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Holy smokes! This restaurant reviewer makes Michael Bauer look like he’s anorexic!

An old friend from my Toronto days, Josh Josephson, breezed through Napa Valley a few weeks ago.

Josh Josephson

I was out of town, so I asked Josh, who fancies himself a fulltime restaurant critic, when he isn’t researching neurosurgical drug matters, to send me a list of where he ate, what he ate, and what he liked while in Napa Valley.

The guy ate at all the places listed below in TWO days, took all these photos, and posted all these comments on his own site, http://cookbookstoreblog.blogspot.com/2011/09/napa-restaurants-french-laundry-tra.html

I append Josh’s review in full. It is unedited and does not necessarily carry my full endorsement or agreement. But this guy pretty much knows what he’s talking about; for one thing, Josh has a serious passion for food, cooking and cuisine, In fact, he opened, with Alison Fryer and Barbara Caffery, Canada’s first cookbook store. Called "The Cookbook Store," in Toronto, it's still running strong 30 years later.

As well as being an optometrist actively involved with research. Josh is chairman of the Standards Council of Canada, Ophthalmic Committees (spectacle lens, contact lens, contact lens care, product standards, etc.). He is Canada's sole voting representative at all ISO meetings.

Most recently, working with a research neurosurgeon, Josh founded a pharmaceutical company that has developed a stroke drug, which prevents complications from a stroke; at present, it is in FDA clinical trials.

All the while, Josh still owns and operates Josephson Opticians, Canada's first high fashion optical chain, established in 1935, by his dad, David, who outfitted me with my earliest glasses.

Anyway, have a look at where Josh ate in Napa Valley, and what he had to say about each course. It’s like a condensed visual Zagat trip through the entire valley.

One more thing: those aren't misspellings below. Those are quaint Canadian spellings: "flavour, colour, etc." Hey, Blame it on Canada!

 

The French Laundry, Yountville, California 

The French Laundry is on any serious eater's hit list and probably the number one on anyone's list of important restaurants to eat at in North America. Finally, I made the list of reservations! There are only 2 menu's, one having everything including meat and fowl, the other, "a tasting of vegetables."

A friend and I, both certifiably NOT vegetarians, and unbeknownst to each other, and, for the first time at any restaurant in our experience, we chose the vegetarian option.

My friend is a highly experienced mangeur of both great rustic and refined cuisine, a Frenchman who lives in London, has a second home in Cap Ferat and a third on the Isle of Wight. Both of us were taken aback when we learned about our choices and realized that we chose this menu for the same reason. The courses and course descriptions were more interesting to us than the meat/fowl menu. We were not disappointed.

Perfectly rendered cheddar cheese filled gougeres.

Cornet filled with salmon tartar, red onion, creme fraiche. 

Medjule date puree, chopped roasted cashew and cilantro in advance of the carrot soup to be poured.

The carrot puree soup with a touch of peanut butter in the puree. The sublime sweetness of the carrot puree went so well with the sweet date flavour. I do not eat mellons. The carrot soup was the chef's menu substitution.

My friend's choice of compressed summer melons with crystallized ginger, lemon verbena and garden mint. 

Salted and sweet butter for the bread. The butters were redolent of field flavours.

Jardiniere de legumes d'ete with Australian black truffle coulis. A marvellous, memory provoking range of bright flavours and textures.

The presentation of the gazpacho ingredients before an emulsion of tomato essence is poured: toybox tomatoes, cucumber, garlic, cilantro and Manni extra virgin olive oil sorbet.

The gazpacho complete. Certainly one of the best gazpachos that I have enjoyed, with a bright tomato flavour complemented by the Manni oil sorbet.

My friend's choice of chawanmushi, dungeness crab, current tomatoes, bonito, tosaka seaweed and strips of nori.

Salad of black mission figs with petite onions, Piedmont hazelnuts, arugula, and smoked soubise. The figs added a heavenly dimension to this dish and worked well with smokey flavour of the soubise.

Degustation de pommes de terres, fingerling potatoes, red radish, petite lettuces and Australian black truffle. This was a sensational dish of earthy, complementary flavours.

Cranberry bean agnolotti with brentwood corn, filet beans and bean blossoms awaiting the bouillon.

The mangalitsa ham bouillon is added. Fabulous contrasting flavours from the bouillon and the perfectly cooked, delicate pasta of the cranberry bean filled agnolotti.

 

My friend ordered the hand cut farfalle with hen-of-the-woods mushrooms, eggplant, Spanish capers, meyer lemon, pine nuts and parmesan "nuage". He felt that the pasta was not cooked adequately, left the pasta over and ate the rest.

"Burrata" consisting of "pain de campagne" croutons, baby squash, Greek basil and charred padron pepper vinaigrette. Again, wonderful layers of flavours that worked so well together with the nicely contrastng textures.

Persian lime sorbet with mascarpone "panna cotta", graham cracker and toasted marshmallows. After this great dessert  I was so satisfied and yet there was more!

Dark chocolate "marquise", malt "anglaise", raison puree, cocoa "financiere" and muscovado sugar ice cream.

 My friend's selection.

 

Fabulous mignardises with various fillings.

"Coffee and donuts!" A coffee, chocolate pudding like consistency on the bottom layer with a thick rich milk foam on the top, accompanied by chocolate coated macadamias and the best "timbits" (for you Tim Horton people) you have ever tasted, sugar dusted crispy skinned dough balls with a soft interior...addictive!

Tra Vigne, St Helena, California

Tra Vigne is a an always jammed, people friendly place with a rather somber inside room and an arbored, leisure encouraging outdoor eating area. A good friend, former Toronto epicure, food writer Jim White, now a Napa resident, praised the bistecca fiorentina at Tra Vigne. I was glad he told me as the waiter did not announce this steak as a special and it was not on the menu. Further, when I did ask, I was advised there were only 4 of these 2.5 pound behemoths and he better get right back into the kitchen to make certain that he could reserve one. Our steak was confirmed and we ordered it rare.

We began with wood oven roasted, baked fig pizza, with Sister Mercy's black mission figs, gorgonzola, arugula and aged balsamic. Great, complementary topping flavours and a nicely thin, tasty, crispy crust.

Another crisp and well flavoured hit, the rosemary pizzetta with roasted head of garlic, cambozola cheese and Dickson Ranch "Regina" olive oil. The pizzas at Tra Vigne were the very best that I tasted in the Napa region.

The best wood oven roasted padron peppers I experienced in Napa and almost every resto offered some version of these peppers! Perfectly cooked, tossed with Napa's taggiasca olive oil, pleasantly crispy skinned and not over oily. The gold standard for me.  

A perfectly rendered rigatoni alla carbonara made with guanciale bacon, onions, organic eggs, cracked pepper and parmesan. This was a very rich tasting dish for which the critical elements were the richness of the egg and the properly reduced sauce.

Our wine of the night. Pardon the side view as I tried to rotate the image: A fabulous Whitehall Lane Reserve vintage 2003.

The rare steak, served with crispy skinned, roasted potatoes and  perfectly sauteed spinach with olive oil and chopped garlic. This steak was as good as the best bistecca fiorentina I have ever enjoyed in Florence. Great flavour, texture and juiciness. A "beef boys" ranking of 8/8 1/2/ 8 1/2 (all out of 10).

Bistro Jeanty, Yountville, California

This casual bistro owned by chef Philippe Jeanty is where one can experience classic examples of well prepared, rustic, French influenced cuisine with a contemporary twist. The cuisine also well represents local produce and a good selection of regional wines.

Warm lamb's tongue, with potato, frisee endive, small capers, copped chives, chopped tomato and chopped parsley, all tossed with a tart, creamy mustard vinaigrette dressing. A superb dish.

Our wine, a very good example of regionally made pinot noir, Red Dog Vineyard's Ancien vintage 2007.

Blood sausage, caramelize apple on mashed potatoes. I love blood sausage and with the caramelized apples and mash, this well executed dish, with it's sweet earthy flavours, smooth but coarse texture, really hit the spot.

Leek and melted goat cheese tart. A melt in the mouth, intensely leek flavoured, thin crispy crusted delight. A perfect tart.

Bone marrow, sauce bordelais. Remarkable quality marrow, not too fatty/oily, perfectly cooked to be somewhat firm in texture. Wonderful flavour. 

Pied de cochon, lightly breaded, deep fried, crispy skinned, perfectly spiced and accompanied by a whole grain mustard sauce and tasty, crispy frites.

Lemon meringue tart with a shortbread crust, accompanied by a lemon orange sauce !! Just look at this mile high piece of indulgent pleasure! It tasted as good as it looked.

Armagnac soaked prunes over rich vanilla ice cream. These liquor soaked prunes were as good as I have enjoyed anywhere.

Oenotri, Napa, California

Oenotri has an ambitious menu and that attracted me to try the restaurant. The menu is rustic but sophisticated. 

To begin, the wood oven pizza disappointed. This pizza was topped with peppers, pancetta, red onion, aglio rosso and wild arugula. The toppings were very good, tasty and the dough had a nice flavour. However, the dough was too soggy in from the outer crust. The texture was almost bready and had an unpleasant stretchy/doughy texture.

Brentwood sweet corn, grape tomatoes and Blue Lake beans. This was a bland dish with no distinguishing element. The corn was sweet but not sweet enough.

These padrano peppers were strangely textured, rather oily and almost slimy. The aioli was spicy and had a nice creamy texture.

This was a good salad with Marin Roots mustard greens. roasted eggplant, Jimmy Nardello peppers, a slow cooked Tully Dolci egg and pecorino sardo. A very tasty salad with intriguing flavours. The wonderful tasting egg was perfectly cooked but did not seem a great complement for this dish.

Bucatini alla carbonara with pancetta, Tulli Dolci egg, coarsely ground black pepper and pecorino romano. The pasta was perfectly cooked and the black pepper a very good accent for the rich addition of the Tulli Dolci egg. However, the sauce was slightly too salty.

Wild nettle fidei pasta with wood oven roasted san marzano tomatoes, eggplant, Jimmy Nardello peppers and pesto Genovese. Again, the pasta was perfectly cooked and most of the flavours of this dish were good, especially the strong eggplant flavour. However, the dish may be too complicated with too many things happening. The pesto flavour component was a bit too salty and perhaps a bit overwhelming.

Perfectly cooked donuts had very good flavour and good texture with a crispy skin. The mascarpone sauce was a good tasty complement.

Lunch at Rutherford Grill

Lunch at the Rutherford Grill is said to be the time that many vintners and area farmers attend.    

It was certainly a convenient place to eat in the area that we were tasting wines.

We began with a wonderful coarsely ground, flavourful house made Italian sausage (no photo). This was probably one of the 2 best things I ever ate at the Grill in the 2 meals that I had there. It was juicy and had a mild fennel flavour. It was very juicy without being fatty.

Colcannon mash with a nice mild bight had good flavour and a texture that was pleasantly coarse rather than boringly creamy. That was the accompaniment of the tasty, oak wood roasted, rotisserie chicken. The problem was that is was a bit dry. Only the thigh section had any reasonable moistness (I am reaching here).

The burger arrived perfectly medium rare, as ordered. It was juicy, but too much of that juiciness was the fatty component. The fries were crispy and ok.

Dinner at Rutherford Grill

I ordered roast beef with high expectations. The owner of the Grill is reputed to be the owner of Huston's Steak House and apparently this resto is his "baby". He should know beef. The menu read well: slow roasted, roast beef.  I  asked if i could get my beef medium rare to rare, on the rare side. I was advised that my request should be no problem. It arrived as you see below: medium. It was tough and the texture a bit dry too. It was too well done for me to enjoy, so I asked to have it returned to the kitchen and I reordered the beef. The waiter was very gracious about my request.

In the meantime, I enjoyed the artichoke grilled over a wood fire. The artichokes had been basted with garlic butter loaded with finely chopped garlic and served with an extraneous sauce resembling remoulade, which after tasting, I ignored. This dish was one of my 2 favourite dishes in the 2 meals at the Grill.

While I was waiting for my beef, I had oak grilled pork ribs which were sided with the house made BBQ sauce. The ribs were a bit too "fall off the bone" done, but they were tasty from the wood smoke. They arrived with very good crispy french fries and a very good, creamy dressed slaw made with chopped parsley and chopped cabbage 

My Second serving of roast beef arrived. Remarkably, not to my liking, again: medium to medium rare, on the medium side. The beef was on the tough side and a bit dry tasting too! Clearly my server is no judge of what degrees of doneness should look like....and he should be as he is the quality controller of what is put in front of guests. The beef in this restaurant was a sincere disappointment. On the beef tasting scale we have established among our serious amateurs and professionals (the "beef boys") I would give it a rating of 53/4 /4 /4 (taste, texture and juiciness, on a scale out of 10). The horseradish sauce was not particularly enjoyable and the "au jus" a watery stock that a good piece of beef would make completely redundant. The potatoes were as I described before, for me, the only edible food on the plate!

Mustard's Grill

We began with a very tasty tomale made with sweet creamy corn, wild mushrooms, and accompanied by pumpkin seeds and a terrific tomatillo, avocado salsa.

Lightly breaded, crispy, very tasty onion rings were accompanied by a nice house made ketchup. They are great when they are fresh and hot.

The dungeness crab cakes were good but the salad dressing for the greens was really very enjoyable, a raspberry, canola oil, vinegar molasses vinaigrette. I have never had canola oil taste so good.

This was my half of the fabulous Don Watson lamb burger which arrived perfectly cooked as ordered, medium rare to rare, and what a great burger, my favourite item ordered. The burger was very juicy and had a light smokey flavour. The bun was also perfect, a crispy skin with a soft interior that did not fall apart as one ate the burger. Arugula and sliced onion were added to the burger. The fries were crispy and tasty but were over salted and frankly inedible. 

I had high expectations of the wood smoke oven cooked Sonoma duck. Unfortunately, the smoke flavour was overly strong. I suspect that apple wood or pecan wood was not used but would have been preferable. The meat was a bit too dry. The duck was accompanied by local beans, grilled sweet potatoes and mustard fruits.

Dessert was a terrific, intensely flavoured plum orange sorbet and pleasingly not too sweet. There was a very nice lingering after taste, an experience often lost in the quality of most restaurant sorbets.

Hurley's

We began with lightly breaded crisy mix of calimari, rock shrimp, red onion and cauliflower florets accompanied by a caper remoulade.

The best dish of the night was the lovely, crusted, savory onion tart, which contained caramelized onion with rosemary, applewood smoked bacon and goat cheese. Frisee lettuce and sliced cherry tomato were on the side.

The main was a tamarind and chipotle glazed portion of buffalo short ribs accompanied by a ginger and scallion risotto, and baby bok choy.

Bardessano Hotel Restaurant: Brunch

The Baldessano is a very attractive, modern and cleanly designed hotel that is so respectful of a natural habitat. I ate outside on a lovely, clear skied, sunny morning.

This was one of my very favourite meals in Napa. Pork cheek confit hash, wilted spinach, roasted root vegetables, yellow and green zucchini, crispy "Little Farm" potatoes all topped with a sunny side up egg and served with a house made, somewhat bland fresh tomato tasting ketchup (which I only tasted). What a great dish, alone, worth the drive to Yountville all the way from the Silverado Country Club! Wonderfully integrated flavours, each component perfectly cooked and all bound with a rich, highly reduced sauce that really helped to make this dish. Two varieties of toast accompanied this dish, rosemary flavoured sourdough toast and a whole wheat toast. Mclelland's lovely butter was served on the side along with very good house made preserves of blackberry jam with such bright flavours that made one want to eat more.

Oxbow Market: C Casa and Pico Pico Bar

My friend Jim White, now a native of Napa, highly recommended a sojourn to this market full of different food a craft purveyors. At certain times of the week there is also a farmer's market that I did not make.

C Casa

C Casa specializes in creatively made tacos with very wholesome, tasty ingredients. I just had to order 3. I began with a rotisserie duck taco with baby spinach, orange wedges, goat cheese, cilantro and serrano salsa. This delicious taco went down quickly! Then, a pork carnita taco with cabbage slaw, mildly seared pineapple, avocado and serrano salsa. I loved the fabulous flavours and textures. This taco did not last long either! Finally, a spiced lamb taco, with goat cheese, avocado crema, mint, jalapenos, garlic aioli and micro greens.This last taco was my favourite!

Pica Pica Bar

Still hungry, I wandered down to Pica Pica Bar. Their display looked very appetizing. I enjoyed a "maizewich" of grilled sweet corn bread "pernil", a wonderfully spiced, slow roasted shoulder of pulled pork, with sliced tomato, sliced avocado and a garlic aioli.

The patacones also looked so enticing, fried, crispy crusted plaintain tarts one filled with chopped avocado and chicken breast salad, another with spiced beans, chopped raw onion, chopped cilantro and chopped tomato and the third with shredded pork, avocado and chopped tomato. Despite the fact that by this time I was stuffed, I enjoyed finishing them all!

My Favorite New Tech Tool - A MUST-HAVE for European Travelers!

My iPhone was tireless and my Tep tool was wireless

Every time that I have previously gone to Europe, I have had to turn off my iPhone and keep it on Airplane mode for the duration of my travels.

Otherwise, I could run up a roaming data bill of $2,000 for a two-week vacation, as many irritated AT&T customers report they have unwittingly done.

But now there’s a new service in Europe that let’s you connect to the Internet for data wherever you go, for however long you want, and it’s not expensive.

The Tep Wireless Wifi device

Tep Wireless is a British-based data service that rents a pocket-sized Wifi device for between $8 and $10 a day, depending on which country, or countries, you are visiting.

You turn on the playing-card-sized Tep device and it picks up a wireless phone signal in the country in which you are traveling; it then converts this signal to Wifi for up to five of your own devices (cell phone, iPad, tablet, laptop), permitting you to surf the web and send emails to your heart's content. There are no additional roaming fees, and no fear of returning to America to face a $2,000 roaming data charge.

What you get in the Tep Wireless kit they courier to you: An electrical charger, a car charger (an optional fee) and the Wifi device itself.

Remember, this is for data transmission only and not voice, but you can always get voice for free by using Skype on your Tep device.

Tep Wireless has even taken a page out of Netflix; they courier you the device (along with a wall charger and an additional car charger, if requested) just prior to your international departure and provide a free, postage-paid, return mailer.

No hassles, nothing to take back to a store, no late fees, and no nonsense.

Me using my iPhone in Italy last week – thanks to Tep (data only); I checked the stock market daily, called up Google maps repeatedly to get un-lost and located some tremendous, off-road restaurants, thanks to Tep.

One more positive note: the cost of Wifi in Italian hotels has gotten expensive; in one Rome hotel, the posted rate was 15 Euros ($20) per day per device. For two travelers each with a cell phone and maybe an iPad or laptop, between them, this could easily run up to three devices x $20 each per day = $60 a day to have Wifi at the hotel only.

By contrast, I took my Tep Wireless device every where I went – even in remote outback areas -- and only paid a total of $10 a day, which enabled me to hook up as many as five devices for the one flat daily fee. That’s a substantial savings and a whole lot more coverage in Wifi-speke. Thanks, Tep!

Interested in learning more? Go to www.tepwireless.com

It must be August – I just attended Spottswoode’s Annual Garden Party

There are many wonderful annual major wine events in Napa Valley, to which I look forward, including February’s Barrel Auction and June’s Wine Auction.

But sweet, smaller, perfectly orchestrated wine events are no less compelling.

In particular, I look forward to Spottswoode’s late summer garden party, held each August on the front lawn of the family’s estate. 

I’m actually embarrassed to say how many times I’ve attended and written about this event, but if you search the napaman.com archives, you’ll find numerous references and alluring photos.

Orlando Torres serves gazpacho shots, offered to guests at the lawn party. This year, Knickerbockers’ Catering, from St. Helena, provided tasty salads, cheeses, and breads to soak up the many poured wines.

My two favorite wines of the afternoon were the 1998 Spottswoode Cabernet, poured from 6-liter bottles, and the unctuous, memorable 2003 Spottswoode Cabernet. 

Two of the cheeses served to winery guests

Commenting to one of the winery’s team about the 13.5 percent alcohol in the 1998 Cabernet, I mentioned how wonderful it was to drink a wine with such low alcohol. I added that I miss those days of lower levels of alcohol. 

By contrast, today’s Napa Valley fruit-bomb Cabs often have more than 15.5 percent alcohol, which diminishes their food friendliness, as well as how much of them you can drink at one sitting. 

One of the winery’s staff told me that there is a move afoot in the valley, and certainly at Spottswoode, to make wines with lesser amounts of alcohol.

“We are making an effort to get the alcohol down,“ I was told. “The fact that (wine critic) Robert Parker has handed over the reins from personally rating California Cabs to his associate Antonio Galloni, means that wines will now be praised for their balance, not their bombastic imbalance.”

In short, Parker loves large, fruit-forward, higher alcohol, scratch-out-your-eyes wines from the new world. Galloni, by contrast, who rates the wines of Italy, Chablis, Champagne and Burgundy is thought to have a palate that enjoys – and scores more highly – wines of balance, and lower alcohol.

We’ll have to see. But a universal truth is that winemakers everywhere will bend their winemaking ways to achieve high Parker scores, so if the new kid on the block likes them more sotto voce, that’s likely the way producers will try to make them. Nothing sells a wine like a good Parker rating.

If you want to be invited to Spottswoode’s next late summer garden party, you’ve got to become a good, and regular, customer, as I have been for the past nearly 20 years.

Poured today:

The 1998 Spottswoode Cab is at the top of its game. It will not get any better, so if you have some in your cellar, drink up. This is a truly tremendous wine from a cantankerous vintage. 94 points.

The 2003 Spottswoode Cab is, in a word, gawjus. What a stunning beverage, filled with ripe fruit and mature grape flavors. The wine exhibits a glorious middle palate of many flavors and an equally engrossing texture. 96 points.

The Best Gift you can Buy a Wine-lover!

 

 It’s the 2007 Stags Leap District Wine Box, a superb collection of 18 different wines from one of my favorite Napa Valley appellations. 

The Stags Leap District winegrowers have produced a mixed case like this for many years, and I have often bought the collection as it’s an easy way to get some of the top-favored, top-flavored, top-rated, wines in Napa Valley without having to careen from winery to winery.

A tremendous shot from Stags Leap District, taken by my friend, Steven Rothfeld

The 2007 collection is considered one of the best Stags Leap Wine Boxes ever assembled, according to Nancy Bialek, the association’s executive director.

In her own words:

“The 2007 wines are generous in aromatics and texture. The vintage opened with cool weather and early growth. A mild April turned into a hot May and June, with grapevines blazing through bloom and the first phase of development.

Late summer heat punctuated the start of harvest. The 2007 vintage … has unusual depth and complexity.”

What all this means is: A superb vintage with bright, youthful, fleshy wines.

Another amazing shot in Stags Leap District, taken by Steven Rothfeld

Here’s how Elizabeth Vianna, winemaker at Chimney Rock Winery and Vice President of SLDWA, sums up the vintage:

“The 2007 harvest will go down as one of the great harvests of the decade for Stags Leap District. The fruit concentration is amazing.”

The Stags Leap District Winegrowers didn’t provide napaman an easy, one-tasting-pours-all way to sample the 2007 wine collection to provide readers with detailed tasting notes on the 18 wines; the best that I could do was visit several Stags Leap District tasting rooms.

