Hello Everyone! We hope that you enjoyed reading about our trips to the different wineries in Napa and Sonoma and also learned a little bit so you can plan your own trip. In recounting our last day in Wine Country, we talk about a visit with an old friend, answer a key question: how do you get your purchases back?
If you travel enough, you realize the world is a pretty small place. Before leaving for California, we learned that an alum of Rachel’s college in Arkansas (Hendrix College), was living in Sonoma and had partnered with a friend to start up a winery called Verge. We were not familiar with Verge so we looked them up and learned that they specialized in Syrah. We had tried some exciting Syrahs lately so we were looking forward to the opportunity to visit. Unfortunately, the owners were out of town at the time, so after a fun phone conversation with Jay (the Hendrix alum), we agreed to set up a visit on our next trip to Wine Country.
We were able to get a chance to meet up with another old friend, Corey Beck. Corey is the winemaker for Francis Ford Coppola’s winery at the former Chateau Souverain winery. We first met Corey back in the early 2000s at the Nantucket Wine Festival. We wowed Corey with our knowledge of the different Coppola Diamond label wines and enjoyed some good conversation. At subsequent Nantucket Wine Festivals, Corey was on the panel at different Cabernet Sauvignon symposia that we attended, and we always came away with some good information about winemaking in general and at Francis Ford Coppola. We were happy that Corey was able to once again set aside some time to visit with us on this trip.
Driving up to the gates of the new Coppola Winery we could see that the winery was undergoing a transformation. Francis did an incredible job restoring the Inglenook Estate in Napa into his flagship Rubicon Estate, and a similar transformation is going on at the former Chateau Souverain. We followed the construction signs and drove through the facility until we came to the temporary tasting room. We were greeted by Bob and Jill Jones, who work in the tasting room and who also have a very special story that we’ll talk about later. Bob and Jill rang up Corey, who shortly came down to greet us and took us on a tour of the facility. The original Souverain facility was built to be operated remotely and has a complex system of pipes and manifolds to move the wine around, which is quite unusual. Corey also took us through the bottling line and packaging area where cases if wine were being wrapped for delivery. We also passed through the state of the art lab and testing area, which of course was particularly interesting for Bryan due to his chemistry background. There are many exciting things being developed at the winery and Corey showed us some new innovations that they are working on. One thing we especially found intriguing was the wine dispensing system that holds a lot of bottles of wine, keeps it fresh for months, and is dispensed through a little pump, almost like a large coffee dispenser. We had a great tour with Corey and it was a nice chance to catch up and talk about things since we last saw each other. A real unexpected special treat came when Corey presented us with two bottles of his own C·Beck wine: a Cabernet Sauvignon and a Petite Sirah.
After our tour, Corey had to get back to business and he left us in Bob’s capable hands to do some tasting. Early in our wine days, we loved both the Rosso and Bianco, which were nice blends that went very well with food. We previously mentioned our familiarity with Diamond Label series, and the blue label Merlot is a particular favorite. Coppola also makes a sparkling wine called Sofia, which is in honor of Francis’ daughter, Sofia Coppola. The Sofia is a light and dry sparkling wine with nice fruit. The winery has really stepped up their innovation when it comes to the Sofia because it is also sold in a little pink 187-ml can. It’s hard not to love drinking this wine: popping open a little pink can that comes with its own little pink straw. Our sister-in-law Amanda was especially entranced, so for Steve and Amanda’s last Christmas in Connecticut, we had a case of Sofia cans sent to their house for us to enjoy over the holiday weekend. (Important note here – if you’re having something sent via UPS or FedEx, make sure you have the address correct, because it can be a little dicey if it’s misdelivered to a scary neighbor because you had the wrong house number.)
