Woman with a Whisk: California Wine Country: Day 1 in Napa

We woke up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed on Saturday morning, ready to head to Napa. I had made a packet detailing our itinerary, maps, and addresses and phone numbers of the wineries and hotels, so I was a woman on a mission. We left San Jose a bit late (trying to get 6 people out the door on time at 8 in the morning after a night of Scene It and beer was futile) and it was a bit rainy (apparently, like in Texas, drivers in San Francisco get freaked out in the rain), so we were running behind. We chose to get a limo to take us around to the wineries, which was a great idea in theory, but the later we were, the more it cut into our time at the wineries, which leads me to:

Tip #1: When you make the limo reservation, find out how much an additional hour is and if the driver is available.

Winery #1: CADE Winery (360 Howell Mountain Road South, Angwin)
Our first stop was CADE, a LEED-certified winery north of Napa that's part of PlumpJack. It's been featured in Food and Wine and in Food + Leisure as a Napa Valley must-see, and having been on the tour, I can see why. It's a beautiful, modern winery with lots of concrete and steel on top of a mountain; I kept saying what a great wedding venue it would be. It's also not such a tourist destination as some of the other Napa wineries are.

The patio outside of the tasting room has beautiful views and a very cool infinity fountain.

The tour guide explained to us that cork trees regrow themselves until they're 250 years old. CADE grows their own on site.

Once inside the winery, we were greeted by huge steel fermenting vats. Honestly, I wasn't really paying attention to the tour, so I still have no idea how to make wine. That's okay, I just drink the stuff.

Don't worry, we'll get to the wines soon. As the day went on, I forgot about taking pictures anyway.

As the tour finished, we found some comfy couches in the tasting room and were poured 3 tastes (I completely forgot the vintages -- sorry.):

Sauvignon Blanc Napa Valley
Napa Cuvee Cabernet Sauvignon (a Cab, Merlot and Petit Verdot blend)
Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain

Tip #2: Take a pad and pen for notes. If the tasting room has a piece of paper with the wines on it, swipe one.

The sauv blanc was fine. Not particularly complex, but drinkable (I suppose). I'm not really sure why you would, as I've found better sauv blancs in the grocery store for *much* less money. To be honest, that's kind of how we felt about both of the cabs also. Okay wines, but definitely not worth the price tag. Must-see, yes, but must-taste, not so much.

Moving on.

Winery #2: Sterling Vineyards (1111 Dunaweal Lane, Calistoga)
Calistoga is pretty far north of Napa, but one of our friends assured us that the views alone were worth going. She was right! We took a tram up to the top of the mountain where the tasting room is located and there were some beautiful views. Lucky for us, the sun made a brief appearance at that point also.

So many of the vineyards had beautiful gardens. I managed to catch a few pretty pictures of the blooms.

Sterling's is a self-guided tour with 2 glasses along the way, so make sure you take advantage of it. We had:

2008 Cellar Club Pinot Gris (Light and fruity. I thought this would make a very cool granita if it would freeze correctly.)
2008 Barrel-Fermented Sauvignon Blanc (Peach was so overwhelming in this that I couldn't taste anything else. In fact, it wasn't just peach -- it tasted like cheap peach schnapps. I thought I was drinking a Sex on the Beach. Apparently Wine Spectator gave this 90 points?! My palate must be off.)
2006 Carneros Pinot Noir (I love a good pinot noir, so I was excited to taste this [our only pinot of the day!]. But this was like if you took pinot noir to the extremes of its stereotype. Way too light [ie, not interesting at all] and way too berry.)
2005 Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon
2008 Cellar Club Malvasia Bianca

Alas, the combination of the altitude, the sudden onset of sun and heat, and the fact that I needed to eat made me so light-headed and dizzy that I couldn't (!) drink anything after the Pinot Noir. I took a sip of the oh-so-sweet Malvasia Bianca (enough to pick up a nice hint of ginger), but the Cab was completely lost on me. Oh well.

Tip #3: Bring a snack. Even if you're not a cheap date like me, I heard that many wineries would have crackers to clean your palate and none we went to did.

