdot is always a crowd-pleaser, especially at the price: $25. I’ve even seen it for as little as $20 in the economic downturn.

After Julie sold out her modest production of 2005 Pourque No?, she introduced her 2006 Pourquoi No?. It was so good that she blew through her entire production before year-end. That was the wine Julie expected to offer guests at this year’s auction party, but there wasn’t a drop to be found in the realm.

So Julie bottled her 2007 Pourquoi No? slightly ahead of schedule to have product ready for the auction crowd (and for restaurant beverage managers, who love this wine and who hate to be out of stock, regardless of vintage).

The result is a wine that, after only a short spell in bottle, needs time to age, put on some fat, gain focus, and broaden its shoulders. The subtle sweetness of the 110-year-old Zinfandel, which Julie gets from Calistoga, and which constitutes 70 percent of the blend, is missing in this young wine. It’s there, but will need several months to show. There are muddled notes of raspberry in the 2007 blend, but the wine is nowhere near as bright and delicious as it will be if this wine is given a few months to recover from bottle shock.

(Many wines go through ‘bottle shock,’ a period when the wine, or some of its component grapes, appear to be dumbed-down; the wine is less exciting, offers fewer, sometimes no, regular flavor characteristics. Winemakers call this effect ‘bottle shock.’ It can occur two weeks, or two months, or even a year after bottling, and can last months in some wines, or as long as years in some Bordeaux wines.)

I look forward to revisiting this wine at the Rutherford Dust Society in the summer to learn how it is evolving.

Friday

Site of the 29th annual Auction Napa Valley – Robert Mondavi Winery

Some 2,500 people converged on the Robert Mondavi Winery for Friday’s indoor/outdoor food and wine fest known as Taste Napa Valley. It was a chance for guests to sample the very best food and wines of Napa Valley and to hobnob with the chefs and winemakers behind the glorious fare.

The day is a bit like a three-ring circus; you don’t know whether to be out at the stalls tasting the best food… or be in the Mondavi chai (where wine is barrel-aged) to see the 112 lots, which will be offered at Saturday’s Live Auction… or hang out in the fermentation room, where 120 wineries are pouring their (mostly) 2008 Cabernet blends from barrel.

Perhaps the best way to share what the day was like, is to present the elements in snapshot format:

Dozens of local restaurants participated, each offering a signature item. Rutherford Grill, where you will ALWAYS find winemakers converging, presented house-smoked salmon, served on pointed toasts, sauced with a remoulade.
 

Auberge du Soleil, the ritzy Rutherford resort, presented toasted rounds topped with an assemblage of fava beans, prosciutto, and Berkswell cheese (English sheep’s milk).


A novel way of presenting an innovative chilled treat – from whom else? The French Laundry. Chef Thomas Keller filled small paper cups with watermelon-flavored, shaved ice, drizzled it with olive oil infused with fresh garden basil, and topped the concoction with – are you kidding me? – chopped black olives.

Dale Ray, the new chef at Mustards Grill, and owner Cindy Pawlcyn, serve the restaurant’s classic smoked ribs.

Thomas Keller, owner of the French Laundry, Bouchon and Ad Hoc, all in Yountville, was present to hand out his butter-rich, super-dense, super-moist, brownie-like Chocolate Bouchons, a signature sweet at Bouchon Bakery.


Love the hat! Hiding beneath it is Lori Narlock, a public relations specialist in the wine industry.

Although bidding began a month ago on 112 auction lots offered only in an online format, guests at the Friday event were still making bids right up to cut-off time at freestanding terminals around the Mondavi property.
The top e-bid lot – for $$13,500 -- was for three 6-liter bottles of Arietta Wine, a case of Arietta library wines, and a private charity auction to be held in the winning bidder’s home, courtesy of winery owner and famed Napa Valley auctioneer Fritz Hatton.

Santa Rosa Caricaturist Doug Shannon sketched guests at the all-day food/fun/frivolity fest – Taste Napa Valley – held on the lawn, beside the vineyards, of the Robert Mondavi Winery.
 

Napa Valley Vintners converted Mondavi’s fermentation room into a full-bore tasting room, where 120 wineries presented their (mostly) 2008 Cabernet barrel samples. These were the wines on which guests bid for cases.
Pouring their glorious Cabernet above are Mike and Treva Harris of Harris Estate Vineyards.
The din in the fermentation room approached that which you’d experience on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier with jets taking off.  An appropriate simile – as bids for many of these wines headed for the stratosphere.

Full use was made of the Mondavi property. The 42 major auction lots for Saturday’s Live Auction were displayed in Mondavi’s chai, where earlier vintages of Cabernet barrel age.

Lot 1 of 42 lots gives an idea of the grandeur and size of the lots in the Live Auction. Lot 1 offers 135 bottles (!) of fine Napa Valley wine, plus a portrait to be taken by Napa Valley Vintners’ photographer Jason Tinacci, plus a special dinner, plus an album of photos.

No wonder Fritz Hatton is smiling – his lot of Arietta wines received the highest bid -- $13,500 – among 112 lots in the e-auction. Celebrating with Fritz (on left), are Anna Simons (Pope) and Mark Pope, AKA The Bounty Hunter.

Friday Taste Napa Valley event is a time for locals to bump into friends whom they haven’t seen for a while. It was great seeing these three amigos and catching up – Margrit Biever Mondavi and Tim Mondavi, partners in Continuum, their new winery project, and Genevieve Janssens, Director of Winemaking at Robert Mondavi Winery.

As napaman was not accredited to cover Saturday’s events, which culminate with the Live Auction, you’ll have to check Napa Valley Vintners website Sunday, after 3 pm, to get Live Auction results and the grand final auction tally.
You’ll find them at http://www.napavintners.com/trade/tm_3_releases.asp

No Wonder GM Went Broke… They Gave my Great-Grandfather $49 billion…

Well, that’s $49 billion in today’s currency, based on compounded interest at seven percent.

 What General Motors actually paid my great-grandfather, Louis Henry Perlman, was $3 million for his invention, at a time before there was any income tax.

Had Louis taken the money and left it in the bank (a stable, reliable one, at that) it would have propelled his heirs – me included – into the stratosphere of wealth shared by Bill Gates and Warren Buffet. $49 billion is a lot of cash.

The invention that made Louis Henry Perlman wealthy?

Believe it or not: the spare tire.

Or the “demountable rim for motor-car wheels,” as it was called in 1906, when my great-grandfather filed his application with the US Patent Office. 

Until Louis Perlman invented the spare tire, early motorists had to pry a punctured, deflated tire off the fixed rim of a car wheel, replacing it with a new pneumatic tube. They then had to huff and puff, and inflate the new tire on the spot. The whole process was laborious and dirty.

Louis Henry Perlman, inventor, journalist, photographer – and my great-grandfather.

Perlman’s invention permitted motorists to carry a spare rim on their car, with tire affixed and already inflated. My great-grandfather’s invention enabled drivers, for the first-time ever, to take the wheel off the axle by removing  a few bolts. How ingenious. How simple. How quickly stolen by several manufacturing companies. More about this saga in a minute. First, the family lore.

Louis Perlman was a kindly man, according to stories my mother told. But also an eccentric man, a wealthy man, and in the end, a destitute man.

Louis H. Perlman, my mother, Anne, on the left, and her sister, Grace, at Montrose, NY, circa 1925 or 1926. 

I was inculcated with family lore about Louis Perlman whenever we visited the property in Montrose NY, which he had owned and which my grandfather maintained through the 1960s.

Montrose was a wooded, 55-acre estate which Perlman bought from former Secretary of State William Seward’s family with the cash that he made selling his demountable rim to General Motors in 1904. My family said that they first put it on their car, called a Welch, in 1906.

In addition to getting $3 million in un-taxed cash and GM stock, Perlman was also promised one new GM car each year for the rest of his life, without having to return any of the previous year’s cars.

I vividly recall the barn extension at Montrose, which workmen added to annually, to cover each new car, which my great-grandfather was given. There were dozens of one-year-driven models, lined up side by side, in the long barn extension, with an overhanging roof to keep the cars dry and clean.

My mother (left) and her older sister, Grace, at Montrose, NY, in front of one of their grandfather's GM cars.

 Along the way, family lore seems to have covered up some of Perlman’s strengths and weaknesses, as evidenced by some recently discovered historical material.

Lore may also have mis-attributed the source of Perlman’s wealth. It may not have come directly from General Motors, as my family said, but there sure as hell was major GM money in Perlman’s life; by 1916, my great-grandfather was president of the Perlman Rim Corporation, capitalized with $10 million of private money.

One of Perlman’s business partners was W. C. Durant, president of General Motors. Although they headquartered Perlman Rim Corp. in New York, the firm built the largest – and only exclusive – demountable rim plant in the world, in Jackson, Michigan. The plant, covering five acres, produced 5,000 sets of demountable rims every day, according to an out-of-print Who’s Who of American Industrialists. Enough rims to equip 1.5 million cars annually.

 

Louis H. Perlman and my mother, Anne, at the family home in Montrose, NY, beside the barn. 

Had great-grandfather Perlman just socked the dough away that he made for his heirs, of whom I am one, the family fortune today would dwarf the wealth of many of today’s Forbes-listed billionaires. But fate wasn’t kind to grand-pappy Perlman; he lost most of his wealth in the stock market crash of 1929 and the ensuing years of the depression and my grandfather was still paying off Louis’ debts in the 1950s, as my mother used to tell me.

But, oh! Was my great-grandfather colorful. Certainly as memorable as a Diamond Jim Brady, or an early Rockefeller, though Perlman’s story, unlike theirs, has been lost in space and time. 

Perhaps a few highlights of his career need to be added here, simply to set the record straight. (And to tease any would-be movie producers looking for a good story for the Big Screen; be sure to call napaman for the screen rights!)

My great-grandfather was born November 26, 1861, in Kovno, Russia. Louis was one of three children born to Lesser and Celia Perlman. Lesser, his dad, was a rabbi, who deeming it essential to seek a better life for his family, emigrated to America in 1862, several years ahead of the rest of the family.

Once landing in the US, Lesser moved across the face of the nation, a virtual serial spiritual seeker. He found or started new congregations in Cincinnati, then  in St. Louis and then in Charleston, SC. Within two years Lesser had saved enough funds to bring his family to America. They moved to Utica, NY, where Lesser found a newer, larger congregation.

In his father’s snaking spiritual shadow, young Louis also lived in Providence, RI and New York City.

The younger Perlman, my future great-grandfather, completed his elementary education at Christie Street Public School No. 7 at the age of 15 and then enrolled in the College of the City of New York, where he majored in stenography, bookkeeping and accounting. 

Perlman’s skills in stenography led him to a career in journalism and photography (I appear to have his journalist’s DNA and his entrepreneurial spirit… just not his money…).

Perlman was a co-founder of the Pictorial Associated Press, the first-ever agency to syndicate images and photos to newspapers across the country. My great-grandfather even took and sold the first half-tone illustration ever published in the New York Sun – a portrait of congressman Holman of Indiana.

While the idea of a demountable rim came quickly to my great-grandfather, the financial windfall from it did not. Family lore has it that Perlman got his cash up front from GM in one fell swoop. According to records, which have recently come to light, this was not the case.

In fact, Perlman had to litigate and scrape his way through appellate courts for years to get what was rightfully his from the start.

Although Perlman’s patent application for the demountable rim was dated May 21, 1906, a number of manufacturing firms began to infringe on the application. Records indicate that Perlman was (you should pardon the term) tireless in his pursuit of justice; he defended his patent application in court after court and after seven long, wearying years, at the appeals circuit level, he was finally granted, on February 4, 1913, US Patent 1,052,270 for “the demountable automobile rim.”

In October of the same year, after months of trying to persuade large manufacturers who were making demountable rims, and infringing on his patent rights, granddaddy Perlman sued the Standard Welding Company of Cleveland, Ohio, the nation’s leading maker of demountable rims in the US District Court of New York.

Back into the courts, Perlman waited for a verdict; it came two years later, in August, 1915, when the court ruled that Standard Welding had indeed infringed on the patent. Standard appealed the case but an appeals court, in 1916, ruled in favor, yet again, of Perlman and ordered Standard  Welding to pay my great-grandfather millions of dollars in back royalties.

With his earnings, Perlman decided that it was time to by a suitable, sizable tract of land. He chose Montrose, NY, a tiny hamlet that is actually within the jurisdiction of Cortlandt, a small town located, for those without access to Google Maps, near Croton-on-Hudson, in Westchester County. Now do you picture it?

Montrose had been owned in succession by two Sewards. First, by William H. Seward (1801-1872), who had been Secretary of State for Abraham Lincoln. Then by his son, Frederick Seward (1830-1915).

For the record: Seward the Elder was responsible for purchasing Alaska from Russia for $7 million. At the time, the seemingly goofy acquisition was called "Seward's Folly," or "Seward's Icebox."

 

WIlliam Seward, former Secretary of State under Abraham Lincoln.

Frederick, the son, was a journalist and diplomat. Like his dad, he became politically active and was named Assistant Secretary of State, working under – who else? -- his father. Long live nepotism!

When Seward the Younger died, the estate was put up for sale. Along came my great-grandfather.

According to Wikipedia, the Seward Estate covered 30 acres, though I remember my parents telling me that it was a 55-acre estate. It had a stately, rolling, verdant, manicured front lawn that swaled from the huge main house down to the gray waters of the Hudson River, which lapped at the foot of the property.

The mansion, in which I spent summers with my own cousins and an uncle who was one year older than me, had a large dining room, and an adjacent restaurant-sized kitchen. Oh, and let’s not forget what else it had: that barn out back with the added-on-extensions to cover all of Louis Perlman‘s General Motor cars.

Louis was a reasonably private person and does not appear to have had many close friends. My mother always told the story that before he lost all his money in the Depression, Louis would go to New York City, hire a huge ballroom at the Essex Hotel, and invite upwards of 2,000 people off the street to join him for a festive party in the hotel. These were complete strangers.

I can’t determine whether this is strictly family folklore, but I can attest that it was told to me -- it’s what my family recounted when I was a boy.

Louis went on to lose everything in the stock market crash, and left family, not funds, as his only legacy. He had a daughter, Grace Helen Perlman, who was my mother’s mother, and he had a son, Jesse Burke Perlman, who was an ensign in the US Navy.

I remember my mother recounting stories about Jesse’s skills at playing cards, especially bridge and canasta. About the rest of the family, or Louis’ wife, I know very little. 

What any of this has to do with Napa Valley, I haven’t a clue. Except, perhaps, that I am the multi-generational byproduct of Louis Perlman and I live in Napa Valley…  and as I have no other place to tell this story, so it will be told here.

2007 – “The Angelina Jolie of vintages in Napa Valley”

Fritz Hatton, auctioneer at Premiere Napa Valley, gets the room a-rumblin’.

Napa Valley’s winter wine auction for the trade – called Premiere Napa Valley and held this weekend – attracted more than 200 wine buyers from Canada, Japan, China, the UK and, of course from across the US.

One of my favorite wine events of the year, Premiere brings together colorful winemakers and powerful wine merchants. The event is organized by Napa Valley Vintners, a non-profit, trade association representing 350 area wine producers. Dollars raised at the auction are applied to programs, which promote and protect the Napa Valley Appellation.

Saturday’s auction of 200 lots raised $1,487,500, a drop of 33 percent from last year’s all-time high of $2,245,500. Given the state of the economy, auction sales could have been a whole lot worse. While it’s not fair to say that the recent boom in wine sales has gone ker-boom, the wine industry appears to be teetering on the edge.

Wine merchants with whom I spoke at the event, who wished to remain anonymous so that competitors wouldn’t know who was singing the blues confided:

+ “$20 is the new $50 red.” Customers who used to buy $40 or $50 wines have moved down to the $20 range.

+ "Wines priced above $100 per bottle seem to be slightly more immune to the vagaries of the marketplace. Sales are soft but not as precipitous as they are for wines under $100 a bottle." (This is the story merchants tell – whether it’s true is not fact-checkable.)