Chimney Rock Winery, 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon, Ganymede Vineyard

I like the way winemaker Elizabeth Vianna explains her 2007 effort:

“We experienced a dry spring, which is the first thing we need to grow great grapes. We like vines to stress early so that they focus their attention on the fruit. One of the parameters of quality is the size of the berry. Most of the color and flavors in wine come from the skins; the smaller the berries -- the greater the ratio of skin compounds to pulp – results in a better concentration of flavor and color.”

“The average Cabernet Sauvignon berry in 2007 was nearly 30 percent smaller than in the previous two vintages,” Elizabeth says. Which explains the concentrated flavors in her 2007 wine.

Only 500 cases of the estate Ganymede were made and they are all gone now, save for bottles in the 2007 Stags Leap District Wine Box.

The wine is delicious, exhibiting gorgeous ripe fruit notes and flavors. This wine has a pedigree in balance and finish.

Regusci Winery, 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon

Some 3,000 cases were made of this $53 wine, a blend of Cabernet (92 percent), Merlot (6 percent) and Cab Franc (2 percent).

The Cab has a warm and inviting nose with scents, and flavors, of red currant-bordering-on-cranberry. Has attractive floral notes on the nose and exhibits medium length on the palate. Well structured. I like the alluring middle palate. 

Cliff Lede Vineyards, 2007 Poetry

Probably the most expensive wine in the 2007 collection ($150), though it definitely delivers; coffee, dark ripe fruits on the nose with a hint of animal and an identifiable green scent toward the end of the sniff.

On the palate, juicy notes, a l-o-n-g finish, flavors reminiscent of dark plums with a sunburn. Needs to be cellared - big time.

Silverado Vineyards, 2007 SOLO

In the old days, this wine at Silverado was simply labelled their Stag’s Leap District offering, made exclusively from estate fruit. But the label was confusing with other house labels, so they created a new brand, Solo, to better register the essential elements of the beverage: made from one SOLO vineyard and made exclusively with one SOLO grape, Cabernet.

In 2007, Silverado made 1,400 cases of this exquisite wine which begs to be drunk now, but which will cellar for 10 years and then magnificently enthrall your palate.

At Silverado, I spoke with Jen Withrow, one of the extremely pleasant tasting room staffers; she encouraged me to try the 2000 Silverado Stag’s Leap District Cabernet – the same wine offered in the 2007 collection, only seven years older, and now, fully aged 11 years.

Of all the wines I previewed for this Stag’s Leap District Wine Box story, nothing approached the beauty, balance and majesty of this striking older wine. In fact, the 2000 Silverado Stag’s Leap Cabernet is one of the best wines I’ve tasted in months. It’s simply gawjus. Easily a 97-point wine.

Anyone who was smart enough to buy this upon release has a majestic wine in his, or her, cellar.

Come to think of it: the 2007 Solo Cab is $90 at the winery today. For $20 more you can buy the fully aged, 2000 Cab from the winery library – actually, a much better value!

Photo by -- who else? -- Steven Rothfeld

The Appellation Collection is the only offering in the country, comprised entirely of Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon from a single appellation and a single vintage. Each of the Association's 18 member wineries is represented in the collection.

The Collection is limited to 200 cases. You can order it starting October 15^th.

Photo by him again, Steven Rothfeld

The Collection contains one bottle each of the following Stags Leap District wines:

Baldacci Family Vineyards, 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon

Chimney Rock Winery, 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon, Ganymede Vineyard

Cliff Lede Vineyards,  2007 Poetry

Clos Du Val . 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon

Hartwell Vineyards, 2007 Estate Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon

Ilsley Vineyards, 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon

Lindstrom Wines, 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon

Malk Family Vineyards, 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon

Pine Ridge Vineyards, 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon

Regusci Winery, 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon

Robinson Family Vineyards, 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon

Shafer Vineyards, 2007 One Point Five Cabernet Sauvignon

Silverado Vineyards, 2007 Solo

Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars, 2007 Fay Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon

Stags' Leap Winery, 2007 The Leap Estate Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon

Steltzner Vineyards, 2007 Estate Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon

Taylor Family Vineyards, 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon

Terlato Family Vineyards. 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon
 

 

The 2007 Appellation Collection of 18 wines costs:

$1,450.00 per case. 7.75% tax applies to California sales and various states by law.

To order:

Online as of October 15 at www.stagsleapdistrict.com/appellationcollection

Welcome to Somerston, Napa Valley’s Newest Winery!

 

If you ever wanted to learn about the terroir of Napa Valley, Somerston Winery’s a good place to do it.

Napa Valley’s newest winery (it opened to the public yesterday) features more than 87 distinct growing blocks, five completely different soil types, multiple sources of water each with different mineral properties, and the ranch sprawls across a tall ridge, which joins two different valley systems.

Somerston, the creation of real estate developer Allan Chapman, has been seven years in the making. In 2004, Allan started acquiring land on Sage Canyon Road, ten miles beyond Pritchard Hill and Lake Hennessey.

The winery’s mail address may be St. Helena, but the isolated, mountainous location has as little to do with the tony town. If anything, visiting Somerston to party for an afternoon, is like heading out on a safari. Be sure to pack your water bottles, sunscreen and photo equipment.

Somerston owner Allan Chapman

Allan, born in Newcastle, UK, studied at Cambridge University and came to America via Vancouver. The bulk of his career has been spent in real estate and telecommunications. Allan says that he had no expectation that one day he would own a 1,626-acre winery in Napa Valley.

There are 17 different grape varieties planted between 800- and 2200-feet elevation at Somerston. More than 200 acres are planted.

After speaking with Allan, I understand how he thinks and why he’s been successful at business; it’s in his genes. Allan’s family operated and sailed giant clipper chips in the 1850s era in England.

“In those days, in England, the annual crop of Indian tea would run out before the next year’s crop was picked and delivered. As soon as the next new crop of tea was picked, whoever got it from India, or Ceylon, to England first, was able to charge five times more than the market price; consumers bid up the price of the newly arrived, new-crop tea,” explains Allan.

Allan’s family realized that if they added great billowing sails to transport boats, and built and sailed giant clipper ships, they could make the voyage from India to England much faster than others, landing the new-crop tea first on the shores of England and earning themselves a premium price for the tea. 

“My family was able to build a new sailing clipper each year with the profits,” says Allan.

I’m not sure the same rules apply in bringing new-crop Nouveau Cabernet to market in Napa Valley, Allan, so maybe don’t think about applying this strategy to your winery business….

Even so, to honor his family’s shipping heritage, many of the planted blocks and vineyards at Somerston are named after Allan’s family sailing ships.

Today, 1500-head of Dorper sheep, originally from South Africa, graze in the vineyards, eating weeds and keeping grasses short. “We call this organic fire control,” quips Allan, who is intent on ultimately getting full organic certification for the property. 

“At present, everything we do here is sustainable farming; in fact, we are building a solar power system, which will completely remove us from the outside electrical grid,” says Jim Provance II, a staff wine specialist at Somerston.

Even the sheep at Somerston get immaculate care and attention; they’re day-cared by a Peruvian shepherd who moves the herd to different blocks to keep them fed and the grasslands trimmed.

The winery occupies a site formerly known as Priest Ranch, named after Joshua James Priest, who landed in California in 1847 to stake a claim in the gold rush.

That’s the winery barn at a distance in the middle of the shot; above it tower the quarries where miners thought they would extract gold; instead, they found a source of bubbly, mineral-rich, soda, which was bottled and sold for its reputed healing properties.

Priest thought that bits of bright blue glass, which speckled on the property, indicated the presence of gold. But instead of gold, Joshua discovered a hidden natural soda springs on the property. The natural waters were bottled on the property and sold for their reputed healing powers.

While beverages bottled on the ranch today may lack health-curing powers, they contain alcohol, which will help anyone forget they have issues requiring medical attention.

In fact, three different wine brands are produced here: Somerston, Priest Ranch and Highflyer. Premium wines carry the Somerston label.

Among Somerston reds, the two I tried and liked are:

2007 Somerston Proprietary Red, a blend of 97 percent Merlot and 3 percent Cabernet Franc. $90. Only 150 cases made.

2007 Somerston Cab, which is 100 percent estate Cabernet. $120. 250 cases produced.

To celebrate the opening of the winery, Allan and his winemaker-partner, Craig Becker, hosted an all-day party Saturday.

Wine specialist Jim Provance II takes guests on zippy 20-minute rides through the vineyards

They offered rides on All Terrain Vehicles (ATVs), which scootered over the ridges and through the vineyards. They generously fed guests and looked after their beverage needs, too.

Now that the winery is open to the public, here’s what you need to know:

With a booked appointment, visitors get a ride through the vineyards, a tasting flight of three Somerston wines, complementary local cheeses and freshly made pate.

The cost is $50 per person. The ATVs make their 20-minute run through the vineyards three times daily -- at 11 am, 1 pm and 3 pm. To book space, call 707-967-8414. Or check details at www.somerstonwineco.com.

The winery is at 3450 Sage Canyon Rd. Set your GPS device to read “St. Helena” for ‘city.’

Can’t make it to the farm? Somerston also operates a tasting room in Yountville at 6490 Washington St.

The Napa Valley Magnificent Seven Rode into Town….

The Magnificent Seven …. high-profile chefs Tyler Florence, Masaharu Morimoto, Cindy Pawlcyn, Michael Chiarello, Thomas Keller, Jeffrey Jake and Ken Frank

Well, to be completely accurate, the Magnificent Seven were already in town and it was us, a group of food- and wine-writers, who rode into Napa town yesterday to see them.

Let me explain.

The Napa Valley Destination Council and a group of dynamic chefs decided that what our valley needs is one more festival/event/fund-raiser to keep Napa Valley on the lips of America’s wine-drinking, food-loving public. Especially in an off-month, when visitor traffic starts to fade.

The original idea, which initially rattled around the brain of Bottega chef/owner Michael Chiarello, got some heft and support from the Culinary Institute of America; then a group of civic-minded chefs came forward  as did venue support from Silverado Resort & Spa. 

And that’s how the new festival was born, to be called:

Flavor! Napa Valley.

The four-day culinary circus comes to Napa Valley Nov. 17 to 20. There will be nine signature events hosted at Silverado Resort & Spa and at the CIA, in St. Helena.

Jeffrey Jake,Executive Chef at the Silverado Resort & Spa, will be anchor host chef for many of the planned event activities.

At press time, these are the participating, high-profile, chefs:

Michael Chiarello, Scott Conant, Tyler Florence, Ken Frank, Jeffrey Jake, Thomas Keller, Christopher Kostow, Masaharu Morimoto, and Cindy Pawlcyn.

Participating chef Masaharu Morimoto, from his eponymous restaurant in Napa town, Morimoto’s.

Napa Valley’s vintner community will also be represented, as you would imagine, showcasing their wines and two of the industry’s leading sommeliers will be on hand to lead seminars and discussion – Karen MacNeil and Andrea Robinson.

Proceeds will benefit the CIA’s Greystone Campus scholarship programs to support the development of tomorrow’s culinary and wine education leaders.

Promoters are hopeful that this will become an annual November, post-harvest event.

Either intentionally, or because planning is still “somewhat fluid,” as one insider told napaman, additional event details were not forthcoming at the impressive, and tasty, press luncheon, served to food- and wine-writers, at the Silverado Resort yesterday.

2011 Napa Valley Premiere Auction – Highest proceeds ever, $2,366,000!

 
Auctioneer Fritz Hatton gets the room a-rockin’.

Would you pay $2,083 for a bottle of fine Napa Valley Cabernet?

Ichizo Nakagawa, a Japanese wine importer, did at the Napa Valley Vintners’ Premiere Barrel Auction yesterday.

In fact, Mr. Nakagawa bought more than one bottle. He bought 60, bidding $125,000 for five cases of 2009 Scarecrow Cabernet Sauvignon, ironically labeled Toto’s Opium Dream: Scene II.

The bid was the highest ever for a single lot in the 15-year history of Premiere and helped propel the auction to raise $2,366,000, the largest sum ever garnered in the event’s history.

Yes, I know you’re asking, “What recession?”

What the room looked like to Fritz…

The results certainly bode well for wine sales in general as the winter auction tends to be a barometer of what follows in the general market.

Mr. Nakagawa was joined by more than 500 wine retailers, wholesalers and restaurant wine-buyers, who assembled from many countries in St. Helena to aggressively outbid each other for unique auction lots of mostly 2009 Napa Valley Cabernet wines.

As if Napa Valley hasn’t been cold enough this February, bidders whipped up the chilly air with their wooden paddles, pledging record sums for unique cuvees, most which won’t be released for at least a year.

Premiere Napa Valley, held at the Culinary Institute of America’s campus, is organized by Napa Valley Vintners, the non-profit trade association responsible for promoting and protecting the Napa Valley wine-growing appellation. The association represents nearly 400 local wineries, half of which produce unique wine cuvees for this annual auction.

Funds raised are used for marketing and promotional purposes in the year to come.

Biggest single lots

+ $125,000 for five cases of 2009 Scarecrow Cabernet Sauvignon. This works out to $2,038 a bottle, which may not be expensive compared to “futures” for first-growth Bordeaux wines, but don’t tell this to an unemployed car assembly worker in Detroit.

+ $45,000 for five cases of 2009 Schrader Cabernet Sauvignon called Double Diamond “B2 Bomber.” This works out to $750 a bottle. Mr. Nakagawa likely wouldn’t invite you back to his home if you if you brought such a cheap wine for dinner.

+ $38,000 for a five-case lot of Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon. The fruit for this 2009 Cabernet came from a single block called Sunspot, which forms the backbone of Shafer’s Hillside Select. This works out to $633 a bottle. Yes, I know, the auction prices are dropping dramatically; you’d expect to find wines in this low price range at your neighborhood Trader Joe’s, not at the NVV Premiere Auction.

2009 Vintage of Napa Valley wines

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 chance to assess the vintage and determine how consumers will like the wines.

“Many winemakers say, ‘we picked before the October rains in 2009 and saved our crop,’” says Aaron Pott, winemaker of Pott Wine. “But I spent six years making wine in Bordeaux and can tell you that the Cabernet grape can take rain, and we made a great wine picking AFTER the rains.”

Napa Valley was struck by rain in October 2009. “Some appellations recorded as much as five inches of rain in one day,” says Aaron. Generally, wines from this vintage are considered winners.

Aiming to add some humor to the mix, Napaman posed a common question to winemakers, asking them to assess the quality of the 2009 vintage as though it were a celebrity.

The question I asked:

“If the 2009 vintage were a celebrity, who would it be – and why?”

I also asked each winemaker, or producer:

“Of the 11 vintages in this decade (2000 through 2010), name your favorite three.”

I figured that if there were uniformity in choice, napaman.com readers would get a sense of which vintages are worth hunting down in the secondary, or auction, market.

For each winemaker’s response, I have listed vintages chronologically, though often they listed their preferences in a different order. But still, these are their respective Three Favorite Napa Valley Vintages over the last 11 years.

Tom Farella, winemaker, Farella-Park Vineyards

 “2009 is the Katy Perry of vintages. The wine is forward, friendly, pretty, but not something you would accuse of being intellectual challenging.”

Favorite three vintages of this decade: 01, 05, 07.

 

Philippe Melka, consulting winemaker to 14 premium Napa Valley wines

“For me, 2009 is the Juliette Binoche of vintages. The wine is filled with lots of ripe berries, red fruit and has brisk acidity. But there is also a serious side to this wine. It is pretty, has great energy and is sexy – like Juliette.”

Favorite three vintages of this decade: 01, 05, 07.

 

Aaron Buoncristiani, winemaker, Roy Estate

“2009 is the Halle Berry of vintages. It is elegant, seductive, has beautiful color. In a word: stunning!”

Favorite three vintages of this decade: 01, 03, 08.

 

Robin Lail, owner, Lail Vineyard

“2009 is the Cate Blanchett of vintages. It is wonderfully complex, has a great sense of self and place, is extremely versatile, and glows with an inner beauty.”

Favorite three vintages of this decade: 02, 05, 07.

 

Jeremy Weintraub, winemaker, Seavey Vineyard

“2009 is the Scarlett Johansson of vintages. The wine is generous, voluptuous, and exhibits strength and power.”

Favorite three vintages of this decade: 01, 03, 07.

 

Mary Ann Tsai, co-owner, Moone-Tsai Vineyards

“2009 is the Anne Hathaway o vintages. The wine is elegant, new age, young, vibrant, shows finesse, power and structure. Besides, I think it has a long future ahead.”

Favorite three vintages of this decade: 05, 07, 09.

EXTRA: You read it here first! Mary Ann and her press attaché, Toby Baird, confirmed that the Moone-Tsai winery will open May 2 in the space previously housing Luna. Napaman will continue to follow this story; look for an update when the winery opens.

 

Todd Graff, winemaker, Frank Family Vineyards

“2009 is the Angelina Jolie of vintages. It is big, voluptuous, smooth, gorgeous, curvaceous, yet has strong backbone.”

Favorite three vintages of this decade: 05, 06, 09.

 

Rich Frank, owner, Frank Family Vineyards

“2009 is the Meryl Streep of vintages. It is big, strong, will stand up to anything, has great character and knows what it wants to be.”

Favorite three vintages of this decade: 00, 05, 07.

 

Aaron Pott, winemaker Pott Wine, as well as Blackbird Vineyards

“ 2009 is the Audrey Hepburn of vintages. The wine appears lean but it is very elegant.”

Favorite three vintages of this decade: 01, 05, 07.

 

Ryan and Nicole Hill, owners, Hill Family Estate

 “2009 is the LeBron James of vintages. The vintage shows well across all grape varieties, not just Cabernet. Like LeBron, the vintage is showy, full of potential – and it delivers. It’s hard to find a better player, or a better vintage.”

(Ed Note: If you don’t know LeBron James – he’s the hot, talented, point-scoring forward for the Miami Heat basketballers.)

Favorite three vintages of this decade: 01, 07, 09.

 

Jennifer Rue, winemaker, Livingston Moffett

“2009 is the Natalie Portman of vintages. The wines are youthful, filled with complexity, display inner strength and are multi-layered – like Natalie’s performances.”

Favorite three vintages of this decade: 01, 07, 09.

 

John Arns, winegrower, and Sandi Belcher, winemaker, Arns

“2009 is the Jim White – AKA napaman – of vintages! The wines exhibit zest and are full of life; they are vibrant, forward, powerful, even exuberant!”

(Ed note: Aw shucks, Sandi, you didn’t have to say that!)

Favorite three vintages of this decade: 01, 02, 07.

 

The day before

 

The day before the auction, Napa Valley Vintners and the Rudd Center for Professional Wine Studies at the CIA, typically host a wine-tasting event, allowing auction guests to sample Napa Valley wines from recent vintages. This gives participants a way to benchmark different vintages – and learn how the wines are aging.

My issue with this annual tasting is one of operations: in order to serve the hundreds of guests three different vintages (06, 07 and 08 were poured this weekend) from 12 different wineries, servers start by blending two bottles of a vintage to fill a large decanter… and then keep topping up the decanter with wine from a third, fourth, etc., bottle from the same vintage.

You could call this the “solera method” of wine tasting. What one tastes is really a blend of several bottles – something which gives a general impression, or overview, of a wine.

Obviously, this is not how professional tastings, or critical evaluations, are conducted, but the NVV has been unable to invent a better system to enable hundreds of guests to partake in such a tasting.

I must add this note about the best wines of the tasting, in case readers are interested in hunting down some tremendous unheralded wine. 

Tasters were presented three vintages of wine blind  from 12 different Napa Valley wineries. The decanters from a winery identified only as “Number 2” held my top-scoring wines. I tasted and swore these wines must be Shafer Hillside Select. They were delicious, thrilling, had texture, grip and a thoroughly engaging finish. Elegance, too.

How surprised was I to learn that the 2006 wine, which I rated 95 points, the 2007 wine, which I rated 96 points, and the phenomenal 2008 wine, which I rated 97 points, were all Bennett Lane Cabernets, crafted by winemaker Grant Hermann.

Grant Hermann, winemaker, Bennett Lane

Way to go, Grant! These were my favorite wines of the weekend, and the good news for readers is that they don’t cost like top-tier wines; you don’t have to have deep pockets like Mr. Nakagawa to enjoy them.

Atelier Melka

Napaman chose to attend a few of the nearly two-dozen open houses held at wineries and retail wine stores during Premiere weekend, which stretched into four days of revelry. 

Philippe Melka, a celebrity consulting winemaker in the valley, brought together eight winery clients for whom he made their Premiere auction lots. Hundreds of out-of-town visitors crammed into 750 Wines, in St. Helena, to make the scene, swirl, sip and spit.

At Hall Winery, also in St. Helena, 10 wineries assembled to pour their top wines and Premiere barrel samples. The place was a beehive of wannabe bidders.

It’ll be June before the dust settles around here and probably that long before Premiere bidders get the purple wine stains off their teeth – just in time for the year’s grand auction, the heralded Napa Valley Wine Auction in June, which raises millions for charity.

Napaman’s tip to the organizers:  Be sure to encourage Mr. Nakagawa to return for the event!

The Best Wine Tasting of 2011 – And It’s Only February!

A smattering of the 22 Chateauneufs-du-Pape we tasted

I can’t imagine a lustier, more anticipated, more engaging wine tasting this year than the one held in St. Helena last night, celebrating my favorite wine, Chateauneuf-du-Pape.

The event, held at 750 Wines and hosted by BP Wine, two top-notch St. Helena wine retailers, brought together Chateauneuf-du-Pape aficionados to taste wines and to meet Harry Karis, author of the most important, most researched, most detailed book ever written on the wine and the region. 

Author Harry Karis with his book

Harry’s 500-page tome, The Chateauneuf-du-Pape Wine Book, is the definitive work on the subject. Did I say definitive? I meant all-encompassing, all-knowing, all-seeing down to the molecular level, everything there is to know about Chateauneuf-du-Pape.

In addition to desiderata, the book includes profiles on all the major wine producers, a run down on ALL the properties in the appellation, a chapter on ALL the area soil compositions in the region, in fact, ALL of EVERYTHING about “CDP,” as I call the wine and the region.

“It took nearly five years to research and write the book,” says Harry, whose son Phil took all the photos and art-directed the book.

Harry, who when asked his age says “I am vintage 1956,” is a serial careerist, tackling one after another. Initially a musician (lead guitarist in a Dutch band), he became a chef and opened his own restaurant. Bored with this achievement, Harry went back to school and became a doctor, specializing in occupational health. This guy has had almost as many careers as we had bottles of Chateauneuf-du-Pape last night.

Along the way, Harry was bitten by the Chateauneuf-du-Pape bug.

“I had my first Chateauneuf in 1978, but it  took many years  to fully realize what a  sensational blend it is,” says Harry. “After I learned that many of the great Burgundy reds contained as much as 50 percent Chateauneuf-du-Pape (added for color and flavorful top notes), I gained a new respect for this wine.”

Harry opens wines at the tasting hosted by BP Wine and 750 Wine, in St. Helena

I asked Harry what was the oldest Chateauneuf-du-Pape he’s ever had:

“The 1890 Chateau La Nerthe. It was still singing! I could taste fresh red fruit, raspberries and strawberries, and there was a silken licorice finish.”

