Napa 2012: The Wineries

The wineries...the reason we all come to Napa.  After learning from our previous trips here we did research and found some new wineries we were interested in visiting.  When I say we, I actually mean BK did research with some input from me.  If you're wondering where to go for this information, or how to get started: ask people who have been before, and don't hesitate to ask the wine guy at your favorite upscale restaurant.  If they're good, they will ask what type of wine you like and what experience you're looking for and should be able to give you some good recommendations. As an added bonus, they often have great information on wines that are just taking off and can get you into places that you wouldn't otherwise know about. 

I'm not giving reviews of the wine; that all depends on what type of wine you like.  For example, many people include a chardonnay in their tasting.  But as chardonnay is not the type of wine I drink, I'm not going to give it a bad review just because I didn't specifically like it.  Here's the 2012 lineup!

Sullivan Vineyards courtyard

Sullivan Vineyards: Sullivan is a winery we visited last year at the recommendation of another couple we met when on another tour. Sullivan is a great family run winery, in which two brothers and a sister run various parts of the operation.  This was our first winery of the trip; we visited on Wednesday after checking into our hotel.  It was a great, relaxing experience, much needed after the flight and drive to Napa.  They have a great courtyard and anyone at the vineyard is happy to show you around.  

We ran into Kelly Sullivan (the daughter) in the courtyard, who happens to also be an artist.  Her art has sold around the world, but she has quite a bit of it displayed around the winery.  We started our tasting and got to talking to Kelly's husband and some friends of theirs who had just arrived for wine and dinner.  We all got to talking with one another and somehow BK and I were invited into the family home to enjoy more conversation, delicious appetizers and more of Kelly's art.  We bought a piece that is now on its way to our house.  These chance things are what make this trip great.

Stomping grapes at Schweiger

Schweiger Vineyards- We heard about Schweiger through BK's parents who are members of the wine club and had come the year before.  "Harvest Stomp" typically only happens around this time of year.  The Schweiger family was there to conduct all of our activities, which I cannot say enough about.  Meeting the family makes such a difference; you truly get a feeling for why they do what they do and who is behind the operation.  

This was quite the experience!  We went into the vineyard, picked grapes (about 20), measured sugar content, picked more grapes to stomp (half a box-full) and stomped our grapes to make more juice.  We then had a delicious lunch and toured the cave to learn about their wine making.  We enjoyed lots of wine as well!  One word of warning: if you get carsick take motion sickness medicine before heading to Schweiger.  The winery is located way up on the mountain and there are quite a few twisty and winding roads.  Unfortunately BK was not taking these slow, so I was not feeling great upon arrival!

The Del Dotto cave (Napa)

Del Dotto Vineyards- Del Dotto's tours are known throughout the Valley, but not necessarily in a good way.  Other wineries feel that they over serve and don't like when drunk people come from Del Dotto.  All that said, BK and I have enjoyed this tasting and tour.  You have a cave tour and barrel tasting either at the Napa or St. Helena location.  Both times we've had an extremely personable tour guide who made our time fun.  In a group of around 10, you taste around 14 wines directly from the barrel and learn about various nuances in their wine making.  We would highly suggest this tour...just make sure it's your last one of the day and you don't have very far to drive!

Tasting patio surrounded by farm

Grgich Hills Estate- Grgich Hills was another very unique experience. We went on their Rustic Adventure Tour, which is at one of their vineyards in American Canyon.  Their approach is extremely interesting and they take a lot pride in the fact that they are completely organic.  The vineyard we went to was on rolling hills and included what essentially amounted to a small farm.  There was a garden with all sorts of different fruits, veggies, flowers and shrubs growing, each with its own purpose of what is was adding to the environment as a whole.  In addition to the garden they also had sheep, chickens, game birds and supported other local small birds and owls with birdhouses.

We walked around the vineyard and garden, tasting both grapes from the vineyard and veggies from the garden, then enjoyed a tasting outside on a patio overlooking the vineyard and garden.  It was such a nice setting, and to add to it, our tour was with one of the owners' son and another winery employee.  Again, the family interaction just makes such a difference!  In addition to the great wine we tasted, we also had some amazing cheeses to pair with these wines.  It was great way to start the day.

Sparkling wine at Mumm

Mumm Napa- Mumm Napa specializes in sparkling wine.  We had some time to kill before our next tasting so we decided to stop in here.  I had mentioned that I wanted to try one of these, and we took a suggestion from another winery, along with it being on our way.  Bad idea.  It was terrible experience and exactly what I tell people not to do.  We sat on a patio, a teenie-bopper type impatiently waited on us and literally knew NOTHING about their wine.  I like the wine, but it was totally not worth the stop.  We should have used that time more wisely and had a nice lunch or something! 

Myriad Cellars

Myriad Cellars- Myriad was a completely different experience than we had with any other winery.  We met at Envy Cellars and toured with Mike Smith, who is a boutique wine maker.  So unlike the other places we went, he doesn't have just one label.  He actually makes wine for a number of different labels, which also include his own (Myriad and others).  It wasn't really a tour, but more of a lesson and tasting on how he makes his wines.  The other couple there was extremely well informed about his wines; I'm not sure we were quite "wine geek" enough for this one. 