+ One wine merchant in the Bay area admitted that his January sales, 09 over 08, were down 90 percent for the month. Let me repeat, lest you think this a typo: down NINE-OH percent.

The Food’s as Good as the Wine at Premiere Napa Valley

The winter barrel auction is held at the Culinary Institute of America’s (CIA) Greystone Campus, in St. Helena. Upon arrival, members of the wine trade and press have access to 200 unique blends of wine, poured at stations of the participating wineries. These are the wines, which will be auctioned later in the day.

At noon, a tremendous buffet is served and, each year that I have attended, this turns out to be my favorite buffet of the year. The fare is fabulous and perfectly prepared and presented. Hats off to the CIA for serving food to complement the wines. Oh, and a lot of them are served; it’s a veritable group grape grope as guests reach for any of hundreds of different labels. Guests may return to the wine tables, or food tables, as many times as they like for refills, or diverse taste trials. That anyone is awake for the afternoon auction is a testament to the professional tasting skills of the assembled guests.

Bret Lopez and Mimi DeBlasio of Scarecrow. Their wine, made by Celia Masyczek, received the top auction bid - $80,000 for five cases – or $1,333 per bottle.

Participating wineries at the auction donate a unique blend of wine in quarter-barrel (five-case), half-barrel (10-case), or full-barrel (20-case) lots, which are bought by the assembled retailers and restaurateurs to be resold to their customers.

Winemaker Timothy Milos (left) and owner, Marc Cohen (right) of Howell at the Moon, and, in the middle, the smiling owner of Clos Pegase, Jan Shrem.

Each wine is a one-of-a-kind blend, variety, or from a single vineyard unique to the winery. Or the blend may be a collaborative effort among several winemakers. All wines poured were barrel samples, mostly Cabernet based, and mostly from the 2007 vintage.

Judd Finkelstein of Judd's Hill, and Andrew Schweiger, of Schweiger Vineyards.

Prior to the auction, members of the trade belly up to barrels to sample the wines on which they may choose to bid.

2007 – what a glorious vintage

Premiere Napa Valley is really the first time each year that the trade gets a peak at the next-to-be-released vintage of Napa Valley Cabernet. It’s a collective first chance to assess the vintage and determine how consumers will like the wines and figure out how the wines might be priced.

I posed a common question to wine makers, asking them to assess the quality of the 2007 vintage. I asked: “If your 2007 Cabernet were a movie star, who would it be – and why?”

+ Suzanne Groth and winemaker Michael Weis of Groth Vineyards opined: “Definitely Drew Barrymore. Young and crazy and unpredictable, but old enough to know better. Sexy voice, too.”

+ Tom Farella, winemaker for Farella-Park Vineyards, who makes a delicious, approachable Cabernet (I tried his 2004 at his booth and loved the fruit, balance and ripeness): “2007 was a Catherine Zeta-Jones type of vintage; it is really attractive, it’s a big star, it’s an instant classic!”

+ Daniel Bailey, who is national sales manager for Jones Family Vineyards likened his 2007 Cabernet (which I thought was gorgeous, sweet, in a positive sense, and filled with chocolate) called his offering “The George Clooney of wine. It is strong, has a good heart, is sophisticated and has lots of soul!”

+ Tim Mondavi, of Continuum, says of his 2007: “This wine is definitely like Meryl Streep – it has a beautiful voice, lots of finesse and elegance, and shows great persistence.” (I found Tim’s 2007 spicy, showing lots of grip, power and if anything, feistiness. I am not sure these are terms I would use to describe Meryl Streep. More like Liza Minnelli.)

+ Judd Finkelstein, of Judd’s Hill Winery says that his 2007 Cab is much like Miss Piggy: “The wine shows a lovely femininity… but once you get to know it… you realize there is a lot of assertiveness and power behind the early attractive attributes.”

+ Marc Cohen, who produces Howell at the Moon, says his 2007 Cab is “most like Angelina Jolie – big, plump, luscious, soft and memorable.”

Auction highlights

Premiere Napa Valley raised a total of $1,487,500 on 200 wine lots.

The highest single bid was $80,000 for a five-case lot of Scarecrow (made by Celia Masyczek). This equals $16,000 a case, or a mind-numbing $1,333 per bottle without mark-ups, taxes, or frequent flier miles.

Celia says she took “the sweetest barrel” from the 2007 cellar and made the best wine she could for today’s auction. I thought the wine was memorable, filled with vanilla, cherry and black ripe fruits, loaded with personality, and textbook structure.

The next highest lots:

+ $42,000 for five cases of Ovid
(I tasted: gorgeous sweet fruit, a stunning silken texture derived from fermentation in concrete and not wood, according to winemaker Andy Erickson.)

Both the Scarecrow and Ovid lots were purchased by Nakagawa Wine Company of Tokyo, Japan.

+ $27,000 for 20 cases of Silver Oak

+ $24,000 for a five-case lot of Shafer Cabernet, taken from a block used in the Hillside blend

+ $22,000 for a 10-case lot of Joseph Phelps Cabernet.

Case price results from Premiere Napa Valley Auction

As some of the lots were quarter-barrels, some half-barrels and some full-barrels, the per case price paid may be a more meaningful way of looking at the results:

+ Scarecrow, $16,000 per case

+ Ovid, $8,400 per case

+ Shafer, $4,800 per case

+ Lewis Cellars, $4,000 per case

+ Realm Cellars, $3,200 per case

+ Hourglass, $3,200 per case

+ Continuum, $3,000 per case

I thought you’d never ask

The 2007 vintage in Napa Valley is considered by area winemakers as excellent.

The year began dry with very cold days and single-digit nighttime temperatures and continued dry with about 60% of normal precipitation throughout the appellation.

The summer growing season was on the mild to cool side; very few days topped 100 F. degrees, even in the warmest locations.

The harvest of Chardonnay began in early August in the Carneros and southern Napa, followed by Pinot Noir. Harvest was just a bit ahead of average.

An Indian Summer delivered warm, clear days when vineyard crews completed the harvest.

That answer your question?

Everything Old is New Again!

Well, in the world of wine this week, anyway.

The Rhine House, at Beringer Vineyards, St. Helena.

Beringer Vineyards, in St. Helena, just re-opened its historic, landmark Rhine House, once the private home of co-founder Frederick Beringer.

Begun in 1883, the 17-room mansion was built on land, which Frederick and his brother Jacob had bought to grow grapes and make wine. Beringer is the oldest continuously operating winery in Napa Valley. And the Rhine House, which has been a part of the community for 124 years, is a beautiful measuring stick to remind us how long folks have been making wine here.

The foyer

Frederick’s architectural aim was to recreate the Victorian home in which he and his brother had grown up on the Rhine River, in Germany. Which is how the local structure got its name – Rhine House.
Executives at Beringer, now part of the Fosters Group, decided in 2006 that the dowdy icon needed a facelift, so they hired Architectural Resources Group (or ARG, with offices in San Francisco, Pasadena and Portland, OR) to lead the project and allocated $5 million to spruce ‘er up. The project took two years to complete.

Note the stenciled design and German text on the banner, which runs around the room, just beneath the ceiling, discovered during the two-year renovation.

In addition to seismic upgrades, the project included several phases of restoration; the conservation of 40 gorgeous stained-glass windows, which have meticulously been refurbished and refinished; the restoration of the original hardwood floors; the removal of layers (and years) of wallpaper, which led to the discovery of original banners, which had been hand-stenciled on foyer walls to welcome guests into the house twelve decades ago.

As portions of the hand-stenciled message are still being deciphered, the most anyone has been able to make, to date, of the German salutation drawn on the walls is: “Welcome, who with heart and hand will ever in friendship meet.”

As well, Beringer installed a geothermal heating and cooling system deep beneath the spacious front lawns to neutralize heat loss in the building in the winter and optimize cooling in the summer.

One of the 40 gorgeous stained-glass windows that were refurbished.

To celebrate completion of the project, Beringer hosted a renovation party this week, inviting a few hundred guests. Me too.

In honor of the occasion, some mighty fine Beringer wines were poured, including:

1995 Beringer Cabernet Sauvignon, Chabot Vineyard
Gorgeous nose of roses, cherries and a hint of Virginia tobacco. On the palate, earth flavors, dark cherry notes and a lovely silken texture. 92 points.

1996 Beringer Cabernet Sauvignon, Private Reserve
Deeply complex nose exhibiting aromas of mushrooms, forest floor, tobacco, ripe cerises. On the palate, there is a serial of tastes including those of fruit and – what’s this doing in here? – fresh pine. Not resin, not sappy. More like the scent/taste of fresh fall pine cones. A totally balanced, wonderfully complex wine, with a long cheery (I mean cheery and not cherry) finish. Major yum. Best wine of the evening. A wine just entering its prime. 95 points. 

2000 Beringer Cabernet Sauvignon, Private Reserve
Bright fruit on the nose and a balanced taste that follows. Very rich, too young to be called “opulent,” but this wine could easily grow to fill this description. More earthy notes than I recall on any Beringer Private Reserve Cab, which I have tasted at eight years of age, but not invasive or off-putting, just evident. Full-bodied, with a gorgeous middle palate. 93 points.

2006 Beringer Chardonnay, Private Reserve
Not your typical “Napa Valley Chardonnay,” usually a euphemism for wood-flavored wine. This spicy, racy, totally bright-in-the-mouth Chardonnay is totally food friendly, has a racy acid stripe that runs right up the middle of the tasting experience and lingers through to the finish. Crisp, clean, complex and delicious. And did I say I liked it? 91 points.

The Rhine House is open to the public for tours daily, 10 am - 6 pm from May 30 to Oct 23 and 10 am - 5 pm from Oct 24 to May 29. Beringer Vineyards is located at 2000 Main St., St. Helena, CA 94574. Tel: (707) 967-4412.

My Favorite Kind of Wine Case – 15 Bottles!

For years, one of my favorite annual fall wine events in Napa Valley has been the release of a mixed case of stunning Stags Leap District Cabernets, called the Appellation Collection. It’s a promotion to familiarize wine lovers with wines in this appellation, organized by the Stags Leap District Winegrowers Association.

The group has just announced its 12th annual release and this one is an eye-popping case of 15 different 2004 Cabernets from Stags Leap District, one Cab from each of the producers in the association.

One of my favorite producers in Stags Leap District – Pine Ridge Winery.

This mixed case enables aficionados of these wines to get one bottle of the top, or near-top, wine from 15 different producers without having to run around the valley to each of the wineries. In effect, it’s a one-stop solution to obtain a case (albeit a case of 15 bottles) of the top wines from a top vintage of an entire appellation.

Or maybe I should say it’s a NO-STOP solution, because if you live in a shipment-friendly state, you can order a mixed case online without ever even having to leave your home; simply go to www.stagsleapdistrict.com/appellationcollection and order a mixed case. As there are only 300 mixed cases assembled, however, don’t wait too long to order.

The price for the 15-bottle Cab collection this year is $1,200. And for this princely sum, you receive a case-and-a-quarter of some gorgeous, tooth-staining, purple-red wines, which will easily age six to 10 years.

For the record: I’m just finishing the last few bottles from two full sets of the 1997 Appellation Collection, which I bought years ago upon release. I love the ability the mixed case affords – to go into the cellar and choose a Cab for dinner from any of 15 different wineries.

Site of this year’s tasting of the Appellation Collection – Silverado Vineyards.

The Stag’s Leap District is only 2,700 acres large, about half of which are planted in vines. The District starts seven miles north of the town of Napa on the Silverado Trail (east side of the valley). The northern boundary is the Yountville Crossroad.

Essentially, Stags Leap District, home to fewer than 20 wine producers, is a mile wide and about three miles long.

The hillsides here have western and southern exposures, which are particularly friendly to Cabernet Sauvignon. As is the soil, comprised of rich volcanic sediment and bale loam (with a clay-like substructure). You want complexity? The soil here has it in spades. So no wonder the wines do, too.

The University of California at Davis, the foremost wine research center in the US, has said of the soil in Stag’s Leap District: “We have not seen any valley floor soils elsewhere in Napa Valley similar to those of Stags Leap District.”

Which may be why the Cabernets produced here have an evident similarity in texture and taste and why they are among my personal favorites of all wines produced in the valley.

The Stags Leap District was designated an American Viticultural Appellation (AVA) in 1989, the first viticultural area in the US to be approved on the basis of the distinctiveness of its soils.

At the Association’s invitation, I had a chance last week, at Silverado Vineyards, to taste through the entire collection of 2004 Stags Leap District Cabs. My tasting notes and scores follow. This mixed case is the only Cabernet collection offered by any AVA in all the US. For the wine lover, it’s a simple way to own an assortment of wines that would otherwise be challenging to assemble.

What’s intriguing about the 2004 collection is the relative uniformity in quality, texture and taste in the wines. In the end, yes, each wine a bit different from the next, even though some wineries are contiguous.

“Never forget, there are 15 different Cabernets here… and 15 winemakers… which means 15 different spins on the same thing,” says Silverado Vineyards winemaker Jon Emmerich.

I asked Emmerich how he personally rates the 2004 wines from Stags Leap District among the six vintages of the decade so far.

“I rate it in the top three, probably after 2001 and 2005,” says the winemaker.

You can wait for the winegrowers to offer that mixed case of 2005 Cabs next year at this time… but you’d be making a mistake to pass up the 2004 collection. It’s a stunner.

This year's collection includes:

Baldacci Family Vineyards - 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon
Lovely dark cherry notes and a bit of the aroma you get from red wax lips, which you sometimes get (and can chew) at Halloween. Grown on the family’s 17-acre vineyard, the grapes are 100 percent Cabernet. There are gorgeous flavors of ripe red and black fruits; the wine is elegant and has a focused, long finish. 91 points.

Chimney Rock Winery - 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve
100 percent new French oak adds cacao and cherry notes to the nose. Maybe there’s even a hint of raspberry. Very sweet on the palate, offering seductive flavors and tons of fleshy texture. There is a luscious middle palate and an exquisite finish. 92 points.

Cliff Lede Vineyards - 2004 Poetry
There is a striking nose of dark ripe fruit and also a hint of more wood on this sample of bottled poetry than on either of the two preceding wines (89% new French oak, barrel aging for 24 months). The wine has great grip at the front end a powerful focus toward the middle palate, and a fabulous, focused finish. 95 percent Cabernet, 3 percent Cab Franc, 2 percent Petit Verdot. 92 points.

Clos Du Val - 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon
Ripe red fruit tweaks the nose; blackcurrants, cedar, and briar tease the palate. All these flavors are wound around a core of brightness. The wine is alive in the mouth, exhibiting textures that thrill you; velvet, silk, velour to name a few. A magnificent achievement. 93 points.

Malk Family Vineyards (labeled Griffin Vineyards) - 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon
The first bottle was challenged; it exhibited vanilla and wax on the nose with an imbalance of alcohol. This was a wine of many parts, not one of which sublimated with any other. Disjointed, unfocused, and unfriendly, I thought. 88 points, and only generously so. I thought it only fair to ask for a second bottle.
Second bottle: still a lot of vanilla on the nose, suggestive of too much wood. Bit on the high-alcohol range, as was the first bottle, but this sample had a thick, palpable texture, which had been lacking in the first bottle. Almost like velour in the mouth. But still out of balance with respect to the level of alcohol. 90 points.

Hartwell Vineyards - 2004 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon
Unlike earlier vintages, the Hartwells chose to tweak this year’s Cab with a smidgen of Petit Verdot. And it shows. This is a lush, sensual, alluring wine. The texture is “virtual silk.” This is was the first wine of the 15-wine tasting that I had to swallow, just couldn’t waste it spitting. This is a ripe, food-friendly – and did I say fabulous? – wine. 93 points.

