It is hard to believe that someone who has spent the last six years of his life, studying and obsessing over the subject of wine, had never been to the Napa Valley, but believe it or not, I had not even so much as passed through Napa, let alone visited it. Oh I’ve always wanted to, but the thought process my wife and I had always had gone through when approaching the subject was that this was a trip that needed a great deal of planning, both in terms of what to do and where to stay, as well as the financial costs needed to pull it off. In other words, we were going to have to save our pennies for a few years in order to make this trip a reality in the manner I envisioned it should be.
To be completely honest, I must confess that I am somewhat surprised that my wife was even entertaining the idea of visiting Napa or any other wine region for that matter, with me in tow. If you or anyone you know is like my wife, you enjoy drinking wine, but you aren’t necessarily interested in each and every minute detail that goes into the making of the beverage. You just want to go, sample a few wines and move on to something else. I can only imagine the profound boredom one must endure to visit a winery with a cork dork such as myself. For me, it is almost more fun to talk shop with the winemakers and winery workers than it is drinking the wines and I have been known to kill an entire afternoon discussing soil types and sustainable farming with a vineyard manager. An afternoon spent in this manner would absolutely bring my wife to tears and my marriage to the brink of destruction. Suffice it to say, a trip to Napa Valley was just not in the cards for us at this point in time, but all that would change back in late March and early April of this year.
It all begins with an unlikely interview for our website with Michael Chiarello, founder of NapaStyle and Food Network Chef for the show “Easy Entertaining with Michael Chiarello”. He also by the way, owns Chiarello Family Vineyards along with his wife, Eileen and his In- Laws. During the course of my correspondence for the interview, which was facilitated by his wife Eileen, they invited me to come to their Spring Release party out at their home in Napa. At this party, we would be sampling wines from the barrel and be treated to a four course dinner, prepared by none-other than Michael himself, and paired with Chiarello Family Vineyard wines. Um…well…geez…let me think it over a bit. What are you kidding me? You would have to be an absolute brain-celled deficient, moron not to take up an offer such as that! Of course I was going! But again, the financial aspect of the trip reared its ugly head again. Since this trip was on short notice and funds were tight, it was going to take serious planning and a lot of help from my wife and friends to make this trip happen.
The help my wife presented me came in the form of free Southwest Airline tickets that she had earned herself. This of course saved on what could have been the largest expense and the only drawback going this route was that (of course thanks to the wonderful Wright Amendment) I had to take the Southwest Airline tour of the entire continental U.S. The next expense was a car and one was found cheaply over the Internet through Alamo Rent-A-Car. In fact, only $60.00 for the entire weekend. Which really means $120.00 once you add the taxes, fees, insurance and normal things you’ve never really understood but were forced to agree to anyway. The last large expense that needed to be addressed was where to stay. My college buddy and long time friend, Bill and his wife Suzy, helped me out big time there by opening up their house to me for the weekend. Bill and Suzy live in Folsom, which is just outside Sacramento, California. Bill, who’s last name is Pharis, informed me when I called him that I was more than welcome to stay with them at their casa, which he referred to affectionately as “The Pharis Hilton”. Hey, he said it, not me! So with airfare, car and lodging taken care of, all the big expenses are out of the way, right? Yea right, who am I kidding, sending me to Napa is like sending a women with a shoe fetish to DSW and telling her that she can’t spend more than $20.00 on a pair of shoes. You know I have to bring back some wine with me!
The planning aspect of this trip came in the fashion of which wineries should I visit. I did a lot of research on the Internet as well as using some of the contacts that I have made in Napa to help me narrow down my choices to four wineries, other than of course Chiarello Family Vineyards. Some of the factors that helped me determine the wineries included; location in Napa, interesting properties, family operated, are their wines hard to find in Dallas, are they open on Sundays, are tours given by appointment & of course, do they make great wines. I believe all five wineries that I will be profiling in the pages to follow met all of my prerequisites. The only exceptions would be that Pride and Frog’s Leap are not open on Sundays, so appointments were made for Saturday at those wineries.
As you go through the winery profile pages that follow, you will notice that each of these wineries, except for a few minor differences in vineyard location and fermentation preferences, all have a lot in common. Some of the practices you will hear over and over with all of these wineries are their steadfast beliefs in sustainable farming, care of the vineyards and just how important the soil is to making great wines. Another thing that these wineries all have in common, and by the way, if you have never been to Napa, you should really take notice of this point, is that each winery is off of the beaten path with respect to the location of most of the wineries in Napa, which are located directly off of Highway 29. Because of this, each winery had stunning and breathtaking views that are completely unique to their winery. Another side benefit of their location was that they were not overrun by the crowds that fill up other tasting rooms off of the highway and therefore, much more individual time and care were afforded to you by the winery staff. The last thing I should point out that each of these wineries have in common, other than the fact that they all make exceptional and awe- inspiring wines, is that they are all family owned and operated and have absolutely no intention of every changing that concept in the future. This means total control over the quality of their wines. Quality that you taste for yourself when you drink their wines that come from the love and care that goes into making them. They all care more about the quality over the quantity of wines that they sell to the public and in today’s corporate environment that just isn’t the case anymore.
Before I start with the article for the first winery I visited, I wanted to share something I got to see in person that just sort of set the tone for the whole trip. While I was finishing packing the morning of the trip, I had the news on in the background and over heard them say that President Bush was going to be visiting Governor Arnold Schwartzenager regarding the broken levy systems caused by recent flooding in California. I was flying into Sacramento, which at the time I heard the news announce this, I had forgotten was the Capital of the State of California. When I got off the plane at the airport and was walking out the gate ramp, I noticed this giant 747 plane parked on the runway on the other side of the terminal. I thought to myself, well this is small airport, I am kind of surprised that they would have a 747 plane (which is two stories tall) fly out of here. Upon closer inspection of this massive metal tube, I noticed a big blue stripe that ran the entire length of the white plane and above it in black lettering, “The United States of America” and oh my gosh…I am staring at Air Force One. I have never seen the plane in person so it was kind of an exciting spectacle to see. So the pictures below are of that beautiful plane.
