Napa - January 13
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[Duckhorn]
[Clos Pegase]
[Sterling]
Another spur of the moment trip to Napa. Blame Andrea, she's such a bad influence on me. She knows how to exploit my weakness for wine. I have to admit though, it feels so good to be bad...
Duckhorn
We decided to go to Duckhorn because we are always seeing their wines everywhere. Andrea had purchased a bottle of their Cabernet just the day before when we were at a wine shop in Mill Valley after our hike. The winery was furnished very tastefully. We each had a tasting flight of their Sauvignon Blanc/Semillon (25%), Merlot (a blend), and Cabernet (also a blend). The Sauvignon Blanc was tasty and unusual because it was heavily oaked and was quite full bodied (for a Sauvignon Blanc) like they were trying to transform it into a stereotypical Chardonnay. This was even more striking because I had been consuming a variety of New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs to which theirs contrasted greatly. I also enjoyed the Merlot quite a bit because it had a lot of fruit and not too oaky. The Cabernet was actually the weakest of their offerings, but then again, we've had a lot of incredible Cabernets even in fairly recent history.
We were also given tastes of the Paraduxx, which is a Tuscan-inspired Zin/Cab blend as well as the Three Palms Merlot. They were all tasty, but I didn't like them as much as Andrea. I liked the Three Palms Merlot, but I balk at spending more than $50/bottle for Merlot unless I totally love it. The Paraduxx was quite interesting, but a little too rough (the Zin) for my taste, esp. after having had the Merlots. I ended up purchasing some of the Sauvignon Blanc and the Merlot and Andrea picked up a little of everything except the Cab (which she already had from her purchase the day before).
I was also a little suprised at having had to pay for the tasting after we bought wine and not having the tasting fee credited towards our purchases (we did receive a case discount since we purchased a total of 12 bottles). This would turn out to be our first experience of what appears to be a (unfortunate) trend in Napa. Tasting fee - $10/flight.
A picture of us in front of the winery.
Andrea and I had both heard that Clos Pegase was a good winery to visit for the art. I thought the art was okay. Definitely unlike any other winery I've been to. Andrea was especially interested in the antique glass pieces (going back to 3rd or 4th century B.C). At this winery, we did white and red tastings. The white tasting consisted of their Vin Gris, their 1999 Sauvignon Blanc, and their Chardonnay. We also were given a taste of their 2000 Sauvignon Blanc. The two Sauvignon Blancs were interesting because they were different from the New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs I've been drinking and the two vintages were very different from each other. The 1999 Sauvignon Blanc was earthy with an unusual taste of asparagus. The 2000 Sauvignon Blanc was quite fruity. Very interesting. Because of this, we both ended up purchasing bottles of each vintage (and we didn't end up purchasing any reds). For the reds, we had a Merlot, a Cab and a brandy fortified port (very sweet tasting). Nothing spectacular with any of them and the port, because it was so sweet, was not particularly impressive. Tasting fee: $5.00 for the whites and $7.50 for the reds. Tasting fees were not comp'd with purchase, but we did, for whatever reason, receive a half-case(?) discount since we purchased 6 bottles between the two of us.
[Duckhorn]
[Clos Pegase]
[Sterling]