Ilsley Vineyards - 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon
The Ilsley Vineyard abuts Shafer’s hillside on the east side of the Silverado Trail. Some 90 percent of the family’s fruit is sold to Shafer, some of it destined for the winery's One Point Five Cabernet (also part of this Appellation Collection). As David Ilsley is vineyard manager of his family’s vineyards and also vineyard manager for Shafer, no one’s shocked that Ilsley's Cab has similar features to Shafer's Cab.
In this case, the 2004 Ilsley offers deep dark ripe fruit on the nose and a bevy of stunning, complex flavors on the palate. The finish is magnificent, pushing this bottle over the top. 94 points.

Pine Ridge Winery - 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon
Stacy Clark’s tasting notes (she’s the talented winemaker) point out that this wine is 86 percent Cab, 6 percent Merlot, 4 percent Cab Franc, 3 percent Petit Verdot, 1 percent Malbec. She could have added: “And 100 percent inspirational!”
My tasting notes: “Silk on steroids! Gorgeous wine, a stunner!”
To flesh out the notes: coffee aromas leap from the glass as well as ripe cherries, strawberries and raspberries. One of the most aromatic wines in the Collection this year. Penetrating flavors, too, and a memorable texture.
In sum, this wine is even more attractive than the 2004 Rutherford Pine Ridge Cab, which the winery also produces, and which I tasted blind and rated one of the top Rutherford Cabs from 2004. 94 points.

Regusci Winery - 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon
Ripe black fruits and a touch of sweetness on the early attack; very focused flavors, particularly of blackcurrant, briar, tobacco. A really good wine, but somewhat lacking on the back end. Bottle variation? 92 points.

Robert Sinskey Vineyards - 2004 RSV Cabernet Sauvignon
Organically farmed grapes, TLC and patience have produced a really good wine, though slightly on the jammy edge. The nose suggests lushness, bordering on sur-mur, or over-ripeness. The palate further adds to the impression – there is an almost late-harvest quality to the fruit. If they market this as “late-harvest Cab for the Zin-lover” they will attract a large following. 90 points.

Shafer Vineyards - 2004 One Point Five Cabernet Sauvignon
Winemaker Elias Fernandez says this vintage reminds him of the winery’s 1992 Cab. How lucky you are, then, if you are still holding on to a few bottles of the 1992 Shafer Cab. That vintage was stunningly good.  But so is this vintage. I find the nose is actually voluptuous – two layers of ripe fruit compete in a singular whiff for your attention.
This is likely the most sophisticated wine in the case. There is lovely balance, an elegance and a joie to this wine. Blackberry, dark chocolate and herbs dominate. The overall impression is: great wine-growing, great wine-making, great wine-drinking. 94 points.

Silverado Vineyards - 2004 Solo
Winemaker Jon Emmerich opened a bottle of the 1982 Stag’s Leap Cab from this vineyard and at 26 years of age, it blew everything else in this tasting out of the water. Unfortunately, they haven’t thought of introducing a “bonus bottle” enabling lucky buyers to find a surprise, 16th bottle in their mixed Appellation Collection case – this 1982 Silverado Vineyards Cab.
So we content ourselves with the 2004 Silverado offering, which has a lot of smoke and toast on the nose, suggesting that it is perhaps still early to be judging/drinking this wine. Purple fruit, young tannins, herbal notes, and a short finish suggest this wine needs more time than others in the Collection to mature. I hovered – between 91 and 92 points.

Stags' Leap Winery - 2004 The Leap Estate Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon
Winemaker, Kevin Morrisey says 2004 was a terrific vintage and thinks this wine is a showcase for black and red fruit, toasted vanilla, tobacco, violets and charred meat.
I personally found this wine to offer a kaleidoscope of flavors, which rippled over my palate in gentle succession, most of them fruits, and all of them only rolling to a stop long after I’d swallowed. Balanced and elegant. A memorable wine. I wrote  “awesome” in my notes and circled it, then scored the entry 94 points.

Steltzner Vineyards - 2004 Reserve Barrel Select Cabernet Sauvignon
If you ever find me describing anything within the pages of napaman.com as ”nice,” drinks are on the house for all readers! I don’t like the word, and never use it. When used as an adjective, it says nothing about anything.
Take Steltzner’s own tasting notes for their wine: someone has described the 2004 Cab as having “nice acidity.”
Now what the hell is that? Too much acidity, not enough acidity, text-book acidity – any of these I understand. But “nice acidity???”
I don’t know about “nice acidity,” because the bottle we sampled exhibited mostly coffee and vanilla notes and presented a noticeable, jammy raspberry presence on the middle palate. In sum, more like a candied fruit experience than a wine-drinking experience. If anything this wine lacked acidity. 90 points.

Taylor Family Vineyards - 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon
This is the third  vintage, which the Taylor family has crushed for its own label. Lousy luck… a lousy bottle? My sample showed a medicinal nose suggestive of bandages and iodine. Comparing notes with the wine writer next to me, she found them evident, too. I wanted to ask for a second bottle to neutralize my first impression, but we ran out of tasting time. Given the location of these vines, the fruit they produce, and the wineries to whom these grapes used to be sold, I have to guess that this was an errant bottle. 88 points.

STOP THE PRESS!

Following publication of this story, I was contacted by Sandy Taylor Carlson whose family owns Taylor Family Vineyards. She said that I must have been served a punk bottle of her wine at the press tasting and offered to drop off a bottle for me to re-taste.
See the update below – this is a much better wine than noted here.



Unhappy with the tasting notes above, feisty winery owner Sandy Taylor Carlson emailed, asking if I would retry her 2004 Stags Leap District Cabernet. When I learned of her family’s winemaking history, I said, “Of course. Come by and we’ll taste together.”

For 17 years, the Taylors (Sandy’s dad grows the fruit) sold his grapes to Pine Ridge for its sensational Stags Leap District Cabernets. I have bought these wines for years and know how good the fruit is/was, so figured that I needed to revisit the wine, which we’d been offered at the press tasting (above).

2004 Taylor Family Stags Leap District Cabernet Sauvignon
What a difference a day makes. And a second bottle, too. Nothing like the sample served at the press tasting. Winemaker Gustavo Brambila has fashioned a wine with dark cherry, chocolate, cassis and tobacco on the nose. There are perhaps too many intrusive young tannins, but this wine is, for the record, not actually being released for another month, so youthful, bordering-on-aggressive, tannins are to be expected. Certainly tolerated. This wine needs at least two years to shape up, and shut up; the tannins, at this stage, overwhelm the fruit on the palate. Ends with a cranberry finish. Will retail for $60, or $65 (not yet decided) on release next month. 91 points.

2003 Taylor Family Stags Leap District Cabernet Sauvignon
Sandy brought along two previous vintages, hoping to show me how her family’s wine ages over time. I love her spark, faith and optimism. She wasn’t going to take a lousy score lying down… and I’m glad that she didn’t, for I maligned her well-made wine (above) by basing my notes on a single, flawed bottle.
The 2003 is perhaps not as successful as the 2004 vintage. It has many of the same aromas on the nose – mostly cherries, vanilla and a large, looming Asian spice-pack. Lots of oak on this wine, possibly too much, overpowering the lushness of the fruit. This vintage retails for $60. 90 points.

2002 Taylor Family Stags Leap District Cabernet Sauvignon
Ah.. THIS is the daddy. The color alone sets you up for excitement; it is deep regal red, the color of sexy pajamas, the kind Hugh Hefner might wear. A very sophisticated nose, offering scents of blackcurrant and cassis. A lovely wine, with lots of flesh in the middle and a black cherry, raspberry, chocolate, Asian spice dance on the palate at the swallow. Available from the winery library at $65. A steal. 93 points.

These wines and their story can be found at www.tayorfamilyvineyards.com
-- and tell them that napaman.com sent you!

"Honey, I Think I Shrunk the Solar System!"

When I grew up, “the solar system" was a big, big, really big place, way the hell out there in outer space.

Today, “the solar system" is something that we’ve installed on the western-facing roof of our barn. And this shrunken solar system generates 6.27 kilowatts of electricity, or about 10,125 kilowatt-hours the first year. This will cut our annual PG&E electric bill in half.

Yes, Green is the way to go these days and yes, installing a solar electricity system is good for the environment. Our tiny system will reduce our planetary CO2 emissions by nearly 22,000 pounds a year, which is the equivalent of not driving nearly 310,000 miles a year!

But nothing was a stronger inducement to “go solar” than this economic reality: I will get a 14% Return on my Investment (ROI) in the first year alone, a figure that will grow annually as PG&E rates raise.

Better yet: this is a 14% after-tax ROI, which means the investment to “go solar” repays the equivalent of about 20% in pre-tax dollars per annum. Try to get a 20 percent return in the stock market year after year! (In the economic swamp in which we find ourselves just now, 20 percent sounds mighty good; oh how I wish that ALL our investments paid off so handsomely!)

The western-facing slope of our barn, adorned with shiny new solar panels.

Thinking that we wanted to “Go Green” and reduce our dependency on PG&E, I called and interviewed a number of Bay-area solar firms before choosing Borrego Solar, with offices in Berkeley and Petaluma, to install our solar electricity system.

Will Feeney, energy consultant for Borrego Solar.

I asked Will Feeney, an energy consultant with Borrego, to determine if our home was a candidate for generating solar electricity and if so, how large a system we might install.

“Forget about the eastern-facing roof of your barn,” he said. “There’s not enough exposure to bright afternoon sun to pay back the investment in panels on that side of the barn.”

So instead of selling us panels for the sake of selling more panels, he was honest and forthright, inspiring our confidence in Borrego Solar.

 

While other firms interviewed also suggested that we only install solar panels on the western-facing roof of our barn, none offered the amazing leaseback program, which Borrego Solar and an outfit called SunRun have developed.

Now it’s not an authentic leaseback system, not in the legal sense, but because it behaves like one, I am taking the liberty of describing it as such. In a way it’s a bit like leasing a car; someone else lays out the dough for the car on Day One, and you agree to lease it for a certain period and to pay for the miles you put on it. You don’t own the car during the duration of the lease, someone else does, and that someone else has to look after maintenance, repairs, etc. Which is how the solar service program works with Borrego/SunRun.

In their case, they install solar panels on your roof for about a third of the price you would pay if you bought the system outright. They also include a sexy monitoring device that calculates exactly how much energy is being generated.

In effect, Borrego Solar/SunRun pay for the system, then lease the sun collectors back to me for the next 18 years. And during all this time, they have total responsibility for maintaining the system, keeping the panels clean and functioning at capacity. I pay SunRun for kilowatts generated at a rate that is about one-third the price of those charged by PG&E at the top-tiered meter rate.

In the commercial world, stores like Macy’s, Staples and Whole Foods have installed panels under this innovative program, known in the trade as PPA – Power Purchase Agreement. Now, for the first, time, this same service deal is being offered to residential customers by Borrego Solar and SunRun.

Here’s another part of the deal, which I really like: If the solar electricity, which the system is calculated to generate, falls 5% or more off projection, SunRun pays ME for the under-generated kilowatt-hours, as a sort of penalty for failing to live up to our agreement about how much electricity the system will generate.

As long as the system hums along, converting solar rays into current, which we put back into the PG&E grid, I pay Borrego Solar/SunRun 13.5 cents/kilowatt for electricity generated. This fixed rate is about one-third what I would pay PG&E at today’s top-tier metered rates (afternoon summer pricing) and the Borrego/SunRun rate never changes over the next 18 years. So even in 2025, I will still be paying 13.5 cents per kilowatt generated and who knows how much the PG&E rates will be by then? Surely more, not less, than what they are today.

Big solar panels, Big barn, Big sky…

In summary, we cut our electric bill in half this year and got a 14% after-tax return on our investment. This ROI is likely to grow annually for the next 18 years, as PG&E raises its rates.

Too bad we don’t have a larger barn roof – I’d install a HUGE solar panel system and retire on the savings/investment!

Every story about Global Warming needs to end on a happy note – and nothing makes me happier than a shot of my wonder dog, Linus, seen here inspecting the solar installation on our barn.

If you live in California, where Borrego Solar/SunRun operate and offer their unique solar service program, I suggest that you investigate your own savings potential. I haven’t found a better way to save, or make, this much money, while doing the “right thing for the environment.” If you figure out a better angle, contact me. Until then, I suggest you contact Will Feeney, energy consultant at Borrego, to set up a property inspection and learn whether you are a candidate for the program. His cell is 510-367-4556, or reach him by email at wfeeney@borregosolar.com.

Need more information? Full details of the Borrego/SunRun plan can be found at http://www.borregosolar.com/sun-run/ or at http://www.sunrunhome.com

The Best Food in Italy

The food emporium called Tamburini, in Bologna, is a feast for the eyes, as well as for the stomach. Locals call it an antica salsamenteria; for food travelers, it’s a door into our gastrocultural past.

Friends who know Italy well have long told me that the best food in the nation is in Emilia-Romagna, the narrow region that lies atop Tuscany, running west to east. You may know the big towns here: Bologna, Parma, Reggio Emilia, and Modena.

Having just spent two weeks in Emilia-Romagna and having eaten at such places as All'Osteria Bottega, in Bologna, Parizzi Ristorante in Parma, and Trattoria Della Ghiara in Reggio Emilia, I must agree with my know-it-all friends; this likely IS the best food in Italy.

The best single bowl of broth and pasta that I have ever had – at All’Osteria Bottega, in Bologna. You want THE Gold Medal-winning pasta dish? THIS IS IT.

The one dish that seems to separate the GREAT cooks in this region from the just-good cooks, is a regional specialty – small pasta shapes stuffed with a mixture of meats, served floating in brodo, or broth.

In Bologna, at All’Osteria Bottega, I had the single best bowl of broth that I have ever tasted, a perfectly made, rich brodo, which had nearly as much complexity as many Napa Valley Cabernets. Certainly as much texture and finish. The broth that chef Daniele Minarelli makes here relies on capons for flavor. His broth was served with homemade tortellini, tiny, navel-shaped pasta pockets filled with a tasty forcemeat of (equal parts) ground chicken, veal, pork, mortadella, and prosciutto.

Anolini in brodo at Ristorante Parizzi, in Parma

In Parma, about 60 miles west of Bologna, at Parizzi Ristorante, I succumbed to a sensational order of anolini (a variation on tortelli, tiny pillows  each about the size of an oyster cracker; they melt in your mouth) floating in a rich beef broth. How’s this for meticulous care: the anolini are made to order each time someone chooses the first-course soup!

For the record: other highlights of lunch at Parizzi included a tasting of three different prosciuttos di Parma aged 24-, 30- and 36-months, respectively as well as a tasting of three different Parmigiano-Reggiano cheeses, aged 20-, 30- and 44-months.

Cappelletti in brodo at Della Ghiara – “worth the detour.”

In Reggio Emilia, I had the pleasure of dining at Trattoria Della Ghiara, where owners Antonio Giordano and his wife, Marilena Braglia, lighten regional fare, but never neuter it. Marilena’s cappelletti in brodo presents brilliantly; she makes a forcemeat of ground beef, pork, veal, prosciutto, Parmigiano-Reggiano and mortadella and stuffs the mixture into tiny pillows of tender pasta. Her broth is made with beef and capon stock.

In short, if you want perfection at the dinner table, head to Bolgona, or Parma, or Reggio Emilia, to any of these restaurants. They deserve serious attention, not to mention a mountain of Michelin stars. There are many other fine restaurants throughout the region, too, most of them serving variations on these regional dishes.

The one disclaimer that I need to make is what this region lacks in term of cuisine. We always think of Italy as a land of sunshine and tomatoes. Well, Emilia-Romagna has lots of the former, sunshine, but the land is farmed to feed pigs for all that delicious prosciutto and for grasses and hay to feed cows -- to furnish 4,300 area farmers who supply milk to make Parmigiano-Reggiano. So there isn't much land left to farm tomatoes.