Try as hard as you will to extract a point score for any of the 6,000 wines Harry tasted while researching his book, he just won’t fall into that trap. “Wine is meant to be enjoyed not rated,” he says.

To thrill assembled tasters, Harry brought some exceptional, well aged CDPs. But before we began tasting, I asked if he was as enthusiastic about the 2007 vintage as wine critic Robert Parker, who called it “the single greatest vintage in modern CDP history.”

Harry says that he probably would prefer a 2006 CDP more than any 2007 – certainly for a good decade before the 2007s soften and integrate. “It is a bombastic vintage!”

Before the tasting, Harry and I got to discuss the world of CDP… 

 
… and generally goof around

Backgrounder

Before commenting on the wines served, for those unfamiliar with Chateauneuf-du-Pape, here’s the skinny on this exceptional wine:

+ In 1936, Chateauneuf-du-Pape became the first wine region in France to receive appellation controllee status.

+ How Chateauneuf-du-Pape got it’s name: More than 700 years ago, a series of Popes, seeking to withdraw from Rome’s military influence, moved their worship zone to an area around Avignon; in 1333, Pope John XII built a secondary residence nearby, calling it “Chateauneuf-du-Pape,” which simply means “new castle of the Pope.” The hamlet, in which the structure was situated, picked up the name.

+ While Picpoul, Terret and Clairette sound like three Shakespearean crones you’d expect to find stirring cauldrons in King Lear, they are, in fact, three of the 22 permitted varieties of grape, which can be used to make Chateauneuf-du-Pape. You likely know some of the more common grape varieties permitted – Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre.

+ Chateauneuf-du-Pape producers may blend any combination of the 22 permitted varieties; some producers, like Chateau Rayas, make wine from only one variety -- 100 percent Grenache. Others, like Beaucastel, Clos des Papes, and Clos-du-Mont-Olivet, make a practice of blending ALL of the main varieties.

+ Here’s a chart of the grapes permitted in CDP:

Harry’s Sez:

If he could only take the CDPs of a few producers to a desert island, what would they be?

“I love the wines which Julien Barot is making for Domaine La Barroche. I would also take Charvin wines, made by the talented Laurent Charvin, and some Chateau Rayas to prove how long great wines can age. And I’d also grab some Domaine de Pegau, because these are always great wines.”

I asked Harry what was the single best CDP he’s ever had.

“While I have had many superb wines, there has only been one wine, which came close to an Aha! Moment: The 1998 Henri Bonneau, Reserve des Celestins. I was drinking it with a friend; we opened the bottle and poured a glass for each of us. We took a sip and didn’t utter a single word to each other for five minutes. We sat there in angelic silence. We were stunned at how good a wine can be.”

 I asked Harry for his top three tips to best enjoy CDP.

 + “Only decant Chateauneuf-du-Pape if there is more than 10 percent Mourvedre in the blend. This grape tends to be funky and needs aeration. Otherwise, pour straight from the bottle.”

+ “Generally, in most vintages, the best age to drink a CDP is from ten years onward.”

+ “If your CDP has been at room temperature, place it in the fridge for 30 minutes before serving, to mimic cellar temperature. You’ll find the wine is fresher, brighter, more lively.”

The cursed “CDP August Effect ”

I asked Harry if I was the only person he’s ever met who believes there is a phenomenon, almost a curse, which I call “The CDP August Effect.” It has been my experience that every summer, when August comes around, the most balanced, elegant Chateauneufs-du-Pape in my cellar become awkward, gawky, imbalanced, some of them downright nasty wines.

Harry looked at me as though I were speaking a secret language. (It’s time, Harry, to pull out our Captain Midnight Secret Decoder Rings….)

I was startled by his reply:  “I have that identical experience!” Harry says that for him, the nasties start in July.

“I make a point of not opening Chateauneuf-du-Pape from the middle of July to the middle of September,” Harry said.

Harry’s experience is based on a sampling even larger than mine. At its peak, Harry’s cellar held 4,800 bottles of Chateauneuf-du-Pape, and it didn’t matter which house, or which vintage, he pulled from; during summer months, they all took an evolutionary step backward, regardless of how well they were stored.

The Tasting

Hosts for the CDP-tasting; held at 750 Wines (David Stevens, proprietor, far left), BP Wine host, Stefan Blicker, and right of him Harry Karis. At the far right is BP Wine co-owner Cory Wagner.

Host Stefan Blicker reviews two-dozen Chateauneufs-du-Pape served to guests.

Rather than give exhaustive tasting notes on two-dozen wines poured, let me concentrate on the top wines.

1949 Chateau Patriarche, Pere et Fils.

This wine, from a Beaune negociant, was the oldest CDP of the evening, and the oldest CDP I personally have ever tasted. Despite being 62-years-old (!), it still has fruit, life and personality. Call it CDP-lite; though partially oxidized, there are still hints of dried fruits, like prunes, raisins and fig, and a noticeable Virginia tobacco finish. Actually, a very “pretty” wine, considering the age.

1959 Roger Sabon.

OMG – this CDP! Don’t let the pale strawberry color fool you; this is CDP on steroids. Sweet, almost meaty, in the middle palate this wine displays a cacophony of fruit flavors and there is a l-o-n-g finish of mint and spearmint, which persists for a good 20 seconds.

1961 Chateau Cabrieres.

I know this sounds nuts: Although half-a-century old, this wine still tastes young, vibrant, and is thoroughly alluring. It grabbed my attention on each swallow, begging me to come back for another sip. Fruit and forest flavors mingle. There is a heap o’ cherry on the finish, both sweet and sour varieties, and I ended my tasting notes with this litany: “Stunning complexity, arresting flavors, exceptional wine.” Kinda says it all.

1978 Chateau Cabrieres.

They must have been doing something extra correct at Cabrieres to snag two of the top spots in this tasting; I used many of the same words to describe the ’78 as I did the ’61. As well, I noted this wine was sweet, lush, and hedonistic. Oh, and  truly sensational. Lots of berries, both black and red, tons of fresh fruit flavors, not dried or candied. What a package

The Book

Anyone who would like to learn more about Chateauneuf-du-Pape wines, or who plans to visit the region in southern France, needs this book. Period. It is the definitive tome on the subject (though I think I made this clear many paragraphs ago).

The book is $50 on amazon, and $79 just about everywhere else.

You can also buy the book on Harry’s Dutch website, www.kavino.nl

One other new toy: Harry has put his ENTIRE 500-page book, as well as a new summary guide, on a compact flash drive (pictured above), which you can transfer to your iPhone or iPad, so that you always have everything you need to know about Chateauneuf-du-Pape in your pocket or backpack.

The flash drive, available on Harry’s website, is $24.95.

The Best Macaroons I Ever Tasted!

Listen up: You come to Napa Valley for the best food and wine in Northern California. That's understood. 

But you have to go to San Mateo, a suburban community south of San Francisco, if you want to taste the best macaroons in the world.

My daughter, Jenn Topliff, who lives there, perfected the macaroon recipe after several weeks of tests. I don't know what got into Jenn's head, but one day she woke up and said: "I want to develop the best recipe for macaroons in the world." She succeeded beyond anyone's wildest imagination.  

Had she had a scientific goal, instead of culinary pursuit, Jenn, with her drive and attention to detail, probably could have eradicated malaria in the same two weeks. But the world will just have to be satisfied with her recent culinary achievement.

Jenn and daughter Grace work together, testing different macaroon recipes.

Well, they were supposed to test... but Grace got sidetracked, and started eating the raw ingredients.

Stir, stir, stir....

Jenn's macaroons are chewy clouds of modestly sweet coconut, underscored with a base of rich, dark Guittard chocolate. The counterpoints of sweetness, coconut-ness and dark chocolate rebound off one another throughout the tasting experience. With most macaroons, after a single bite, you've had enough; Jenn's recipe leaves you hankering for another bite, even a whole other macaroon, after you've just had one.

But enough high-glycemic hyperbole. The recipe, which is easy to make, follows. Jenn tested many different types, shapes and threads of coconut; she tested many different dark chocolates. I was fortunate to taste many of her product trials and echo her belief that the combination of ingredients in this final recipe produces the tastiest macaroon you’ll ever make at home.

 

Jenn Topliff’s Best-Ever Macaroons

(aka “Smashed Haystack Macaroons)

2 large eggs

1/2 cup granulated white sugar

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 cups flaked, or shredded, sweetened coconut (I prefer flaked, and buy the packaged, private label brand at Safeway. It is usually on sale and inexpensive.)

1 cup unsweetened coconut (I buy this in bulk, at Whole Foods)

1 bag Guittard, or Ghiradelli, semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350º F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

2. In a large metal bowl whisk the eggs (using a whisk or fork) until well beaten. Stir in the sugar, salt and vanilla, and mix well. Finally, stir in the coconut (both sweetened & unsweetened) and mix the ingredients together until all the coconut is completely moistened.

3. Using a small ice-cream scoop (or tablespoon measure), scoop densely packed mounds of the macaroon batter onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Leave at least 2 inches between each macaroon mound. If using an ice-cream scoop to form your macaroons, use the back of the scoop to smash down the top of the mounds a little bit, before baking. In my testing, this seems to help make them cook a little more evenly, and minimizes the chance of over-browning coconut on the top.

4. Bake 15 to 20 minutes, or until the coconut is lightly toasted (be careful: these macaroons go from “toasted” to “burned” quickly!)

5. Remove from oven and let cool at least 20 to 30 minutes.

For surreal pleasure, dip the bottoms of the macaroons in melted chocolate: Melt chocolate chips slowly over medium heat while your macaroons are cooling. A double boiler works best, but I use a stainless steel mixing bowl placed over a small saucepan filled with about 2 to 3 inches of water.

Bring water in saucepan to a boil and cover with mixing bowl (or double boiler). Reduce heat to medium-low. Pour chocolate chips into mixing bowl and stir constantly, using a wooden spoon or silicone, heat-proof spatula. When chocolate is completely melted and silky smooth, it is ready to use.

Lay a sheet of parchment paper down on a work surface (any table, countertop or cutting board will do). Working quickly (so the macaroons don't fall apart in your hand), dip the bottom of each macaroon in the melted chocolate, then place firmly down onto the clean parchment paper. Let chocolate harden, before transferring cookies.

Jenn adds: “I have not done tests on refrigerating the macaroons versus keeping them out to cool and harden. The batches in our home never last long enough to conduct such a test!”

 

Napaman’s Best Wines of the Year -- And the top wine was white!

2005 Domaine Marius DeLarche Corton-Charlemagne, Reserve

When the white wine at dinner blows all the heavy-hitter reds out of the water, you know you’ve had a special wine. Which was certainly the case for this wine, making it qualify for Best Wine – Red or White – of the Year.

In fact, at one dinner, it actually outscored all of the best reds, which I tasted this year, making it the first time ever that my highest scoring Best Wine of the Year is a white.

I brought a bottle of the 2005 Marius DeLarche Corton-Charlemagne Reserve to dinner at Bardessono, in Yountville, thinking the white Burgundy might make a pleasant dinner opener. Little did I suspect it would be the wine of the dinner… of the night.. and of the year!

The perfectly aged, 5-year-old wine had rich butter notes and a surreal finish of fruit, lingering in the mouth for a good 30 seconds.

Exhibiting sensational richness of fruit and a dreamlike weight in the mouth, this wine rated 98 points. Picky-picky, probably should have been 99 or 100.

Our dinner hosts, Rob and Lexi Adler, brought a sumptuous 1998 Valpolicella to dinner and I brought several additional wines, including a 1999 Barolo and a 2000 Les Cailloux Chateauneuf-du-Pape, but these killer reds just didn’t have the magic of the DeLarche.

I was so enthralled with this Corton-Charlemagne, in fact, that over the next two months, I pulled additional bottles from my cellar. One bottle was a close, 97 point, experience, while the other was a distant 93-pointer. Never forget: bottle variation is alive and well in even the most expensive, most pedigreed, wines in the world.

2003 Pine Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon

The year was barely a week old when we opened what was one of the top wines of the year to come!

Carol and her twin sister, Shelly, celebrated a significant birthday at one of our favorite Napa Valley restaurants, Tra Vigne. For the occasion, I brought along a magnum of 2003 Pine Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon, Stags Leap District.

The wine blew away everything else on the table, and there were a considerable number of bottles on the table. The Pine Ridge was harmonious, balanced, filled with ripe red and black fruits, and loads of personality.

If this wine were a car, it would be an impressive, 500 horsepower, BMW M6, capable of blowing away the competition with elegance and speed, given the firepower under the hood. This was the single best bottle of Pine Ridge, (a perennial favorite in our cellar), which we’ve ever had. 97 points.

2000 Bryant Family Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon

Hot on the heels of the Pine Ridge experience, Farmstead Restaurant opened in St. Helena and we had another top wine of the year, though in our least favorite restaurant of the year. (Maybe we should start an annual roundup of least favorite restaurants, too?)

Friends brought a bottle of 2000 Bryant Family Vineyard to dinner, while we brought a 1995 Leoville las Cases. Parker scored them equally 95 points upon release.

I thought our Las Cases, a St. Julien Bordeaux with great pedigree, showed insufficient complexity and had muted, muddled, top and bottom notes. A rather punk bottle, barely worth 91 points.

But the Bryant Family Cab – ahhh, symphonic bliss in a bottle. Syrupy thick, texturally rich (very silken), and alive with juicy flavors. Loads of ripe black fruits, a hint of chocolate, too. Couldn’t get enough of this one, and scored it 97 points.

The 2000 Bryant, like all vintages, was produced from 100% Cabernet, and was the handiwork of winemaker Helen Turley (from the first vintage in 1992 through 2002).

The premium today on this 10-year-old wine is somewhat staggering. Wine merchants across the country are charging as much as $700 a bottle, considerably more than what this wine cost on release, when 800 cases reached the market. I guess wine lovers have discovered how good this wine is – and apologies from napaman for putting additional pressure on pricing with this encomium.

1999 Domaine du Pegau Chateauneuf-du-Pape

Our good table mates, Barry Stern and Lea Kendall, joined us at Cantinetta Piero last April, bringing with them a bottle of 1999 Domaine du Pegau.

Barry and Lea had brought the 1998 vintage of this wine to a dinner last year, earning them – and the wine – top spot in our Best Wines of 2009. I scored the 1998 vintage a perfect 100 points. It was Napaman’s Wine of Last Year.

The 1999 vintage isn’t far behind in finesse or finish. It’s an arousing wine, filled with herbs, leather, ripe red berries, and a Virginia tobacco denouement. In a word: Delicious.

Imagine having two wines, this 1999 Pegau and the 2000 Vieille Julienne (description follows) at the same table with some mighty impressive food. Life doesn’t get much better. 97 points for the Pegau.

2000 Domaine de la Vieille Julienne Chateauneuf-du-Pape

As mentioned, we dined with Barry Stern and Lea Kendall at one of our favorite new restaurants, Cantinetta Piero, in Yountville, where they serve very well prepared Italian fare. Of particular note is their selection of mixed, house-cured salume, which makes an ideal table starter.

On leaving home, I had grabbed the 2000 Vieille Julienne Chateauneuf-du-Pape, curious to see how the wine was evolving. I’d had one bottle earlier out of a six-pack I own and recall that it was a stunner; perfectly focused, elegantly dressed, ready for prime-time, a knock-out of a wine.

The bead, texture, and finish on the bottle opened with Barry and Lea were all in perfect harmony. 97 points.

For the record: Five months later, in September, we had a third bottle from my half-case and it was equally as impressive; uber-complex, almost syrupy thick, a great rush of flavors followed by a lengthy middle palate revealing dark fruits, bramble, and garrigue. 97 points again.

2000 Vieux Telegraph Chateauneuf-du-Pape

This was the single best bottle of this vintage, which I’ve had from two cases purchased upon release from Kermit Lynch, in Berkeley.

We enjoyed this wine at the home of Tom and Linda Scheibal. Tom had gone into the wet forests south of Calistoga in the morning to forage for mushrooms. He found a gold mine of fresh chanterelles and picked and stuffed 15 pounds into a pillowcase. Linda, who is an extremely talented cook, made fresh egg pasta, and tossed the barely-sautéed chanterelles into her lighter-than-air, golden tagliatelli.

In general, I have been disappointed with many of my 2000 vintage Chateauneufs-du-Pape. The vintage was initially described as stellar, but I have found many 2000s, including earlier opened bottles of Vieux Telegraph, to border on austere and angular, certainly from what critics hailed as a “great vintage.”

But this 2000, from one of my favorite workhorse houses, was simply sensational. It displayed fresh ripe red fruit, had vibrant top notes and a chorus of flavors at the finish, all singing in harmony. An ideal complement to Linda’s dinner. 96 points.

Frank Sinatra Sang it Best….

“… Now the days grow short… I’m in the Autumn of the Year….”

    

Here in wine country, autumn is a particular season for reflection; we think of great wines past, and of the vintage we’ve just put into barrel.

Fall is the most colorful time of year. Once the fruit has been picked, the leaves on the vines turn bright gold before they lose luster and fall off.

Rather than fill your head with ideas, news, or concepts in this posting, let me fill your eyes with beauty.

Here are shots taken over the last seven days in Rutherford, Oakville and Calistoga, in Napa Valley, and in Dry Creek, Sonoma County.

Pax…. and now the Pix.

 

  

  

Thank God Helen Keplinger decided not to go to medical school!

Otherwise Napa Valley would have been deprived of one of its greatest young, dynamic (and did I say attractive?) new winemakers.

Keplinger – with a hard ‘G’, not like the soft ‘G’ in Berringer – and her husband of three years, DJ Warner, just treated me to a tasting of their first three vintages of Grenache and Syrah blended wines.

The Good News:

Keplinger wines are sublime, majestic, ambrosial, unforgettable.

The Bad News:

I don’t have enough exclamations in my computer to express how I really feel about them.

The tasting was arranged at 750 Wines, in St. Helena, one of the only Napa Valley wine merchants who regularly reaches out to napaman when they’ve discovered a new winemaker whom they think napaman.com readers would, in turn, like to discover.

Helen Keplinger pours while husband DJ Warner reflects on the wine he’s going to have to sell. Fortunately for him, selling Helen’s wines shouldn’t take a lot of work – production is limited and they will sell themselves by word of mouth.

Talk about discovery. At the tasting, not only did I score every one of Helen’s glorious wines 95 points or higher, I even placed a standing order to purchase a pair of every wine that she produces going forward; they’re just too good, too glorious, and too fairly priced to let an opportunity like this pass me by.

Helen has been making wine for 10 years. She has a wine degree from UC Davis, has assisted Heidi Barrett at Paradigm, has worked at Fiddlehead and Kenzo Estate and worked a vintage in the Priorat, Spain, which changed her life.

Returning to America, after working in Spain and traveling in France’s Rhone Valley, where some of the most wonderful Grenache-based and Syrah-based wines in the world are made, Helen started to look for terrain, soil, altitude, and weather conditions that would enable her to make outstanding Grenache and Syrah wines here.

 

 With a short pit stop to marry DJ, who had a career in technology and organic gourmet foods, Helen got back on the fast track to find “the perfect soil for Grenache and Syrah in California.” She found several sites, she says, which appeared promising.

The first success came from a block Helen found in Knights Valley, which Helen says has volcanic soils, an ideal balance of slate and clay, 1,000-foot elevation, ideal southwestern exposure and good protection from direct sunlight.

She is so into this subject, by the way, that slowing her down, or changing the subject, is out of the question. Even if you put your hand up in the air, like a grade school student asking a question, you are not going to get Helen’s attention; her eyes are focused far off in the distance, picturing the very vines of which she speaks.

I scored this first effort, the 2006 Keplinger Red Slope (80% Grenache, 20% Syrah), 95 points. The fruit is from 14-year-old vines in Knights Valley. The wine is lovely, lively, supple, has rich ripe fruit flavors and there is no hint that this is actually a 15.5% alcohol wine.

I don’t think I’ve ever put the words together “pretty wine” to describe a 15.5% wine, but this beaut merits the pairing. Upon release, this was a $40 wine, as is each premiere vintage for Keplinger labels. At the second vintage, the different wines each jump to $50, where they perch.

The 2006 Keplinger Kingpin Rows is a 100 percent Syrah offering from a 5-acre parcel in Knights Valley. There is a huge scent of Syrah here; new leather, saddle leather, a hint of soy sauce and then the thing rolls over your tongue like an elixir of velvet. Easily a 97-point wine.

Then we taste the 2007 Keplinger Red Slope and like the previous vintage, this wine has a kingly robe, exhibits perfect balance, is filled with juicy top notes and a proper tannic structure for ageing.

The 2007 Keplinger Kingpin Rows, again 100 percent Syrah, is ethereal, a majestic new world wine made in the tradition of old world Syrah. Easily 95 points.

 

Speaking of new world wines, the group around the tasting table got into a discussion, noting that there are really only a few American producers of Grenache whom we admire, among them Alban Vineyards and Sine Qua Non.

Syrah has had better success – and a better reception - in California; one of my favorites is Lagier-Meredith Syrah, made here in Napa Valley, which I have bought and cellared for years. (Just now am drinking their 2001 and 2002 Syrahs and am loving them.)

The fact that there are so few local producers who have made beautiful, balanced Grenache wines incited Helen to take action: “I decided to make Grenache-based wines here as good as the ones made in France,” she vowed.

DJ  Warner runs the business side of Keplinger, looking after sales and marketing.

In 2007, trying to expand her horizon, as well as her portfolio, Helen made two additional reds:

The grapes for 2007 Keplinger Caldera grew on vines planted in Aiken soil at 2450 feet elevation in – are you ready for this? – El Dorado, California.

Not familiar with what Aiken soil (very fine particle’d, volcanic soil) can do for a wine? Then your homework is to get some ethereal Grace Family Cabernet or Rudd Winery Cabernet and taste; now THAT is what Aiken soil can produce.

The overwhelming flavor release from the 2007 Caldera (66% Mourvedre, 26% Grenache, 8% Counoise) is that of a slice of warm toast, heavily smeared with very fresh raspberry jam. There is a l-o-n-g raspberry finish that goes on for a minute, making me think that this is like drinking Framboise liqueur sans any hint of sweetness. Easily 97 points. Maybe more.

The 2007 Keplinger Sumo will wrestle your taste buds to the ground. The fruit, from Amador, grows at 1700 feet elevation on extremely old volcanic soil. This wine is big, brawny, yet like all Helen’s wines, remarkably balanced. Who ever heard of Petite Sirah with finesse? A hint of tobacco lingers 30 seconds on the finish. 96 points.

From Helen’s quiver, she pulls a few more vinous-tipped arrows, her 2008 offerings, and fires away, the wines piercing my defense with a purity of flavor and a sensuality of texture. How do you make such ethereal UNfined wines? They have the texture of brilliant young DRC Burgundies, but taste new worldly as they are filled with ripe, juicy fruit.

2008 Keplinger Lithic is named after a geological term, which refers to the size of soil grains, the ones in which these vines are planted. There are hints of gunmetal, lavender and iodine, and lots of blue fruit in this Amador wine. 97 points.

