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Monday, September 10 - A new week, a new country. California - Here we come.
After a few days of Canadian fall weather, the prospect of warm Californian sunshine was very appealing. After an early morning departure from Vancouver, we were on American soil by mid-morning ready to pick up our rental car.
During the flight down, Bill had his moment of brilliance for the trip. He suggested renting a convertible. Well, I thought, what an excellent idea. Seeing California in a convertible! And since I would be the driver on this leg of the trip, even better. We checked in at Avis car rental and asked for a convertible, and we were rewarded with a brand spanking new, red Sebring convertible with 5 miles on the odometer. I felt like I had won the lottery - or at least the bingo jackpot. (Note: In the movie 'Sideways' the two fellows drive thru wine country in a red convertible).
From that moment, vacation officially commenced and the real fun began.
The drive from San Francisco to Wine Country took us over the Bay Bridge. It seemed that the journey over the bridge would go on forever. It kept going and going until finally we hit the Oakland side of the bay area.
Finally we arrived in Sonoma (Sonoma County) at the Fairmont Sonoma Spa&Inn. What a luxurious place! Our suite was incredible and included a patio overlooking a water fountain. It was at this point where one of us (I can't remember who exactly) barged thru the patio door and proclaimed loudly that this was quite a 'stately' room. Unfortunately, there was a wedding happening just below at the water fountain. At that point the bridal party looked up (but not too glaringly) as we sheepishly apologized and retreated to the main room.
(Kevin Note: at this point, I officially placed this hotel room in my list of top 3 hotels I have stayed in - after the Dublin Westin and Waldorf Astoria - NYC).
After this eventful hello we started our wine touring. We first decided to go to Francis Ford Copolla's winery. This involved driving from Sonoma Valley to Napa Valley over the mountains on an extremely curvy/twisty road. I thought the drive to Whistler was twisty and windy. This drive was even more extreme with some turns involving near complete u turns while going up the mountain.
(Kevin Note: The first lesson from this trip was the fact that Napa Valley is not where all the wine in California is made. There are many wine making regions in California and to state that this is just 'Napa' is both incorrect and insulting to the local folk.)
Enroute to Coppola's winery we stopped at the Oakville Grocery to have some lunch. The Oakville Grocery, while highly rated, was rather disappointing. My lunch was over-powering to the taste buds. All I could taste was pesto and nothing else. It was funny to see how things were marketed at the Oakville Grocery, for example they were selling 250 mL bottles of 'Local Artisan Jams' for over $12 US. I tasted some of the jam samples and could not comprehend how this local and artisan style of jam commanded such prices. It's amazing what price can be charged when the combination of Local + Artisan is used to market your products.
(Kevin Commentary: The Oakville Grocery is an example of Napa's move to over-commercialization and just over-doing it. The Oakville Grocery concept is to provide gourmet home made foods. However, the result is over-priced and very pretentious.)
The next stop was the Coppola-Neibaum winery. Francis Ford Coppola (the Godfather fellow) is the current owner of this winery. Upon arriving, one could see that it was very popular as the parking lot near capacity. However, it became apparent that most people were drawn by the winery's namesake not the fact that good wine is actually produced here (more on that later).
We decided to do the over-priced, historical tour of the winery with a tasting to follow. This proved interesting as our guide explained how FF Coppola formed his winery. The short of the story is that after the first Godfather movie, Coppola was loaded with cash and bought part of the estate to get away from Hollywood. Later, after making Bram Stoker's Dracula, he had lots more money and bought up the rest of the original Neibaum estate (Captain Neibaum was a Norwegian sailing captain who created the original winery estate). FF Coppola later built a building (called a chateau) next to the roadside where everyday tons of tourist types come in and pay lots of cash for tours, wine trinkets and wine with his name on it.
The final part of the tour was in the tasting room where we sat down for a selection of wines (see list at end) accompanied by old American cheese and bread. The tasting room ambiance was really cool enhanced by the old, dusty bottles of wine in the cabinets.
Speaking of the wines the selection that we tasted was excellent.
The wines were presented from the 'calmer' varieties up to the bolder ones such as Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel. In fact when the first of the Zinfandel hit my taste buds I immediately sensed flavours consisting of a little citrus, maybe some strawberry...passion fruit and the faintest sous sol of asparagus with the flutter of a nutty Edam cheese. (Ok, I actually didn't sense this...but doesn't it sound like someone who knows what they are talking about? Actually this quote was from Miles in the movie 'Sideways'). But I did enjoy the Zinfandel and on exiting I purchased a bottle to bring home.
My final comment on this tour relates around Coppola's daughter Sofia. Dear old Francis decided to dedicate a wine in her honour. But his one requirement was that the wine be bottled in small, petite bottles shaped like the larger wine bottles. Unfortunately for Francis this was not technically possible and in reply Francis said to just put the wine in a can. And voila, the soda can version of the Sofia wine was born and apparently it sells very well.
Our only other stop for the day was at Beringer Brothers. This winery was recommended to Bill by a colleague. It was here that Bill decided that he was going to buy his first bottle of California wine. I fully expected that he would draw upon his acquired wine knowledge here.
Upon entering the gift shop/wine room we glanced upon a series of wines that ranged from the $20/bottle up to the exclusive private reserves that hovered at $100 US and above. It was this later group that seemed to catch Bill's interest. I quietly asked him if he knew what he was looking for from these high end wines. After a vague response I recommended that if he was interested he had better ask someone for advice.
