1998 California Wine Country Tour

In March 1998 we made another pilgrimage to Napa Valley with a well devised plan to visit selected wineries. After pouring over reviews in the December 1997 issue of Robert Parker's "Wine Advocate," we narrowed our "must visit wineries" list to four: Corison, Shafer, Plumpjack, and Flora Springs.

Plumpjack

The first stop was Plumpjack, a winery producing about 2,000 cases of Chardonnay, Zinfandel, and Cabernet. Plumpjack is located in Oakville off the Oakville Crossing road which runs between Route 29 and the Silverado Trail. They have a 40 year lease on vineyards surrounding the winery. The winery maintains a mailing list but the list is full and even the waiting list to go on the mailing list is full!

We tasted five wines — Chardonnay, Zinfandel Sangiovesse, Merlot, and the Cabernet. High demand and small production of its estate (1000 cases) and reserve (500 cases) Cabernets, leave but 40 cases available for sale from the winery. Visitors to the tasting room are limited to 6 bottles of the estate cab and 3 bottles of the reserve. And for anyone wondering how the wine press affects sales, after Parker's rating of 95, the wine available to restaurants and wholesalers sold out in three weeks. The Cabernets were rich and well structured. We purchased our limit of both reds and these wines will evolve in the cellar for a few years before we drink them.

Beringer

Our next stop was to Beringer, a perennial favorite, to buy the 94 Alluvium, a Meritage Cabernet. Unfortunately, other excellent wines — Howell Mountain Merlot and the Cabernet Chabot Vineyard — were not available. Because of it's location and popularity, Beringer has fairly high prices for tasting in the Founder's Room. The Alluvium was $3 for a 2 ounce sample and the Private Reserve, an exceptional wine, was $6 a sample.

Flora Springs

Flora Springs was next. The tasting room is right on Route 29 before St. Helena. There we tasted six wines — a Chardonnay, Zinfandel, Sangiovesse, Merlot, Reserve Cabernet and Trilogy, the library cab. The reds were all excellent. The Sangiovesse was medium bodied and spicy. The 1995 Merlot was soft but firm. The Cypress Ranch cab was very drinkable but without the fullness and grip of the Trilogy cab. Unable to choose a favorite, we mixed a case of Merlot, the two cabernets and the flagship Cabernet, and Trilogy. If you find any of these wines, try them.

Shafer

Next we headed to the Silverado Trail for a stop at Shafer. Tours and tasting are available by appointment Monday-Friday. One tour a day, approximately 10 people, is scheduled from November to April and two a day for the rest of the season. Unfortunately, we called too late to join the tour but intended to stop and buy a few bottles. Timing is everything. We stopped just as the tour was taking shape and were invited to join.

The vineyard was founded by John Shafer in 1978 when he "retired" from his business in Chicago and moved west to farm. The winery is known for its Hillside Select Cabernet, which is grown on 17 acres behind the winery. Attesting to "terroir" and microclimates, the Hillside Vineyard faces west and the winery staff explained that the strong afternoon sun ripens the grapes and tannins making them softer than Cabernet grapes grown on the valley floor or on the western side of Napa Valley. We tasted the Chardonnay, made from grapes grown from vineyards in Carneros, Firebreak (a Sangiovesse), Merlot and the 1995 Cabernet. Firebreak was named after an out of control fire that swept the valley in the 80s. To save his home, brush around the property was set afire to create a fire break. After the fire, Mr. Shafer decided to plant vines on the property and the vineyard was named after the experience. Shafer wines are sold in 36 states and 17 countries yet are often hard to find, especially the Hillside Select. Another highly recommended winery.

We had dinner the first night at the Napa Valley Grill, an excellent restaurant although a bit noisy near the open areas where the food is prepared. The wine list is extensive and the mark up is reasonable. I recommend calling for reservations and asking for a table by the windows which is quieter.

Chimney Rock

On day two we started at Chimney Rock along the Silverado Trail, a return trip to a winery visited in 1997. We tasted the 1995 reserve Cabernet and the 1994 Elevage a blended wine. The Cabernet was very fruity and I thought needed time for the tannins to soften and balance the wine. Both will benefit from a few years of cellaring.