Checkerboard vineyards and winery

Checkerboard Vineyards- Checkerboard was the best experience we had in Napa, hands down, no questions asked.  We heard about it from the distributor when he was down at Escondido Golf Club.  This winery is situated high up in the hills, so if you visit allow yourself plenty of time to get there.  We drove up expecting to see the usual winery/tasting room set up, which was definitely not the case.  We were greeted by the two owners and found that we were the only people there.  It was immediately apparent that these two people cared a great deal about what they were doing and had sunk a great deal of time, money and heart into their product.

BK and I at the top of Checkerboard

We started out by looking at their "tanks" which were actually large French oak barrels for fermenting wine (most people use stainless steel). We then journeyed into their cave, saw their bottling and packaging area and had some wine.  After that we took a mule (four-wheel drive vehicle, not animal) up to the top of their property to really get a lay of land and an idea of what their property was like. We then went into their tasting room and had two of their premier wines.  The wine was great, but the experience made it so much more.  We ended up spending about three hours at Checkerboard and skipping the other winery we had scheduled.  We loved it because we got to essentially sit down and chat with the owners, asking any question about their wine making, travels and Napa in general.  The wine is pricey, but they don't push anything on you and appreciate you taking the time to come see them.  Their label is just taking off, so it was really fun to hear about their relatively new experiences.  We would highly recommend this "tasting and tour", if that can even do it justice, to anyone who is interested.

Of course, we started this blog for family and friends so that we could tell about our travels, but hopefully our experiences and recommendations will help anyone who is planning a trip like this...we think everyone should!

Napa, how we love you so!

So you'll see very few places make a reappearance on the blog, i.e. BK and I's travel itenerary.  Napa is the exception to that rule.  We decided last year, after a great trip, we would be coming back here on an annual basis.  So here we find ourselves, having a great time once again.

Over the next few days I'll be posting about the wineries, restaurants and other activities that we had fun with in Napa.  You should come if you get the chance!  BK says its the one place that he feels that he can really relax and disconnect.  We love it and think that everyone else will too!

A couple of tips for your trip to Napa:

1. Don't come to Napa if all you want to do is get drunk by drinking a lot of wine.  That one may sound a little strange considering that I'm writing about Napa, but honestly, if that's what you want to do, you can do it at home for a lot less time and money.  Come to Napa to learn about wine you love, eat great food and spend time with people you enjoy.
2. Only schedule two, max three, wineries per day.  If you're making a day trip, this one can be hard.  If you're here for multiple days, try it.  We typically do one around 10:30 and one around 2:00.  If you do this, you don't have to rush through tastings and tours, it leaves you time for a nice relaxing lunch and you can enjoy your last winery of the day.
3. Research where you want to go and make reservations.  You can go to the big ones with large tasting rooms, however if you do, we suggest you get a private tour with cheese pairing or something along those lines.  If you just go tasting rooms, often the people pouring the wine know nothing about it and you're just kind of hearded in and out- not a special experience.  We tend to like the family owned, small wineries.  Often you'll find yourself sitting down with the owner, a family member and/or winemaker...a pretty awesome experience (details later).
4. Give yourself a wine budget in addition to what you want to spend on other details of the trip.  You are going to get here and want to buy wine and/or join wine clubs.  Give yourself a budget so that you're not stressed about the thousands of dollars (it can get to this amount quickly when you're talking cases) you weren't planning to spend.  Being annoyed that this trip is costing a lot more than planned can really ruin your time here.

The only downside this year?  We missed another TCU home game.  On the bright side, at least the game was on at 9:00 am Napa time, giving us the entire rest of the day to enjoy afterward.

Lots more to come!  Cheers!

Shot! Shot! Shot! Shot!

Oh wait...then I remembered that we're in our 30s!  No offense to anyone in their 30s (or beyond) who still likes to take shots and party, but we've kind of left those times behind.  We're still up for a good time, but it usually involves a few glasses of wine, vodka or Jack.  But have no fear!  BK and I are fully prepared to provide 50ish people with shots at any given time, thanks to his collection of shot glasses.

So, I haven't written in a while, but this is about the things we collect on our travels.  People collect different things when traveling...t-shirts, Christmas ornaments, magnets, whatever floats your boat; BK happens to collect shot glasses.  And let me just mention, not only does BK collect them, but others (usually our parents and siblings) generously help add to his collection as well.

Where can one have a drink from, you ask?  Just to name a few...Costa Rica, the Kentucky Derby, Paris, the Broadmoor, London, Switzerland, Puerto Rico, Hawaii and Mexico.  You can even pretend that you were at a frat party at TCU back in the early 2000s!

My most vivid memory about the shot glass display is not from when someone was actually having a drink, or doing something as a result of a lot of drinks, but from when we moved into our house and I was reluctantly unpacking all those shot glasses to be displayed.  Seeing as I was a "grown up" now,  I felt that this was BK's way of holding on to a little bit of the frat boy in himself, wanting to display all of these shot glasses in our new house.

I initially put them on two of the three middle shelves, only to find a pouty BK sulking about my arrangement.  He actually said to me, "You should just pack those up if you're going to try and cram them in like that!  You can't event see where they're from!"  Ummm...I personally felt that they deserved as little space as possible.  He was lucky that he got the two shelves that I gave him!  I felt that pictures and important things should occupy that space- not shot glasses.  Reluctantly I spread the shot glasses out across the middle of the shelves to be displayed, so that everyone could see them in all their glory.

Much to my surprise those shot glasses have actually grown on me over the past seven years, and visitors seem to like them too.  I'm not sure how they'll fare when we move abroad and have to downsize, but I feel certain that at least a few of the favorites will come with us and be proudly displayed for all to see.