Hi everybody! In our last post, you heard about our first morning on the wine trail in the Napa Valley. Our afternoon and evening were equally exciting and gave us the chance to visit some old friends. After we left Cliff Lede, we headed up to the northern part of St. Helena to meet our friend Chuck Parker at the new Trinchero Napa Valley facility. Many of you probably have never heard of the Trincheros, but we’re sure you’ve heard of one of their biggest ventures: Sutter Home Winery. Sutter Home was established in the late 19th century by Swiss-German immigrants to the US, but as with most wineries in the US, it was shut down during Prohibition. In 1948, John and Mario Trinchero, Italian immigrants from New York, purchased the winery and kept it going as more of a mom-and-pop type place, filling their neighbors' barrels and jugs. The winery essentially continued in this fashion until 1975, when a new era in American wine was created: white Zinfandel.
The story of how white Zin was created is one of those fortunate accidents that could probably never be duplicated if they had actually been trying to create this wine. Bob Trinchero, Mario’s oldest son, noticed that some of the run-off juice from his red Zinfandel was not fermenting to dryness and was retaining a substantial amount of residual sugar. Bob decided to set the wine aside for awhile, worry about it later. Later when he tried it, he decided maybe it was actually pretty good, and decided to bottle it. From this, the white Zinfandel era was born. The Trinchero family, with Bob at the helm, still runs Sutter Home and has acquired a number of other labels (Folie a Deux, Napa Cellars, Montevina to name just a few), but it is the Trinchero Napa Valley wines which are considered the premium wines in the Trinchero portfolio.
We first came across the Trinchero wines during a visit to the Nantucket Wine Festival several years ago. We had attended a Cabernet Sauvignon tasting which included about 8 Cabernets from the 2000 or 2001 vintages. We thought that the 2000 Trinchero Main Street Cabernet was excellent, and thought it stood up nicely against the other Cabernets we were tasting, including Stags Leap Wine Cellars and Rubicon Cask Cabernet. Later that evening at the Winemakers Reception, we happened across the Trinchero table and its ambassador and former Cellar Master, Chuck Parker. We had immediately taken a liking to Chuck at the earlier Cabernet tasting because of his laid back style and relaxed attitude towards wine. Chuck has been involved in making fine wines for many many years, but his attitude is very much like ours – what makes a wine enjoyable is that you like it – whether it’s a $10 bottle or a $50+ bottle. So we started chatting with Chuck, and a friendship was born.
Each visit to the Napa Valley usually includes a visit with Chuck, and this year was no exception. We met Chuck at the brand new Trinchero Napa Valley Winery on Highway 29 in northern St. Helena – the new facility is absolutely gorgeous. The family has taken the former Folie a Deux facility and made it a real destination point – beautiful architecture, a world class kitchen, and gorgeous grounds with an incredible view of Mount St. Helena. Oh yes, and a state of the art winemaking facility!
In addition to Chuck, we always meet some fantastic people at Trinchero. Last year, Chris, who had just returned from Afghanistan, was pouring wines for us, and this year it was Lou. We tried the wines and as usual, they did not disappoint. We have always enjoyed all of Trinchero’s wines, but our favorite has always been their Petit Verdot. Petit Verdot is one of the five classic Bordeaux grapes, and not many wineries will produce a single varietal Petit Verdot. We have been hooked on this wine’s flavors of plum and violet, its rich color, and velvety tannins, and we frequently pick up a few on our travels. Unfortunately we are unable to join the Trinchero wine club since they don’t ship to Connecticut, but we always make sure we pick up several bottles on our visits. We loved all the Trinchero wines we tasted but a standout this year was the Cabernet Sauvignon from the Cloud’s Nest Vineyard, which sits high atop Mt. Veeder. This wine was a powerful example of a Cabernet, with rich dark cherry and tobacco flavors with an incredible finish. Winemaker Mario Monticelli (who we were lucky enough to meet at the Mohegan Sun wine tasting in January) joined Trinchero in 2007, and we are looking forward to many more incredible vintages. By the way, Mario’s wife Anna is the winemaker for Piña Napa Valley, which makes incredibly huge Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon. We also belong to their wine club.
After spending some time walking around the grounds, we had to bid goodbye to Chuck, with plans to meet up for dinner later. We then traveled the short distance south on Highway 29 to the winery of Charles Krug.
Charles Krug is another winery in the Napa Valley with a storied history. Krug was the first winery in the Napa Valley, and was acquired by the Mondavi family in 1943. The winery was initially run by Cesare Mondavi, and his sons Robert and Peter. After Cesare’s death, the brothers worked together for a few years until their now famous quarrel in the early 1960s. In 1966, Peter Mondavi took over winery operations at Charles Krug, and Robert moved to Oakville to start his own legacy.
We have long been fans of Charles Krug, and confess that one of our first wines from this winery was its white Zinfandel. Bryan first tried Krug’s white Zin during a visit in 1996, and both he and Rachel loved it for its fruity, strawberry flavors, which were not overly sweet. Unfortunately, Charles Krug has ceased production on white Zinfandel, and although Bryan’s grad school roommate Mike accidentally drank one of our last bottles, we did manage to hold on to one last bottle to enjoy on our wedding night in 2001. We are also especially fond of Charles Krug because we had the opportunity to meet Peter Mondavi himself during a visit to the Nantucket Wine Festival in 2001. Peter was incredibly gracious and friendly, and seemed genuinely happy to talk to us. In recent years at Nantucket, we’ve had the opportunity to meet Peter’s son Marc, who is great fun and represents the family well.
