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| (photo by Ursa Davis) |
The number of wineries in the Napa Valley region is really staggering. It's tough to even scratch the surface on visiting them all. But the good news is that it is hard to find bad wines around here.
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| (photo by Ursa Davis) |
The best way that I have heard it described is that a winemaker is like a chef, he decides what he wants to make and the process and tools to make it with, but ultimately it is the ingredients that determine if the end product is good or bad. If you have the best ingredients, the odds are you'll cook a great meal. Simply put, Napa Valley grows great grapes and the wines of the region reflect that in their quality.
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| (photo by Ursa Davis) |
Speaking of the quality of how the grapes are grown, Jarvis Winery takes particular care to manage their grapes in the field, spacing their rows farther apart than any other winery in order to keep the shadows of the other plants off of the grapes, keeping them dryer, and less prone to mildew. By doing this they sacrifice the quantity of wine that they produce for a higher quality.
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| (photo by Ursa Davis) |
Of the many wine tours and tastings that we've been on since being here, the best tour, hands down, has been at Jarvis Winery. The entire winery was built underground in tunnels dug by a boring machine used to build the Chunnel. Their facility is really beautiful and their wines are amazing. I couldn't get past their Cabernet Franc which usually is a varietal that I don't like. I'm not a huge fan of really tannen heavy wines, and Cab Francs are some of the most tanneny, but Jarvis' was really drinkable. I won't go so far as to say that it was light, because it's not supposed to be, but it was mellow for such a bold varietal. All of their wines were stellar, they were crafted for quality and it showed in their flavor... and their price.
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| (photo by Ursa Davis) |
Another tour that we took was to Silver Oak Winery. This is one of my father's favorite wines and we would be remiss if we didn't take his recommend. But that is the thing about wine, it is all so subjective. What is great to one person is not as good to the next. None of it is bad of course, but I found Silver Oak's cabernets to be rather average compared to the others that we have tried in the area. It was however a lovely facility and a tour well worth taking.
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| (photo by Ursa Davis) |
For my money, the best wines we have tasted in Napa have been at Cliff Lede Vineyards. One after another were really dynamite. We bought two bottles there, the 2012 Sauvignon Blanc which may be the best sauv blanc I have ever had, and the FEL Chardonnay 2012 which was a fruit forward, non malic chardonnay that was outstanding. Our host, Art, was also extraordinarily helpful, and full of good recommends, and knowledge of all things wine.
Just down the road from Cliff Lede was Goosecross Winery. Goosecross is our favorite kind of farmhouse style wine maker that has a fun, friendly atmosphere. We laughed and joked and had generous pourings of some very good wines. They had only the problem of geography, because to try the wines at Goosecross so shortly after the amazing wines at Cliff Lede did them a disservice.
Last but not least was Girard Winery which had the funnest patrons of all the wineries we were at. Girard was a tasting room actually in town, so the place was a little more full with foot traffic than the other places strung out a little further afield. I'm not sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing, because, while we had more fun and fonder memories of the place, we paid much less attention to the wines and the host than to our fellow patrons.
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| (photo by Ursa Davis) |
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