Flanagan Wines

We met Eric Flanagan when we were tasting at Vintners Collective in downtown Napa.  Eric was there speaking to Garret about the possibility of carrying their wines. Eric and Paul hit it off in the tasting room and we were invited to visit Eric at his Bennett Valley vineyard on the Friday during our stay.  We couldn't refuse!  Armed with the gate codes we made our way to Bennett Valley after our tasting at J Vineyards.

Wow - we thought as we entered Gate #1 - good thing it doesn't snow here in the winter.  It's a heck of climb on a narrow and winding road but the reward at the top of Gate #2 was fantastic!  What an amazing view!  We were met by Eric who took us into the winery and explained his operation.  They use a Vaslin-Bucher basket press and get 30% lower juice per ton than a regular bladder press.  This type of press doesn't extract the harsh tannins.  Then the juice is put in these 4 ton oak fermentation tanks.  For their Chardonnay they have a steel tank designed to match the oak tanks.  After all you have to match!

We moved out into the vineyard which was planted in 2001 and 2002  with 6.5 acres of Cabernet Sauvignon, 1.5 acres of Merlot and 5.5 acres of Syrah. Eric explained to us that they get low yields at 1 ton per acre and they farm sustainable. Production is at approximately 700 cases of wine.

We did taste the Chardonnay, Syrah and Cabernet which were all extremely good and well crafted by their winemaker Philippe Melka. Philippe is very detailed and a perfectionist and it shows in the wines!

Vintners Collective

Vintners Collective is a multi winery tasting room located in downtown Napa.  It is the home where twenty talented winemakers display and sell their wine.  Many of the wines tasted and for sale here you will not find anywhere else, as these wineries don't have tasting rooms.

You can taste inside or out in the deck like we did.  However, tasting on the deck is limited to wine club members. (we were with 2) We began the tasting with a Chardonnay and then tasted mostly reds. The wines we tasted were very good quality and well balanced. Most of the wines available here are priced $28 +.  Vintners Collective does offer a two tier wine club.

Palmaz Vineyards

Tucked into the mountains off the Silverado Trail is Palmaz Vineyards. This was Paul's lucky day as he got to go wine tasting with 5 beautiful women. He was our driver for the day and a good sport about it. We didn't even give him grief for driving past Palmaz the first go-around.

Julio and Amalia Palmaz purchased this vineyard in 1997. Julio is a medical doctor who attended medical school in Argentina and completed his residency at US Davis.  He is a pretty famous Doctor...he invented the Palmaz Coronary Stent.  One that sits in Paul's artery as well as Dr. Palmaz's.

When we arrived at the vineyard we drove up to level 3, parked the car, walked up the steps and was met by Brad.  Usually one of the family members gives the tour, but they were busy, so Brad who is from South Africa via Texas, was our lucky guide for next the few hours.

Palmaz is a gravity flow winery. That means minimum intervention throughout the entire wine making process.  All the sorting and processing is done in the caves.   See the press to the right, flows through the floor into the tanks which are on a conveyor. Then are moved to the barrels two floors below. Everything in the winery is electronically monitored. Besides wine geeks, they are technology geeks.  They even had a iphone app made so they can monitor the temps in the tanks no matter where the are.

After the tour and riding in the elevator many times we moved on to the tasting in Florencia's office.  She is Dr. Palmaz's daughter.  She did stop in after her tour ended to grab a few things before going to lunch.  She chatted with us for quite a while.  A lovely woman.  One thing I should note, we never felt that we were customers, we felt that we were part of the family, and they were giving us a tour of their beautiful home.

The tasting was a food/wine pairing.  We began with a Southwest Chicken Salad on a Sweet Red Apple Slice paired with their 2008 Napa Valley Chardonnay "Amalia".  The Cardonnay is cold fermented underground (in the ladies room - I might add- yes there is a story behind that) and aged sur-lies for 7 months in French Oak.

Now we moved onto the reds which began with the 2006 Palmaz Vineyards  Cabernet Sauvignon which is 100% Cab paired with Smoked Magret Duck Breast Wrapped Creme Cheese, Fig Preserves and Chives. A magnum of this was purchased for the wedding on Sunday.

Then paired with an assortment of Artisan Cheeses and a Dark Chocolate Cabernet Truffle we tasted the 2005 Palmaz Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon. This Cab was blended with 3% Cabernet Franc. You could taste the spice of the Cab Franc on the finish.

We ended the pairing with a Shortbread Cookie with Goat Cheese, Mango and Marcona Almonds with a 2009 Napa Valley Muscat Cannelli "Florencia."

If you are traveling to the Napa area you must set up an appointment with the Palmaz family.  You will not be disappointed!

Harvest notes from Palaia Vineyards

Jan from Palaia Vineyards sent me a note about their Cab Franc and Lemerger harvest.   In Jan's words " It was a windy and cold day to pick, but beautiful when the sun came out on the orange leaves on the edges of the vineyard.  There is nothing better than the smells of fall in the vineyard, and we let the public come and help pick at least once during the harvest season so they can enjoy the same experience.  Now it is time to wrap up the vineyard for the winter and concentrate on making the best wine we can.  Put away the picking lugs and bins, mow and fix fences, wash and wrap the press and crusher, and start thinking about getting ready for snow!"

The Lemberger cam in with brix of 21 and TA of 7.2.  The Cab Franc numbers were brix of 21.5 and TA of 5.0.