Back to our present day tasting: we started out with the Director’s Cut series, which are a relatively new label and can be great bargains. During this tasting, we enjoyed the Director’s Cut Zinfandel and Cabernet Sauvignon. Again playing on Francis’s background in filmmaking, we also tried a wine called Cinema, which is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel, Cabernet Franc and Petite Sirah, and was quite yummy. We were also intrigued by the Su Yuen Syrah, which was served slightly chilled. We probably generally drink our red wines warmer than they should be, and so it was really nice to try the wine with a slight chill on it. This is something that those of you especially in warmer climates should keep in mind, red wine should really be served around 63 degrees Fahrenheit. With the bigger, tannic red wines this is especially important because the flavors can be more “biting” in your mouth at higher temperatures.
As we mentioned, we are pretty familiar with the Diamond Collection wines, so we tried some of the newer ones, starting with the Claret. Claret is a term that was used frequently with the Bordeaux blends that were exported to England, and was a nice blend of primarily Cabernet, with 7% Petit Verdot, 4% Merlot, 4% Malbec, and 3% Cabernet Franc. We were particularly interested to try some of the more unique varietals including Tempranillo, which is the noble Spanish grape, sourced in this case from the Navarra region of Spain, and the Alicante Bouschet. The Alicante Bouschet is a traditional Italian grape varietal and is made from 85-year old vines from Lodi. Alicante is also one of the few grapes that has red pulp in addition to red skin. Following that it was time to try out some of the dessert wines, and Rachel got the tasting room in a buzz when she asked if there was any chocolate to have alongside the Petite Sirah Dessert Wine. As it turned out, Bob did happen to have a Chocolate Wine Sauce, which is part of the Coppola fine food selection. It was a marvelous match and the other patrons were very thankful for her suggestion. After wrapping up an enjoyable tasting, we decided to purchase a bottle of the Director’s Cut Cabernet Sauvignon, the Cinema, and a bottle of the Petite Sirah Dessert Wine.
We mentioned earlier that our tasting room servers, Bob and Jill Jones, had a unique story. They first met around 40 years ago as teachers in a local Catholic high school and were immediately drawn to one another. The only catch? Bob was a priest and Jill a nun. Their love for each other was too strong however, and they were married 5 years later. Things like this don’t just happen in Francis’ movies.
It was almost time to wrap up our visit and head back to Napa and then on to Oakland to catch our flight home, but since we were in Alexander Valley, we couldn’t resist the chance to head up the road to Silver Oak, which is famous for their Cabernet Sauvignon. The winery is in a beautiful setting perched on a hill that looks east over the Alexander Valley. They make both a Cabernet from Napa Valley and one from Alexander Valley in Sonoma. Available for tasting that day were both the 2005 Alexander Valley and the ’05 Napa Valley. We were also able to try the 2001 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, which also had some Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and Petit Verdot in the Bordeaux style. It was a quick visit and we were getting ready to wrap up our trip so we headed out and made our way back through Alexander Valley towards Napa.
We had some time for a late lunch so we stuck with our usual: Tra Vigne Pizzeria on Main Street in St. Helena. Despite all of the other well-known restaurants in Napa Valley, it is one of our favorite places to dine when we go there. Pizza is great after a full day of tasting and it goes so well with a beer. It’s much like our Mexican and Margaritas combination: a really great palate cleanser.
After lunch, we had one last important stop before heading back down to catch our red-eye flight home. We had purchased some two cases of wine over the last few days, and needed a way to get the wine home. We’re a little militant about refusing to check baggage on a flight, even a nonstop flight, and in any event, it would’ve been difficult to fit two cases in our rollaboards. We have found Stagecoach Express in Napa to be a really reliable shipper, and they specialize in shipping wine. Stagecoach is usually our last stop before heading to the airport. They provide the boxes and packing material for no-worries shipping. When we stopped in, we were greeted as usual by Mr. Ed, the shop cat. Mr. Ed is at least 20 years old, and specializes on sitting on the counter above the computer, a nice warm spot. Mr. Ed is very talkative and somewhat cranky, but given our affinity for those of the feline persuasion, he was soon rubbing his head against our hands. So we dropped all our wine, glasses, and special boxes from Trinchero, filled out the forms with the supervision of Mr. Ed and headed on to Oakland.
Another great trip had come to an end, with some visits with some great friends and tasting some great wines. We’re already ready for next year!
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