We took the tram back down to the bottom of the mountain and when I saw the time, I quickly realized that there was no way we would make it to lunch and 2 more wineries that day. I was bummed that we would miss Cakebread, but I needed lunch. Our limo driver recommended a winery with picnic grounds and a deli on-site that was on the way to the last winery of the day, so at least we would get to taste some more wine at lunch. Done.

Winery #3: V.Sattui Winery (1111 White Lane, St.Helena)
I'll cut right to the chase. We didn't bother with the tasting, since we just wanted a few bottles to drink with our lunch. We went with:

2006 Napa Valley Cabernet
2007 Dry Johannisberg Riesling

The cabernet was garbage. It tasted like something out of a box. The riesling, on the other hand, was okay. I'm not a riesling drinker normally (way too sweet), but we wanted something chilled (it was hot out) and drinkable. One of the tasting room managers mentioned that it was much drier than normal rieslings, and we weren't disappointed. It went well with my over-priced grilled shrimp kabob and macaroni salad.

Tip #4: Picnic lunches at wineries are way overpriced. Pack a lunch beforehand to save some dough. But don't use a winery's picnic grounds without buying some wine from them. That's like bringing a cup of Starbucks to a local coffee shop.

Winery #4: Honig Vineyard and Winery (850 Rutherford Road, Rutherford)
Honig was our last stop of the day, and because we were so delayed already, we had to make it quick since the limo driver needed to take us back to the hotel. I would have loved to stay longer, as it was known for its sustainability and I would have liked the chance to talk to the tasting manager about it and seen a bit of the grounds. Since we didn't have a ton of time, we got to tasting pretty quickly. We tried 5 wines:

2008 Sauvignon Blanc (Crisp and dry. Nice version of a sauvignon blanc, but somewhat typical.)
2007 Rutherford Sauvignon Blanc (This one is fermented in oak barrels, so it takes on a flavor more typical of a chardonnay. I didn't care for it. Too much vanilla.)
2006 Cabernet Sauvignon (This gets into the "I don't really remember" area. Sorry.)
2005 Bartolucci Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon (Good balance of fruit and tannins. Neither were overwhelming, but it was just enough of each to make the wine interesting. Apparently this means the wine is "well-structured?"
2007 Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc (A dessert wine that has a strong honey flavor that lingers in your mouth. I couldn't get enough of this. I previously turned my nose up at dessert wine, but I learned that it's only because I haven't had any good ones. I would love to make a reduction of this and pour it over a homemade vanilla bean ice cream with a sprinkle of cinnamon.)

We ended up purchasing the Sauvignon Blanc, the Bartolucci Vineyard Cab, and the Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc. Full disclosure here: we "knew" the tasting manager at Honig (one of those friend of a friend situations). The wine was good enough that we would have bought it regardless though.

We made our way back to the hotel and after enjoying a complimentary wine and cheese cocktail hour at the hotel (Cory has discovered his love for Irish cheddar), we all took naps. I have no idea how this happened, but no one set their alarms for dinner, and it was a good thing that somehow we woke up with 15 minutes to get ready.

We enjoyed a great meal at Celadon in downtown Napa. We shared a bottle of the 2006 Pope Valley Sangiovese, and some had cocktails (I heard the Silverado strawberry lemonade was fantastic). I had soy-braised pork belly with watermelon, herbs and sesame seeds (had a bit of an Asian theme to it) that was melt-in-your-mouth, oh-my-god-this-is-good phenomenal. The only issue I had with the dish was the overwhelming portion of watermelon. It seemed to outdo the pork belly a bit. I also had the mussels, which were the biggest mussels I've ever seen. It was in a white wine broth, but the wine flavors were a bit muted given that there were hunks of bacon in the dish. It was still great, but I think the bacon was a bit too much for the delicate flavor of the mussels. I'm being overly critical though. We shared the bread pudding with berries and Grand Marnier creme anglais. It was positively dreamy. There were nuts in it, which gave it a nice texture contrast.