California Winery Tastings

This is the time of year when California wineries harvest their crop of grapes that have been growing on the vines all summer.  Depending on how the weather has been during the growing season, it is usually filled with exciting anticipation of what the potential may be for these newest grapes. Thinking of this reminded me of some of the winery tours that my family and I have taken over the years.  But it wasn’t until May of 2005, after one of our three kids moved to the bay area, that we made our first excursion into wine country.

I realize not all of my readers are wine drinkers so if you are not, feel free to skip this post and come back next week.

Before travelling to California, I mentioned to my boss at work that I would be taking a tour of the Napa region for the first time.  He gave me two very good pieces of advice based on his previous visits.  First, if you rent a car, drive to the farthest away winery you intend to visit for the day.  That way, as you progress to other wineries, you are getting closer and closer to your lodgings.

Second, make V. Sattui Winery your stop around lunch time.  In addition to having an excellent winery, they also have an artisan deli.  Here you can complement your purchased wine with a selection of meats, cheeses, and breads and then enjoy a picnic on their grounds.

We took his advice on both suggestions.

Our first stop was the Sterling Winery in Calistoga, CA.  The interesting thing about this winery is that it is perched on a hilltop overlooking the valley and to get to it, you ride an arial tram up to the top.  We arrived about 10 in the morning and first took their winery operation tour before arriving at their tasting room.

At that time, many wineries had complimentary tastings (sadly, it has since changed) and Sterling was no exception.  I recall sitting down in a very comfortable area and enjoying several different wines.  My wife and I typically prefer a Cabernet Sauvignon and their latest release was particularly good.  In fact, to this day, whenever I go to buy a case of wine at our local wine retailer, one of the bottles I often select out of my dozen different bottles is their Cab.

Our next stop was, as suggested, Sattui as it was after noon, and we had worked up a tasting appetite. Although I failed to take a photo of our spread, I remember it being a very pleasant day with a nice cool breeze.  We enjoyed our wine and picnic under some trees on their grounds and being satiated, were ready to continue our winery visits.

We stopped at a third winery (which I cannot recall now) before ending the day at the Beringer Winery.

Beringer has a long history of wine making having harvested their first grapes in 1876.  In fact, they are one of only a handful of California wineries that can claim a continuous operation even through the prohibition years as they had a federal license that allowed them to produce wine for religious purposes.  Their original building is now on the National Registry of Historic Places.  And it served as a nice napping spot for our two sons at the end of our wine tour that day.

Having had such a fun trip in May, that fall we made our second winery trip, this time to Sonoma County.

Unlike our first trip which was a family vacation for all five of us, it was just our daughter who was in graduate school at UC Berkely that accompanied us.  We started close to downtown at the Sabastiani Winery.  We took a quick tour and then made our way to the tasting room where we were pleased to learn that their just released Cab that year had received a 91 score by Wine Spectator.  At $15 a bottle, it was a true bargain for such a great wine, and I enjoyed it for the first time that day.

(In fact, it was so good that after we returned to Memphis, I bought a case of it each time I went to our local wine store until that vintage stock was depleted.)

Our next stop was at the Benziger Winery where we were able to walk right into the fields and see the grapes awaiting harvest.

Our last stop was at Kenwood Winery…

…where you could also get up close to the unharvested grapes.

This winery had very reasonably priced wines and their offered tastings spanned the wine varietals from two different whites to several different Cabs.  We thoroughly enjoyed them all and wanted to take some home with us.  Post 9/11, we obviously couldn’t take wine with us on the plane (we don’t check bags having had bad lost luggage experiences) but the state of Tennessee allowed someone visiting a winery to have a maximum of six bottles shipped to their home.  My wife and I each completed a separate order so that we could at least get a case delivered to us.

The funniest thing was after we returned home, and the two boxes were delivered, there was a label on the outside of the shipping box that basically said “Postman, if the recipient of this package is obviously inebriated, don’t deliver the package.”  Funny how crazy regulations are implemented.

We had such a good time on these two winery trips that over the next several years, we returned several more times.  Each September, I would be back in San Francisco to teach my Methods Validation course.  We always got to celebrate our daughter’s birthday on these trips and occasionally we would head up into wine country.

But really, it was these first two trips in 2005 that standout in my mind, almost like never forgetting your first love.  For my wife and I, it was a chance to experience many wines that we had never tasted. And with the movie Sideways having been released just the year before, it was for us, our own “sideways” experience.