In addition to tomatoes, which are missing from the Emilia-Reggiano diet, so are other vegetables. Spending two weeks in E-R is a bit like spending time in Argentina; there, every meal, including breakfast, includes some form of beef. In E-R, every meal offers a selection of ham, prosciutto, or mortadella. Get used to it.

Okay, enough of the overview; let’s get back to Bologna.

Chef/owner Daniele Minarelli speaks with restaurant guest Claude Albertazzi at one of the best restaurants in Bologna, All’Osteria Bottega.

The chef at All’Osteria Bottega is Daniele Minarelli, who has been in business four years, but who has been in the restaurant trade for a total of 23. Recently, Daniele was asked to join the Slow Food movement, honoring his attention for using local, seasonal ingredients, as well as for his ambitious use of organic (biologique) ingredients.

A specialty of the region is the antipasti plate of prosciutto di Parma and slices of culatello, sliced from the heart of the ham leg, usually a deeper red color, usually a deeper meaty taste.

What does a full dinner with wine cost at this Best of Italy restaurant with 24 seats and where the lighting fixtures – bare bulbs – go out time and again during the course of an evening? Answer: 88 Euros ($125), including wine, service and as many digestifs after dinner as you can wash down.

But it is the brodo on which I am still stuck, two weeks after having it. Quite simply, this was the single best broth I have had in 30 years of professional tasting. I have no idea how many capons sacrificed their life for this soup, but they died a noble cause because this broth, were there an Olympic event for broth-making, would take the Gold, Silver and Bronze Medals – all of them – hands down. Think of Chef Minarelli as the Michael Phelps of soup-making and you’ll understand this guy’s drive for perfection and culinary achievement.

At All’Osteria Bottega, Daniele’s at the stove; he’s at the phone; he slices the mortadella (which is excellent by the way), he takes your order, he runs the dishes to your table; he suggests what wine to have with your dinner as he IS the wine list (there is no printed selection).

Daniele is aided by two women on my first visit, and by only one serveuse on a second visit, but Daniele still does most of everything anyway. If you crossbred one of Louis de Funes’ food characters (one of my favorite French film comics) with Manuel, the waiter in Faulty Towers, and added the spice of a knowledgeable Italian cook such as Marcella Hazan, you’d have a good idea of Daniele’s strengths and focus.

Like the Soup Nazi, Daniele has rules. In the kitchen, it’s his way or the highway. He ONLY uses 3-year-old Parmigiano cheese because (translated from his Italian) “it must grate in a very particular way.” He says that if the cheese is younger, it is too moist, and if older than three years, it tends to crumble when grated.

At All’Osteria Bottega, Daniele tells you that you MUST start dinner with a selection of his delicate salumeria items, which Daniele will choose for you, of course. (As they say in the movies, Resistance is Futile!) Daniele’s mortadella is as light and ethereal as the best prosciutto di Parma that I’ve ever had.

In one of the few instances in which I saw tomatoes in a restaurant in E-R, Daniele served a small, complementary bowl of papa al pomodoro (fresh tomato soup, made with organic tomatoes, extra-virgin olive oil, basil and then intensified with an oil-garlic emulsion). It tasted as though the chef had condensed the pulp of a bushel of ripe tomatoes into a single cup of chilled soup. I am not sure that I have ever eaten anything with a more intense tomato flavor; even if I squeezed tomato paste concentrate from a commercial tube onto my tongue, I do not expect that I would experience such an intensity of tomato-ness.

Attention to detail – without being supercilious – is the hallmark of service at Parizzi.

In Parma, the eating highlight was lunch at Parizzi Ristorante, which looks and feels like a Michelin 1-star restaurant. If you are lucky enough in a lifetime to be served ONCE by someone as pleasant and knowledgeable as Mimo (short for Cosimo), at this restaurant, you have had a blessed life, indeed. This is a THRILLING dining room. Nothing is left to chance; every aspect of your meal is looked after by chef Marco Parizzi.

If you head to Parizzi, in Parma, be sure to order the taste trial of Parmigiano-Reggiano.
Here are 20-, 30- and 44-month aged Parmesan cheeses.

Culinary highlights at Parizzi included two tastings conducted at table; the chef chose three Parmigiano-Reggiano cheeses, each of a different age. It was instructional -- I immediately understood how age transforms the acidity, salinity and texture of  this stunning regional cheese. I also now understand why Parmigiano is considered by many to be the King of Cheeses.

Three proscuittos of different age were selected by Marco Parizzi for a tableside tasting; slices of 24-, 30- and 36-month-aged prosciuttos were presented.

The menu also offered a tasting of three different prosciuttos di Parma, each a different age, and again I understood how age affects the taste and texture of this slightly sweet, slightly nutty, totally delicious, cured ham.

Everything on the menu at Della Ghiara, in Reggio Emilia, is delicious, but a favorite dish was the roasted black-eyed rabbit, served with a regional version of ratatouille.

One other regional restaurant on my Best Of list, which must not be overlooked, is Ristorante Cocchi (pronounced Coke-ee), in Parma. Located on the ground floor of the family’s hotel (Hotel Daniel), the restaurant is run by Corrado (front of the house and the one who chooses the fabulous wine list), by his wife Laura (who makes all the pasta from scratch) and their amiable son Daniel, all of whom share the common last name Cocchi.

Corrado’s father opened a restaurant at this location and he took over; and now, in Italian tradition, the son of the son (Daniel) will take over. Everything here is homemade, everything here is delicious. The pasta melts in your mouth, the meat sauces are meaty without being heavy, the wine list and the wine cellar (which Corrado opened for me) are gems for serious wine lovers.

Corrado, Laura and Daniel Cocchi at the family ristorante.

A private tour of the wine cellar at Cocchi reveals all sorts of secrets – where they age their prosciutto and culatello, where they keep their breakfast cereals, and, as you might suspect, where they keep the REAL killer reds.

If you are heading to Emilia-Romagna in the near future, be sure to print out and take this short list of Must-Not-Miss Restaurants.

All’Osteria Bottega, Via S. Caterina, 51, Bologna, Italy
Tel: 39-051-585-111
 
Parizzi Ristorante, Strada Repubblica 71, Parma, Italy.
Tel: 39-0521-285-952

Trattoria Della Ghiara, Vicolo Folletto 1C, Reggio Emilia, Italy.
Tel: 39-0522-435-755

Ristorante Cocchi, Via Gramsci 16A, Parma, Italy.
Tel: 39-0521-981-990


This purple bike has absolutely NOTHING to do with this food story but I so loved the bike, and the color of the wall behind it, that I chose to include it in this story. Taken in Parma, Italy.

The Spottswoode Annual Garden Party – is it that time of year already?

It seems just like yesterday napaman was crowing about the sensational just-released 2004 Spottswoode Cabernet Sauvignon, marched out to thirsty guests at the now-annual Spottswoode Release Garden Party.

But that was a year ago.

My how time flies when you’re drinking good wine.

So here we are again, hunting down a parking spot on the back streets of sleepy St. Helena to attend one of the most warm and fuzzy family winery release parties in the valley.

John and Beth Novak Milliken, part of the driving force behind the family winery. Beth is winery president.

Guests mingle on the lawn of Mary Novak’s estate home and belly up to a half-dozen stations around the property where amuses-bouches are served, and where some pretty fantastic wines are poured.

Jennifer Williams, Spottswoode’s winemaker and vineyard manager. Her first vintage here was the not-yet-released 2006 Cabernet, tasted from barrel at the garden party. Hold onto your hats, America – it’s a thrilling wine. Welcome to Spottswoode, Jennifer!

Tasting notes:

2007 Spottswoode Sauvignon Blanc
I asked several members of the winery team if they thought I was nuts, proclaiming this quite possibly the best Spottswoode S.B. I’ve ever had. They all seemed to agree, either to make me feel good about my judgment call, or because they really feel the same way.
This is a stunning Sauvignon Blanc, crisp on the attack, lots of flesh in the middle and wonderful citrus-y notes on the finish, especially lemon. This will be terrific with seameats, or served alone on a hot summer’s eve.
In my opinion, the wine is a bit over-priced, as far as Sauvignon Blancs go; they’re asking $32 in a universe in which one can find gorgeous Sauvignon Blancs for $12-18. But as Spottswoode only makes 1,800 cases  -- and they sell everything they make – who can blame the family for asking what the market will obviously bear?
The Sauvignon fruit this year is 40 percent from a mountainside in Sonoma County, and the blend is made more mysterious by the addition of about  five percent Semillon, which comes from Tofanelli’s old vines in Calistoga.
What a wonderful achievement; Jennifer’s second SB at Spottswoode – great work! 92 points.

2005 Spottswoode Lyndenhurst Cabernet Sauvignon
Call this their second label, or go-to-label, or not-quite reserve label. The wine has a lovely bright color, almost neon-ic when one’s glass is tilted toward the sun. Gorgeous soft tannins, with broad top notes of toast and vanilla; give this wine a few years  for the flavors to integrate and your face will be happy. 89 points.

1996 Spottswoode Cabernet Sauvignon
They went into the library to pull out something like 18 bottles of this vintage for the garden party. My understanding is that a few of the bottles failed to pass muster. I certainly detected bottle variation among the bottles finally selected and poured.
I have always loved the 1996 Spottswoode Cab; I have one bottle left in my own cellar from my original purchase and loved each of the five finished bottles.
Today, one bottle poured at the party showed a paling color, notes of licorice, dried plum and black currant. I rated this first bottle 91 points.
Then I tasted from a different bottle and was stunned at how fresh and vibrant the wine was – in color and taste. Tons of verve, nerve and finish. Lots of blackcurrant flavors and a real bounce on the palate. 92 points for this bottle.

2002 Spottswoode Cabernet Sauvignon
A fantastic wine at six years of age. I have a full, unopened 6-pack at home that I must remember to start drinking. This is glorious wine; it’s all there – the attack, the middle palate and the long and winding finish. Silken texture. If you own any of this, consider yourself a lucky sod! 92 points.

2005 Spottswoode Cabernet Sauvignon
They’ve upped the ante with this wine, set a new bar for the estate Cab. The fruit is bright, there is a stunning attack of fruit and an even greater finish of fruit. Yet this is not a Califnornia “fruit-bomb.” It has hallmarks of elegance and balance. Over time, this will be a real dinner winner. I will make a note to start drinking my own bottles in four years, by which time, some of the top notes will have blended within the wine, creating a wholly harmonious beverage. 93 points, maybe 94.

2006 Spottswoode Cabernet Sauvignon, from a barrel sample
Focused for a wine of this age, spicy, has hallmarks of greatness; will be bottled in November 2008, released to the public in September 2009.
Preliminarily, at the very least, a 91-point wine.

To get on the Spottswoode mailing list, here’s what you need to know:
1902 Madrona Ave.,
St. Helena, California 94574.
Phone 707/963-0134,
or email
estate@spottswoode.com

At Groth Winery, when “something bugs you,” it’s a good thing!

A lot of “critters” have shown up on wine labels recently – horses, ducks, fish, moose, bulls, roosters and sheep – used to boost shelf visibility and, hopefully, improve sales. But now real “critters” are actually being invited into the vineyard to improve something more germane -- what’s in the bottle.

These new “critters” include butterflies, ladybugs, and bumblebees, all considered beneficial insects, which prey on natural enemies of the vine.

No one has done a better, or more visible, job at being Noah – bringing these critters onto the Sustainable Vineyard Ark – than Groth Vineyards & Winery, in Oakville. They’ve even gone so afar as to create the valley’s first “Insectary Garden,” an inviting home for desirable insects.

Next month, on four consecutive Fridays, visitors to the winery can have a complimentary tour of Groth’s Insectary Garden, as well as taste some mighty fine sustainable-farmed Oakville wines, also at no charge. (Details below).

 

Suzanne Groth stands in the winery’s Insectary Garden amid colorful flowering shrubs and perennials.

“In our move toward total sustainable farming, we replanted 78 acres of vines, changing their orientation, trellising and ground crop,” says Suzanne Groth, head of public relations for the winery. “And to care for the new vines, we created the Insectary Garden,” she adds.

Here’s what they did: Last year, Groth planted 44 varieties of shrubs, trees, perennials and grasses to attract specific insects, birds and reptiles to increase biodiversity on the property and to control pesky insects biologically, rather than chemically.

In other words, they planted especially tasty stuff to attract good bugs… which would kill off the bad bugs.

The actual idea for the Insectary Garden came from landscape architect Nancy Roche, of Roche + Roche Landscape Architecture in Sonoma.

Groth’s Insectary Garden

In agricultural-speke, this is known as a sustainable farming practice.  Groth planted Achillea Paprika (yarrow), for example, to attract ladybugs, which love snacking on leafhoppers, which are nasty predators of our valley’s best vines.

They planted Ceanothus (California Lilac) to attract lacewings, which flitter about the vineyard noshing on mealy bugs. The mealies (they sound like a group of nasties in a George Lucas film…) wreak havoc on grape vines, spreading mold and viruses.

For the record, sustainable farming is considered one step beyond organic farming, which we hear so much about these days. Sustainable farming practices take into consideration the effects of doing any one thing on the entire surrounding environment. In the case of Napa Valley, it means caring about the health of the entire watershed of the valley.

Buddleia davidii, commonly called the butterfly bush, has sweet nectar that attracts butterflies, hummingbirds and bees, all which help pollinate plants.

At Groth, this has meant replanting estate vines on a north-south axis rather than an east-west axis to profit from winds, which blow north from San Pablo Bay. Air circulation, which is free, natural, and plentiful in Oakville, helps reduce mildew, and mold, diminishing the need for remedial chemicals.

They’ve also encouraged the growth (or should I say “the Groth?”) of cover crops between rows of vines to further establish a healthy insect population to battle bad bugs, as well as conserve soil moisture.

At Groth, seeing weeds between manicured rows of vines is considered a good thing; it’s a smart farming practice and means specific chemicals can be eliminated.

Dennis and Judy Groth, who founded the winery in 1981, are both responsible for spreading this pastoral religion. During his tenure as chairman of the Wine Institute, Dennis established an industry-wide code for sustainable winegrowing practices, which has become a standard for hundreds of wineries across California.

For the release of each vintage of Groth Reserve Cabernet, the winery’s top wine, Suzanne Groth, who is a trained artist, paints a new image; this is her offering for the release of the 2005 Groth Reserve Oakville Cabernet Sauvignon next month.

To showcase the results of sustainable farming, the Groths are inviting visitors to walk among their colorful Insectary Garden and taste estate wines every Friday in September – with tasting fees waived.

Call the winery to register for a free garden tour and wine tasting, offered from 11 am to 2 pm on each Friday in September – the 5th, 12th, 19th and 26th. Reservations are not officially required, but it would be helpful for the winery to know who’s coming and how many might be on hand to sip wines.

I tasted through some of the wines that will be poured on Fridays and had a sneak preview of the winery’s stunning 2005 Reserve Cab, which will officially be released September 20.

Tasting Notes

2007 Groth Sauvignon Blanc
This is the winery’s workhorse, responsible for nearly half of all Groth’s volume. Winemaker Michael Weis insisted a long time ago that this would be a better wine with a touch of Semillon and he was right. This straw-colored, pleasing wine, with 4 percent Semillon, has attractive fruit flavors (largely pear), exhibits bright acidity and has an alluring finish, which makes you want to take another sip. Good as a sipping wine, also ideal with food. In excess of 30,000 cases produced. $18 retail. 90 points

2005 Groth Oakville Cabernet Sauvignon
A rich, charming, compelling wine, reminding me of Franciscan’s Magnificat, another area red blend, which I quite like. About one-quarter Merlot, this wine has a lovely texture, almost silken on the palate. While the wine is plush and plum-y, the Merlot is not overplayed; the Cab shines through with black currant-correctness. Elegant, balanced and fairly priced ($55) – who could ask for anything more? 93 points. 