2008 Keplinger Caldera. There is a hint of just-poured asphalt, a whiff of tar, then a fabulous crescendo of ripe fruit notes. Oooh, 96 delicious points.

Helen’s 2008 Keplinger Sumo, a brilliant blend of Petite Sirah, Syrah and a touch of Viognier could be called a “Ka-Doing!” wine, the cartoonish sound made when someone slaps his forehead, suggesting a total, overwhelming, knockout of pleasure over this wine.

This is 5-star-salute material, a rocket sled of flavors and power and yet this wine has – who’d a thunk it? -- poise. This could easily be called a 100-point wine, because you can’t put more wine into a wine and make it taste any better than what Helen has achieved.

Whatever you do, Helen, don’t give up your day job and don’t give a second thought about going to medical school; if you did, you’d sadden a lot of wine lovers who anticipate the many years of pleasure, which lie ahead, imagining the thrills of tasting successive future vintages of your stunning wines.

Keplinger current release wines are available at 750 Wines, on Adams St., in St. Helena. Tel. 707-963-0750.The premiere vintage of each new Keplinger label is $40/bottle and in subsequent years, the wines are $50/bottle. “That’s the marketing plan for now,” anyway, says DJ.

How to Spend a Perfect Afternoon in the Carneros – at Bouchaine

Good friends, the Dunns, Harrises and Witts, asked us to join them in a new experience – checking out Napa Valley wineries to which we’ve never been.

“We always get asked by visitors to our winery, where else should we go?” explain Mike and Treva Harris, the ebullient proprietors of Harris Family Vineyards, “so we decided to assemble a small group of family winemakers to inspect what’s out there that we’ve never seen and might recommend.”

You’d think that in a small valley like Napa Valley, we’d know all the players, but, in fact, there are 500 wineries in our small valley.

So we sneaked off our porch and joined the group, visiting Bouchaine, in the Carneros, last week.

What a lovely spot!

Bouchaine is the oldest, continuously operated winery in the Carneros, according to tasting room host Lisa Brown, who poured five different wines for us.

Host Lisa Brown pours wine for guests on the winery patio, which overlooks the rolling vineyards.

“The winery was built in the late 1920s, “ she said, and has only ever had three owners – first Johnny Garetto, an Italian immigrant, then Beringer, and now, it is owned by Gerret and Tatiana Copeland.”

The winemaker is Michael Richmond, who has crafted some delicious wines.

We sat on the slat-covered patio at the back of the tasting room, overlooking the sculpted vineyards, which roll off into the distance. The standard tasting room fee is $15 per person inside, and $30 per person on the deck, where you get much more personalized service and a chance to have some nibbles with your wines, as well.

Our three favorite wines of the tasting were:

 2008 Bouchaine Estate Chardonnay

A gorgeous, beautifully balanced, Chardonnay, which is 90 percent oak-fermented, and topped with 10 percent of the house’s stainless steel–fermented Chardonnay. As only 50 percent of this blend has been put through malolactic fermentation, the beverage has a refreshing acidity. Really liked this wine. Even bought some to bring home; you can’t get a stronger commendation than that.

92 points.

2008 Bouchaine Estate Pinot Meunier Pinot Noir

Pinot Meunier is one of the three grapes used to make Champagne (along with Pinot Noir and Chardonnay). It is rarely used by itself to make a varietal wine, which makes this Bouchaine offering unusual. But which also makes it tasty.

Cool nights and a rolling fog, which envelopes the Carneros on many summer nights, help the Pinot Meunier mature gracefully. The result is a delicate, floral, rose petal-scented, wine with a beautiful robe. The alcohol is under control and this is one of those times when it is absolutely right to call this “a pretty wine.” I bought this one to take home, too. 91 points.

2006 Bouchaine Estate Pinot Noir

Here’s the real deal, a strikingly delicious Pinot Noir with luscious berry fruit in the middle palate and a hint of cocoa on the finish. None of that sometimes hot Russian River alcohol, or over-extraction; this Pinot has roots in Napa Valley but has a DNA that hints of France, which you can taste. Had to buy some of this, too. 92 points.

The Bouchaine setting is beautiful, the wines are delicious (we now have a winery in the Carneros where we are comfortable sending guests) and summer is here – so what are YOU waiting for?

Bouchaine is at 1075 Buchli Station Road, Napa, 94559.

Tel: 800-654-WINE or 707-252-9065 to make an appointment for a tasting group if you are six or more in your party. Go to www.bouchaine.com for more details.

Charter Oak Zinfandel chosen TOPS out of 730 world wines!

To find out what wines "Millennials" (individuals in the 21-35 age group) enjoy, a worldwide competition was held in the Bay-area last month, bringing together Millennial winemakers and Millennial judges. The competition was called “The NextGen Competition,” short for Next Generation.

As I have been making Charter Oak wine with Rob Fanucci since 2002, two years ago, he asked me to come inside his family winery business and join him as an active partner. (Let’s get this potential Conflict of Interest relationship off the table…. But it has nothing to do with the story I’m about to relate.)

David pours wine at the annual Charter Oak ZinArt party, an infusion of good wine and good art, the latter produced by Rob’s wife, Layla Fanucci. Layla’s “Cityscape” oils are internationally shown and collected.

Over time, we have encouraged Rob’s son, David Fanucci, to help us make the wine and 21-year-old David is now Charter Oak’s official assistant winemaker, helping punch down fermenting wines, rack wines throughout the year and help prepare final blends. (That’s David in the first shot above.)

The rules for the NextGen Competion were that you must have a Millennial on your winemaking team – and as David fits the age-grade category, we submitted our 2007 Charter Oak Monte Rosso Zinfandel, which David had a large part in making and blending.

Twenty-four Millennial-aged judges – all of them wine industry professionals – assembled in the Bay-area in June and tasted through 730 wines submitted from all over the world.

Our 2007 Charter Oak Monte Rosso Zinfandel was chosen blind as THE NUMBER ONE WINE IN THE WORLD to be made by a Next Generation "Millennial" OUT OF 730 WINES IN THE COMPETITION!

You can read more about Charter Oak Winery at www.charteroakwine.com and you can read more about the NextGen Wine Competition at www.nextgenwinecomp.com.

Donny and August Sebastiani, recognized pioneers in developing innovative wines in America, served as honorary co-chairs of the NextGen event.

“For four generations, our family has produced quality value wines and now it’s our chance to take the wine business to the next level, says Donny.

Organizers of the NextGen Wine Competition say they intend to make it an annual event.

 From left to right: Hear no evil, Speak no evil, See no evil. The three monkeys at Charter Oak – David Fanucci, me, and Rob Fanucci.

Over at Charter Oak, we’ve had to put sand in Rob’s cuffs to keep his feet on the ground.

If you’ve never been to Charter Oak, in St. Helena, let me explain its microscopic imprint; there are something like 500 wineries in Napa Valley and we are pretty sure that Charter Oak is (proudly) the smallest of the 500.

Charter Oak’s secret weapon: we press all our wine in the near-100-year-old wooden basket press, formerly used by Rob’s grandfather, Guido Ragghianti, who taught Rob how to make wine 25 years ago.

We make all our wines (about 750 cases per year total) by hand, the old-fashioned way. Which explains why our Zinfandels and Petite Sirahs have a silken texture and an elegant balance, not typically found in these varietal wines.

Jim and Rob clown around (as usual). Our motto: “If you don’t have fun making wine, stay out of the cellar!”

To make an appointment to visit Charter Oak, call Rob at 707-963-2298. Rob says that if you mention you read this story in napaman, you’ll receive a 10% case discount. See, it pays to read napaman!

What we Drank at Dinner Last Night....

.... major yum all of it.

But the hands-down favorite of the dinner group was the 1991 Philip Togni Cabernet from Spring Mountain.

Philip has told me in the past that his 1991 oeuvre may be the single best wine he's ever made, even better than his legendary 1969 Chapellet!! (You can read about THAT experience at the following URL)

http://www.napaman.com/napamancom/2007/05/1969_chappellet.html

Her Fruits & Vegetables are the Best, even out of Season!

 Lisa Livoni, watercolorist

Let’s get potential conflict of interest charges out of the way:

I know Lisa Livoni.

I have purchased her gorgeous watercolors and love them.

I think she is one of the most talented watercolorists in Napa Valley.

And one more thing: I worked with Lisa last year in a common endeavor, a project called Local Color, in which we tried to get Napa Valley restaurants and wineries to buy her stunning, interpretative art.

Now, the general, art-loving, art-buying public will have a chance to acquire some of her newest paintings. Lisa’s colorful watercolors – mostly of fruits, vegetables, and flowers – are on view at Whiting Nursery, in St. Helena, from today through September 30. The show is called “A Brush in the Garden.”

For the first time ever, Lisa has produced large format paintings, some in the 3- x 4-foot range, significantly larger than the postcard- and letter-sized watercolor paintings, for which she is known.

“Marsha's Inspiration,” 34" x 47"  

“Painting is a very physical thing to me,” says Lisa. “This new larger size let’s me explore how I truly feel about what I am painting… and let’s me revel in my love of color.  I should have moved to the larger painting format sooner, but art is a personal, evolutionary process and I just wasn’t there.” 

"Red Flag," 34"x 47"

As she loves to garden, Lisa has turned to this theme for the watercolors in this exhibition. The words “joyful,” “colorful,” and “fresh” come to mind when viewing the collection.

Where’d she develop her sense of color and her near-compulsion to paint?

“I developed a serious interest in art as a child and feel that my earliest creative influences came from extensive family travel at a young age. This included three years of living in Japan.”

“Anne's Artichoke,” 34"x 47"

After graduating from the California College of Art, Lisa worked as a graphic designer for 23 years. Then, after designing some of California’s most iconic wine labels, she decided to become a fulltime, professional painter, which she has been for the last 10 years.

Lisa’s watercolor images have been exhibited at the I. Wolk Gallery, in Napa Valley, at the William Zimmer Gallery in Mendocino, in the Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, and at the Napa Valley Museum, Yountville.

“Quince,” 40"x 35"

Images in the Whiting exhibit range in price from $300 to $5,000 per watercolor.

A reception for Lisa will be held Saturday, July 3, at Whiting Nursery, from 2 to 4 pm. Napaman readers are invited – see you there.

Whiting Nursery is at 738 Main St, St. Helena, corner of Charter Oak Ave. Open Mon. through Sat. 8:30 am to 5 pm, and Sundays 9 am to 5 pm. For information, call 707-963-5358.

Lisa Livoni

If you are visiting St. Helena and are not familiar with the local restaurant scene, be sure to stop at the best restaurant on Charter Oak Avenue, just across the street from Whiting Nursery.

I’m speaking about Tra Vigne, one of the valley’s landmark restaurants. The food, Italian by theme, has never been better here, thanks to the attentive touch of executive chef Nash Cognetti. For a reservation, call 707-963-4444. Tra Vigne, corner Charter Oak Avenue and Highway 29/Main St., St. Helena.

Jimmy Dean – Gone, perhaps, but not Forgotten

What’s Jimmy Dean, the singer and sausage maker, who died yesterday at the age of 81, got to do with Napa Valley?

Absolutely nothin’.

But as I had a personal connection with the singer-sausagemaker, for the sake of history, and accuracy, I need to share my story here.

(Dean is remembered for several things; certainly for his hit single, "Big Bad John," and for his TV program, "The Jimmy Dean Show," which was popular in the 1950s and early 60s. In later years, Dean became synonymous with the sausage company he started.)   

In 1985, while working at Loblaws, Canada’s foremost supermarket chain, where I was responsible for the development of the line of premium-quality, President’s Choice products, I was asked to join a meeting with Jimmy Dean; one of our corporate senior vice presidents wanted to get the rights to make Jimmy Dean Sausage in Canada at a meat processing facility, which the supermarket chain owned, called Z&W.

Brian Davidson, the roly-poly, always chipper VP worked hard to get Jimmy D. to come to Toronto for the meeting. Brian was always a Big Picture Guy, buying and selling companies and brands to enhance the Loblaws portfolio. (In his time, Brian bought and sold Weight Watchers twice, he tried hard to buy Boboli, he opened the door to eventually buy Thomas’ English Muffins… and he SO wanted to own the Jimmy Dean Sausage brand for Canada. Hence the importance of the meeting he set up with Jimmy D.)

The meeting was held in the shag-carpeted, window-lined, eighth floor office of the President of Loblaw International Merchants, Dave Nichol, who was a tall, imperious leader, admired nationwide for his marketing bravado. (I suggested naming the line of upscale products we set out to produce “President’s Choice,” specifically because Dave was already so well known as the on-air presence for the supermarket.)

Present at the meeting: Brian, Dave, Jimmy Dean and me.

Brian walked Jimmy Dean into the room and I noted that the Texas singer was one of the few people I’ve ever met who was head’s taller than Nichol.

Jimmy Dean wore a ring that was larger than a Las Vegas poker chip, shaped like the state of Texas, stuffed with dozens of sparkly diamonds.

He mentioned that he had come the last little distance to Toronto in his large yacht, and that he was in a hurry to get back on his boat. This was the sum of our chitter-chatter pleasantries. We got down to business quickly. Nichol didn’t like idle chatter, and you could tell that Jimmy D. didn’t either.

The meeting got off on the wrong foot, you might say; Jimmy D. leaned back in his expensive black leather, swivel chair putting his cowboy boots smack square on Nichol’s ultra-clean, 12-foot-long, glass conference table. No one had ever offended Nichol in his private lair like this. I could sense his hackles rise. Jimmy D. picked up on Nichol’s cue but didn’t say a word.

Nichol started badgering Dean with a barrage of questions, the kinds of things he would ask of any potential supplier, but he delivered them with his rapier sword intellect, much as he had learned to do as a lawyer.

“What parts of the animal do you use for your sausage?”

“How much fat do your sausages contain?”

“Where did you get the recipe for your sausages?”

“What spices do you use?”

Dean answered the first few questions kindly, then started to answer the remainder almost belligerently. You could tell the meeting wasn’t going well. But I had no idea how not-well it was going until Nichol pushed the sausage king.

“How many employees do you have?”

“How many varieties do you make?”

“Where’s your primary factory located?”

This question was the proverbial last-straw for Dean, who was not used to being interrogated as though subpoenaed by the House on Un-American Activities.

“Where’s your primary factory located?” Nichol repeated.

“Noneya,” Jimmy Dean replied.

“Noneya, Texas?” Nichol queried, rhetorically asking where this might be.

“No. Noneya fuckin’ business!” Dean replied. And with that, he got up, stood straight and tall, making his exit to the door and then ducked out, and under, the door frame.

Jimmy Dean – gone, perhaps, but not forgotten.

94574 – New Sauvignon Blanc named after Winecountry Zipcode…

… and like the post office, this wine delivers!

This posting has two conflicts of interest. I am hopeful that, as such, they cancel each other out, resulting in a balanced story.

For starters, the winemakers, Dave Berry and Henry Schlangen, are personal friends. They did not threaten me with bodily harm more than twice to say nice things about them.

Secondly, when Dave and Henry asked me what to name their new wine, I chaired three professional branding sessions and ultimately suggested the name, which they chose for their wine: 94574, the Zip Code for St. Helena, where the wine is produced.

For the record, they did not pay cash for my services and I am fearful that they forgot our handshake deal: I am due 50% of all future revenues.

  

By day, Dave Berry runs a steel business, and Henry Schlangen sells real estate, two professions, which don’t require a whole lot of passion to keep them afloat.

So the passion-seekers turned to a common pursuit, wine, and, two years ago, decided to produce Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay, two of their favorite beverages..

“Why dip your toe in the water when you can plunge in head first, not knowing – or caring – whether there are rocks or sharks in the water?” Dave asks rhetorically.

Henry Schlangen and Dave Berry, partners in 94574. When they’re not working on their wine project, Henry’s in real estate, David’s in the steel business.

So the pair bought into a 50-acre parcel along with a small group of investors; Dave and Henry get five tons of fresh, ripe, startling delicious Sauvignon Blanc from the San Mateo Ranch on Mee Lane, in Rutherford.

2009, their first vintage, was released Saturday at 750 Wines, on Adams St., in St. Helena. The stainless-steel fermented wine was barrel aged for a brief spell in neutral French oak and did not go through secondary (malolactic) fermentation.

Liz and Dave Berry are half the partner team of 94574. Genevieve, who is Henry’s wife, and Liz, above, are responsible for 94574 marketing and sales.

Here are my original tasting notes from my first bottle exposure to 94574:

Ahh, this is a striking, strident, Sauvignon Blanc with tons of character and joie.

The wine reminds me of a streaker running naked across a co-ed quad at a major northeastern university in the middle of winter; (A) because it can, and (B) because you can’t catch it.

Put another way: the taste and swallow, while ephemeral, linger in the mind for a long, long time, bringing smiles and a sense of prurient pleasure.

This wine has loads of personality. Look for a striking initial attack, then some fabulous, rich mid-palate fireworks, followed by a forceful, and delicious finish, which draws you back for more. 

Why don’t they make 32-ounce bottles of 94574? I must have had a short fill, because I found that I wanted more after my bottle was drained. 

My final tasting note may sound odd, but I detect honeysuckle, jonquils and even a hint of cumin on the end. And if YOU can’t taste it, don’t knock it – it's there!

392 cases produced. The wine retails for $18.

Genevieve and Henry Schlangen are the other half of the 94574 partner team. Genevieve works with Liz to promote sales.

Dave, Henry, Liz and Genevieve are keeping a low sales profile their first year in business. In addition to placing their wine at 750 Wines, 94574 is only on the shelf at Sunshine Foods Market in St. Helena.

As for restaurants, 94574 is being poured by the glass at Auberge du Soleil, which is one helluva coup for a frisky, first-year-out-of-the-gate wine. Good going, team!

Wanna know more about 94574? Be patient! As the 94574 web site isn’t ready for prime time, make note of it now for future reference: http://94574wine.com.

A Taste of Oakville – 41 times in a row!

Through these portals pass some of the finest wines… and today, some of the finest winemakers… in Oakville.

One of the valley’s highly sought, hard-to-get trade tickets is for the annual spring Taste of Oakville event, which brings together growers, winemakers, vineyard owners and the folks they’re all trying to reach – restaurant wine buyers, sommeliers, and retail wine merchants.

Napaman snagged a ticket and has the following commentary to share.

If the 2006 and 2007 mostly Cabernet Sauvignon-based wines poured today are any indication of things to come, the general wine-drinking public is in store for some mighty pleasurable drinking.

There wasn’t a dud among the 71 wines, poured by the 41 Oakville wineries on hand.

As I exited the event, held this year at the Robert Mondavi Winery, several colleagues approached, asking which were the standout wines, a typical reaction at this kind of tasting.

In truth, I no longer try to compare wines at this type of event; after tasting a few dozen wines, the only ones that stick out from the pack are aberrant wines, where the alcohol, or extraction, or oak, is so pronounced that the wine sticks out from the genuinely pretty, balanced, elegant wines.

Panelists who lead the morning MasterClass on “the commitment of ownership; From left to right, Paul Roberts, Estate Director, Bond, Ren Harris, owner Paradigm, Michael Weis, wine director, Groth, and Tom Garrett, winemaker, Detert Family Vineyards. The bowls in the foreground, filled with each winery’s respective soil, showed how soil composition changes across the appellation.

Oakville, at the epicenter of Napa Valley, is one of 15 valley sub-appellations. Oakville is a small-ish subsection but it carries a large and important historical mantle – it is where Robert Mondavi built his winery, shared his vision and created Napa Valley’s earliest and best wines, and on which the reputation of the entire valley was predicated.

Robert Mondavi Winery, site of this year’s Taste of Oakville event. Bob Mondavi would have been happy and proud of the number – and quality – of wines poured.

At the morning MasterClass, led by four of the appellation’s highly recognized wine producers (see photo with caption, above), we learned that global warming is here, it is hot and it has been scientifically recorded.

“Between 1960 and 2010 – that’s only 50 years – the average night time temperature in Oakville in the month of April, which used to be considered a cool month, has been documented by university scientists to have jumped 5.3 degrees Fahrenheit,” Ren Harris, of Paradigm, told the assembled group.

Them’s a lot of degrees over such a short period of time, in case you needed someone to interpret what Ren said.

Some 120 people were invited to the MasterClass session, which culminated in a tasting of four 2006 Oakville-made wines.

Several participants expressed concern about the higher degree of alcohol, which we’re seeing in many California wines today, due to higher levels of ripeness.

Paul Roberts, of Bond, answered this one: “I don’t want to appear as an ‘alcohol apologist’ but drinkers want freshness, brightness and minerality in their wine and when you make a wine with these characteristics in Napa Valley, you inherently get higher levels of alcohol.”

“Listen,” he continued, “when you look at some of the great old-world wines from Chateauneuf-du-Pape, there is so much complexity and minerality that the higher levels of alcohol – sometimes in the 16.6 range – are hidden. We don’t hear wine drinkers or wine writers railing against these wines; why do they single out California, or new world, wines for their sometimes elevated levels?”

“Our job is to make the best wine we can from the grapes we nurture and source; it is not to make a lower alcohol wine at the expense of diminished flavor, freshness, or minerality.”

Amen. I’m not gonna argue with this guy.

After the MasterClass, guests were joined by about 450 members of the wine trade in the Robert Mondavi barrel room. Way too many people for such a confined, narrow, angular space. That’s Bill Harlan, of Harlan Estate, in the foreground, and a multitude of glass-carrying, wine-seeking, pushing and shoving industry revelers in the background.

After the morning MasterClass, and after a sensational luncheon in Mondavi’s Vintage Room, guests re-assembled in the winery’s barrel room to taste through the wines poured by 41 wineries. 

Brothers John and Tom Garrett, respectively responsible for marketing/sales and for winemaking at their family’s Detert Family Vineyards. I’m surprised the brothers fit into this small space – these guys define TALL… in fact, when their feet are planted on the ground in Oakville, their cropped heads belong in another appellation with the hillside attributes of a cooler climate.

Estate Director, Paul Roberts, pours two of his 2006 Bond wines for the swelling crowd of professional tasters.

Upper tier of the Modavi barrel room, where the Taste of Oakville was held.

If you’re interested in learning more about the wines of Oakville, log onto www.oakvillewnegrowers.com

Swanson… this Renaissance Winery is making Renaissance Merlot

What do you do when you’ve been making great Napa Valley wine for 25 years but want to turn up the heat? You hire new talent and make even better wine!

At least that’s what Clarke Swanson Jr. has done at his eponymous winery in beautiful downtown Rutherford, population 450.

Clarke Swanson Jr. If the name rings a bell, it should, His granddaddy started Swanson TV Dinners and his father and uncle sold it nearly 50 years ago to Campbell’s.

As a neighbor of Swanson Vineyards, I have been to the property numerous times, but welcomed an invitation this week to spend a morning with winemaker Chris Phelps and owner Clarke Swanson Jr., along with a small coterie of local wine writers.

There wasn’t a real agenda to the get-together, other than to present us current wines and give us a sneak preview of the Swanson Sip Shoppe, a slightly less formal, retail room that is opening this summer next to the famed Swanson Salon, where by-appointment guests may enjoy Swanson wines paired with different foods.

For the record, the food pairings here are as friendly as the staff; no one goes home without a smile, and oh yes, purple teeth.

