Napa valley vineyards visit

On Monday I had the day off and Ian's sister and her fiancé were in town, so we decided on a drive up to Napa valley for the day. They had just landed back in the city from their morning tour of Alcatraz island, so we picked them up from Fisherman's Wharf and headed over the Golden Gate on the 101.

On the way to the wharf to meet them, right next to our apartment one of the electric Muni buses had come undone from the overhead wires. For those of you who are familiar with San Francisco transit, you'll also know that the busy J-line tram runs on Church St. (where the bus was stuck), so all transit and car traffic was totally at a standstill! haha

After our drive through Marin and Sonoma counties, we arrive in Napa ... first stop, Heitz Cellars:

Ian was familiar with Heitz from one of the restaurants in Seattle. They are particularly famous for their port.

Although I am absolutely allergic to alcohol, as a gardener, I loved walking amongst the carefully pruned vineyards. Above is the demonstration garden at Heitz Cellars which shows the different characteristics of the 20-something different clones of red wine grapes grown in vineyards all over Napa valley. I learned that Clone #6 is highly sought after for its incredible flavor, however, it is hard to justify growing large quantities of it since it does not have a high yield. Instead, wine makers will choose to use a small amount of clone #6 in their wines (for flavor), added to the juice made from other more productive varietals (for "bulk" juice).

I forget which clone # this was, but it was one of the higher-yielding varieties. I took little tasting samples from the different grapes (shh!) ... my initial experience with wine grapes lends me to say that they are slightly less sweet than table grapes which are grown specifically for their sugar content. They do still have a lot of flavor.

We then stopped by Gotts Roadside for a quick lunch outdoors in an effort to make our 2:30pm appointment for a private tasting at Burgess. I had ahi poke crunchy tacos and a lemonade to cool off from that warm afternoon sun

At 2:30pm we drove up into the mountains above Napa valley to arrive at Burgess Cellars for our private appointment. The view was gorgeous, and it was fun to ring a gigantic bell at the door to be let into the cellar. Burgess is a very small winery which only produces about 20,000 cases of wine per year and whose tastings are only available by private appointment, so we were lucky to get a small and personal look at Napa valley winemaking.

New grape vines planted on the hillside overlooking the river and reservoir ... Napa valley in the background. Since we had a private appointment (just the four of us), we were able to speak a lot with the wife of the vineyard/winery owner (Tom Burgess, after which the winery is named). Since I don't drink wine, I was more interested in the agricultural aspect of wine grape growing and learned that grape vines usually take around 3-5 years to mature to fruiting age (depending on if one decides to plant a bare-root stock or use a grafted scion). In addition, they have a significant lifespan of productivity, and it's basically up to the vineyard to decide when to plant new vines. In the above picture, the hillside had vines that had remained previously for over 35 years ... only this year did they decide to replant with new vines.

Inside the cellar (the size of a house) and the tasting table

We are in upper Napa Valley (in the northeastern part of the map where it says "Burgess")

Our next stop: St. Supéry winery further south in the valley back towards Napa town proper:

This winery was a lot more "commercial" feeling than Heitz or Burgess. Especially coming from Burgess where we chatted privately with the wife of the winemaker for an hour, St Supéry was filled with kids, families, and more "touristy" folks. Nevertheless, we got an interesting peek at how wine is produced in larger volume:

Crushing and fermenting tanks

Private cask tastings available on the floor for a hefty fee

Aging room ... I joking said that the winemakers had begun to put the fermented product in the smaller barrels but then got lazy and decided on the giant ones to the right!

The "Sensory Experience" at St. Supéry ... you could smell the different elements of terms used in the description of wine (i.e. what does one mean when wine is referred to as "oak-ey", etc)

The grapes growing outside on the grounds of St Supéry ... I plucked some to eat :)

Finally, we ended at Tamber Bey, a tasting room which has its vineyards nearby. What surprised us the most about the tasting here was the winemaker's "upselling" skills whereby for a small additional fee (we had a free tasting coupon anyways), he paired the wines with cookies made specifically to go with the wines. The cardamom and bacon cookies come to mind first, but there were two other ones ...

The day ended with a BBQ snack at a restaurant along the Napa river

The spoils of the trip (for Dad) ... safely home:

Now Dad just has to come from Japan to claim them :-p (2007 was considered the best year for Cabernet Sauvignon in Napa since 1994 according to Wine Spectator - a rating of 99 - so you better come get them!)