2005 Groth Reserve Oakville Cabernet Sauvignon
There are only 1,400 cases of this exceptional wine. Look at the color! Regal, the purple of Kingly robes; quick, someone bring me a thrown.
Still young, this wine has a tight nose, but there are hints of plum and black currants, which will evolve over time. Many Asian spice flavors evident – from two years in all-new oak. Yet this is an elegant, balanced textbook achievement. Available to club members and winery visitors at $150/bottle. 93 points.

Groth Vineyards & Winery, 750 Oakville Cross Road, Oakville. Tel: 707-754-4254.

California may be on fire – but thankfully, the 05 Rutherford Cabs are not!

Winewriters gathered at Rubicon today to attend the annual Rutherford Dust Society tasting.

More than 350 wild fires are burning out of control in California this month, but we still find things to distract ourselves.

Take the 05 vintage of Rutherford Cabernet, for example, revealed today at the annual Rutherford Dust Society Tasting, a media/trade event held at Rubicon (formerly Niebaum-Coppola Estate Winery), hosted by local growers and wine makers.

“For the most part, the 05 Cabs are classically structured, and tightly focused,” says Quintessa winemaker Charles Thomas.

These are not the hot, fruit bombs that Napa Valley wines were starting to become, virtual parodies of Australian Shiraz, with high levels of extraction, high levels of alcohol, enough wood to build a barn.

 “The 05 Cabs are tightly wound and have really desirable structure. They remind me of the 92, 94 and 03 Cabs,” summarizes Garen Staglin of Staglin Family Vineyards.

In short, the 05 Cabernet Sauvignons, tasted blind today, and all from the AVA (American Viticultural Area) of Rutherford are well made, well structured wines. They are not opulent, not fleshy, like their 04 counterparts tasted at this event last year. The 05s are tighter, less flashy, less powerful. Some had an herbaceous quality, some had green olive top notes, others exhibited salty, black licorice flavors.

Hey! It’s a tough job – but someone has to taste all these wines so that YOU will know what to single out for your cellar!

Generally, this is one of my favorite wine-tasting events of the valley, giving me a chance to taste a large collection of local wines in one sitting. Unlike my colleagues who attend, I choose to taste blind, fearing that labels might influence my judgment, if I saw them.

Of 27 wines tasted blind, I rated six with 91 or better points (out of 100). The least expensive of these top-tier wines retails for $45 and at the upper end there is one which retails for $225.

One thing I usually find at this annual tasting is that price is not always a perfect indicator of quality. Almost every year, I blindly identify a $40-$50 wine that scores as many points as a triple-digit-dollar wine. And this year was no exception.

Specifically: I scored the 2005 Rutherford Grove Estate Cabernet 91 points, which is exactly what I scored the 2005 Peju Rutherford H.B. Vineyard Cabernet. Rutherford Grove costs $45, Peju retails for $225.

One of my favorite sommeliers in the Bay-area, Christie Dufault, who is wine director at the precise and elegant neighborhood restaurant Quince, in San Francisco, was invited to today’s testing. She had a sweet way of referring to the wines of Rutherford, which is where I happen to live.

Christie Dufault, wine director, Quince restaurant, San Francisco

“I always think of Rutherford as the aristocracy of Napa Valley wines. I have tasted and enjoyed them for 15 years. They are generally restrained wines with an evident texture – which other appellations in Napa Valley just don’t achieve.”

Thanks for the good word, Christie!

For the record, lest readers think Rutherford is some HUGE appellation, here’s the skinny: Rutherford, which lies at the epicenter of Napa Valley, has a reputation that far exceeds its geographic footprint.

Rutherford, only six square miles in size and planted with barely 3,300 acres of vines, produces less than one-quarter-of-one-percent (that’s .25 percent!) of all the wine produced in America. By comparison, Disney World in Orlando, FLA, at 47 acres, is nearly eight times bigger!

Speaking about the herbaceous flavors in the 05 Rutherford Cabs, Joel Aiken, director of winemaking at Beaulieu Vineyard, says, “I think the Cabernets from Rutherford – in a classic vintage – should show some restrained herbaceous character – or what we call ‘Rutherford Dust.’ If you have too many herb flavors, you taste green bell peppers, which is one extreme; at the other end, without some restrained herb notes, all you have are plump fruit flavors. The essence of a Rutherford Cabernet is a subtle, restrained herbaceous note between these two extremes.”

To my way of thinking, many of the wines poured today exhibited too many of these “herbaceous notes.” I rated some of the wines in the 85 to 89 point range, owing to over-the-top, herbed notes. Where’s the subtlety in that?

“It was critical to watch your crop in 2005,” recalls Charles Thomas of Quintessa. “You had to actively manage your crop. We had a lot of rain in the spring, which caused vines to grow rapidly. If you didn’t cut back this vigor, you were left with herbaceous wines,” he concludes, which goes a long way to explaining why I found so many “green,” or “herbaceous” wines in today’s tasting.

The top-scoring wines in the blind tasting

2005 Quintessa. Another stellar performance from this winery, which produced one of my Top Favorite Rutherford Cabs at last year’s blind tasting of 2004 wines. A tightly structured Cab, which I labeled blindly, “a typical Rutherford Cabernet on the nose and on the palate. An extremely well structured wine with a bulls-eye focus.” 93 points. $135.

2005 Scarecrow. A recent newcomer to the wine scene, Scarecrow is grown on a parcel of 60+-year-old vines, which are adjacent to Rubicon, formerly known as the J.J. Cohn plot.
Cohn, a movie mogul, had a significant role in the production of The Wizard of Oz. Hence the brand positioning for the vines planted on his estate.
The winemaker today is Celia Masyczek, who is one of my favorite winemakers in Napa Valley. I still treasure the 1996 Staglin Family Vineyards Cabernet, which she crafted. I love almost everything she breathes life in to and it is not a coincidence that I ranked her wine blindly, out of 27, so highly. It’s just further proof that her wines speak to me and that she is the IT girl when it comes to making Classic Rutherford Cabs. This one has a richness of texture not evident in many of the wines tasted today, a richness of flavor, splendid elevated fruit flavors, many of them ripe, black compelling fruits. 93 points. $100.

2005 Rubicon Estate. Wow, they’ve crafted another gorgeous wine here, just as they did in 2004. Good rich, ripe fruit, really well structured, a solid wine, an elegant wine. Has a superb profile, missing in many of today’s offerings; this one has an evident attack, a great middle palate and a superb finish. According to the tasting notes, will be released in September. 92 points. $145.

2005 Beaulieu Vineyard, Georges de La Tour Private Reserve. There’s lots of this stunning wine to go around, 12,600 cases, in fact. The name suggests it might be more rare than it is, but the good news is, there is a sufficiency of supply to satisfy the masses. A really great effort by Joel Aiken and his wine team, easily putting him back in the driver’s seat of one of the appellation’s top wines. Really tasty, ripe, pure fruit. Rich in texture, too. I loved the black fruit scents, the olives that were suggested in the middle palate and the ripe fruits on the finish. Trends to blackcurrant in overall taste impression, which is exactly what you want your Cab to present. Not vanilla, not wood, not cherry pie. And none of that is present here – just honest, well made, blackcurrant-oriented Cabernet. Will be released in September. 91 points. $115.

2005 Peju Rutherford H.B. Vineyard Cabernet. Lots of ripe red fruits on the nose, suggesting a pleasurable experience will follow. And it does. Lovely ripe fruit on the early palate, a lovely lively profile follows and then the total package goes into overdrive after you swallow. Sounds like a racing car. Costs like one, too. To be released in February, 2009. Only 358 cases made. 91 points. $225.

2005 William Harrison Rutherford Red. First time I recall tasting William Harrison’s wine at this annual event. It certainly wasn’t present last year. In the blind tasting, I found this a delicious wine with a tight nose, suggesting ripe black fruit. On the palate, very elegant, suitably supple, not a word I used with many of the wines in today’s tasting. A solid performance. 91 points, $80.

2005 Rutherford Grove Estate Cabernet. Blackcurrants and Bordeaux scents waft from the glass, mixed with a bit too much vanilla. But on the palate, the wine jumps into line with a harmony of fruit flavors, blackcurrant, ripe red fruits, a hint of cedar, and the tell-tale note scribbled into the margin of my pad: “very appealing.” First time I recall seeing this wine in the annual tasting. The release date has not been determined. 91 points. Hold on to your hats – only $45.

Napaman.com readers interested in learning more about Rutherford wines, or who wish to get on the appellation's mailing list should contact infor@rutherforddust.org.

This map is available for purchase through the Rutherford Dust Society; contact info@rutherforddust.org

Joseph Perrulli Is Up to his Neck in Glassware!

Not just any glassware, mind you; stemless, plastic, shatterproof, recyclable, elegantly shaped, thin-walled and totally transparent. Oh, and ideal for wine.

The glasses are called Govino, which Joseph, a local St. Helena resident, designed and brought to market this year with financial support from LA partner Boyd Willat, himself a brainiac entrepreneur.

And unlike Govino glassware, which won’t shatter, even if you stand on it, the plastic glasses are a smash hit, breaking all sales expectations.

Boyd Willat and Joseph Perrulli, the inventors of Govino. Boyd’s earlier claims to fame: he invented the daily planner called Day Runner, as well as the easy-to-hold Sensa Pen.

“I always thought of myself as a budding inventor,” says Joseph, now 47, who tried all through the 1990s to bring any number of whacko ideas to market, including a hands-free dog leash.

“I thought I might want to be a stunt driver, or an actor, in Hollywood,” says Joseph who, instead, in 1998, got the bright idea that what the world needed was a better plastic wine glass.

He says that he found those cheap, poolside, snap-on stem, plastic glasses, with lips as thick as Joan Rivers’, totally offensive. “I asked myself, ‘Why couldn’t I make a decent glass out of plastic that looks and feels like a Riedel glass?’”

Joseph and Boyd spent nine years understanding why no one had broken the (injection) mold of poorly designed, poorly manufactured plastic glassware. It was a hard act to pull off.

“We traveled to four continents and visited a dozen plastic manufacturers to find one who could make Govino out of PETG,” says Joseph, summarizing their nine-year odyssey.

In the end, they found a firm, which could make their curved, easy-to-hold glass out of glycol-modified, polyethylene terephthalate.

If that’s a mouthful, you can pretend that you know more than the guy sitting on the barstool next to you; if he’s drinking out of a Govino, tell him he’s drinking out of a new-age plastic called PETG, appreciated for its stiffness, toughness and impact strength.

Better yet, tell the dude on the barstool that his Govino contains no BPA, which, you tell him, is the short form for “Bisphenol A,” which Canada has banned from bottles, including baby bottles, and which is under review by agencies here in the US.

In the last short while, Bisphenol A has become controversial because it is believed to mimic estrogen when consumed in sufficient quantities and thus could induce human hormonal responses. Or so they say.

"We are ready for your close-up, profile shot, Mr. Govino." Notice the indented ridge for your finger, which helps you hold the bulbous, sensually curved Govino glass. Govino looks like it's made of glass, and drinks like it too, but, in fact, it's p-l-a-s-t-i-c!

About the actual glass: I know this sounds stupid, but Joseph and Boyd have actually designed a plastic glass that is stunning, sensual and sexy. These are not terms usually found in the same sentence as “plastic.”

When one picks up a Govino plastic glass, though, there is a certain visual and tactile richness that makes the wine being sipped more compelling than had it been poured into, and sipped from, a regular wine glass.

The one element of use that needs attention is how to wash Govino glasses. They appear to make it through the wash cycle of just about any home dishwasher, but Joseph recommends pulling them out before the drying cycle begins.

In my commercial Hobart glass washer, which heats to 190 F for a 100 percent bacterial kill without soap, I had mixed results with Govino glassware. One load washed and rinsed perfectly, but one load, which hit the highest heat, melted, resembling glassware that might have been designed by Salvador Dali.

Let’s face it: “Melting Govino Glassware” is not ever going to be a collectible the way Dali’s “Melting Clocks” (The Persistence of Memory) has become. So don’t fool yourself about the investment opportunity if you overheat yours the way I did mine.

Joseph’s wonderdog, Miles, has absolutely NOTHING to do with this story, but napaman.com believes that Dogs Make the World a Better Place to Live and so whenever anyone profiled in this space has a Wonderdog, the pooch’s photo is included!

To date, sales of Govino have been brisk, particularly in the Bay area. Joseph says he is beholden to local wineries and retailers in Napa Valley for help in establishing his brand.

“Frog’s Leap started the ball rolling, serving wines at a Leap Year party in Govino glasses,” says Joseph.

“Sunshine Foods Market, in St. Helena, was our earliest retail supporter, followed closely by Leslie Rudd, who put them in his Napa Valley Dean & DeLuca and Oakville Grocery locations,” Joseph adds.

Cindy Pawlcyn became a big fan of Govino and offered one each to 800 guests at her Mustards Grill 25th Birthday Party last week. One of the guests was Christian Moueix of Dominus fame, who took such a liking to Govino that, the next day, he ordered hundreds for his winery.

And that’s how this Govino thing is snowballing; you see ‘em, you touch ‘em, you drink from them and … Presto! You’re a Govino Convert. Who needs Riedel when you’ve got unbreakable, shatterproof, recyclable, SEXY and SENSUAL Govino?

Retailers charge $2 to $3 per Govino glass and Joseph alerts napaman.com readers to be on the lookout for a stemless Govino PETG Champagne flute as well as a Govino PETG decanter. They’re showing up in the marketplace soon. But remember, you read about them here first.

If you are a retailer and want more information about this plastic glass, or if you are a consumer who wants to learn more about this invention, go to www.govinowine.com.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some sexy, shatterproof, see-through drinking to get to…

Love Wine? Read this Book!

Love a good whodunit? Read this book.

Love a great piece of investigative journalism? This book’s for you.

The Billionaire’s Vinegar, by magazine writer Benjamin Wallace, is going to this summer’s hot, go-to beach book. At least for wine lovers.

Filled with a cast of larger-than-life braggarts, connivers, narcissists, and some of wine’s most colorful characters – Christie’s Wine Guy, Michael Broadbent, for one – The Billionaire’s Vinegar is the tale of some questionably authentic, questionably old wines, including bottles that may, in fact, have come from a cache belonging to Thomas Jefferson.

If you have followed some of the headlines over the last 25 years, you know that German bon vivant, Hardy Rodenstock, claims to have uncovered several cellarsful of old wines – one lot from Caracas, Venezuela, and a more important haul from a vault in Paris where he claims to have found bottles of 1787 Lafite, bearing the imprint of Thomas Jefferson.

The author, Benjamin Wallace, has written for GQ and Food and Wine magazines. In The Billionaire’s Vinegar he earns his stripes as a serious gum-shoe. The detail in the book is astounding, yet it never bogs down… reads like a real thriller.

Whether these wines are real, and belonged to Thomas Jefferson, or whether they are counterfeit, is the subject of this book, written in a wonderful gum-shoe tradition; you just never know what the Truth of the claims, allegations, and counter-claims is until the end of the book.

In my career, I have met several of the larger-than-life wine writers and wine aficionados mentioned in this book and can attest to Wallace’s descriptions of them as being accurate. So it’s not a stretch to presume that everyone else he mentions is also properly painted.

And the accuracy of wine detail is staggering. I would hate to have been Wallace’s fact-checker because just about every vintage of the great growths of Bordeaux is mentioned multiple times, there are wine tastings in which hundreds of bottles were opened and Wallace has taster’s recollections of many of the opened bottles.

While there is a fabulously annotated bibliography at the end of this book, the one thing missing, for me anyway, is a proper index, which would permit the reader to return to certain passages about a particular wine without having to thumb through the volume back to front and front to back for half-an-hour. Maybe they’ll incorporate an index when the book is published in paperback?

The Billionaire’s Vinegar is already Number 73 on amazon.com’s bestseller list but I wouldn’t be surprised to find it on top of the non-fiction list by summer’s end – it’s that good, that compelling, that much fun.

The Billionaire’s Vinegar, by Benjamin Wallace, Crown Publishers, $24.95.