Winemaker Chris Phelps speaks with a small group of wine writers, assembled in the elegant Swanson Salon.

Winemaker Chris Phelps, who has been at Swanson seven years, is largely responsible for shaking up the winemaking practice. But then, you’d expect this from a wineman trained at U.C. Davis, as well as the University of Bordeaux and who then worked at Chateau Petrus, Dominus (Petrus’ Yountville property), then at Caymus, in Napa Valley.

Winemaker Chris Phelps 

Napaman Tip One

Chris is making a fabulous Pinot Grigio that is one of the most refreshing Napa Valley white wines that I have tasted in a long time. The fruit is a blend of Oakville, Oak Knoll, Carneros and even some Santa Barbara fruit, seamlessly blended in stainless steel. Read my lips: NO WOOD. The resulting wine is d-e-l-i- c-i-o-u-s, suggestive of spring flowers It would go extremely well with seameats, and has a lovely creamy finish. 91 points.

 

Napaman Tip Two

Are you looking for a way to recall which were the good recent vintages in Napa Valley? Let’s eavesdrop on Chris Phelps:

“’05, ’07 and ’09 were like Bordeaux vintages; we had longer, cooler growing seasons. The fruit had longer ‘hang time’ and the phenolics were allowed to fully develop. These are superior vintages across Napa Valley, if one can generalize.”

Salonnier, Shawn Quick LaRue, takes us on a sneak preview of the soon-to-open Swanson Sip Shoppe, a new ‘wing” on the winery.

Napaman Tip Three

The Merlot at Swanson is better than it has ever been. Merlot has been, since 1987, the bread and butter grape at Swanson. In fact, Swanson is the largest producer of Merlot in the Oakville Appellation and Chris suspects that Swanson may actually produce more estate Merlot than any other winery in Napa Valley.

I tasted the ’05, ’06. ’07 and ’08 (from barrel) Swanson Merlots and they just keep getting better.

As the 2005 Swanson Merlot contains 14 percent Syrah, the wine has a slightly herbaceous, purple-y nose, though it does exhibit lovely balance and textural elegance. 91 points.

The 2006 Swanson Merlot has more floral and cherry notes, and appears to be a softer wine. Possibly due to the absence of Syrah? Another solid 91 pointer.

The 2007 and 2008 Swanson Merlots are each a dinner winner, though exhibiting younger flavors and texture than any of the siblings above. But these wines will come around nicely in a few years. 91 points for each vintage.

Each of the Swanson Merlots retails for $36.

 

Napaman Tip Four

But it’s what Chris Phelps has done to the flagship wine, Alexis (named after Clarke’s daughter) that is the most pronounced wine revival, or reversal, here.

Alexis, first made in 1994, used to be a blend of Cabernet and Syrah. But Chris, who had some ‘splainin’ to do when he proposed removing the Syrah, has succeeded in producing some gorgeous wines.

2005 Swanson Alexis, which is 90 percent Cabernet, 10 percent Merlot, has scents and aromas far deeper than the color of this wine would suggest. Warm fruit aromas, gobs of spice, ripe fruit and lush richness. What a twist on “Napa Valley Cab”  – since it doesn’t taste as though it’s passed through the kidneys of a beaver. The wood is in HARMONY with the fruit. What a novel idea in a Napa Valley Cab. 93 points.

2006 Swanson Alexis. This wine’s composition is different; 81 percent Cab, 19 percent and the mixture shift is evident in the wine as it is softer, juicier, fleshier than the ’05. But still ‘loverly.’ 92 points.

2007 Swanson Alexis. Ahhh, this is the daddy! Wine of the month for napaman, a solid achievement, made with 90 percent Cab, and 10 percent Merlot. A stunningly good wine, delicious on the attack, right through to the swallow. There is a crème de cassis element in the middle palate. A fabulous, food friendly wine. 94 points.

Each of the Alexis wines retails for $75.

 

What has Chris done to cause these improvements?

“We are picking the fruit more ripe than we have in the past, but we are extremely aware of not letting the alcohol levels get out of check. Highly alcoholic wines are not refreshing.”

“For another thing, we’ve changed the level of toast on our barrels. We’ve cut way back, from heavy toast and toasted heads (the ends of the wooden barrels) to a medium toast.”

“We’ve also moved to screwcaps for our Pinot Grigio. No more corked wines.” (As far as napaman is concerned, Chris could move everything he makes, even age-worthy reds, to screwcap.)

It’s also evident that Swanson is engaging in some “alternate therapy” winemaking. Napaman spotted recent crop Merlot aging in small standard-sized, 225 liter barrels made of stainless steel, something I’ve not ever seen in a winery in this region.

Chris hinted that he’s conducting some ‘trials,” with them, but the nature of his short reply (so uncharacteristic of him!) leads me to believe that Swanson is experimenting. Which is a good thing, always the sign of a smart producer who refuses to accept commonplace methodology in an effort to improve the quality of core products.

To learn more about Swanson wines, go to www.swansonvineyards.com or call to make an appointment to visit the winery, 707-944-0905. To make an appointment to visit The Salon or The Sip Shoppe, call 967-3500.

Mission Implausable: Hunting for Mushrooms in Napa Valley

On a Mushroom Hunt in Napa Valley! (Yes, intentionally blacked out – read on.)

My friend Tom Scheibal, who is a local artist, is an ardent mushroom forager.

Over a dinner of fresh chanterelles, which he had just foraged, I asked Tom if I might accompany him on his next chanterelle hunt. His one requisite was that I be blindfolded so that I would not learn where in the deep forest his favorite patch of chanterelles grow – a patch he’s been foraging for 15 years. Hence the shot above – that’s me walking through the forest with a bandana tied across my eyes, on our way to the patch, north of Calistoga.

Mushroom hunting we go! Tom carries a woven, wooden basket in which he will protect his hope-to-be-found treasures… while I wear a blindfold!

After recent, late winter rains, Tom has been picking chanterelles as though he were cropping tomatoes from his organic garden in summer; they’ve been growing like topsy on the wet forest floor. In fact, on his most recent field trip, Tom picked 15 pounds of golden chanterelles (Cantharella cibarius, in case you are taxonomically inquisitive).

He brought them home and his wife, Linda, who is a talented cook, sautéed them lightly in butter, then tossed them with some buttered, egg tagliatelle she had just hand-made. The dish was ethereal, exquisite, light and delicate.

That was the moment, over that plate of pasta, that I asked Tom if I might join him on his next mushroom hunt.

For the record: There are something like 10,000 species of mushrooms in North America, only 250 of which are edible.

“Aha! I think I found one!” says Tom on our field trip into the forest. No, we didn’t see Goldilocks, the Three Bears, or Little Red Riding Hood in the forest, but we sure did find mushrooms.

He was right again!

 

The day's haul.

In case you knew, but have forgotten: a mushroom is a fungus (from the Greek word sphongos, meaning ‘sponge’), not a plant. As such, mushrooms contain no chlorophyll and produce spores instead of seeds. They survive by feeding off other organic matter – the ultimate ‘sponge,’ indeed!

I’m not sure that I would call Tom a mycologist, the word for a fungi expert, but he is certainly a mycophile, someone whose passionate hobby is to hunt edible wild mushrooms.

You aren’t likely to ever taste Tom’s handwork in the forest… we’ve eaten up all the chanterelles he gathered this week, but you can see his latest handiwork this coming weekend; his colorful Horse Head portraits are being exhibited at the Robert Mondavi Winery, starting Sunday March 14.

If you‘d like to attend the opening reception this Sunday, 2 to 4 pm, to meet Tom, sip Mondavi wine and enjoy a few hors d’oeuvres (don’t expect any chanterelles!), you must RSVP by phoning 707-968-2040, or send an email to karen.oneill@cwine.com, indicating how many are in your party.

See you there. But don't ask me where the chanterelles are to be found, because I haven't got a clue!

Unlike Olympic Athletes, Napa Valley Winemakers Don’t Wait 4 Years to Show Off Their Talents!

(This is Part 2 of a 3-part, on-going story about this weekend’s Premiere Napa Valley event. Check here Sunday for a recap of the weekend’s highlight, the Barrel Auction.)

 Oh the frenzy… of tasting 36 Cabernets and 36 Chardonnays before a late breakfast this morning…

While the world parses amateur sports achievements into four-year chunks, timed with the Olympics, Napa Valley winemakers seem to be on a roll, turning out Gold medal-worthy wines year after year.

In wine-speak, every Napa Valley vintage is an Olympian achievement!

And 500 American and international wholesalers, retailers and restaurant wine-buyers are here this weekend to prove the point. They are attending Premiere Napa Valley, an annual trade event hosted by Napa Valley Vintners.

Just this morning, for example, the Rudd Center at the Culinary Institute of America, St. Helena campus, hosted a Multi-Vintage Perspective tasting, to help these professional wine-buyers sort out the merits of three recent vintages.

 

A dozen Napa Valley Cabernets, and as many Chardonnays, were poured blind for the assembled trade guests. The Cabs were from the 2005, 2006 and 2007 vintages, while the Chardonnays were from the 2006, 2007 and 2008 vintages.

Swirl… sip… spit… 36 times for Cabernet… then repeat 36 times for Chardonnay…

In previous years, as many as three vintages of 20 different Cabernets were offered blind, but I always found this to be a bit corrosive on the palate; after 15 or 20 Cabs, it becomes progressively more difficult to identify nuances between wines, which are tasted blind and without food – not how they will be enjoyed by consumers. So I was pleased to see that Napa Valley Vintners had reduced the size of the Cabernet tasting this year – to 12 wineries, each of which offered their wines from three vintages, 2005, 2006, and 2007.

My personal favorites from the blind tasting

My two favorite Cabernets tasted blind were made by Etude and Pride Mountain.

I LOVED all three of the Etude offerings but scored the 2007 Etude highest.

This wine won’t be released until winter of 2011 – so put it on your future shopping list. It exhibits oozy fruit, surreal sweetness, a gorgeous middle palate and the finish goes on for a good 30 seconds.

If I wrote “wow” as many times on this page as I did in the column of my tasting notes for Pride Mountain’s three wines, you would think my adjectival arsenal was deficient.

I LOVED all three vintages of Pride Mountain’s wines, but scored top marks for the 2005 effort, which was silken, sensual, rich, regal, and royal. It was one of those wines which I did not want to sip and spit; I wanted to “rent” it for a while, so I returned to this wine for a final swill on my way out of the tasting.

My only issue with today’s session was the accepted practice of mixing bottles for the blind tasting. Each vintage of a particular wine was presented in a carafe; when the wine in the carafe was getting low, servers topped up each respective carafe with wine from the same vintage wine but from different bottles.

Everyone in the wine business knows that there are no great wines… there are just great bottles of wine. By mixing bottles – even of the same vintage -- in a common decanter, tasters are presented with a sort-of Lowest Common Denominator of the wine… the mélange can’t be better than the poorest bottle poured into the carafe.

Point in fact: when I went back to revisit the Pride Mountain 2005, I was obviously tasting from a different mixture of bottles; the overall pleasure was not as great as the experience I had had an hour earlier.

 Alder Yarrow, founder of vinography.com

Joining Premiere attendees at the tasting this morning were some of the wine writers who are holed up for several days at Meadowood for an annual Wine Writer’s Symposium.

One of the guest panelists who sauntered over for this morning’s tasting was Alder Yarrow, the ever-pleasant founder of vinography.com. I asked one of Alder’s peers how the writers’ session was going and he reported:

“All the senior writers keep emphasizing to the young bloggers how difficult it is to make a living writing about wine, especially in the blogosphere. I think all the young, idealistic wine bloggers leave each session more despondent than when they came in.”

Permit me to sum up: If there is one thing more difficult than making money from selling wine these days, it’s making money from writing about wine.

(Just ask napaman; this site is a not-for-profit exercise in unbridled passion; I write about things, which excite me, and that’s my entire business plan in a seven-word sentence.)

And then it was Noon…

Ma(i)sonry, called “a living gallery,” by owner Michael Polenske

Out-of-town guests and wine writers were offered a choice of more than 40 lunches, tastings, and appellation events this weekend as part of Premiere festivities.

 For lunch today, I opted to visit Ma(i)sonry, a luxury art, design and wine center in Yountville, owned by Michael Polenske. It also happens to be home to Michael’s Blackbird wines, as well as a collective for a dozen other wines, which are poured on site.

 

Located in an historic 1904 stone building, Ma(i)sonry is a highly stylized, very personal reflection of Michael Polenske’s tastes. Michael developed his tastes by hanging out with the best of the best; prior to becoming CEO of Chase Manhattan Bank & Trust Co., N.A., Michael was an investment manager for high-net-worth individuals in Silicon Valley. Call this a significant kick-start in learning what constitutes collectable art.

Michael named his Yountville venture Ma(i)sonry, chosing to design it with those pesky, pain-in-the-ass, parentheses around the letter “i.”

Michael Polenske, founder of Ma(i)sonry and (a bust of) Einstein. It’s harder to say which of these guys is smarter – Polenske’s pretty bright…  and  he, at least, had the smarts to move to Napa Valley, one-up-man-ship over Einstein, if you ask me.

“’Ma(i)sonry’ is a made-up word, “says the art center’s general manager, Michael Earls. “’Maison’ in French means ‘house,” and ‘masonry’ relates to a “stone building, both of which this place is.”

A casual, intimate luncheon for 19, served in the loft at Ma(i)sonry. Blackbird winemaker  Aaron Pott stands at center, describing the wines he has chosen to serve with the different courses.

Guests at Ma(i)sonry were treated to a three-course meal, ably prepared by chef Taylor Mason. I’m surprised they didn’t make him put an “i” inside parentheses in his family name to get the job.

Is it just me, or does Aaron Pott, Blackbird winemaker, look like Quentin Tarantino in this shot?

The wines served were all made by Blackbird winemaker Aaron Pott. I was knocked out by the clarity, focus, sensuality, silkiness and lingering flavors of each of the wines presented.

 While ALL the red wines served at lunch were serious, 92-95 scoring wines, my favorite red of the meal was Blackbird Illustration, which is 70% Merlot (Polenske’s favorite grape), 20% Cab Franc, and 5% each of Cab Sauvignon and Malbec. French winemakers in Bordeaux should be so happy to have a wine as good, made with these right-bank fruits! FYI: Aaron was winemaker for a period at the excellent house Troplong-Mondot. When this guy cuts himself, he bleeds wine…

In many respects the luncheon took me back to an era – the early 1980’s – when Napa Valley wineries regularly hosted guests with this kind of food and culture, set in exquisite surroundings.

Congratulations – and thanks -- to both Michaels (Polenske & Earls), and to Taylor and Aaron for staging such a casual, but classy, luncheon.

The luncheon’s first course, a bouquet of tiny potato gnocchi, each lighter than a butterfly, tossed with Thumbelina carrots and green cauliflower florets.

What a tremendous dish; a platform of Yukon Gold potato puree, Maitake mushrooms and veal jus, topped with a single ravioli filled with a forcemeat of short rib snippets and Swiss chard, the entire creation crowned with a medallion of pinkly roasted ribeye. Polenske should make ceramic versions of this artwork and sell them as desk paperweights – they’re as eye-appealing as they were tasty.

Guests were also served a one-of-a-kind 2008 Merlot/Cab blend, which will be poured tomorrow and offered as a 5-case lot at the Premiere Barrel Auction. It, too, was a stunning revelation of violets, blackberry, and suede-textured plum.

In addition to tasting, or being able to purchase Blackbird and Ma(i)sonry brand wines at Ma(i)sonry, visitors can taste, or purchase, wines from these other area wineries:

Brown Estate – Chiles Valley, Napa Valley

Husic Vineyards – Perched above Stags Leap, Napa Valley

Juslyn Vineyards – Spring Mountain, Napa Valley

Lail Vineyards – Napa Valley

L’Angevin Wines – Sonoma County

Pedras Wine Company – Stags Leap District, Napa Valley

Peirson Meyer- Sonoma Coast and Napa Valley

Renteria Wines – Napa Valley, Russian River, Sonoma Coast

Rivera Vineyards- Atlas Peak

Skipstone- Alexander Valley

Tamber Bey- Napa Valley

Tor Kenward Family Wines – Napa and Sonoma County

Uvaggio – California

When you visit Napa Valley and seek relief from the nearly 500 wineries which mostly only serve wine, consider a pit stop at Ma(i)sonry – where you can stroll outdoors while you sip any of 14 different brands of wine, and take in some wonderfully inventive art.

6711 Washington St., Yountville, CA, 94559. Tel: 707-944-0889. For more details, go to www.maisonry.com

Model Bakery - One of Napaman’s Top 100 Napa Valley Attractions

  

St. Helena, a small community of 6,000 souls, is a one-main-street, two-block town, proud of its past, and insecure about its future.

While local townships boosted their public room occupancy and encouraged tourism, St. Helena, for a long time, went against the grain, even fought it. Town fathers reveled in the past and just haven’t wanted to do much about the present, or the future.

Town ordinances prevent the arrival of chain restaurants, or large department stores, and Main Street businesses must be owned by locals.

The upside of this finger-in-the-dike mentality has meant that small local businesses thrive, often delivering food, products, or services, which are better than what you’ll find in many large urban American cities.

Take The Model Bakery for example. It’s an original, modest, locally owned bakery, producing breads that rival the best artisanal breads made in America.

The bakery has been part of the St. Helena scene for more than 80 years. Bakers today still use the original brick ovens built by Italian masons in the early 1920s.

This year, The Model Bakery celebrated its 25^th anniversary of ownership by the Mitchell family.

Like everything in St. Helena, The Model Bakery has an old-time feel. All the breads, pastries and cakes are baked by a team of dedicated, trained bakers who are supervised by the owners, a dynamic mother and  daughter duo.

Karen Mitchell, is the mom, and her daughter is Sarah and together they oversee the production of wonderful, rustic loaves, and fancy pastries, too. I love their sourdough breads, including a Pain au Levain, which gives Acme’s superb Pain au Levain, a run for its money. I love their batards, too, as well as their morning pastries, sticky buns included.

Karen says that the most requested baked items are iced cookies, made for special holidays and occasions.

“We make 50,000 of these cookies by hand each year,” she says. “ This means that over 25 years, we’ve made more than 1.25 million of these cookies – and every single one of them was made on premises, by hand, and by a local!”

They serve Peet’s coffee at Model Bakery, and serve a pizza-of-the-day and delicious garden salads for lunch.

There’s now a second location of The Model Bakery – adjacent to the Oxbow Public Market in downtown Napa – but a visit to the valley is not complete without at least one visit, or one breakfast, to The Model Bakery in St. Helena.

Model Bakery, 1357 Main St., St. Helena, CA, 94574. Tel. 707-963-8192, or learn more at www.themodelbakery.com.

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rutherford’s New Cathedral of Wine; Pray … That You Can Get In!

There’s a new, ornate cathedral in the tiny hamlet of Rutherford, at the epicenter of Napa Valley. It’s lined with Italian marble and lit by Murano-style, Venetian chandeliers.

To set the record straight: it’s not a religious cathedral. It’s a Cathedral of Wine – where you go to worship innovative winemaking.

The recently opened Del Dotto Estate Winery and Caves, on Highway 29 near Zinfandel Lane, is a shrine to wine, envisioned and built by Dave Del Dotto, who traces his family’s heritage back to the 1150’s in Venice.

The wine, which Dave makes, is likely far better than what his forebears drank 850 years ago in Venice, but still, Dave wanted to capture elements of his ancestry, so he spent millions to build a Venetian-inspired winery on a 17-acre parcel, which he had acquired 20 years earlier.

“This is the most educational wine tour I’ve ever taken!” exclaims an Hawaiian-born guest on my Del Dotto tour, who eagerly lapped up the wine lore of our knowledgeable guide, Bob Groff.

“It’s SO worth the $50 fee,” said a man on our tour. “An hour in the cave is like going on a vacation!”

Well, that’s one way of describing the tour through the darkly lit cave, constructed out of stone from quarries and old homes in Italy.

Bob Groff, tour leader, long time friend and cohort of Dave Del Dotto, with whom he has worked 20 years.

“We brought 100 containers of stone, marble and ceramics from Italy,” says tour guide Groff. To make the vaulted roof of the cave, for example, they brought over 40,000 well-worn bricks, taken from old buildings. Stonemasons from Italy spent months, carefully chunking the bricks into place in the cave roof.

The detail in the floors and ceilings of the salon and even in the cave induce one’s jaw to drop.

Floor details are exquisite.

Part of the experience here is disorienting; you just don’t expect to find such ornate, Italian touches in a winery in the middle of Napa Valley.

There is also an element of Disneyland about the visit. Four, or five, small groups are led through the cave simultaneously and there is an air of excitement as you “thieve” the barrels, hunting down new, and different, flavor hits.

On the average tour, guests taste wine from eight to 12 barrels. At Del Dotto, ALL wine is aged in 100 percent new oak. As well, all the fruit is organic, it’s all hand-picked, all hand-sorted and only free-run juice is used to make wine.

Dave believes that what changes wine, hastens its maturation, or alters its taste, is a series of things in the winemaker’s toolbox.

As a consequence, Del Dotto makes more than 350 different Cabernets! Many Cabs are in lots as small as two barrels (48 cases).

The Del Dotto caves on the estate property in Rutherford.

There are many permutations to achieve this diversity. At Del Dotto, they age wine in different woods; you may taste, and buy, wines aged in French Oak, or American oak. The level of toast is varied, too. You can have wine aged with a heavy toast, a medium toast, or a light toast.

Then they get really experimental. They have routed U-shaped ridges on the inside of some barrels to expose the wine to more wood surface area, increasing the tannic structure of the wine. Then, to really push the limits, they invented a V-groove, carved deeply into the staves of some barrels, exposing the wine to even more wood.

They experiment with yeasts here, too, Visitors can taste wines made with any of five different natural yeasts.

On reflection, the place is really like one giant wine experiment. You can have your Cab any way you like it; they put visitors into the winemaker’s seat, enabling guests to mix-and-match wines, which they personally like. It sure beats chasing someone else’s ratings to identify wines that you might like.

On my tour, we started by tasting a Cabernet that was aging in a barrel whose oak came from central France. We sipped, slurped and swallowed. Then we walked 10 yards to another barrel; Bob, our guide, inserted his thief (a glass syringe used to “steal” wine from the barrel – hence a “thief”) and filled our glasses with wine that was aging in a barrel made from the of oak of nine different French forests! Although it was the same Cabernet, the wine tasted completely different, modified by the many types of oak with which it had been in contact for a year.

In this fashion, we tasted nearly a dozen different wines – most of them starting out as the same supple Cabernet.

In total, production at Del Dotto is about 10,000 cases, but very few are identical. As you can see, on purpose.

The reception area, overlooking a marble-columned courtyard/salon where you taste bottled wine with cured meats and cheese, after your cave tour.

Dave Del Dotto made his money in real estate and TV infomercials. His sense of educating – and motivating – the public to buy wine isn’t a whole lot different than moving them to buy real estate.

By presenting visitors with many different wines to taste – all made with the same starter Cabernet -- Dave gets guests to identify their own tastes. Essentially, he is enabling guests to customize their own bottles.