Upon arriving at the Charles Krug tasting room, we announced ourselves as club members, and the royal treatment commenced. We started off with a glass of the Sauvignon Blanc, which was fresh and lively, full of grapefruit and lemon-lime flavors. It was a great palate cleanser and would be perfect for sitting outside on a warm day. We particularly enjoyed the St. Helena Zinfandel, which was blended with a fair amount of Petite Sirah, giving more of a coffee and pepper balance to the raspberry fruits of the Zinfandel. And no tasting at Charles Krug would be complete without the Reserve Generations. As you can probably tell, we have a lot of history and sentimentality when it comes to Charles Krug and the Peter Mondavi family, and Generations is a part of this history. While on Nantucket for one of our first wine festivals there, we happened upon a bottle of 1993 Generations. Generations is a blend of several different red wine grapes, and the blend changes with each vintage. At the grand tasting that year, we mentioned to Jennifer at the Charles Krug table that we had recently come across the ’93, and so of course she insisted that we try the ’94 that she was pouring that day. We are great fans of blended red wines such as this – the wines tend to be a little bit softer depending on the amount of Cabernet that leads the blend, and have incredible complexity that results from the intermingling of flavors of all these grape varietals. You don’t normally see Generations in your local store, but very often, your wine store owner can order this for you. We most recently ordered it from Nine East in Natick, MA, and wine director Harry Zarkades was happy to get it for us. The current release is the 2005 vintage, which is 62% Cabernet, 23% Merlot, 9% Petit Verdot, 3% Cabernet Franc, and 3% Syrah (but for the Syrah, which is not a Bordeaux grape, this would be a classic Bordeaux bottling).
We previously alluded to a quarrel between Peter and Robert Mondavi, which resulted in Robert starting his own operation farther south in Oakville, including not only his eponymous winery, but also the famous Opus One. The brothers remained estranged for a number of years, but in 2005 they reconciled, making a small amount of wine together for the first time since the feud. The wine was a Cabernet Sauvignon from a blend of grapes from both family wineries, and was called Ancora Una Volta – Once Again. The reconciliation was timely, as Robert passed away in May 2008. Peter Mondavi carries on at Charles Krug at the age of 95. We encourage everyone to look for Charles Krug wines in your local stores. Peter is very pragmatic about wine and even though he sells some ultra-premium wine, you will still find high quality wines in the $20-25 range.
After we left Krug, we decided we still had some time before meeting Chuck for dinner, so we headed south to Peju, in Rutherford. From the moment we pulled into Peju for the first time last year, we were hooked. We immediately dubbed it “The Temple of Wine” (the pictures should indicate why).
The Peju family moved to California and purchased the property in Rutherford in 1982, in one of the best locations in the Napa Valley. The family is still involved in running the winery. After going through the usual jaw-dropping experience entering the tasting room, we proceeded to the tasting table where Richie Cooksey, tasting room cruise director for the day, was holding court. We lined up between one couple from Brazil and another couple from Seattle, and the tasting commenced. Peju has a full complement of wines but we gravitate towards the red wines (in fact, we joined Peju’s Red Wine Club last year). Before we go to the reds, we have to say a few words about Peju’s Provence, which is a unique red and white blend. The current release contains Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Zinfandel, blended with white wine grapes Chardonnay and French Columbard. What a combination! You chill this wine down, and it drinks like a nice dry Rosé. We could have this wine just on its own, but it is great with BBQ and spicy foods.
Peju’s red wines are a great example of a powerful Napa Valley wine, Cabernets and Merlots equally. In fact, Peju makes a wine called “Fifty-Fifty,” which is half Cabernet Sauvignon, half Merlot. They describe it as “Merlot elegance meets Cabernet power,” and that is exactly what this wine is. Peju also makes a Syrah, Cabernet, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, and a Zinfandel (as we mentioned, we’re in the Red Wine Club – Peju wines aren’t extensively distributed – so we’re focusing more on the reds here), all of which are powerful, rich red wines.
We were enjoying chatting with Richie in the tasting room, but soon realized we needed to hurry or we would be late for dinner with Chuck. So we made a quick run by our hotel, and then over to Chuck’s home outside the town of Napa. We were greeted by Chuck, his wife Leslie, and their dog Millie (Jack-Jack and Chippie, their two cats, made a later appearance). Chuck’s house looks out over a vineyard so we enjoyed the view and the sinking sun with a glass of Sea Glass Sauvignon Blanc (another part of the Trinchero portfolio), before heading out to dinner.
Dinners with Chuck and Leslie are always entertaining and this one was no exception. After dinner, we headed back to Chuck and Leslie’s house for some musical entertainment (Chuck on guitar and Rachel on tambourine), and then finally decided to call it a night. It had been a long, but extremely satisfying first day in the Napa Valley, and we couldn’t wait for tomorrow.
Drink what you like, like what you drink!
No comments:
Post a Comment