An Icon is Dead. But Even More Upsetting, so is My Friend.

You will have read it elsewhere first, so the news on this screen is not so dramatic, yet it is still so fresh in my mind.

Robert Mondavi, known as Bob to his friends, has died today at the age of 94.

If it weren’t for Bob, I wouldn’t live in Napa Valley and you wouldn’t be reading this.

He built this...

… but he did so much more. Bob Mondavi influenced EVERYONE in Napa Valley wine circles and is the Dean Emeritus of Wine in Napa Valley, if not America.

Bob called in 1980, urging me to come report on a new promotion, The Great Chefs of France Cooking School. He wanted to prove that American wines were every bit as good as classic French wines from Bordeaux and Burgundy and that his Mondavi wines paired exceptionally well with great food.

I was then Food Editor and Restaurant Critic of the largest newspaper in Canada (The Toronto Star, one of the five largest daily circ papers in North America), Bob stated his intention – that he wanted to convince food writers like me that his wines were on par with the Great Wines of France.

Exactly 28 years ago this very week, I flew to Napa Valley to cover the cooking classes of Jean Troisgros, whose family ran – and still runs – what is considered by many the single greatest restaurant in the world (Restaurant Troisgros, in Roanne, France).

We cooked with Jean for three days in Oakville, at the epicenter of Napa Valley and late into the night, I sat with Bob and Jean in the winery’s Vintage Room, swirling and sipping the greatest Bordeaux and best young Burgundies and Bob put his own Cabs and Pinot Noirs up for comparison.

Jean and I were incredibly impressed at the quality of Bob’s wines and I was so overwhelmed with the three-day writing assignment that I called home and told my wife that “one day we are moving here to Napa Valley.”

The place, the people – and particularly Bob Mondavi – had shook me to the core; I was not a greenie off the boat, struck by big lights or celebrity. I had traveled the world, been a foreign correspondent for years in Africa, had enjoyed dinners at the homes of world leaders and had spent time with some of the world’s top chefs, researching and writing profiles for various media.

No, what Bob introduced me to was a lifestyle, a persistence for “excellence,” and Napa Valley resonated within me in a way that no other place had ever done before, or since.

It took me 17 years to make the move to Napa Valley happen; we first had to get our kids to and through college but when the coast was clear, we upped and moved and became permanent fixtures of Napa Valley in 1997.

And I owe my life today to Bob and his dedicated and wonderful wife Margrit Biever Mondavi, who invited me to this valley, who became friends over the years that we have lived here, and who showed America how wine could become an instrumental part of the dinner table. And how good wine could be made in this nation.

Tonight, the wine industry mourns a fallen leader, a giant, an icon. But I mourn the loss of a friend and mentor.

My first glass at dinner tonight will be raised in Bob’s memory. He showed me – he showed us all – a way to live our lives; to not give in, to follow one’s passions and do it kindly and with humility.

I already miss you, Bob. Big time.

Oxbow Public Market – Top New Attraction in Napa Valley!

For years, Napkins (the residents of Napa, as I like to call them) have drooled when they visit San Francisco’s famed (and did I say Wonderful?) Ferry Building Marketplace on the Embarcadero.

Well, they’re not drooling any more. The same mind that brought life, artisans, chocolate, a wine bar, caviar, oysters and a bookstore to the revitalized Ferry Building in San Francisco has done it again, this time in the town of Napa.

That mind, by the way, belongs to Napa Valley resident Steve Carlin.

Steve Carlin, the spirit, brains and brawn behind Oxbow Public Market

At the turn of the year, Steve, who is founder and CEO of Oxbow Public Market, along with a small team of smart guys and smart money, opened the Oxbow Public Market on a bend in the Napa River beside COPIA (the American Center for Wine, Food and the Arts). The team dreamed up, built and populated the property over a two-year period. Total cost to open the doors? About $11 million, a sneeze compared to the near $70 million that was needed to open the doors at COPIA next door.

Hallelujah! The still-in-its-infancy Oxbow Public Market is a charmer, a disarmer, a welcome divertissement for downtown Napa. EVERY SINGLE TOURIST WHO READS THIS MUST ADD A PIT STOP AT OXBOW MARKET TO HIS/HER “EATINERARY” OF NAPA VALLEY.

Oxbow Market is a collection of (eventually) 14 interior stalls and five exterior, or adjacent, businesses supplying mostly local, mostly organic, mostly sustainably produced foods. The good stuff, the tasty stuff, for visitors and locals alike.

Carlin has said that his goal was to recreate, albeit on a more compact scale, the great markets of North America – San Francisco’s Ferry Building, Seattle’s Pike Place and Vancouver’s Granville Island. A month after the formal opening, I’d say he’s succeeded beyond anyone’s expectations, certainly mine.

Oxbow Public Market is a statement about tasty, sustainable, mostly organic foods, it’s about locally grown produce (farmers in outdoor stalls complete the interior stall offerings) and about Bay-area- and Napa Valley-based artisans selling what they make, treasure, or revere. I guess you could summarize and say, above all, it’s a Place about Passion.

About Oxbow Public Market

The 40,000-square-foot marketplace, which includes a scenic outdoor deck with seating along the Napa River, is open seven days a week, 10 to 7 pm weekdays, 9 to 6 pm Saturday and 10 to 5 pm Sunday.

Currently open at the Market

The smartest way to review the stalls and stores at Oxbow is to group them geographically.

While Oxbow is small, you’ll want to stay for a bite, meander through the various stalls and generally lose yourself in sensual pleasures – food, wine, chocolate, tea, coffee, cheese and ice cream. So plan on spending a few hours at the very least.

To help plan your visit, here’s an overview of what’s at the market on a geographic, not alphabetic, basis:

Stalls on the west side of the Market

Pica Pica Maize Kitchen

Arepas, which are grilled white corn flour flatbreads, are the national food of Venezuela. And given their popularity at Pica Pica, and the line-ups they create, they could soon become the national dish of Napa.

Adriana Lopez Vermut and her family, who run a number of restaurants in Caracas, decided to take the plunge and open the first restaurant in North America serving arepas, and their sweet culinary counterpart, cachapas. For the record: both are made daily on site from corn flour and both are wheat- and gluten-free.

Luis Sosa, general manager of Pica Pica, presents a breakfast cachapa filled with cheese and ham. For the record, Pica Pica means “magpie” – the bird.

Arepas can be lined with ten different protein, or fruit, fillings, including chicken salad, skirt steak, black beans, tofu and plantains, cheese and ham, or even a poached egg.

What’s the one thing you insist visitors try when they ask, “What’s special?”
A Pepeada arepa, which is a freshly pressed corn cake heated on a griddle, sliced and filled with a chicken and avocado mixture seasoned with cumin, garlic, and Serrano chile. $7.25.

Fête

For those who don’t speak French, fête is both a verb and a noun, meaning “to celebrate,” or it’s the event itself, a celebration.

And what a fête this stall is, filled with charming accessories for home entertainment. Need to pamper yourself, or find a killer hostess gift? You’re likely to find it here. Consider: Heath ceramics from nearby Sausalito, or a set of exquisite Laguiole cheese knives. Maybe madame would be interested in a stunning argent (silver) tray from Argentina… or some gorgeous hand-etched Venetian glassware? Or consider fine table linens from France and Italy…?

Shop owner Jackie Caldwell-Rhoades advises customers to “buy once, and buy well,” because you will keep the items that you acquire here for a long, long time. There is something timelessly elegant about the items she selects to sell.

What’s the one thing you insist visitors try when they ask, “What’s special?”
It’s difficult to identify one thing that fits all needs, or all homes, so Fête manager Kathleen de Vries suggests “the elegant paper celebration crowns,” which can be worn at parties, or dinners by the celebrant of the event, the person having a birthday, or who is celebrating a major achievement. $16 a crown.

Five Dot Ranch

When the butcher at the stall of Five Dot Ranch tells you the family history, it makes you think of Ben Cartwright and his sons on the Ponderosa.

Five Dot is a seventh generation cattle ranch run by the Swickard family, today based in Susanville, Lassen County, CA.

The original brothers, so the story goes, called themselves “dots,” for no apparent reason. Hence the origin of the ranch’s name.

Folklore aside, what Five Dot brings to Oxbow is 100% northern California beef from Napa, Solano and Sonoma counties. The cattle are range-fed and all-natural, free of hormones and antibiotics. All the beef, with the exception of thin cuts like flank, hanger, and skirt steaks, is dry-aged 21 days.

Richard Barlow, a master butcher who has been in the meat and restaurant business for 35 years, came out of retirement to “have some fun” and work at the Five Dot stall. “This is by far the best beef that I have ever eaten!” he says. He’s holding what he says is his tastiest steak – a well-marbled, dry-aged, rib-eye.

What’s the one thing you insist visitors try when they ask, “What’s special?”
The 21-day dry-aged, heavily marbled rib-eye steak at $22.95/pound. “It’s one of the best pieces of steak you will ever eat!” says butcher Richard Barlow.

Three Twins Organic Ice Cream

This two-year-old, novel ice cream company, based in San Rafael, makes organic ice cream in flavors and colors as original as the story behind the venture.

Neal Gottleib, returning from a Peace Corps assignment in Morocco, moved in with his twin brother, Carl, and Carl’s then-fiance Liz, herself a twin. Neil started referring to the threesome as “The Three Twins,” and when he later decided to start America’s first organic ice cream chain, that’s the moniker he applied to the enterprise.

A dozen different organic ice creams are offered daily, though there is seasonal rotation coming from a total selection of some 30 flavors. All inclusions are also organic – the cookies and fruit snippets. The waffle cones, too, are organic, made, as you watch, on a small kitchen-sized waffle griddle that sits upon the counter.

I love the playfulness of the stall at Oxbow, the whacko signs and the inventive overhead conveyor contraption.

But I also love the ice cream and what Neil is attempting to do. By this summer, Neil intends to move his ice cream-making operation from San Rafael to Oxbow.

What’s the one thing you insist visitors try when they ask, “What’s special?”
Dad’s Cardamom Ice Cream. Why? For one thing, it’s totally different than all other commercial ice creams. It’s a very clean, delicate tasting vanilla that is scented almost more than being flavored with freshly ground cardamom, which Neil gets from his neighboring Oxbow stall, Whole Spice.
The cardamom ice cream, like all flavors, comes in a “Teensy” size for $2.25, a single scoop for $3.25… and runs on up to that $85,000 price tag on the sign above. Who ever said organic ice cream was cheap?

Heritage Culinary Artifacts

Lisa Minucci, the owner of this sweet stall, must have a screw loose. Or, at the very least, a corkscrew loose.

Lisa, who was sommelier at the very popular Martini House, in St. Helena, decided to sidestep her career and start something new. Now, in addition to writing a newsletter for sommeliers, Lisa hunts down wonderfully whimsical vintage farm signs and antique kitchen implements on her travels and then offers them for sale at her Oxbow stall.

Looking for an unusual gift? How about a heritage corkscrew, a weird bottle opener, a well-used serving utensil, or culinary curio? Chances are you’ll find something at Lisa’s Heritage stall.

What’s the one thing you insist visitors try when they ask, “What’s special?”
Not really a valid question here as there is total rotation of inventory and no two pieces are alike. This is one of those times when the answer to this common question is probably “everything!”

Whole Spice

Talk about a real mom and pop shop – this is it! Ronit (mom) and Shuli (pop) Madmone are taking their first gamble at retailing by bringing their exquisite line of freshly ground spices to the Oxbow Market.

Shuli Madmone opened Whole Spice with his wife, Ronit.

Shuli, who grew up in a family of spice traders, grinds and blends his spices in nearby Petaluma and offers about 300 different spices and 50 proprietary blends at his Oxbow stall.

Looking for paprika? Shuli has five different types including Hungarian, Spanish, Israeli, a smoked paprikash and a sweet paprikash.

Looking for salt? Look no further. Shuli has 12 different kinds including gray, pink, smoked, Hawaiian gold, and Hawaiian black.

Want to turn that cup of black coffee into something exotic with no added calories? Add ¼ teaspoon per cup of Shuli’s Hawaj blend, a tasty chai equivalent for java consisting of ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves and cardamom.

Whole Spice offers 300 spices in bulk, or pre-packaged in jars.

What’s the one thing you insist visitors try when they ask, “What’s special?”
Zhug, a fiery Yemeni blend of tianjin chile, garlic, coriander, cloves, cilantro, salt and cardamom, which is to be sprinkled over salads, fish, soup or grilled meats. A 50 gram packet of zhug is $5.50.

Stalls on the east side of the Market

Anette's Chocolate Factory

Shopkeeper Lisa Pike helps customers sort through snack options – beer brittle, chocolate truffles, or ice cream toppings, what’s it gonna be?

For 17 years, sister and brother Anette and Brent Madsen, have been making chocolates down the block on 1st Street. You see their tasty Beer Brittle and assorted line extensions (Fiery Beer Brittle, Wine Brittle, Kentucky Bourbon Brittle) all over town in independent grocery stores. The couple figured they needed to reach out to the 4 million visitors we attract in Napa Valley, many of whom will make the pilgrimage to Oxbow Public Market.

What’s the one thing you insist visitors try when they ask, “What’s special?”
Beer Brittle. It has a playful yin-yang flavor thing going on with salt and sugar duking it out on your palate for dominance, and there’s a pleasing peanut-y finish, which draws you back for more. $9.95 for a half-pound bag.

Kitchen Library

Photographer Steven Rothfeld, many of whose books grace my shelves (he shoots the photography for Patricia Wells’ cookbooks, and I have long treasured a book that he did on French signs called Entrez, which I bought long before I ever met Steven) decided he needed more mishagas in his life; so he opened a very personal, tiny stall, offering books, curios, culinary and stationery accessories, which he personally loves. If an item is sitting on Steven’s table, it has his personal endorsement of being wonderful, unique, and ownership-worthy.

Steven also sells prints and images – of his own work and of others – and has lots of hand-made things, which you won’t find at other retail stores.

Steven Rothfeld.

What’s the one thing you insist visitors try when they ask, “What’s special?”
“That’s like asking me which of my children do I like more, or which book that I have produced do I like more?” says Steven, responding to the common question.
“I’ve chosen every single thing in the store for a personal reason. These are things I love and live with.”

Folio Enoteca and Winery

What a claim to fame – the smallest bonded commercial winery in America! The man behind the concept is Michael Mondavi, whose family ran one of the largest wineries in the country. Michael, whose gone from big to small, actually makes wine on site and, as well, serves a number of brands from his Folio portfolio.

Oh yeah, and there’s great food, too.

Gregg Lamer, manager at Folio, says that they make more than 1,000 cases per year of Cabernet Sauvignon and Sauvignon Blanc in the 80 square feet devoted to winemaking on site. That’s a neat trick - like displaying all of Imelda Marcos’ shoes in a phone booth!

At Folio, you can sip through different flights of wine, or order a glass, or bottle, of the wines made by Michael Mondavi’s family -- I’M, Hangtime, or Oberon. Better yet, marry them to tasty offerings created by one of my favorite Napa Valley chefs, Sarah Scott. I’ve long encouraged Sarah to go out on her own to start her own restaurant; until she does, this is one of the few spots in the valley where you can taste her splendid work.

Sarah Scott, executive at Folio Enoteca.

What’s the one thing you insist visitors try when they ask, “What’s special?”
A Past (04), Present (05), and Future (06 – from barrel) flight of Oberon Cabernet Sauvignon, $12, with a side of Sarah’s scrumptious, southern-style, 3-cheese, Mac & Cheese, $5.

Tillerman Tea

David Campbell, former CEO of a popular Stags Leap District winery, decided to follow his passion, which was his second favorite beverage – tea.

David Campbell, founder of Tillerman Tea.

Last year, David left the wine world and started Tillerman Tea, sourcing more than 35 whole-leaf teas through the entire color/flavor spectrum – white, green and black. The teas are sourced in China and Taiwan, some are sold loose, others are encased in silken sachets.