Many visitors choose one, or two, bottles aged with a specific oak, or level of toast, and choose other bottles aged in different woods. In this manner, many visitors fill a case, with different customized wines.

Readers may have visited the Del Dotto caves on Atlas Peak Road, and may have read what I wrote about my visit to that winemaking facility years ago.
(Go to http://www.ilovenapa.com/favorite_dark.shtml ) Dave moved into these caves years ago, while he was building his Rutherford dream cathedral.

Dave told napaman that he intends to stay in the Atlas Peak facility for the next two years and may renew his lease on that property when it comes up for renewal.

The indefatigable entrepreneur, Dave Del Dotto, who has just announced plans to build a third winery in Napa Valley. Slow down, Dave – you’ll soon have as many wineries as Steve Martin has had guest appearances on Saturday Night Live (15)!

In addition to finishing his new winery in Rutherford, and starting to plan another in Yountville, Dave has been busy buying land on which to grow grapes.

Today, Del Dotto owns more than 400 acres in Napa and Sonoma counties, of which 96 are planted. Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Sangiovese are planted.

The fruit comes from five different estate vineyards, the largest of which is Cinghiale (which means ‘wild boar’ in Italian) Vineyard, on the crown of a ridge on the Sonoma Coast, overlooking the Pacific Ocean. This is Del Dotto’s source of Pinot Noir and some Chardonnay.

The salon area of the winery – where you enjoy camaraderie and bottled wine after your cave tour.

After the cave tour, your guide hosts a tasting in the salon, where you are served a plate of charcuterie and cheeses plus house-made pizza. You are also served some terrific examples of Del Dotto’s bottled wines, and if you pass the final exam (just kidding), you are also served house Port, made from Del Dotto’s pressed wine.

During my visit, Dave revealed that he would like to develop a third winery in the valley – on a plot across from Mustards Grill, in Yountville. Dave bought the 13-acre site, which used to be a strawberry patch, and plans to convert it into a “Pompeii-style winery” at which all wines will be fermented and aged in clay vessels – “the way they made wine 2,000 years ago,” says Dave.

According to tour leader Bob Groff, who is wine historian, the term amphora, referring to the clay vessels which have two handles and are used to store liquids, seeds, grain, even wine, actually means “carried by two men.” Hence the reason there are two handles on the newly released bottles of Del Dotto wines aged in clay amphorae.

Yes, it sounds crazy, but for the past two years, Dave has been studying this historic style of winemaking and has been making some tasty Zinfandels and Cabernets, which have been fermented, and aged, in clay.

It’s a known fact that fermenting in vessels interred in the ground keeps the fermenting juices cool, which promotes color and flavor extraction, and aging in clay, or slightly porous material, also helps improve a wine.

Some of my favorite Chateauneufs du Pape are fermented in large cement vessels. And one of my recent favorite Napa Valley Cabs – from Ovid on Pritchard Hill – is fermented in cement. So Dave just may be on to something when he launches an entire series of wines that are fermented and aged in clay.

As making money is as much a rush to Dave as making wine, the Yountmill property is actually on the market with a $12.5 million price tag.

“If we sell it, we’ll make our clay-fermented wines at Del Dotto,” says tour guide Groff. “If we don’t sell it, we’ll move the clay operation to the new location.” Either way, we’re making clay-aged wines.”

To experience Del Dotto Estate and Caves, be sure to leave a good two-hour window in your day. This is not a winery to visit when you’re doing four in a row. This is an eye-opening, one-of-a-kind experience that requires your full time and attention. It’s like one of Dave’s infomercials – it’s in your face and likely to change your thinking.

Del Dotto Estate Winery & Caves, 1445 St. Helena Highway South, St. Helena, CA, 94574. Visits by appointment only. The cave barrel tasting tours are staggered throughout the day, but usually depart the reception area at 11 am, 1 pm and 3 pm. On weekends and holidays, additional tours are offered at 11:30 am, 1:30 pm and 3:30 pm Tel: 707-963-2134.

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?

Veni, vidi, spiti (I came… I saw… I spit)*

* With apologies to Julius Caesar, who is best known for his Latin conjugations and for his salad dressing; in 47 BC, the Emperor reputedly said “Veni, vidi vici,” wishing to say “I came, I saw, I conquered.” Unfortunately, English hadn’t yet been invented, so who knows what he really said.

About one-hundred wine writers, wine educators, sommeliers, and earnest wine geeks descended on the Rudd Center at the CIA (Culinary Institute of America), in St. Helena, this morning to taste, swirl and spit through a sampling of 60 different Napa Valley Cab-based wines.

The tasting was part of a weekend wine package – Napa Valley is abuzz with wine activities: out-of-town wine writers are on hand for the Symposium for Professional Wine Writers, and the CIA is getting gussied up for tomorrow’s annual Premiere Napa Valley barrel auction, which is only open to members of the wine trade.

To keep assembled guest’s tongues flapping, the Napa Valley Vintners decided to host a tasting of local wines. Their professional panel tasted a large universe of 2004, 2005 and 2006 wines from area producers, narrowing the selection down to 20 producers for today’s tasting.

Guests were asked to taste the 60 wines blind (three wines from each producer – their 2004, 2005 and 2006 offerings). No prices were mentioned, no appellations were identified. All tasters had to go on was their palate, and a few water crackers to soak up the excess alcohol.

The wines presented were priced, on release, in a range from $35 to $132. As one discovers in so many blind tastings, price often has nothing to do with quality, despite the marketing attempts of wine producers to the contrary.

My top four favorite wines in the blind tasting were priced across the board, despite the fact that I scored each of them identically with 93 points. Though I must be developing an affinity for higher priced wines; my favorites this year were in the upper tier of pricing. In tastings past, I have often discovered a $45 gem in a pack of $175 wines. This was not the case today.

Napa Valley Vintners

I salute the Napa Valley Vintners for organizing this educational event, but points were lost on execution:

For one thing, chlorinated water was served for rinsing our stemware. The mere introduction of chlorine into any wine-tasting experience is a serious No-No.

The other observation: all 60 wines had been poured into decanters, which were identified by number only. When a decanter was running low on wine (guests poured for themselves), the very pleasant, and attentive, staff topped up the decanters with wine from new, masked bottles of the same wine and vintage. But this essentially dumbs down the best expression of any wine. The solera system, used to make sherry, is NOT an appropriate method for tasting wines blind. Let me explain.

Given: no two bottles of wine are really alike. You can have really great bottles and really good bottles and sometimes even clunker bottles of the very same wine from the very same lot.

When you mix two bottles, the sum cannot ever be superior than the better of the two bottles. If one bottle is compromised it will dumb down the better bottle. So by topping up the decanters of wine, mixing together two, or three, or even four bottles of a vintage… this can only produce a tasting experience that is less than the best single bottle that might have been tasted blind.

In fact, wine writers often go back in a blind tasting to taste a wine again from a different bottle just to learn if there is significant bottle variation. The hosts of this morning’s tasting did no wine justice by blending different bottles of the same wine in the serving decanters.

I tasted through 60 wines and scored them for color, aroma, mouthfeel, attack, intensity, balance, perceived level of alcohol, food friendliness and overall pleasure output.

For the purposes of this report, I will comment on my top four wines, each which scored 93 points. If you find them in the marketplace, trust me, they are luscious, the winemaking is serious, the pedigree is solid. These are keepers!

In alphabetical order, my four top wines, tasted blind, and each scoring 93 points:

2004 Darioush Signature Cabernet Sauvignon
Bright fruit on the attack with a delicious coffee undertow. Beautiful balance, really a delicious wine. Makes me want to run home and grill some lamb chops to serve with the remaining wine in the decanter.
A blend of 83% Cabernet, 9% Merlot, 5% Cab Franc, 2% Malbec and 1% Petit Verdot. $80 on release.

2004 Jones Family Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon
This is a BIG wine, with a lot of oak still evident on the attack; but there is a gorgeous, silken mouthfeel that comes into play in the middle palate; there is also smoke, chocolate and a very long finish. If this wine were a Broadway play, it would be Phantom of the Opera. It is showy, but you leave the experience humming the main chords and think what a great time you’ve had.
A blend of 98% Cabernet and 2% Cab Franc with Petit Verdot. $80 on release.

2004 Pillar Rock, Cabernet Sauvignon, Stags Leap District
I am not as familiar with Pillar Rock as I obviously ought to be; first time I’ve tasted it blind anywhere and what a discovery! Great fruit on the nose and a rush of fruit on the palate. Perfect extraction, great length, lots of smoky middle notes, and a generous, silken middle portion that is as much about texture as it is about taste. Bravo! $125 on release.

2004 Spottswoode Cabernet Sauvignon
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways: by the attack, by the middle palate, by the finish. My tasting notes conclude: “A tremendous wine!” Coffee, toffee, rich ripe black fruits, all in wonderful balance. “This is an alluring wine” I noted on my tasting sheet. And fabulously food friendly.
97% Cabernet and 3% Cab Franc. $125 on release.

A wine writer’s observation

What is interesting about my top-scoring wines: they were all from the 2004 vintage from these four producers. I am not surprised; I like older wines, find it harder to judge, or quantify, really young wines, which are often filled with young wood, and which tend to be more tannic and less food friendly.

For the purposes of education, here are my scores for the other two wines of each of these four Top of Class producers.

2005 Darioush Signature Cabernet, 92 points
2006 Darioush Signature Cabernet, 90 points

2005 Jones Family Vineyards Cabernet, 92 points
2006 Jones Family Vineyards Cabernet, 90 points

2005 Pillar Rock Cabernet, 92 points.
2006 Pillar Rock Cabernet, 91 points.

2005 Spottswoode Cabernet, 90 points (a heap o’ horse – brett, which put me off)
2006 Spottswoode Cabernet, 90 points (after learning this was the 06 Spottswoode (tasted blind), I would conclude that this was poured from an aberrant bottle; I have had the 06 before and it has shown much better. Lost points for bottle variation.)

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!

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.

Three Best Wines of 2008. So Far.

We open dozens of wines a week; some for review, which are supplied by wineries, and never fewer than seven to 10 bottles each week, which I have personally bought for our cellar.

I believe that almost all reds profit from 4 to 8 years of cellaring; it calms the nerve of the wine, brings balance to the eventual tasting, and introduces mature flavors.

At the current rate, we’ve probably opened and tasted 25 cases of wine this year.

Despite this volume of wine opened to the halfway mark of 2008, only three bottles jumped out at me, tweaked my nose, painted my palate and screamed, “Pay attention, I am a Perfect wine.”

Drum roll please… the three best wines to the half-year point stand out like giants at a dwarf convention. The winners at the half-year are, in alphabetical order:

2006 Aterberry Maresh Pinot Noir, White Rose Vineyard.
I could write a sonnet, a book, an encyclopedia about my love for this extravagant, balanced, elegant, mature, brilliant Pinot Noir from the Willamette Valley in Oregon. I learned about this wine at The Tasting Room, in Carleton, OR, during a May visit. I have opened many bottles in my home and every one gets a forehead-slapping, “I can’t believe how good this wine is” remark from Napa Valley winemakers, visitors, friends, and knowledgeable sommeliers for whom I pour it.
Available at The Tasting Room, Carleton, OR, at 503-852-6733.
Or speak with the young, talented winemaker Jim Arterberry Maresh, at 503-434-7689.

1997 Beringer Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon.
I have long respected Ed Sbragia’s work as wine director at Beringer and thought that his best-ever achievement (of many brilliant achievements) was his 2001 Beringer Private Reserve Cabernet.
But the 1997 vintage, which we opened this week for out-of-town visitors from Canada and England, was, to my mind, perhaps the single most compelling wine of Ed’s that I have ever tasted and a top-tier winner so far this year; it is rich, rich, rich (did I forget to say rich?) in complexity, flavor, and texture.
To be blunt: it is a textbook-perfect wine at this age and stage of evolution.
You may have read reports in Wine Spectator that the 1997 Napa Valley Cabs are beyond their prime, dried up, finished, kaput. Forget that nonsense. I have opened more than a dozen different 1997 Napa Valley Cabs this year from many different producers and they have been spectacular. In essence, don’t believe what you read, unless, of course, you read it here.
But not a one of the dozen or so 1997 Napa Valley Cabs, which we opened this year, stroked my palate the way Ed’s 1997 Beringer Private Reserve Cab did. A 100-pointer any way you look at it.
The 1997 Beringer Private Reserve Cabernet is occasionally available at www.winebid.com.

2001 Vieux Donjon, Chateauneuf du Pape
The only wine in my life of which I have drunk an entire case and rated every single bottle of the case a near-perfect wine was the 1990 Vieux Donjon. I LOVED THAT CASE.
I was apparently justified in my thinking about the 1990 Vieux Donjon; in a recent issue of Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate, he quoted sommelier Doug Mohr of Vidalia restaurant, in Washington D.C., who marveled that “the greatest wine he had ever tasted was the 1990 Vieux Donjon Chateauneuf du Pape.”
Gentlemen of the jury, I rest my case.
For dinner this week, to complement Carol’s perfectly prepared pappardelle with veal ragout (a variation of a Mario Batali recipe, only she did it better!), I opened the 2001 Vieux Donjon, which offered a near-duplicate experience of the 1990 vintage. Here was a wine of exceptional length, extraordinary quality. This is a perfect wine, a brilliant wine, elegant, rich, balanced. A 100-pointer. There was nothing missing, no flaws, only gemstone brilliance, bright mature fruit, terroir, minerality, and a finish that Burgundian producers would kill to have.
The 2001 Vieux Donjon is long gone from retailer shelves, but look for the 2005 and 2006 vintages, which are helluva good. This is a wine that will improve with age; I like to drink my CDPs (Chateauneufs-du-Pape) with not less than seven or eight years on them.

Silenus: Once a wine sot… now a hot wine spot!

 
If you’re down a quart on wine mythology, Silenus was the teacher and companion of Dionysus, the God of Wine. According to legend, Silenus had a serious drinking problem; he consumed so much wine that he couldn’t stand, and had, in fact, to be carted around on a donkey. In other words, an early day rock star.

Today, Silenus Vintners is one of the newest, sweetest, custom-crush facilities in Napa Valley, offering 18 small wineries a place to make their hedonistic blends as well as serve them to the public.

Silenus Vintners, located on the northern fringe of Napa town, operates a tasting room seven days a week, 10 to 4 pm, where visitors, on a by-appointment basis, can taste a dozen different wines, all handcrafted in small batches at the facility.

I like a lot about Silenus Vintners, including owner Bob Williamson and his dedicated wine team, which includes Scott Turnnidge, who runs the tasting room, and Brian Graham, winemaker for Williamson’s own label, Ideology.

If you are a resident of Napa Valley, you have likely driven by this winery numerous times without knowing that things have changed in the place previously called Koves-Newlan. Silenus Vintners is on Solano Ave., immediately south of Darm’s Lane, in the Oak Knoll District appellation.

If you are a visitor, first-timer or not, you might think about making an appointment to visit and taste through the wines made on this site. Some of them are spectacular and all of them represent significant value, of which wine drinkers can’t have too much in these tense economic times.

Silenus Vintners owner Bob Williamson

“In a way, we’re a mini-Napa Valley Wine Co.,” says owner Bob Williamson, explaining that his custom-crush facility operates like the big custom-crusher in the valley in Oakville, about nine miles north of Silenus Vintners.“

”And by mini, I mean teeny-tiny, mini-mini,” adds Williamson.

In total, clients at this facility collectively produce about 30,000 cases of wine annually, with the average production of any one label in the 300- to 400-case range.

You may recognize some of the brands produced and offered in the tasting room. I sold Brookdale and Ilsley Cabernets on my former website, ilovenapa.com, in 2003. These two brands are now produced, blended and bottled at Silenus Vintners, and they are as good now as they were then – compelling wines at very fair prices. I am extremely fond of these wines and their producers. Five years later, they are still making first-class, heads-up, must-have wines.

My wine buddy, Rob Fanucci, whom I help make Charter Oak Zinfandel and Charter Oak Petite Sirah, is moving production to Silenus Vintners for this coming harvest. Charter Oak will be the 18th winery to join this small-lot production house, supplying the only Napa Valley Zinfandel in the tasting room.

“I don’t think we can accommodate any more winemakers or labels,” says Williamson, aiming to cap enrolment at his facility. Williamson, who was formerly a land developer in Half Moon Bay, knows about building big, but he also knows when to stop building. And in the wine business, it appears to be now.

Scott Turnnidge fills the large tasting room at Silenus Vintners with warmth and knowledge, both which he has by the barrelful.

In the tasting room, Scott Turnnidge, part-Scot, part-Englishman, part-Irishman, is an affable host. He pours wines with gusto and knowledge and fills the room with welcoming laughter. It’s evident, too, that he knows way more about wine than he does about spelling; just ask to see the misspelled tattoo on his left forearm. Blimey!

Brian Graham, winemaker of Ideology, the Blondie Chardonnays and also his own wines under the Ramian and “Jack” labels.

I asked Brian Graham, who is Bob Williamson’s winemaker and who also produces a wine for himself called Ramian, about his winemaking philosophy.

“I believe in hands-off winemaking. Conduct your due diligence in the vineyard and at harvest, then let the wine speak for itself in barrel. I believe in extended barrel aging to soften tannins,” explains Graham.

I participated in a mini-tasting in the elegant Silenus Vintners’ tasting room and have these highlights to share:

2007 Robert Williamson Family Blondie Chardonnay and
2006 Robert Williamson Family Blondie Gone Wild Chardonnay.
Williamson has created a pair of wines to introduce tasting room visitors to the winemaking practice called malolactic fermentation. This is a common practice in which some white wines, like Chardonnay, may be put through a secondary fermentation, converting bright malic acid into buttery lactic acid, which is rich in dairy, and often butterscotch, notes.

I preferred the 2007 non-malo’d Chardonnay. It has a bright, appealing taste and would be ideal with seafood. It retails for $29. I scored it 89 points.
The 2006 Blondie, fermented with wild yeasts, is less exciting, doesn’t have a memorable taste profile, or anything to make it stand out in a crowd of Chards. $35. I scored it 89 points.

The reds are coming

2006 Ideology Cabernet Sauvignon, Oak Knoll District.
Williamson also produces a Cabernet, which is packaged to look like a $75 wine, and nearly drinks like one, too, but which only costs $36. One of the best Cabernet values in the Napa Valley, this is a gorgeous wine with rich, almost opulent, tannins and striking ripe red fruit flavors. 91 points

2005 Ramian Chapter 5.
I love Brian Graham’s sense of humor, as well as his sense of winemaking. His own label, Ramian, is organized chronologically. “Wine is like a story – every vintage is a different chapter,” he likes to say. Hence, this vintage is Chapter 5, his fifth vintage. Scott Turnnidge, in the tasting room, likes to joke – “What’s he going to call his eleventh vintage? Chapter 11?”
We’ll worry about that vintage when we come to it. For now, I’ll plead the Fifth; it is a lovely wine, harmonious, balanced, totally approachable but with evident age-ability. There is a sweet middle palate and a lively floral finish. The wine is 91 percent Cab, with odd bits of Merlot, Cab Franc and Malbec thrown in for good measure. And good taste. 92 points. $54.

 

2004 Brookdale Cabernet Sauvignon.
I have a soft spot for this wine, having sold it on my former website in the early 2000s. It was a winner then and is still a winner today. Big hugs to Kristi Seitz, who continues to manage this label so well after the tragic death of her husband, Mike, whom we all admired. This is a gorgeous, approachable wine filled with raspberries and at the core, a discernible coffee, cocoa note. This is a put-me-down-for-a-case wine, especially given the price, $45. An easy 92 point wine.

2004 Ilslsey Cabernet Sauvignon, Stags Leap District.
What a great story, what a great wine! Brothers David and Ernie make this sensational wine in Stag’s Leap District. Their property abuts Shafer; some 90 percent of the fruit they grow actually is sold to Shafer for its Hillside Select label. It gets even better: brother David is the vineyard manager for Shafer! So who knows better what to do with the magnificent fruit they grow, much of which winds up in one of the most compelling, perfectly made wines in America, Shafer Hillside Select? (That was a trick question. The answer is NO ONE!)
So here’s your chance to have a wine that is only infinitesimally less in texture and length than the $225 Shafer Hillside Select Cabernet… for $55 a bottle! You want great wine and great value? This is it. 94 points.

2004 Gridley Cabernet Franc.
How is it that I haven’t seen or tasted this stunning wine before? Andy and wife Susan Gridley crush Cab Franc here that was grown on a parcel between St. Helena and Calistoga. The wine has a rich, deep smoky scent, there’s almost “blue” on the nose. On the palate, there are bright plum flavors, dark rich ripe fruits; exceptional extraction and deep flavor penetration. Fewer than 300 cases. Hurry, hurry. $45. 91 points.

No wine story is complete without a shot of the most important, influential member of the team and in the case of Silenus Vintners, it’s 11-year-old Hannah, who is as sweet-as-a-Sauternes.

If you’re visiting Napa Valley and hire a limo to take you around to different wineries, just be careful how you pronounce your intended destination. With a Midwestern accent, or deep southern drawl, your driver may hear you say “Salinas,” when you tell him to head to Silenus. In which case, you’ll find yourself traveling 146 miles south to Salinas, the lettuce capital of America and the hometown of one of America’s best-ever writers, John Steinbeck!

Silenus (and NOT Salinas!) Vintners is located at 5225 Solano Ave., Napa.
By appointment, seven days a week, 10 to 4 pm. 707-299-3930.

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…

Happy 25th Birthday, Mustards Grill!

The sign says it all – Sorry, everything is delicious!

Cindy Pawlcyn threw a party last night for 800 friends and her best customers to celebrate the 25 years that she has operated Mustards Grill.

It should have been the other way around; WE should have thrown the party for Cindy, because SHE is the one who has made our lives so rich, so wonderful, so full of taste.

Mustards Grill chef and owner, Cindy Pawlcyn. For the record, the James Beard Award-winning cookbook author also co-created many other Bay-area legendary eateries, including Fog City Diner, Bix, Roti, Tra Vigne, and Buckeye Roadhouse.

I have long argued that Mustards Grill may be “the best neighborhood restaurant in the United States.”

For one thing, it has consistently served perfectly grilled meats and other tasty dishes for 25 years. In the restaurant trade, consistency is the hobgoblin that operators try to wrestle to the ground. Cindy has consistency locked in a full nelson, tied in knots, and has stood victorious over it for 25 years.

Cindy’s pulled pork, for example, is the best example of this classic sandwich on this side of the Ozarks, and maybe the other side, too.

Her hanger steak is, quite simply, the most flavorful and fun steak served in Napa Valley.

And her Mongolian Pork Chop – well, don’t get me started. The sign out front, describing this dish, which has never come off the menu since it was introduced in 1986, says it succinctly: “Almost a Million Sold.”

Those who would disagree with my statement, that “Mustards Grill may be the best neighborhood restaurant in the country,” would probably, at the very least, concur that it is one of our nation’s most important restaurants, in the same way that Alice Waters’ Chez Panisse, in Berkeley, CA, is critical in a gastro-cultural sort of way.

Alice is all about organic fare, sustainable gardening, know-thy-supplier and such; Cindy supports many of the same ideals and has mastered, if not created, what has become known as the California Grill Kitchen. As far as I am concerned, Cindy put California grill cookery on our country’s culinary map.