I think this was the moment where the wine touring/tasting experience descended down that slippery slope. One of the Beringer 'wine experts' came by and asked if we needed some assistance. Bill responded that 'he was looking to buy some wine' (I thought that this might have been obvious but hey that is me). After the 'expert' asked what Bill was interested in, the following response emitted from Bill's mouth (and I repeat basically word for word) "...well I really don't like wine....but I am looking for something that will provide good value."
Our so called wine expert quickly went silent. I don't know if it was from shock or what but Bill eloquently broke the ice again by saying "yes...I would like something with lots of points (i.e., the Wine Spectator magazine rating scale) for the dollar. So how about this $100 bottle here.... Is it good?"
At this point I muttered to Bill that I was going outside to visit the estate gardens. I did not want to be party to the purchasing process that would follow. So I left....for 20 minutes....after which I returned expecting to see Bill exiting with a case of Beringer's 2001 Cabernet Sauvignon Private Reserve.
My re-entry to Bill's wine buying world (also referred to as The Matrix) left me wishing I had taken the blue pill (again reference to the Matrix). A sense of déjà vu occurred as Bill was still pondering over which $100 bottle to buy. It was then that I suggested that perhaps he should first sample the wine at the tasting area to see if he even liked the wine. With my words heeded, we proceeded to the tasting area where after some glass swirling, swishing and spitting Bill decided to make the wine connoisseur plunge for the Beringer 2001 Cabernet Sauvignon Private Reserve.
That evening was rather low key after a very busy travel and wine day; we ate excellent California style food for supper at the Fairmont Santé restaurant. I had west coast salmon with local vegetables; it was quite delicious. Bill had steak I believe.
One footnote here, Bill asked the sommelier why no Beringer wines were on the wine list. The response was that he (and the wine buyer) did not feel that Beringer gave the best wine experience for the cost. After receiving this independent opinion, I have to admit that Bill played it pretty cool. I certainly would not have been pleased to hear a third party tell me that my wine did not provide great value (if that is what I valued in a wine). I guess a wine with 98 points out of 100 is not always good enough for supper according to some people. I hope this didn't cause any indigestion or second thoughts on the wine purchase - I guess Bill can mull over that as he drinks his $100 bottle of Cabernet.
California Day 02 - Tuesday Sept. 11 - Hitting the Wineries
Tuesday began by exploring downtown Sonoma. Sonoma city centre is your typical American town square with all the local amenities such as restaurants, wine stores, arts stores, sheriff's office and the local coffee shop.
From there we hit two local Sonoma wineries Buena Vista and Sebastini before heading back along to Napa Valley. The first winery, Sebastini, was offering free tastings when we arrived. Unfortunately, I was still drinking my latté from the coffee shop and it was rather early (10am). After a few swigs of water to cleanse my palette I started on a Chardonnay, ending on a Cabernet Sauvignon.
Now, I don't know if it was the residual caffeine aftertaste or the early morning hour, but this tasting experience didn't leave me with the urge to purchase any Sebastini vintages. On the other hand perhaps it wasn't me but rather their wines were just crap. Either way, I didn't I didn't savour the experience.
Next on the winery list was Buena Vista. The night before these guys had a tasting at the Fairmont Sonoma lobby where I tried their Zinfandel and picked up a free tasting pass. The Buena Vista winery is reputedly the oldest modern winery in California. What I really think this means is that they were the first winery that was not run by a bunch of wino monks that made wine by squishing grapes with their pious feet and letting it ferment in the monastery basement.
From Buena Vista we proceeded up the road to Chateau St. Jean. What was most impressive here, were the beautiful gardens that included several rows of grapes. This enabled a close inspection of the grape varieties grown on the estate and provided a good perspective on the various sizes and styles of grapes that exist. Of note, while I was touring the gardens, Bill was inside at the private wine reserve scoping out what wines to buy. After a half hour we left Chateau St. Jean - without any wine purchases.
We then proceeded further up the Sonoma Valley and cut across into Napa Valley at Calistoga. Our plan was to hit the Sterling Winery. It was a glorious day with the warm Californian wind and sun that came with having the top down on the car.
While driving through Calistoga we came upon a wine store called the Wine Garage. We stopped and went inside where Bill immediately chatted up Gary the Mechanic. Gary was not your normal grease monkey. Instead of 10w30 and a lube job, he was offering up Pinot Noir at $19.95. The wine discussion between Bill and Gary focused on Gary providing recommendations based on Bill's criteria (value and points). Gary must have pulled out and flashed about 30 different bottles. It was information overload for me but Bill picked out two bottles - one that was made from grapes that came from Robin Williams' vineyards (nanu nanu) and a second that was served at an Academy Awards party last year.
From here we made way to the Sterling Winery. The cool thing here was the gondola tram ride up to the winery on top of a hill overlooking the immediate vineyards that supply the winery.
After a self guided wine production tour (covering seeing the grapes delivered, the fermenting tanks and finally the private reserve cask room) we sat down on the patio for our wine tasting. This was truly a wine tasting experience. We tasted several wines (LIST) while relaxing and enjoying the amazing views across and down in Napa Valley.
After four wineries, we were ready for supper. We stopped at Yountville and were lucky enough to get a table at the Bouchon restaurant in Yountville. After a tasty meal we headed down to Pentaluna for the evening.
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