At the Oxbow tasting bar, five organic house teas are poured free daily. David Wong, who has the formal title “director of tea culture and education,” will graciously lead you through your tasting, which you will find as detailed as any tasting you may have had at a local winery.

What’s the one thing you insist visitors try when they ask, “What’s special?”
“Chen Huan Tang is a tea master from Taiwan, one of the world’s great tea specialists,” says David Campbell with reverence. “We offer his Alishan Oolong tea, which looks peculiar but which has an exceptional taste.”
After the leaves of this tea are oxidized and roasted, they are dumped into large muslin sacks, which are rolled by hand, forcing the leaves inside to curl into small clumpy balls that look a bit like green nasturtium buds. In a way, the Alishan Oolong resembles wet clumps of grass that have been scraped off the blades of a lawn mower used on a dew-stained lawn and left to dry. They’re that shade of green. Anyway, when you add water, the curled-up balls relax, swell and release their tasty tannins. $11.50 per 25 grams, which will make at least 20 cups of tea.

Rôtisario

Perhaps you have been to France and seen those rotisserie trucks roll up to a local farmer’s market and wondered aloud, as I have, “why hasn’t anyone brought these trucks to America?”

Thomas Odermatt, “The Prince of Chicken,” as he is now called, sends his chicken rotisserie trucks to 25 Bay-area farmers’ markets weekly during the warmer months.

Thomas Odermatt must have been standing beside me and heard me speaking to myself, because in 2002, the Swiss-born, son of a master butcher founded his Bay-area business RoliRoti. You have likely seen Thomas’ trucks parked at the Ferry Building Farmers Market or have seen them roll up to most other weekly Bay-area farmers markets. They’re the trucks with an open side of juicy, turning, “rotisserizing” Fulton Valley free-range chickens.

Now Thomas has brought his clever rotisserie system to Oxbow Market, opening his first land-based, chicken-on-wheels business, but without the wheels.

Come and get it! Thomas says this Fulton Valley chicken is perfectly cooked. The potatoes he offers are cooked in the hot natural fat that drips off the rotisserie’d chickens onto the spuds below.

What’s the one thing you insist visitors try when they ask, “What’s special?”
The signature dish; the Rôtisario Chicken Plate for $9.50, which includes your choice of white or dark meat (but not both), a green salad with leafy organic greens, and roasted potatoes richly flavored with chicken juices.

The Olive Press

When we first moved to Napa Valley in 1997, once of the first things we did was to harvest our olives and make oil. As we had a rather small crop, we sought out a competent source to help us custom crush and in the process were introduced to The Olive Press, then located in Glen Ellen.

It was a tiny operation then, staffed by a few knowledgeable people. Today, the business has moved to a new building on the property of the Jacuzzi Family Winery on Arnold Drive (Hwy 121) and now it’s staffed by a lot of knowledgeable people.

Coming east to Napa County, and shedding their Sonoma-only presence, The Olive Press offers Oxbow Public Market visitors a chance to taste through seven different olive oils (some are flavored, some are blends, some are varietals).

On any day, you can taste through a selection of four different olive oils, three proprietary blends and three fruit-flavored olive oils. The tasting is free.

Not down a quart of oil? Looking for olives instead? Shopkeeper Cynthia Morgan is happy to walk you through a selection of cured olives.

What’s the one thing you insist visitors try when they ask, “What’s special?”
Arbequina olive oil, pressed from those little brownish olives that are often put out in Italian restaurants. “I like the flavor of this oil,” says shopkeeper Cynthia Morgan, “it’s not too strong, not too mild.” A sort of Goldilocks of oil, if you permit, not too big, not too little. Just right. $26/500 mL bottle.

Exterior/adjacent retailers

The Oxbow Wine Merchant and Wine Bar

It’s the best – if not longest – honkin’ wine bar in Napa Valley. I love the thick, 70-running feet of white oak, cut from a single 100-year-old tree; I love what they serve on top of it, too. Great food and great wines in tasting flights. And like those at an airport – these are flights you do not want to miss!

The menu changes regularly and seasonally as do the wines, so without being specific to the image above, just understand that the three amigos who run this place (and the San Francisco Ferry Plaza Wine Merchant, as well), inherently nail the food/wine pairing in spades. Choose a platter of cheeses, nuts and fruit and you will be amply rewarded with a flight of wines suggested by the barkeep.

It’s hard to imagine that you are in Napa Valley and have run out of wine, but let’s pretend that you have. Your cellar is bare. So you head to the Oxbow Wine Merchant and ask them to fill up your fridge, your pantry, your cellar, and maybe your garage, too. Because they can; they stock more than 1,000 different wines, every one of which staff members have tasted and know. It is from this inventory that the flights and by-the-glass wines originate.

The Wine Merchant hasn’t been open a month and already weekend nights are starting to be THE meeting place in Napa town; you may have thought that Five Dot Ranch, next door, was THE place to go for alluring meat… but on Friday night, that bulls-eye moves west about 20 feet… to the Wine Merchant Bar.


The amazing smoked salmon BLT on Model Bakery whole-wheat.

What’s the one thing you insist visitors try when they ask, “What’s special?”
The signature sandwich, which can be paired with a flight of tasty Pinot Noirs, is the Smoked Salmon BLT (pictured above). Here’s a generous mound of smoked salmon, apple wood-smoked bacon, lettuce and tomato, sandwiched between toasted slices of Model Bakery whole-wheat, which have been brushed with a zippy pesto mayo. $12 for the sandwich, wine flight extra.

The Oxbow Cheese Merchant

Riccardo Huijon, Melissa Crosby and Lassa Skinner, the cheery cheese mongers who will greet you in the northwest corner of the Oxbow Wine Bar.

The owners of the wine bar also decided to offer a small selection of retail cheeses. They pulled in some serious talent, cheese mongers who know cheese the way the guys behind the bar know their wines; and they encouraged them to purchase more than 100 different cheeses from around the world. Their personal favorites, stuff that is seasonal, sensational, sensual.

It is good to finally catch up, by the way, with Riccardo Huijon, who disappeared off the radar screen at Dean & DeLuca, where I used to patiently wait in line for his attentive, enthusiastic, cheese service. Now he’s at Oxbow Cheese, inside the structure that houses the Wine Bar.

What’s the one thing you insist visitors try when they ask, “What’s special?”
The three cheese mongers said that it was really difficult to name just ONE cheese to answer this question, but in the interest of identifying one cheese out of a hundred that they would suggest to customers, they named Goat’s Leap as THE cheese to try. This is the only cheese made in Napa Valley, produced in St. Helena. I love the creamy, goat-y, rich and balanced taste of this fromage, an equal to many of the French goat cheeses you have tasted in your life.

Taylor's Automatic Refresher

Rare, rare, rare, like the ahi tuna they serve here; you are not likely to ever see this sight in your lifetime – NO lineup at Taylors! This is what the Oxbow location looks like one minute after they open the doors. By two minutes, you’ll feel like you’re in Disneyworld during spring break, it can get that crowded.

One of Napa Valley’s original food concessions is on a tear. After the Gott family took over Taylor’s Refresher about eight years ago in St. Helena, they built a satellite location at the San Francisco Ferry Building. The two locations vie for which one has the longer line-ups for burgers, a killer ahi tuna sandwich, and the best milkshakes this side of the Rockies (Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect $200, Do not do anything else until you have had Taylor’s espresso bean milkshake; that’s not a suggestion – that an order!).

Now there’s a third, new location – at the Oxbow Public Market and who’s surprised? The line-ups are just as long here! The public has an unquenchable hunger for good, inexpensive food, beer and wine, and Taylor’s fills this need.

What’s the one thing you insist visitors try when they ask, “What’s special?”
We send all our visitors from out of town to the original Taylor’s location in St. Helena, which is closer to our home. The signature dish and signature beverage are: Seared rare Ahi tuna filet with ginger wasabi mayo and Asian slaw on a toasted egg bun. $13.99. The signature beverage is the espresso bean milkshake, described above, and large enough for two to share. $4.99.

Just west of the Oxbow Market, yet still part of it, are two retail stores that must not be overlooked – The Model Bakery and The Fatted Calf.

The Model Bakery

This will give you some idea of the selection of baked goods they make…

… and of the tasty breads, too, which rival the best made anywhere in the Bay-area.

One of my favorite pit-stops in St. Helena, after I finish my morning exercise, is at The Model Bakery on Main St., where they serve a mean Peet’s latte and some of the tastiest baked goods in Napa Valley.

Under the direction of Karen Mitchell and Sarah Mitchell Hansen (mother and daughter team), The Model Bakery is turning out hearty country breads that are in the league of those baked by Steve Sullivan at Acme Bread in Berkeley, or of those baked by Thomas Keller’s crew at Bouchon Bakery in Yountville. Many Model breads even surpass these exalted benchmarks.

The Model breads are exciting, crusty, they are breads with superb “crumb” as the soft center is called. There are times at home, when we have a slice of the pain au levain, that we recall that in all the dinners in France on our last trip, we didn’t have a bread as good, as crusty, as memorable as the Model pain au levain. Hats off to Karen and Sarah and to their new wizard head baker, Philippe Garcia.

What’s the one thing you insist visitors try when they ask, “What’s special?”
Karen Mitchell has a hard time identifying the one thing you have to try; “I’d say try any of the breads made with organic flour – we’re making baguettes, boules, batards, probably 20 different breads. We bake seven days a week; there has never been a bakery in the town of Napa offering this quality, or freshness, of breads.”
And just when I thought this was her choice for “must-try,” she hmmmmed out loud to herself and added, “but maybe I should say the “must-try” is a freshly baked English muffin, which we serve for breakfast, filled with fresh scrambled eggs, Tillamook Cheddar and lean Canadian bacon. (NY chef) Mario Batali ordered a few dozen at Christmas, claiming that he’d heard these were the best English muffins in America.”

The Fatted Calf

Sunlight glares off the refrigerated display case at The Fatted Calf – but that’s not all that glares here; there is a glaring fact that you are in the presence of some very knowledgeable, very dedicated, very caring charcuteristes.

Remember the names Taylor Boetticher and Toponia Miller. Yes, they are uncommon names but then, this husband and wife team have an uncommon profession – they are serious charcuteristes in a country that is obsessed with leanness, diet, and avoidance of fat.

That’s Toponia above, displaying a tray of just-made crepinettes an artisanal sausage – hand-pattied, wrapped in pork caul. It is a fabulous forcemeat of rabbit, lamb, walnuts, shallots and herbs that are hand-slapped into patties.

Taylor and Toponia met at the CIA (Culinary Institute of America), in Hyde Park, NY, and decided to move west for adventure. Toponia became chef at San Francisco’s MOMA (Museum of Modern Art) and Taylor oversaw meat sales at the Meat Market at Café Rouge, in Berkeley. They knew that one day, they would make their own line of sausages, and when Steve Carlin came a’callin’ (or in their case, a’caulin’), they rose to the self-imposed challenge.

Sausage maker Antonio Jeronimo smiles, having just made two types of small salami. The meats, pates, terrines, and sausages change daily at The Fatted Calf.

What’s the one thing you insist visitors try when they ask, “What’s special?”
We let Toponia off the hook on this question, for like a few other merchants at Oxbow, she answered that it would be impossible to single out just one of her artisanal products.
“Today I might say that THE thing to try is our terrine forestiere, made with rabbit, duck and black trumpet mushrooms, but tomorrow it could be one of 30 other sausages that we make – like our summer Basque Sausage, which is ideal for grilling.”

Opening in late Spring:

Kanaloa Seafood

A full-service seafood purveyor that will provide premium-quality shellfish and locally caught fish.

Ritual Coffee Roasters

Many say Ritual makes the best coffee in San Francisco. We’ll find out just how good it is when the Mission district coffee purveyor opens at Oxbow.

Opening in early Fall:

Hog Island Oyster Company

Modeled after its oyster bar at the San Francisco Ferry Building, Hog Island Oxbow will serve premium-quality, fresh-raised oysters on the half-shell, as well as baked oyster classics, organic salads and a daily changing seafood entrée.

For further information on any of the merchants above, contact Oxbow Public Market at 707-226-6529, or visit the website at: www.oxbowpublicmarket.com.

Sir Edmund Hillary – “Please, call me Ed!”

One of my greatest pleasures as a journalist has been the ability to meet famous people and boyhood heroes throughout my career.

In the 1970s, I traveled in Africa with famed anthropologists Louis and Mary Leakey, and also had the good fortune to have dinner with Haile Selassie, the Emperor of Ethiopia, in his Imperial Palace, in Addis Ababa.

One boyhood hero whom I thought I would never meet was Sir Edmund Hillary, who was the first to scale Mt. Everest with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay in May, 1953. But 12 years ago, in serendipitous fashion, we wound up having lunch together and had quite some fun, too.

In 1996, I got to meet and have lunch with Sir Edmund Hillary.

Sir Edmund Hillary came into my life in Toronto while I was Chairman of Fund-Raising Activities for UNICEF Canada. He was making one of his sweeps through North America for the UN Children’s Fund and stopped in Toronto for a day to meet UNICEF locals.

We had lunch with a few of the highly dedicated UNICEF staff. Over soup and a sandwich, Sir Edmund admonished me for repeatedly sticking “Sir” in front of his name, and said, “Please, call me Ed.” Which, of course, turned the session into a much more relaxed, productive affair.

As it turns out, “Ed” died this week at the age of 88 in New Zealand, where he lived, and while this website is not about beekeepers or mountaineers, both of which Ed was, it IS about life, what constitutes a healthy one (wine and food, of course!) and the pleasures of the table, which is where I met Ed.

Over lunch at Sutton Place Hotel, I asked Ed if he wouldn’t mind drawing something – to provide us with an autographed image that we could then auction at a forthcoming fund-raising event.

Always chipper and agreeable, Ed said of course, so I ran down the block to Curry’s Art Store to purchase a large artist’s pad and some inky pens and then raced back to lunch.

5

Ed drew a few simple lines and said “That’s me standing on the top of Everest,” and signed the drawing.

The image that Ed Hillary drew – that’s him on the tippy-top of Everest.

We put Ed’s drawing up for auction at our annual fund-raising event where, I recall, we raised close to $125,000 in one night for UNICEF.

Carol, my wife, knowing how much I revered my lunch with Sir Edmund, placed the tippy-top, Everest-like bid for the auctioned drawing, and won it! The rustic drawing (Ed was a better mountaineer than artist) has hung in my office ever since, a great souvenir of a great man who did a whole lot of great things for mankind as a dedicated philanthropist.

During our time together, I got to ask Ed many questions. He answered all of them with a twinkle in his eye. He was affable, had no airs, no attitude, no ego. Oh that today’s celebrities were as down to Earth as Ed (an ironic expression to use for a guy who had been at the top of the Earth!).

I asked Ed: “What kind of clothing did you wear for your Everest ascent?”

Ed replied: “We climbed a long time ago, long before they invented polyester, nylon or any of the climbing materials that trekkers use today. In fact, I just wore my heaviest wool tweed and a scarf!”

I had one other question, which led to a long, colorful reply.

Me: “Why do I always think of you and (runner) Roger Bannister in the same breath…? I was a child when you scaled Everest, but something in the back of my mind ties you to Bannister who broke the 4-minute mile…?”

Ed: “Funny you should mention Roger because we became good friends after I came down the mountain and before he broke the 4-minute mile (May, 1954).”

“Before Tenzing and I had even started down Everest, the whole world had learned, via radio, of our accomplishment. By the time we reached base camp, we were seemingly world-famous.”

“Immediately, the Queen (of England) radio’d that we were to be knighted and invited us to England for the occasion. By the time we got to London, however, June (Hillary’s wife) and I had been wined and dined and feted in capitals around the world.”

In England, I met Roger (Bannister -- who was a neurologist/academician at Oxford) who asked, ‘Edmund, would you permit me to do some medical tests on you to determine just what it is that you have that gave you the super-human stamina to ascend Everest? I’d like to figure out what physical advantage you have over others.’”