Chateau St. Jean

We headed to Sonoma for lunch in the picturesque town square. A restaurant and wine bar with great soup, bread and gelato is now owned by Viansa winery. A few miles north, we stopped at Chateau St. Jean. Set back a quarter mile from the road, the building sit at the base of the hillside. The vineyards line either side of the entrance road. The grounds were the best kept and landscaped of any winery, surpassing even Beringer. A large tasting room also offers books, spices, and basic and garlic grape seed oil. In the first room we tasted a Sauvignon Blanc moved to the next tasting room which offered a Chardonnay, Zinfandel, Merlot and the 1995 Cabernet. We noted the list indicated there were limited library selections available. When we asked, we were invited to visit the "private" tasting room where these wines were available for a charge of $5. The wines served included the 1991 Reserve Cabernet and the 1993 Reserve Merlot which were both good.

Landmark Vinyards

We also stopped next door at Landmark Vineyards, a small producer of four Chardonnay wines. Never a fan of white wines, the reserve Chardonnay was the best of the lot and actually a very good wine. Unfortunately, it is sold only from the Vineyard. We bought two bottles and headed to Calistoga to visit the wine shop. Always looking for small wineries whose wines are hard to find on the east coast, we asked the owner to recommend two wines. After considering the type of Cabernet we liked (we mentioned Togni, Corison, and Beringer Private Reserve), he recommended the 1995 Robert Pecota and the 1995 Barnett which we added to the growing assemblage in the back seat of the car. (We always park in shady areas and leave the windows open a crack to avoid high temperatures. On really hot days, we would ready the wine for shipping or bring it back to the room twice a day.)

Robert Mondavi Winery

Sunday was a different kind of education. A month earlier, we made reservations at the Robert Mondavi Winery for a four hour Vineyard Education and Tasting Tour. We spent almost two hours in the vineyards learning about different methods of pruning, canopy management and the effects on yield, spacing vines, the importance of soil and irrigation conditions and other topics. Mondavi sets aside several acres to conduct experiments with different irrigation, clones, varieties, cover crops, pruning, spacing and perhaps more of the many variables that contribute to the quality of grapes. Lo and behold, there was also a bottle of wine and glasses there in the vineyard for us.

We also toured the winery and spent an hour tasting wines with breads and various cheeses provided by a local cheese shop. The wines included a 1986 Chardonnay, a 1995 Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Zindandel, Pinot Noir and Cabernet. Experts contend that glasses make a significant difference in the aroma and taste of wine and I'm now a believer! Using Riedel glasses, we sampled the Mondavi 1995 Pinot Noir in a glass normally used for Chardonnay and one for Pinot. The difference was remarkable. The nose and taste was far more pronounced with the Pinot glass and muted with the Chardonnay glass. We would not have believed the difference without this comparison. This tour, limited to 10-12 people, offered more depth and education than the typical tour and is highly recommended.

Corison

The last day was perhaps the highlight. In February friends brought a bottle of the 94 Corison to dinner. It was among the top wines I have ever tasted. Before we left home, we called to schedule a visit at the Corison Winery. Cathy Corison met us at the Long Meadow Ranch, a brand new winery several miles off Route 29 on a winding one lane road up the mountain. The winery was built by digging into the mountain. The casks are stored under ground in a dimly lit, cool, humid cave that creates a very stable environment for aging wines.

Corison produces about 3,000 cases of Cabernet a year and is distributed word wide. Cathy Corison has been a winemaker for 22 years and makes wines for 2 vineyards in addition to her own. She has made Corison wine for 12 years from vineyards on the "bench," the alluvial plane section of Oakville that made Napa's wines famous. The bench is located to the west of Route 29 and is described as the best wine growing area in California. Amazingly, she does not own her own winery and has made her wine in 5 different wineries over those 12 years under arrangements with owners of the equipment. She uses 50% new french oak to age the wines about 24 months depending on the vintage. She prefers smaller, squat fermentation tanks to increase the passive contact between the must and the fermenting wine.

She spent some time describing the art of blending wine. The chemical composition is similar over time but the taste varies substantially. To maintain her pallet, her husband selects a different wine each night. Without seeing the label, she must determine the variety, area and year. She always tastes wines from other winemakers to maintain the sharpness of her palate. Tasting the same wines may narrow the focus and tasting range.

Scattered throughout the Corison vineyard in Oakville are several Shiraz vines which she makes for her father. The vines yield a half to a full barrel depending on the yield.

On the way to San Francisco, we stopped in Sausalito for lunch at the Alta Mira, a picturesque hotel and restaurant high in the hillside. The view of the bay and the San Francisco skyline is breathtaking. And this concluded our visit. We shipped 54 bottles of wine home which will spend a year or more in the wine cellar for further development. And we've already started a list for the next trip.

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