Napa Valley with Andrea and Marlo - October 28


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Okay, so I didn't actually take any pictures until we were already on the car ride back. In any case, here are a couple pix from inside the car.

We actually started the day by going to Fort Mason for a vintage poster fair. This turned out to be very cool and educational. The posters were very colorful, most were interesting, and many were quite artful. Andrea ended up purchasing a couple of them, one for herself and one for a gift. Coincidentally enough, this fair was sponsored by Wine Spectator and there were free copies of the current issue available which happened to feature the current crop of California Cabernets!

It was a rainy drizzly day and we hoped that there wouldn't be many people in Napa. We stopped off at Cline, which is one of the first few wineries on the way up to Napa. Cline produced many different wines. They seemed to primarily feature Zinfandels (8 or so different offerings). They also had as many varietals as any vineyard including Viogner, Carignan, Syrah, and Carignan. I really liked the Jacuzzi Zin, but at $40/bottle, it was too pricey. Most of the Zin offerings here were $28. This really made me think about the increase in prices in Napa.Two years ago, I would spend less than that for a great cabernet (e.g. 1995 Beringer Knights Valley - yum!), so I was inclined to buy minimally here. They also had vertical cabernet offerings and the 1994 we tasted was fine, but definitely overpriced at $65. Still, they had an interesting variety of wines and I ended up purchasing one bottle of Viogner (good enough, although not great, for $20) and two bottles of late harvest Mourvedre (interesting to have a sweet red dessert wine).

We then started reading the issue of Wine Spectator and were excited by how many high quality cabs are available, some of them even reasonably priced! The 1997 California Cabernet vintage was rated 98 overall, which is the best in what has been a great decade for California Cab (1998 is expected to be up and down and 1999 looks to be very good). We weren't particularly interested in buying the $100+ wines (at that price it should be outstanding!). We did decide to go to Whitehall Lane for their 1997 Reserve Cabernet (rated 97) although we were concerned that they would be sold out (the 1995 Reserve Cab was Wine Spectator's wine of the year 2 years ago). I've already had their 1997 non-reserve Cabernet from last season and that was already excellent. We did a tasting here, but it didn't include the reserve cab. The most interesting wine we tasted was the Belmuscato. I was more impressed with it this time because last time (when I bought a couple bottles) because it seemed a bit more watery. In any case, between the 3 of us, we ended up purchasing almost 1.5 cases of this wine - untasted! At $60/bottle, you do the math. Still, it was a rare chance to buy such a high quality wine at such a reasonable price.

Rutherford Grove - Petite Sirah, Cabernet

Turnbull - Red Bull (Mourvedre, Carignan), Sangiovese

Cosentino - Pinot Noir

Mustard's Grill - Champagne, Calamari, Seared Ahi, Tea Smoked Duck, Silver Oak Cabernet,

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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