Ed continued: “’I said of course,’ so Bannister proceeded to poke me with needles, took blood, and put me through a series of medical tests.”

“As I say, June and I had just spent a month being wined and dined by world leaders. By the time we met Roger we’d had two fortnights of caviar, excessive amounts of Champagne and mounds of foie gras every day and night to toast our Everest achievement. A few days after Roger conducted his tests, he asked me to come ‘round to his office for the results. Roger looked at me, looked down at my medical record, shook his head and said, ‘Quite frankly Sir Edmund, I’ve analyzed your results forward and backward and can’t, for the life of me, figure out how you ever made it up the mountain. You’re a wreck!’”

How do you spell Gary Danko?

A-R-R-O-G-A-N-C-E would be good for a start.

This multi-starred restaurant in San Francisco, where we have eaten six times and really liked the fare on most visits, has firmly moved into a zone, which can only be described as rigid and not fun.

Point in question: four of us from Napa Valley made the trek last week to Gary Danko, usually ranked Number One on restaurant dining lists in San Francisco. Maybe the departure of long-time sommelier Jason Alexander (his real name!) had something to do with our treatment, but surely, the knowledgeable and professional Maitre d’ had the authority to resolve our issue but chose not to.

Background: Being part of a winemaking team in Napa Valley, and having spent 30 years writing about food and wine and professionally reviewing restaurants, I often bring my own wines to dinner.

I have no objection to pay a corkage fee and when restaurants are extremely gracious and don’t charge corkage, I ALWAYS include what would have been the cost of the opened wines, which I brought, when calculating the tip, because why should the waitstaff get short-changed when management is gracious enough to waive the corkage fee? In this fashion, there are many meals in Napa Valley where the tip we leave equals the price of the food on our bill! We are, if anything, generous to a fault with waiters; for the record, we are not cheap, we are not whiners, we are not bumpkins.

And so, we took three bottles of wine to Gary Danko, where our foursome intended to spend the bulk of a Saturday night. Our reservation was for 9.30 pm.

I was told at the door that the corkage policy is that you may ONLY bring two bottles to dinner and that Restaurant Gary Danko charges $35 per bottle opened. I agreed to the terms and pointed out that the third bottle was simply a back-up – in case one of our primary wines was flawed, or corked, which happens these days with too much frequency.

Oh oh... the fun is about to end...

For starters, we ordered three glasses of Billecart-Salmon Rose Champagne at $32 a glass; we ordered one martini at $15. We ordered three bottles of sparkling water at $7.75 each. We ordered a delicious 2004 Vincent Girardin Puligny-Montrachet for $112. We asked the sommelier to open our two wines: a 2004 Leroy Vosne-Romanee and a 1997 Guigal La Landonne Cote-Rotie, which is considered by serious wine lovers to be one of the great wines of the world (maybe not the 97 vintage, but in general, this 100 percent Syrah Cote-Rotie is one of the wines you would choose to take to a desert island).

I have cellared the 1997 Landonne for some time, but contemporarily, if you wanted to replace it, you would have to pay $400 for the bottle. Even so, when we opened the wine, it was not a charming example; I have had this wine many times, even been to the cellar in Ampuis, France, and tasted different vintages of Marcel Guigal’s single vineyard Cote-Roties from cask with him. In short: while this was a modestly flawed bottle, I did not feel the wine would complement the delicious fare at Gary Danko. If anything, it was a comment about the quality of the food and the wine not being able to keep up with it.

So I called over the server and asked him if he would please open our third bottle, to replace the undrinkable Cote-Rotie, which we were not going to drink. Note: I was not asking for a bottle to be opened as a third beverage – I was asking for a replacement to be opened to take the place of the flawed Landonne.

I was told that this was an unusual request – we’d already reached our limit of two BYO bottles; I said that I understood, but that we wanted to open the third bottle (a 1991 Philip Togni Cabernet from Spring Mountain) to replace the less than perfect 1997 Landonne.

Ultimately, we were told that "Restaurant Gary Danko" (they always talk about themselves in the third person, which increases the drama and makes employees feel – and, I presume act – more important) would permit us to have a third bottle opened – but just this one time – (they underlined this part with great inflection in their voice) and then informed us that we would be charged an additional $70 corkage to open this third bottle!

How can you have "Highway Robbery" when you're not in a car?

I queried the charge, citing the fact that they were simply replacing an already opened bottle… and even if they felt compelled to recharge me for opening another bottle, why were they PUNISHING ME for the poorly made wine that I’d brought? I hadn’t walked in with a bottle of Two-Buck-Chuck, I wasn’t a novice at this game; I have, in fact, eaten at many three-star French restaurants to review their fare and not a one of them has ever attempted to make me, or other patrons, squirm in their plush seats by PUNISHING guests with an aggressive, unreasonable, elevated corkage fee.

In the end, our bill for the evening came to $848.47 for four people. And, for the first time that I can ever recall in 30 years of eating at, or reviewing, restaurants, I was compelled to leave NO TIP.

Rather than generously over-tip the mostly brilliant waitstaff here, I felt I had to make a statement – to “Restaurant Gary Danko” and the Matire d’ who insisted we be charged the extra fee – that they are part of the hospitality industry, not the in-hospitality industry, and that until “Restaurant Gary Danko” understands this, I refuse to contribute to the corruption of the morals of its staff for instituting and maintaining an offensive, and impudent, corkage policy.

Imagine; had the waiter, or maitre d’, simply agreed to open our replacement bottle and not made a fuss about it, we would have come away from our dinner feeling like kings. We would have told our friends to visit the restaurant; we would have planned to return ourselves. We would have graciously left a large tip. We would have returned many times in the future to spend thousands of dollars.

But from a point of shortsightedness, and the stupidity of charging an unwarranted step-up fee to open a third bottle -- replacing a flawed bottle for which we’d already been charged corkage – we will not go back to Restaurant Gary Danko.

There are many fine top-tier restaurants, and many sensational neighborhood restaurants, in San Francisco, which want our business, which go out of their way to get it and keep it.

There is no place in my life for a restaurant that heaps haughty, effete, belittling or arrogant behavior upon any of its patrons, me included; because, sometimes, the customer just actually happens to be right.

Ground Broken on Napa Valley’s, Frank Gehry-designed, Hall Winery!

They broke ground today on the southern fringe of St. Helena for what is likely to become one of the valley’s landmark drawing cards – a winery designed by the world’s leading architect, Frank Gehry.

The sign out front – today. Who knows if the font will change in the future... perhaps to something more dramatic, echoing the architectural originality of what Frank Gehry is doing to the winery’s roofline?

The ground-breaking ceremony, at Hall Winery this afternoon, follows four years of extensive planning, community input and design consultation and precedes a period of just about as many years, the time that it will take to build the multi-structured winery.

“Build” is a bit of a misnomer, because part of the project, financed by winery owners Craig and Kathryn Hall, aims to uncover a small winery building called Peterson-Bergfeld, that was built in 1885 and then covered up by a larger winery facility in 1910. People driving by the property today, and I am one them, never, ever have an inkling that inside the large warehouse building is a smaller, older winery building dreaming to see daylight again. Like a genie from a bottle.

“We’re doing the inverse of what the French did at the Louvre,” says winery owner Craig Hall. “They hired I.M. Pei to flank an old building with a new structure (the glass pyramid). We’re doing just the opposite; we’re going to flank Frank’s contemporary, undulating structure, our new Hospitality Center, with the historic, 122-year-old, Peterson-Bergfeld building. It will be a central feature of our new winery.”

Oh that it were that simple.

The Project

In reality, according to winery president Mike Reynolds, the Hall Winery Project will take up to four years to complete and will have three distinct stages. The intent is to allow the Halls to continue to make wine in their existing facility and operate their tasting room while building a new winery all around – and over – themselves.

The centerpiece of the completed winery will be the Gehry-inspired Hospitality Center where all future tours will end. Over this tasting room will be a dramatic, undulating roof similar (in originality, flow and movement) to the world famous structure that Gehry designed for the Guggenheim in Bilbao, Spain. The winery roof is being called “a wooden cloud,” “an homage to the trellises found in Napa Valley,” and “a covered ballroom.” Take your pick.

What it is not is forgettable. It is unlike any other structure in Napa Valley. It outdances Michael Graves’ wonderful and whimsical architectural flourishes at Clos Pegase; it goes beyond many of the design elements of Herzog & De Meuron, whose work at Dominus, in Yountville, is so respected.

Gehry’s choice of materials for the Hall project and the design itself are not as flashy as what was chosen or drawn for the Guggenhiem in Bilbao, Spain. Or maybe they are and we’re just used to that shiny, undulating roofline that initially looked as though it would be more at home in a kids’ playground than atop one of the world’s great art collections. It's likely that, once opened, Hall Winery will be talked about in the same breath as the Guggenheim, which raises the level of all the boats, or wineries, in Napa Valley as a tourist destination.

Visitors to Hall Winery over the next three-to-four years, will be greeted by this matchstick model of how the finished winery will appear.

The small, matchstick’d architectural model that guests “oooohed” and “ahhhhed” over this afternoon helps one understand what the finished property – with multiple buildings – will look like. The thing, though, about these small models is that elements that are supposed to have a WOW factor often lack sizzle. The undulating trellis over the Hospitality Center on the scaled model, for example, looks more like a crushed Panama hat than it does a splendiferous, original Gehry roofline. But give Gehry and the local architect of record, Jon Lail, a chance to do their magic and we are all likely to be drooling over the completed winery.

Contrary to what many locals anticipated, the finished Hall Winery will not have an undulating, highly reflective titanium roof like the one on the Guggenhiem, nor like the flashy roofline of the Hotel Marqués de Riscal, a Starwood property, in Rioja, Spain, which Gehry also designed. (For the record, that roofline looks like a squashed, pile-up of Nascar race vehicles after multiple rollouts on a wet track. The Hall Winery roofline’s a whole lot more organic in structure, and a whole lot more organic in material, certainly if they opt to build it in wood.)

A close-up of the “undulating, trellised roof line” that will be the hallmark of Hall Winery.

Gehry says his team hasn’t signed off on the final materials of the undulating winery roof. It may be made of solid wood, or of laminated wood, or of a new material called icrete, which Gehry describes as “a dough-like mixture like pasta dough.”

“You mix icrete, extrude it through a roller and shape it over a form. When the material hardens, it has the shape of the thing it was draped over.”

Gehry and his design partner, Edwin Chan, admit that they do not yet know the tensile strength of icrete and so, before signing off on its use, tests are being conducted.

Gehry explained to guests at the ground-breaking ceremony what was wrong with each of these 40 mounted wall models, why they were rejected in the four-year design process.

To invent and fabricate the shapes of their highly visible undulating roofs, Gehry’s team turns to aviation software – the programs used to build planes. “Our finished blue prints are reliable to 7 decimals of accuracy, despite their complexity,” says Gehry.

The Players

Craig Hall is chairman and founder of the Dallas-based Hall Financial Group, one of the nation’s largest private equity firms. Kathryn Hall is, in her own right, a successful businesswoman, a community activist and former American Ambassador to Austria, serving two Presidents, Clinton and Bush (the Elder).

Craig and Kathryn have a passion for wine; her family first purchased vineyards in California 30 years ago. Today, the couple own 3,300 acres in Sonoma and Napa counties of which 490 are planted with vineyards, according to Mike Reynolds.

At one point in the ground-breaking festivities today, the business side of Kathryn shone through and it was one of those moments when I would love to have stood up and shouted, with a raised fist, “Good on ya, girl!” for her exuberant entrepreneurial spirit, reminding all those gathered what was going to pay for all the Disney-like pixel dust about to be sprinkled on Highway 29.

Here’s what Kathryn said: “In addition to being a place of architectural grandeur, designed by the world’s greatest architect, we want to make great wine! THAT IS OUR END GOAL.”

Amen, Kathryn, you nailed the purpose of the whole event in six simple words. "We Want to Make Great Wine!"

I have no doubt with Kathryn and Craig, Mike Reynolds and Robert Wilson, winery GM, driving this project – and the winemaking activities – the team will be wildly successful.

In addition to the main winery on Highway 29, where Gehry will wave his magic wand, transforming the property into a world-class, wine destination, the Halls have a second, smaller winery in Rutherford, where they make premium, small-batch wines. (It’s good to see somebody upholding the philosophy: you can never be too rich, too thin, or own too many wineries.)

(L to R) Kathryn Hall, Craig Hall, Frank Gehry and Edwin Chan stand beside a hole in the ground where the new trellised Hospitality Center will magically appear. “Architecture is a lot like a magic trick,” Gehry told me. “You work on a project for many years and then one day, all of a sudden, a building seems to be standing there on its own. And you ask yourself, even though you’ve been on the project for four years, ‘How did that get there?’”

Frank Gehry. Okay, what hasn’t been said about him? The genius who fought Bilbao residents, convincing them to let him design and build the world’s first undulating titanium canopy and stick it on their local Guggenheim, is now 78.

“This will be the first winery I have ever designed and built in the U.S. and it will likely be the last,” Gehry told me. “It will have to be. I am too old to be commissioned for another winery.

What else hasn’t been said about the genius, who told me “you shouldn’t copy nature because you will fail. And you shouldn’t copy history (architecturally speaking) because you will trivialize the past.”

Here’s something we didn’t know about Gehry: When he goes out to dine, his wife orders their wine.

“She knows more about wine than I do,” giving weight to that old adage: Behind every successful genius is a woman… who orders the wine.

Gehry was dressed a lot like Steve Jobs today. All black. Black shiny loafers, black socks, black pants, black tunic, black sports jacket. Just the opposite of his outrageous, original, outlandish, attention-grabbing buildings, which are as sculpturally breathtaking as they are architectural triumphs. It appears Gehry saves the flash for his designs, preferring to dress more casually.

Gehry’s architectural associate, Edwin Chan, a thin, young man who worked with Gehry on the Guggenheim Bilbao project, was also present today. He, Gehry and some 200 other staffers look after a total "of about five projects that are presently in the design stage."

“It’s about all we can handle at one time,” Gehry told me.

The Hall Winery project will bring many elements of life together – Art, Wine, Architecture. The finer things in life," Chan summed up.

The Calendar

The Gehry-designed, Lail-built, Hall Winery will open sometime in 2010, according to winery president Reynolds, “though we won’t put a month on that just yet.”

In the meantime, starting this very weekend, and continuing throughout the entire construction period, Hall Winery will offer special daily tours of the Gehry project. Visitors who arrange in advance, will be able to tour the exhibition of Gehry-driven designs and concepts, which guests were invited to see today. Really striking stuff, especially when you see how many iterations, how many generations of design, were rejected with the goal of reaching Architectural Nirvana.

Tour takers will also be treated to a tasting of current-release Hall wines and a tasting of future wines from barrel. The fee for all this is $25 per person. For locals, and out-of-towners, a complimentary tour of the architectural exhibit will be offered on Sundays. For full details, or to book a tour, contract Hall Winery at 707-967-2620. Tell them you learned about the tours from napaman.com... and you will get absolutely nothing special in return, other than probably a genuine smile.

The Financing

No one associated with the project will comment on the final cost, partially because not all services and materials have been chosen. But given the extensive lead time to finalize a design that would please neighbors and the Napa County Planning Commission, the choice of architect, and the cost of building anything in Napa Valley these years, the completed Hall Winery will most likely rank as the most costly, most heavily trafficked, winery once it opens in 2010, or thereabouts.

“We will be permitted to have 500 visitors a day,” says Hall Winery president Reynolds. When I pointed out that nearby deli’s have as many as 2,000 visitors on a busy summer Saturday, and suggested that Hall Winery may have to develop a “By Appointment Only” policy, Reynolds quickly countered, “That would be a nice problem to have.” Indeed.

Winery president Mike Reynolds, who has the last word in the story, and, by the way, the last photo, too!