So last night, to celebrate the 9,082 days that she has opened her doors (and that’s a lot of swinging action on those doors…), thrown hard wood onto the house smoker, and brought smiles to many of us, Cindy Pawlcyn threw a humdinger of a party. In spirit, it was warmer than a late harvest, Indian summer.

Some 38 local wineries poured their wines at outdoor stations set up in the organic garden beside the restaurant. (These gardens produce about 20 percent of all the herbs, salad greens and vegetables consumed at the restaurant.)

Talk about a “garden party!” Cindy’s 25th birthday bash was thrown in the organic garden adjacent the restaurant. Amid haricots verts and beds of lush green herbs, guests sipped killer reds, sparkling whites and quaffed legendary ales.

At other stations, Cindy’s talented cooks and waitstaff served highlights from her 25-year menu; there were sliders (miniature burgers in tiny buns), barbequed pork served with Cindy’s compelling OOOEEE! sauce, succulent baby back ribs and XXL-sized Hog Island oysters.

The wine highlight was a 27-year-old Robert Mondavi Reserve, brought to the party by Michael Oullette, who had once been a general manager at Mustards and who left to start up his fun-named Zinfandel called Blockheadia.

Wineman and former Mustards G.M., Michael Oullette, pours the 1981 Mondavi Reserve Cab, which he brought to the party. Only in Napa Valley does BYOB mean Bring Your Own Bomb – a six-liter bottle!

“I wanted to celebrate the memory of Bob Mondavi (who died several weeks ago), so I brought this bottle, which Bob had given me in 1995,” explained Michael. And what a bottle! Six liters of ethereal juice! The 1981 wine tasted fresh, was well fruited, and wasn’t pale at the rim, or tired. Thanks for sharing, Michael! What a pity Bob wasn’t on hand for the event; he would have had such a good time, having had so many wonderful dinners and wines at Mustards Grill.

As good a customer as Bob may have been, Carol and I probably top his attendance record at Mustards. Over 25 years, I have personally dined here more than 500 times. I think the “odometer” on the hostess’ computer program, which keeps track of guest’s visits, has gone around several times with my reservations, reaching a number that computer programmers never figured anyone at Mustards Grill would reach. It’s a bit like an old Mercedes hitting the 1 million mile mark, causing the odometer to rotate through to 000,001 and start counting miles from scratch, all over again.

Behind every successful man, they say, is a successful woman. The reverse appears to be true at Mustards and at Cindy’s two other Napa Valley properties, Cindy’s Backstreet Kitchen and Go Fish. At these establishments, very capable, very talented and very dedicated, men run the kitchen under Cindy’s direction.

Erasto Jacinto and his brother Pablo, the executive chefs of Mustards Grill and Cindy’s Backstreet Kitchen respectively. They started as dish washers with Cindy and worked their way up to run the kitchens of the two restaurants.

Erasto Jacinto started as a dish washer at Mustards in 1986 and worked his way up to become head chef; his brother, Pablo, took the same route and wound up head chef at Cindy’s Backstreet Kitchen. Three of the most talented chefs in the country help keep Cindy’s fish restaurant, Go Fish, in St. Helena, on even keel, too. In this group I include Sean Knight, Victor Scargle and Ken Tominaga.

Cindy, Emiko Tominaga, wife of Ken Tominaga who is Cindy’s partner in the fish restaurant Go Fish, and Chaco, the oatmeal-colored miniature Poodle.

Cindy had a radiance about her last night that was nearly palpable. She is recently newly married, her three restaurants are full most nights, and she has reached an age and level of achievement that enable her to look back and highlight her best creations. Any one of these reasons would have given Cindy cause to be radiant, but there might also have been this element at work: she was surrounded by 1,200 of her closest friends, allies, supporters and co-workers and they were on hand to celebrate HER. And by my reasoning, they did her proud.

If you have never eaten at Mustards Grill – you must do so at least once in a lifetime. If, on the other hand, you are a regular, you have a long way to go to catch up to me for most memorable meals enjoyed here; I stopped counting at 500 visits. But hope springs eternal and you can always try… call 707-944-2424 for a reservation.

Mustards Grill is at 7399 St. Helena Highway, north of Madison St., the main road off the highway into Yountville.

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.

Honk if you love Zinfandel & Art!

I love his wine.

I love her art.

Art and wine merged – on a double magnum of America’s best Zinfandel!

“And now, for the first time ever, they are available together!”

Sounds a bit cheesy, like an infomercial offering two things merged, which previously had only ever been available separately.

But trust me, this pairing of wine and art is original. And what a stunning gift it makes.


To honor the sounds of Joni Mitchell, Layla Fanucci etched and painted this portrait of the singer on a double magnum of Rob’s 2005 Monte Rosso Zinfandel.

The Wine: Charter Oak Zinfandel, my all-time favorite Zin, is made by Rob Fanucci, in St. Helena. By day, Rob is a lawyer; on weekends and nights, he is an old-fashioned, hands-on winemaker, like his grandfather Guido Ragghianti, who taught him how to make wine.
Until now, Rob’s wine has only been available in 750 mL bottles, but for this new, husband-wife, wine-art project, Rob is bottling double magnums of his top wine.

The Art: Until recently, Rob’s hyper-talented wife, Layla, mostly painted cityscapes on canvasses so large that you needed your own personal cathedral in order to be able to hang one. These are stunning, large images. But now Layla has started to work on nano-sized (at least for her!) projects – personalized, etched-and-hand-painted wine labels – of any image you ask her to paint – applied to Rob’s double magnums.

So now you can get the best of Rob and Layla.

The pair will introduce their collaborative work at ZinArt, a casual party they are hosting at the winery on Charter Oak Ave., in St. Helena, Saturday May 24. The party starts about 4 pm and runs until they run out of Rob’s wine. Rob and Layla have asked me to extend an invitation to readers of napaman.com, so we’ll see ya there.

In the interest of remaining an honest, objective, reporter, I need to disclose my relationship with Rob and Layla, who over the last five years have become close friends.

Rob Fanucci, winemaker

Five years ago, I fell head-over-heels crazy for Rob’s Zinfandel when I discovered it at a tasting. It was so profound that I approached Rob, asking if I might help him pick fruit and make wine at the next harvest. This annual event has become one of the highlights for me of living in Napa Valley. And the Zinfandel and Petite Sirah that Rob make are among my all-time favorites. He has a knack for turning these otherwise badass, high-alcohol bruisers into elegant wines. As you know, “elegant” is not a word commonly associated with Zinfandel, or Petite Sirah.

Layla Fanucci, artist

As for Layla, she has an infectious spirit, a boundless amount of energy and do-goodness about her. For 25 years, she taught guitar; then one day, eight years ago, she put down her guitar and picked up a paintbrush and started to paint. Like Forrest Gump starting to run and run and run some more, she hasn’t stopped painting since.

Layla is set to start painting her largest-ever canvass – measuring 14 feet wide. “It will take me a year to complete!” she predicts.

For all these years, Layla has painted outside on a back porch, braving cold winds on winter days, and braving birds on warm summer days, which try to hit her colorful linen canvass targets with their droppings. Friends can hardly get through to Layla when she is in her paint trance; in this mode, you can’t stop her, or peel the paint tube out of her hands.

Today, two galleries represent Layla nationwide – Walter Wickiser Gallery in New York (210 11th Ave # 303, Tel: 212-941-1817) and Christopher Hill Gallery in St. Helena (1235 Main St., St. Helena, Tel: 707-963-0272).

Layla’s interpretation of Wall Street, NY.

Layla has two basic themes; she does massive cityscapes with layers of paint in which the light and color seem to radiate from out the back of the painting. She has painted such diverse cities as Barcelona, Paris, Berlin, Istanbul, Chicago, New York, San Francisco and Florence.

The Zinfandel Mind # 8

Her other theme is a series of richly colorful, hallucinogenic images, which bear a common wine theme. She calls the series, with numerical coefficients, things like Zinfandel Mind # 11, or Zinfandel Mind #8.

Wanting to bring her art and Rob’s wine closer together, Layla recently got the idea to put her images on his wine bottles.

The project has been an immediate success and as Layla is willing to customize the images she puts on bottles for clients, there appears to be no end to the commissioned bottles she may etch and paint.

Here’s how it works: if you buy a double magnum (that’s four bottles of Rob’s killer Zinfandel) and Layla finishes the label with one of her own images, the bottle is $1200.

If you give Layla a photo of someone you’d like painted on the label (makes a great birthday, wedding, anniversary, or Christmas gift), the cost is slightly higher. How much? As they say on menus for the daily catch – price available on request.

l
Great art (Layla’s), great wine (Rob’s), commemorating great naan (Fabulous Flats) and a great guy (Sam), my bakery partner.

In fact, I couldn’t think of a more original, or more personal, gift than Layla’s painted bottles to give to my bakery partner, Sam, who turned 60 in February.

I also wanted to commemorate a significant milestone in the bakery we co-founded four years ago – we’ve just baked our 30,000,000th hand-stretched naan (Indian flatbread) after a year of production!

So I hired Layla to personalize a bottle of Charter Oak Zin and apply a hand-painted portrait of Sam holding a package of our International Fabulous Flats™ Tandoori Naan.

Rob filled the bottle with his glorious 2005 Charter Oak Monte Rosso Vineyard Zinfandel. The fruit comes from 100+-year-old vines on a slope in Sonoma County. Only a handful of old-time winemakers can get their hands on this premium-quality hillside fruit, today owned by Gallo.

Sam Ajmera, my bakery partner, proudly displays his birthday gift. “The bottle made turning 60 painless!” says Sam.

Sam was tickled with the gift, as Charter Oak Zinfandel is one of his favorite-ever wines.

Or as they might say in a MasterCard TV ad:

Wine: $200 (equivalent of four bottles of Charter Oak Zin)
Original, personalized, etched and hand-painted label: $1,000
Total cost: $1,200
Look on the face of the person you gift: PRICELESS.

Layla and Rob Fanucci

Going forward, any etched bottles, which Layla hand paints, will be filled with Rob’s exquisite 2006 Napa Valley Zinfandel, grown on his family’s vineyard in St. Helena. This wine is tweaked with a touch of nearby Fulton Vineyard Petite Sirah.

For the record, Rob bottled some of this 2006 Petite Sirah on its own (only 125 cases of this exceptional elixir) and every time I taste it, I slap my forehead, recalling how good it is. In fact, I have yet to spit out this wine any of the dozen times that I have now professionally tasted it.

If you are free Saturday, May 24, come to the ZinArt party. Layla’s canvasses will be on display (and for sale). Rob will be pouring his wines, also for sale.

If you wish to read more about these local art and wine heroes, go to:
www.laylafanucci.com or www.charteroakwine.com

As a PS, let me add these tasting notes to the wines that Rob will be pouring at ZinArt. Because even if you choose not to get an etched, hand-painted double magnum, the wine, in 750 mL format, is a MUST HAVE for your cellar.

Tasting Notes

Overall, I believe that the 2006 Charter Oak wines may turn out to be the single greatest vintage Rob has have ever produced. There is a purity of fruit, a finesse and elegance, which are uncommon even in his normally marvelous wines, which show a balance not typical of most California Zins.

In my opinion, Rob’s 2006 Zinfandels surpass his previous Zin zeniths. And he has knocked the ball right out of the park with his 2006 Petite Sirah.

In fact, the 2006 Charter Oak Petite Sirah is one of the best wines that Rob has ever made. For sure, it is the best Not-Zinfandel that he has ever made, hands down.

Even though this wine has recently been bottled, it is an expressive, big-but-surprisingly-balanced wine. Tons of ripe black raspberry on the nose and palate; there is a pleasing crescendo of ripe fruit flavors through the swallow and then a hint of dark, 70% cocoa and a whisper of black cherry on the finish. I scored this Petite Sirah 97 points, but for the life of me, I can’t explain why I didn’t rate it 100.

(What is it with wine writers that forces us to restrain our enthusiasm for a “lesser grape” like Petite Sirah, saving the really big, perfect scores for Cabernet, or Chateauneuf du Pape?

When I think about it now, at the time of writing this piece, I have never tasted a more perfect Petite Sirah… so YOU go figure what the score should be!)

Rob’s 2006 Charter Oak Napa Valley Zinfandel is made with fruit from vines planted in St. Helena, where his grandfather planted vines nearly 100 years ago. Stumpy and spindly (the vines, not his grandfather!), they have been pruned to produce small, highly concentrated, grapes. This wine has a generous hint of ripe blackberries and a spicy, tweaky finish from the addition of some killer Fulton Petite Sirah. 96 points.

Rob’s 2006 Charter Oak Monte Rosso Zinfandel, made with fruit from the famed Monte Rosso vineyard, in Sonoma County, has bright red and black fruit flavors, shows no prunish edge (in some vintages, Rob adds second- or even third-pass fruit, but not in 2006 and it shows). 95 points.

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.

Enlightened about Darkness! 6th Annual “Death by Chocolate” Festival at COPIA

There are 199,000,000 links to “chocolate” on Google and there were just about as many references – and chocolate samples – at COPIA this weekend, where the 6th annual “Death by Chocolate” Festival was held.

Children who attended the day-long chocolate event loved the chocolate fountains – one gushing dark chocolate, one gushing white chocolate.

COPIA, in case you have been in a chocolate-induced coma for the past decade, is the American Center for Food, Wine and the Arts, in Napa. How appropriate that the center, known mostly for wine, hosts this annual deep, dark, delicious chocolate event, because it turns out that chocolate has many of the same properties as wine.

For starters, dark chocolate has many of the same antioxidants as wine and the raw ingredient – cacao – even has healthful antibacterial agents.

“Our roasted chocolate nibs have nearly 65 times more antioxidants than broccoli,” says Shawn Askinosie, who attended the event. You’re going to hear more about this extraordinary chocolate maker from Springfield, MO, in the paragraphs that follow, so pay attention. Hint: He’s on the final exam.

What’s more, chocolate is easily as complex as wine; taste any three of the hundred small-batch, artisanal chocolates sampled at COPIA and you’d be shocked at the differences in mouthfeel, flavor, attack, release, length and finish – terms customarily used to describe wine. But they work just as well for chocolate.

The Festival this year was punctuated by a series of seminars, panels, and workshops, and concluded with a three-hour walk-around wherein 800 attendees sampled the best premium chocolates and chocolate-based confections made in America. Imagine – no limits, as many of the best chocolates as you could eat for nearly half-a-day! This was an assignment that Napaman had been dreaming about for weeks in advance.

In fact, I found myself in training for the event, having purchased a kilo of premium chocolate (70% cacao) from Italy to better understand what American chocolate makers – and chocolate consumers – are up against.

Napaman’s Gold Standard

The chocolate that I hold as a standard to beat is the tablet from Amedei, in Tuscany, whose Venezuelan-based chocolate, called Chuao, is a gold-medal winner in my humble, cacaoic opinion. (I made that word up, so don’t look for it in your online dictionary.)

I love the unctuous, complex, caramel reveal as the Chuao slowly melts on your tongue; I love the chocolate’s gorgeous, velveteen mouthfeel, and long, lingering finish filled with plum and dried fruits. Like a good wine. The acidity in the Chuao chocolate is perfect, too. It leaves your palate clean and you hankering for another gnaw at the bar.

My pleasure at COPIA was finding three stunning American-made chocolates that, in their own way, are also standards to beat, and one of them is quite simply, the best chocolate in America.

# 1 bar in America, according to Napaman

The Askinosie 70% cacao dark chocolate made with beans from San Jose Del Tambo, in Ecuador, is a stunning chocolate achievement, particularly as this single-origin chocolate contains no lecithin (an emulsifier usually added to commercial chocolates for mouthfeel) or vanilla (natural or artificial, usually added to boost flavor and length of finish).

The ingredients of this exceptional bar are simply: cocoa beans, sugar, cocoa butter. Period. You start with great stuff, you wind up with great stuff.

Shawn and Caron Askinosie produce what I believe is the best chocolate made in America. Caron’s blue gloves, by the way, are NOT a fashion statement, but were worn so that she could hand out single-origin chocolate drops that were the size of rhinestones that Dolly Parton would wear.

Shawn Askinosie, a former criminal lawyer, recently left a successful 20-year law practice to start making chocolate (he never lost a case – so watch out Hershey because he’s approaching chocolate-making with the same energy and determination!). Shawn’s M.O. is to find small, regional bands of cacao growers, encourage them to grow, ferment, and dry their beans in a particular way, and then actually share the revenue stream with them on an open-book basis. A one-man version of Ben & Jerry. Though it’s hard to tell if Shawn is the Ben or the Jerry in this scenario. What we do know is that his chocolate brings as much pleasure -- and as wide a smile – to one’s face as any Ben & Jerry flavor.

My tasting notes on the Askinosie Ecuador-based bar: “Light cigar aromas on the nose and early on the palate as the chocolate starts to melt; on the attack, flavors of forest floor and deep unsweetened cacao, followed by a rifle barrel-focused intensity of ethereal dark chocolate robed in velours. Sensationally complex from start to finish. This is the Romanee-Conti of American Chocolate.

Gary Guittard, 4th generation family member, President of Guittard.

I rediscovered my favorite San Francisco-made chocolate, brought to COPIA by fourth generation chocolate maker Gary Guittard. I recently conducted a thorough tasting of virtually all the premium chocolates in America for a consulting project and rated Guittard’s 65% cacao, Sur Del Lago, Venezuelan chocolate in my top three.

Sorry for the opened bar; I needed a chocolate fix and opened this bar, which I’d bought for the photo shoot.

I love the complexity of this bar, the rich, red fruit aromas, the stunning, slow release of different chocolate notes and the acidity, which zips up the finish. And then, after that very last swallow, there’s a twinkle of lingering astringency, as though you’ve just had a cup of great Irish breakfast tea.

Often I find that food and wine writers, who are always chasing the “next new thing,” forget old friends and former favorites. I am as guilty as the next writer. I recall writing a story about John Scharffenberger and his sidekick/partner Robert Steinberg just after they started up Scharffen Berger Chocolate. I recall loving their energy, dedication and chocolate. The pair went on to reap a huge public following and last year, Hershey bought them out.

At COPIA, I revisited the “blue label” Scharffen Berger 70% Cacao dark chocolate, which is a blend of eight different beans. This bar has great length, is extremely satisfying, and strolls to the finish line with a measured, well paced, chocolate intensity. It has what you might call a chocolate cadence, a sequence of perfectly paced tastes throughout the melt, chew and swallow.

Discover Chocolate Seminar

Before they let guests loose on the 39 chocolate makers, vendors and retailers who were present, COPIA hosted a series of morning seminars and panels to help consumers better understand the world of chocolate.

Clay Gordon, who calls himself “the Robert Parker of chocolate,” leads a morning tasting session at COPIA. Five kinds of chocolate at 10 am – my kind of schooling.

Clay Gordon, originator of chocophile.com and author of Discover Chocolate, led a tasting of different chocolates and confections to explain different methods of manufacturing and offered hints of what to look for when tasting chocolate.

About the growing use of numbers to sell chocolate (you often see a 65%, or 70%, or even 85% figure, in the corner of many premium bars, proclaiming the percentage of cacao in the bar), Gordon had this to say:

“This is strictly a marketing gimmick. The number tells you nothing about the quality of the chocolate. At best, this is a disingenuous practice, at worst, deliberately misleading.”

Gordon went on to give a wine analogy. “You wouldn’t go to a wine store and ask for a 15.5% alcohol wine, or a 14.7% alcohol wine because it tells you nothing about the quality of the wine… so why would you go to a store and ask for a ‘70% cacao’ chocolate bar?”

Gordon said that somehow, marketers have convinced consumers that 70% cacao is a relevant and important number and that bars containing smaller percentages of cacao are to be dismissed.

Gary Guittard had much to say about the same subject in his seminar, which followed.

Guittard Tasting Seminar

Gary Guittard

Guittard said that the rush to use numbers to quantify the percentage of cacao in chocolate bars, a practice of which his own company is guilty, is both meaningless and misleading. (Give the guy credit for two things: He makes great chocolate and he’s also bluntly honest.)

Guittard dispelled another myth in his seminar that is worth sharing: “There is no industry-regulated use of the terms ‘semi-sweet’ and ‘bittersweet.’ One company’s ‘semi-sweet’ chocolate may be another producer’s ‘bittersweet.’” Essentially, these are (mostly) subjective expressions of sweetness levels in chocolate. The federal labeling requirement that touches on this matter says that chocolate called 'dark,' 'bittersweet,' or 'semisweet' must contain a minimum of 35 percent cacao and less than 12 percent milk solids (more milk solids than this and the chocolate has to be called milk chocolate). Beyond this, labeling is left in the lap of the manufacturer, which is why the terms 'semi-sweet' and 'bittersweet' appear to be interchangeable once the minimum levels are met.

The Future of Chocolate - Expert Panel

From left to right, Shawn Askinosie, Timothy Childs, Gary Guittard and Chuck Siegel; their respective affiliations are listed on the slide above them; they assembled to discuss fair trade and issues related to organic certification.

In one of the morning’s more interesting sessions, four chocolate experts gathered to discuss relevant issues that are alarming the industry.

Foremost is the increased demand for chocolate and the shortfall in world production.

Clay Gordon, who moderated the panel, said: “The world produced 3 million metric tonnes of chocolate last year – but this was a shortfall of some 250,000 metric tonnes.”

Interpretation: Look for dramatic price increases for your favorite brown treat.

And the price increases are only going to get worse as China and India become mainline chocolate consumers. The experts are talking about a worldwide demand for chocolate that may grow by 50 percent over the next few years.

And no one’s planting more Theobroma cacao trees to meet the anticipated demand. They probably couldn’t even if they wanted. For one thing, cacao trees only grow in a narrow band about 15 degrees north and south of the equator. No matter how much the super industrious wine growers in Napa Valley and Sonoma want to convert their vines to grow cacao, it just ain’t gonna happen.

During the session, Timothy Childs, of TCHO Chocolate, pointed out that “most cacao farmers never taste the finished chocolate whose raw materials they supply. We intend to change this.”

Childs, like Askinosie, takes a hands-on approach to producing chocolate and wants to rewire the way chocolate commerce has traditionally been conducted. These producers want to know their farmers, want to share revenues with them, want to oversee production from farm to finished good. They are mavericks in a world dominated by “the big guys,” like Hershey, Nestle, Callebaut.

But every industry has a pioneer or contrarian, and often times, they go on to great success. Look at Michael Dell, who transformed the way computers were sold. Maybe, just maybe, these boot-wearing, forest-stomping, chocolate contrarians will start a revolution to change the chocolate industry’s dynamic.

The good news is that even if they don’t succeed in changing an entire industry, consumers can still enjoy the labors of their work; their bars are world class, as the tasting at COPIA proved.

Other brown highlights at COPIA

Mona Keady, the bright light behind Raffiné, a Danville, CA-based confection company, makes filled chocolates. Note: Mona, like many exhibitors at the COPIA chocolate event, doesn’t make her own chocolate; she buys chocolate from producers and further adds her own touch – liquid centers, ganache fillings, etc. Within the “chocolate industry,” a distinction is made between “chocolate makers,” who take cacao beans and process them into finished chocolate, and “confectioners,” who take some one else’s finished chocolate and further process it to make their own tasty creations. One such chocolate confectioner is Michael Recchiuti, of San Francisco, who did not participate in the COPIA event, but who is a stunning – and glaring – example of someone who takes chocolate from “chocolate makers” and turns it into some of the most flavorful chocolate confections made in America.

Timothy Childs, chocolate maker, and Zohara Mapes, assistant chocolate maker, at Tcho Chocolates. They are conducing a crazy, vote-on-line focus group, asking consumers to register their comments about several un-launched chocolates. The chocolates displayed for comment at COPIA, two rather granular, Ghanaian offerings, were not inspiring. But word is that TCHO will launch several formal, packaged chocolates this spring, and we look forward to reviewing them then.

Kelliann Reginato and Jessica Bell from LaLoos Goat’s Milk Ice Cream Company were on hand to serve two flavors of chocolate ice cream – Deep Chocolate and Chocolate Cabernet – made with goat’s milk at the Sonoma Country dairy. I know, sounds weird, “chocolate-flavored goat’s milk ice cream.” But it tasted great and was a pleasing intermezzo from all the heavy-duty, industrial-strength, astringent chocolate everyone else was serving.

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!’”

REAL Oatmeal – The Breakfast of Champions!

Let’s hear it for John McCann!

No, not the Presidential hopeful. That’s not a typo.

I’m talking about John McCann, the elder, the guy who started making steel-cut Irish oatmeal 150 years ago and whose commercial descendants still produce the tasty breakfast cereal the same way today.

My dad, Bill, loved making REAL oatmeal on cold winter mornings when I grew up. As we lived in Westchester County, north of New York City, whenever it snowed, or dipped into the minuses, my dad would either make us REAL oatmeal, using McCann’s, or he’d pan-fry some minute steaks. One breakfast menu lowered cholesterol, the other raised it. Either way, though, breakfast was a major taste hit when my dad cooked for us!

The problem that most people have, though, with making McCann’s is that the hard-as-BBs oat grains take 30 to 45 minutes to make from scratch and you have to stir much of the time, or the porridge burns. And who’s got that kind of time to spend on breakfast?

My dad, Bill White, LOVED making oatmeal – the night before!

But my dad developed his own method of preparing this exceptionally tasty, exceptionally healthy cereal, an oatmeal shortcut, which he passed on to me:

Start the oatmeal the night before! In a saucepan over high heat, bring 4 cups of water and a pinch of salt to boil. Add 1 cup of McCann’s Irish oatmeal, stir once, remove the saucepan from the heat and cover. Say goodnight, Gracie.

In the morning, simply reheat the swollen grains, which will have absorbed ALL the water! They’re fully precooked, have all the natural goodness and flavor of the oatmeal that you otherwise would have spent 45 minutes making.

To serve, simply reheat the porridge over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, for about 6 minutes… and you have REAL, authentic, unprocessed, non-GMO, whole-grain oatmeal on your table. In six minutes!

Prepared this way, McCann’s oatmeal loses a bit of crunch that is apparent when you make the cereal from scratch in 45 minutes, but the trade-off -- to let the porridge make itself while you sleep! – is worth this very slight loss of textural bite. Besides, who ever said oatmeal had to be al dente anyway?

My dad’s “shortcut oatmeal” has tremendous nuttiness; if you’ve added enough salt, it has a clean, ocean-like flavor, a perceptible minerality, an ethereal, camp-like outdoorsy-ness.

Add golden brown sugar, milk, cream, maple syrup, or raisins to complete the dish to your liking.

Over the years, it hasn’t always been easy finding the 28-oz. tin can of McCann’s steel-cut oatmeal; not all grocers carry it. And when they do, many charge too much.

These days, though, Trader Joe’s, which is growing ubiquitous across the country, carries this sensational oatmeal and I haven’t found anyone getting below Trader Joe’s price -- $4.99 a tin.

When it’s snowing, blowing, cold, rainy, gray, sleeting, hailing, or pitch black outside, who ya gonna call for comfort? Forget Ghostbusters! Call for McCann’s steel-cut Irish oatmeal – it’s the only way to survive winter’s bleakness!

Profile: Catherine Bergen of Made in Napa Valley

I dropped in on a friend yesterday, someone I admire for single-handedly changing the way people think about food and Napa Valley in the same breath. In a profession (commercial food) dominated by Big Firms, most of them run by men, Catherine Bergen is a refreshing change. And her dog, Jane, is an original, too.

Catherine Bergen and her wonder dog, Jane, the effervescent Jack Russell Terrier who goes everywhere with “mom.”

I pulled Catherine from her office; we sat on a sun-dappled bench, on the bank of the Napa River, beside her 14-year-old, still-expanding, food business (officially called Tulocay and Company) and exchanged updates. Catherine’s were so big, they’re newsworthy.

Catherine is the creator of Made in Napa Valley, a line of premium sauces, condiments, dry rubs and ice cream toppings that you can’t help but notice on visits to specialty food stores, high-end grocery outlets, places like Crate & Barrel, Williams-Sonoma and Cost Plus World Market.

Catherine’s news: she’s taken on two investment partners and they’re expanding the enterprise, prospecting for gold in them thar hills. And grocery aisles.

“We’re moving into a 50,000 square-foot facility that we’re building from the ground up,” says Catherine. The new facility, next to Napa Airport, south of Napa town, will open next spring.

“In addition to making all our products there, we will conduct cooking classes on location; visitors will be able to take a glass-paneled tour of our production facility and will also be able to taste a lot of our products in a tasting/café/bar area,” says Catherine.

Can you identify a tastier, silkier, more sensual commercial chocolate, or caramel, sauce?
1) If so, I want to know what it is…. and
2) Your prescription drugs are way too strong, because the ONLY answer to the trick question above is: THERE ISN’T A BETTER SAUCE, NOT ANYWHERE. Period.

The products that I most admire Catherine for inventing are three dessert toppings, which, if they were wines, would each be rated 100 points by Robert Parker. Think of these as tasty, cult toppings, the Screaming Eagles of Saucedom.

My favorite is MINV (Made in Napa Valley) Pure Dark Chocolate Sauce made with Kona Coffee. If I could only take one chocolate sauce to a dessert island, it would be this. It has a richness and intensity associated with premium quality couverture chocolate, yet has a silken texture that one would associate with velour, or satin sheets.

Mind you, there is nothing shabby about MINV’s other chocolate sauce – Pure Dark Chocolate Sauce made with Cabernet Sauvignon. It has more of a milk chocolate-tasting finish, compared to the darker, brooding Kona-infused sauce.

And let’s not forget the sensational, sensuous Vanilla Caramel Sauce made with – are you ready for this? – Chardonnay! One spoonful leads to…. another… and another… Basically, the stuff’s addictive and should be on the government’s Controlled Substance list.

But Wait, There’s More!

I asked Catherine to reveal some of her new, soon-to-launched, products.
They include:

MINV Artichoke Condiment is made rich with Parmesan cheese, it is goosed with capers, tweaked with citrus and then the afterburners are set aglow with a good hit of roasted jalapeno. Just enough flavor and acid to draw you back for another flavor hit.

MINV Tropical Fruit Salsa is IMPOSSIBLE to stop eating. It has a mild, fruited, curry-like front end and a stunning, chile-induced finish that goes on and on.

These new products will soon be available in Napa Valley at Sunshine Foods, Dean & DeLuca, Oakville Grocery, Copia, Napa General Store, and the Carneros Inn, as well as at Adronico’s, Draeger’s and Mollie Stones in the Bay-area.

As with all MINV products, the labels of these two new condiments include a cartoon image of Catherine’s wonder dog, Jane. “I don’t go anywhere without my little Jane,” says Catherine, “ so I figured that none of our products should leave here without Jane either.”

Catherine’s 7-year-old Jack Russell Terrier, Jane, became the official mascot of Made in Napa Valley years ago and now, if her image were to be removed from the label, consumers would likely comment that something comforting, cute and endearing has gone missing.

Another new series of products that Catherine will launch this fall: “Gifts to Go,” a line of (approximately) $25 condiment gift sets. These include a gift pack with two Simmer Sauces, a gift pack with Barbecue Sauce and two tasty new mustards, and a gift pack with a fancy-dancy Dipping Oil.

That’s a lot of tasty stuff from a woman who grew up in San Diego not knowing what she really wanted to be when she grew up. “I was a licensed stock broker, a real estate agent, a bookkeeper, a hairdresser, a dog-groomer,” says Catherine. Then, one day, I attended a seminar in LA, given by Marianne Williamson. The title of the session was ‘Return to Love.’ I’ll never forget it. In the middle of the lecture, she said, ‘Do what you LOVE and the money will follow.’”

“That lecture changed my life. I knew that I wanted to be in the food business but didn’t have a clue how to do it or where to do it.”

Catherine Bergen at home -- my home! -- for a photo shoot.

Catherine’s story zigs and zags a bit, but within a very short period, she found herself in Napa Valley and, 14 years ago, started Tulocay and Company, which specialized in producing etched bottles of premium-quality olive oil – the first in the US.

Catherine’s earliest national customers included Crate & Barrel, Pier 1 Imports and Cost Plus World Markets, but always for private label (store brand) merchandise. “I knew that to sustain my business, I had to invent a line of shelf-stable, all-natural foods that these same customers would take and promote…. the origins of Made in Napa Valley."

To learn more about Catherine’s products, or to sign up for her biweekly newsletter, or to discover about two bazillion recipes, suggesting how to use her tasty sauces, dry rubs and condiments (and don't forget the ice cream toppings!), go to www.madeinnapavalley.com. It’s that simple.

Honk if You Love Tomatoes!

2,500 people, lovers of Lycopersicon esculentum, descended on Kendall-Jackson’s Wine Center, a few miles north of Santa Rosa, today, to tease their palates with 184 varieties of heirloom tomato.

This was the 11 Annual Kendall-Jackson Heirloom Tomato Festival and it was the best I’ve yet attended.

More than 60 Bay-area restaurateurs and purveyors of North Coast foods were on hand to feed guests if and when they tired of sampling a tentful of tomatoes, which included such oddball heirlooms as Stump of the World, Fuzzy Bomb, Believe it or Not, Paul Robeson, Julia Child and one called San Francisco Fog. How appropriate.

I tasted through many of the varieties and concluded that the most flavorful and intensely focused tomatoes were the smaller, cherry-sized tomatoes. In particular, I liked three varieties called, in no particular order, Tonadose des Conores, White Rabbit and Sweetie.

Among recognized Bay-area restaurants participating were Nectar, Syrah, Zazu, Brannan’s Grill, and Madrona Manor. Purveyors of fine foods included the Jimtown Store, Bellweather Farms, Aidell’s Sausage, and Bear Republic Brewery.

In case you have been living in a cave the past decade (is Osama Bin Laden with you by any chance…?), heirloom tomatoes are the “hot” fruit in California food circles these days.

The definition of what constitutes an “heirloom tomato” is controversial. For sure, everyone agrees that an heirloom tomato is an open-cultivated cultivar of tomato whose seeds have been handed down over multiple generations. Another rule that everyone upholds: the seeds have never been genetically modified.

Ripe heirloom tomatoes can be green-striped, screaming orange, school-bus yellow, or purple and bruised like a bad black eye. They taste, well, tomato-y in a way that no commercial supermarket “tennis ball” tomato (describing their texture as much as their taste) ever does.

Some growers insist that the seeds for heirloom tomatoes must be more than 100 years old. Others claim that they must be more than 50 years old. There’s a school, too, that claims the seeds only need to go back to the end of World War II, at the outbreak of widespread hybrid breeding by national agricultural seed companies.

As we are at the height of tomato season, walk into any restaurant in Napa Valley just now and you will find a salad made with heirloom tomatoes, usually a mélange of four or five types, chopped or sliced and drizzled with balsamic vinegar and a premium quality extra-virgin olive oil.

The rule for participating restaurants and catering companies at the Heirloom Tomato Festival was that they must prepare dishes with at least one type of heirloom tomato.

My favorite offering of the day, from Equus Restaurant in the FountainGrove Inn, Santa Rosa.

I tasted through the soups, dips, sauces, spreads, juices, ices, salads, and sorbets with my son, Jason, and we agreed that the single tastiest item that we had all day was the Blackened, Pulled Pork & Brandywine Tomato concoction, served at the Equus Restaurant booth. Equus is the restaurant at FountainGrove Inn, Santa Rosa. The spicy, bite-sized creation is the work of talented executive chef Jeff Reilly, who was on hand, busily making up samples to keep ever-growing lines of hungry guests moving.

The artful creation described below, paired with a KJ Vintner's Reserve Syrah. Major yum on both counts.

Kendall-Jackson offered wine-food pairing demonstrations throughout the fairgrounds; I thought the attempt to marry K-J Vintner’s Reserve Syrah with a Cherokee Purple Tomato & Caramelized Squash creation, made with Bellweather Farms Pepato (cheese), actually worked well, which you might not anticipate, given the number of zippy ingredients.

The 2,500 or so tickets that are sold each year for the Kendall-Jackson Annual Heirloom Tomato Festival go on sale each July 1. And they mostly disappear before Independence Day, three days later. So mark your calendar for July 1, 2008, to get your tickets for next year's festival. Get them at www.kj.com, or call 800-769-3649. This year, tickets cost $55 each – but for this amount, you get to eat and drink your weight in tomatoes, a small price to pay for tomato glory.

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!

10 Reasons I LOVE Napa Valley

The best way to determine what's really meaningful to you where you live is to play this game: pretend you are moving out of your community to a town far away. Ask yourself, "What are the things I would miss most if I moved away?" This will help identify your favorite reasons for living where you live.

Drum roll, please.... these are the Top Ten Reasons I love living in Napa Valley (in no particular order)... the things that I would miss most, if I moved away.

1. Mustards Grill.

I've often told Cindy Pawlcyn, owner of Mustards Grill, in Yountville, that I want to write a book titled: "Is Mustards Grill the Best Restaurant in America?"
For one thing, this would ignite a firestorm of controversy among foodies, who would argue that they can name other restaurants more deserving, etc. But I have reviewed restaurants professionally for many years and believe there is justification to call Mustards Grill "The Best Damn Restaurant in America. Period."
Without question, Alice Waters runs "the most important restaurant" in the US (Chez Panisse), and Thomas Keller runs "the two most prestigious restaurants" in the nation (The French Laundry, in Yountville, and Per Se, in New York), but Cindy has, for 24 years, run a consistent, and consistently tasty, diner, turning out grilled dishes of sublime pleasure.
Mustards' pulled pork sandwich with Cindy's famous "OOOEEE!" sauce is worth a 300-mile detour. I have never had a better hanger steak served anywhere. And before they started to tear the Romaine leaves in Mustard's Caesar Salad, it was the best version of it in Napa Valley. Today, that title -- Best Casear Salad -- is shared by two local eatieries, Cindy's Backstreet Kitchen, in St. Helena and Bistro Don Giovanni.
Other DON'T MISS dishes at Mustards include: the dazzling Crispy Calamari Slaw appetizer, the pork chop, which has been on the menu since Day One, and the grilled rabbit and polenta entree. I get goosebumps thinking about this dish, which Cindy once tried to take off the menu but locals hollard so loudly that she was forced to bring it back!
I have eaten at Mustards since it opened, surpassing 400 times, maybe 500 times, and it is as good now as it has ever been. If I were to move away from Napa Valley, I would miss my regular visits. I love table 36 and my advice to you is NOT to fight me for it if we show up on the same night -- because I will win! Carol and I love the staff here -- they are like Family. Which is how they make us feel. But in truth, they make everyone feel this way; even first-timers leave feeling sated, exuberant and happy. (This is also a true-ism at Bistro Don Giovanni... see below.). Mustards Grill is located just north of the town of Yountville, off Hwy 29. The actual address is 7399 St. Helena Hwy. (Hwy. 29). Tel: 707-944-2424.

2. Bistro Don Giovanni.
There is something magical about this restaurant; does it serve the best Italian food you will ever find in a restaurant? No. Is the pasta ethereally light and homemade? No. But there is something about the room, the service, and the intensity of flavors that make me as happy as I can ever be at a table. It is the reason that we chose to spend our 30th anniversary at Bistro Don Giovanni. We could have spent it anywhere in the world, but Napa Valley is our demi-Paradise and for sheer giddy pleasure, you can't have more fun at a restaurant than at Don Gio.
The wine list is large, as are the portions, and the Caesar Salad here is still, after a decade, tied for tops in the valley.
Without exaggeration, I have eaten here well more than 300 times, and still eagerly await my next visit.
On occasion, they serve the best burger in the valley, and often, we roll our eyes in orgasmic appreciation at the perfectly grilled whole fish of the day, boned tableside by the trained, always spirited, wait staff. And one more thing -- the fig and caramelized onion pizza is a seasonal showstopper appetizer that makes me long for fig season. In fact, I am more moved to tears of joy by the anticipation of eating this pizza than I am by the anticipated achievement of Barry Bonds who may break Hank Aaron's home run record.
The restaurant is located at 4110 Howard Ln., just off Hwy. 29, in Napa. Tel: 707-224-3300.

3. No Parking Meters.
Napa Valley is about 30 miles long and three miles wide. The biggest town, Napa, has a population closing in on 100,000. The next biggest towns are St. Helena, Calistoga and Yountville -- and no where, not in one of these towns, is there a parking meter. This alone is enough of a reason to live here. Talk about cutting out urban stress; we live in wine country amidst several of the greatest restaurants in America and can drive to them and park FREE everywhere with a two-hour limit. Can you imagine an urbane world without parking meters? (Don't imagine it for too long -- we don't have space for you and your family to move to Napa Valley!)

4. Pain au Levain Bread at the Model Bakery, St. Helena.
I used to think that the best bread in the United States was the Pain au Levain made by Acme Bakery, in Berkeley. It was. Until Model Bakery, owned and operated by the mother-daughter team of Karen and Sarah Mitchell, came along and started producing a version of this lightly soured, oversized, crusty, golden bread. (PS: The secret to keep one of these fresh breads fresh is to take it out of the paper bag immediately upon getting it home; wrap the bread in a clean tea towel and store it in a cool part of your kitchen. A bread wrapped like this can last up to a week without gettng hard or stale. Cut off slices as you need them, but then rewrap the bread to keep it from staling.) The Model Bakery is at 1357 Main St., St. Helena. Tel: 707-963-8192.

5. Sunshine Market, St. Helena.
How does one small, 10,000 square-foot food store cram in so much great stuff?
We are SO very lucky to have the family-run Sunshine Market in our lives in Napa Valley. It's like having Balducci's, Dean & DeLuca, a knowledgeable wine merchant and a convenience store all rolled into one. The Smith family does a sensational job of catering to the locals' tastes; fish, meats, cheese, produce -- and really esoteric stuff. The wine section is as good, if not better, than what you will find in many metropolitan wine stores in this country. They have $5 wines and $225 wines, labels that you will recognize and brands that are unknown. Last week, I discovered a half-case of 1970 port that was, in all fairness, perfectly priced with what I have been seeing on the internet. I make a point of telling friends visiting the valley to stop at Sunshine because it is a unique treasure to Napa Valley. There are many, many wineries and a lot of restaurants but there is only one Sunshine. Sunshine Market is at 1115 Main Street, St. Helena. Tel:
707-963-7070.

6. Robert Mondavi.
If it weren't for Bob, I wouldn't live in Napa Valley. In May, 1980, while food editor and restaurant critic of Canada's largest newspaper, The Toronto Star (really one of the top five largest newspapers in North America), I was invited to attend one of Bob's heralded Great Chefs of France Cooking School classes; he had invited Jean Troisgros, one of the planet's greatest chefs (from Roanne, France), to cook and teach for three days at the Robert Mondavi Winery. I attended as a paying guest. (The Star never accepted freebies; if a story was worth covering, the Star paid the price to maintain editorial integrity. For five years, I traveled around the world in search of great food, great stories, and great chefs and ALWAYS the Star paid in full.) Even though I had been a foreign correspondent in Africa and had traveled around the globe making films, when I landed in Napa Valley, I KNEW intuitively that I would one day live here. HAD to live here. For the first time in my life, I had found a place that resonated so deeply within me that I knew I HAD to live out the rest of my life in this place. If it weren't for Bob Mondavi, and the exceptional lengths to which he went to introduce me to the culture, wine and the food of this valley, I would be living elsewhere. Thank you, Bob. You are proof that one man can fully alter the expectations, visions and life of another
person.

7. Cameo Cinema, St. Helena.

If there is a more charming, more intimate, more alluring theater in America, I can't imagine what it would look like. 10 seats?
The Cameo, owned and operated by Charlotte Wagner (of Caymus Vineyards fame), is a 104-seat cinema that shows artsy, contemporary films for a week at a time. The seats are covered in red-wine velours, and the back two rows are love seats so that you can really cozy up to your date. Going to the first-run shows with dinner to follow is one of the highlights of the week. No line-ups, no hassles.
The Cameo is in the two-block stretch of Main St., which constitutes most of downtown of St. Helena. The actual address is 1340 Main St., St. Helena. Tel: 707-963-9779.

8. Walks in the vineyard with Linus.

Carol, Linus (a Golden Doodle) and I are often joined by our good friend Wendy and her Golden Doodle, Bailey, for our five- to nine-mile walks through the vineyards surrounding our home. We traipse past the most famous, certainly the first, vineyard in America, called To Kalon (Greek for highest beauty), named and planted in 1868 by Napa wine pioneer H. W. Crabb and we talk about life while the dogs chase rabbits up and down the rows of vines, exhausting themselves and never bringing anything home other than a good case of exhaustion.
These walks, the fresh air, the Big Sky, are among my most pleasurable moments in Napa Valley. They are joyous, simple, and rejuvenate the spirit the way a two-week trip to Provence might do. But all we have to do is walk out the door to experience this calming, warm and sunny Nirvana.

9. Home-grown, organic heirloom tomatoes.
From mid-August through mid-December, we harvest five to seven pounds of Carol's organic heirloom tomatoes EVERY DAY. We fenced off a 1,000-square-foot garden where Carol works her magic, making plants produce prodigious amounts of dinner greens. The heirloom tomatoes tower over Carol at 9-feet, providing a rainbow of tasty, colored tomatoes -- purple Cherokees, green-striped tomatoes (which are screamin' green when perfectly ripe), and mottled red-orange tomatoes that are large enough to be used as doorstops, but juicy and tasty on the inside.

10. The porch.
There is something calming, centering, comforting about sitting on a covered porch and watching the world roll by. We sit on ours and watch hummingbirds suck the sweet nectar out of vintage rhododendron blossoms; in the morning, we sip espressos on the porch and watch a flotilla of hot air balloons ascend from Yountville.
A good day starts as a "five-balloon morning," or an "eight-balloon morning," giving some hint of the sweetness of the air and intensity of the blue sky that day. My best day ever was a "13-balloon morning."
To sit on the porch and watch the hot air balloons silently float over head brings the same inner focus as a meditation session at a holy ashram.

Springtime means tulips

Springtime means tulips
Originally uploaded by napaman.

Visited friends in Vancouver, BC, last weekend. They had a gorgeous arrangement of tulips on their kitchen table.
I hopped up on a chair and shot them from above, then filtered out
extraneous details...