From Plane to Winery

Can you imagine taking off at New York's JFK airport and landing 1 hour early in San Francisco? Well that was our flight - we landed at 11:30am instead of 12:30pm. Good for us, more time in wine country.

Off the plane, grab our bags and rental car and off we go to Sonoma. First stop Kunde. We've been to Kunde before, in fact we are members of their wine club.  The tasting room staff was just that - staff.  They just poured for us. Not much explaining about the wine.  We had a nice time chatting with the people next to us.  Kunde's Magnolia Sauvignon Blanc was very good.  Nice and crisp, high acid but well balanced with hints of grapefruit and pineapple. I was surprised to learn the blend was 91% Sauvignon Blanc, 6% Semillon and 3% Viognier. I couldn't taste the Semillon, but the Viognier came through. (that's according to my nose and palate)

Next stop was Chateau St. Jean. One of our favorites. As we arrived they were just finishing up processing Viognier. Of course we went over to the crush pad and were chatting with the workers and tasting the grapes.  Then we proceeded to the reserve room. What a great time we had here.  The one white wine that stood out was their 2006 Robert Young non malolactic Chardonnay.  It was wonderful (in fact they served it at the wedding we attended on Sunday) There Cinq Cepage is one of my favorite blends.  Paul was getting into their many Pinot Noirs which the Durell Vineyards 2007 was the winner for us.

We left there and headed to Ledson Winery.  We entered the winery and were instructed to go to the tasting bar on the right.  Doing as we are told we got to the tasting bar and were waiting to be recognized.  One of the staff finally did come over to us and hand us a menu, yes menu of their 50+ wines to choose from.  We continued to wait and wait.  Finally fed up we walked out.  Nobody seemed to mind or care.  I guess if you aren't a blond bombshell and drop dead gorgeous you weren't getting a tasting in that tasting room.

We left Ledson and most likely won't go back and headed to our hotel room in Healdsburg.

The Ultimate Napa Valley Hike

I am not quite sure where to begin with my trip to California the beginning of October.  We did some great wine tasting, but I think the hike with Russ Beebe aka The Wine Hiker owner of California Wine Hikes is the activity that left us with some good stories.

We met at 8:30am at a parking lot in Calistoga.  There were a few of our wine twitter friends that joined us Ed and Jonjie Thralls and a few other people for a total of 7 and we set out for a 5 hour / 12 mile hike.

As we started into the woods, Russ made a point of showing us what poison oak looks like because there will be times on the hike where we might come in contact with it. This is very important because both Paul and I are allergic to poison ivy and they are in the same family.

Off we went into the woods all chatting away, looking at nature and the incredible views.  We came across the circle of life.  Ed was the only one that went through the circle to come out on the other side of the trail.  Looking back on our hike - we all should have walked through the circle of life because someone told me it was bad luck if you don't.

Well.....off talking and hiking, I realize these hiking trails aren't traveled much.  When I hike at home you always see other people, especially on a Saturday or Sunday.

Suddenly Russ announces that were we are doesn't look familiar.  Ok- I'm thinking - I'm going to be lost in the California woods for a few days.  But really, I didn't panic, I knew I was with a professional.  We were all chatting away we must have taken a deer path instead of the marked path.  I was doing so well on the hike so far!

What was ahead of us to get back on track I didn't sign up for.  I signed up for a hike, not a mountain climb.  To get to where we had to go we climbed down from where we were to hike a while to climb up the mountain.  When I say climb up, I mean dig you toes into the side of the mountain and climb while grabbing onto sturdy trees limbs to pull on and having my husband push my butt to get me up the incline.  This is what killed my knees.  We made it to the path and to the amphitheater where we had a quick bite to eat before heading down the mountain.  This is the half way point. The rest of the hike should be easy compared to what we just went through.  All the time, Russ never lost his composure.  I had no worries. Russ even supplied everyone with Tecnu to neutralize the poisen oak oils so we wouldn't have a break out.

The hike down was on wide paths with beautiful views.  My knees were killing me and Michael was kind enough to let me borrow his walking stick to relieve the pressure on my knees.  I felt like an old lady. I ended up coming down 15 minutes after everyone.

The 5 hour/12 mile hike ended up more like 7 hours and I have no idea how many miles.  Russ had a bottle of California Sauvignon Blanc chilling in the car for us as we returned.  A well needed drink!  I think I could have gone for a cold beer.

We all headed over to Clos du Val where we had reservations for 3p and when we arrived it was...well 4:57p - just a tad late. They were not to thrilled since they were closing.  We didn't let that stop us.  We had a nice picnic and a bottle of wine or two on the side lawn of the winery.

If anyone is wondering about the poison oak - I made out fine, however my husband didn't apply the Tecnu correctly and his legs had a good outbreak.

Russ - Thanks for a wonderful day!  Remember - "Some great stories are told on hikes, if I could just remember them!"

Glorie Farm Winery Cab Franc

Glorie Farm Winery is one of the growers of Hudson Valley Cabernet Franc.  Some of the fruit they sell to local wineries, and some they keep to produce their own Hudson River Region Cab Franc.

On the bottle I couldn't find a vintage and quite frankly don't like it when wineries don't include that information.  Their website says they are tasting their 2007, so we can go with that since we purchased it when we were there taking pictures of harvest.

The nose is earthy and wood giving way to cherry. It's light on structure with sour cherry upfront leading to light raspberry and ending with white pepper.

This wine is sold in their tasting room for $21.

Palaia 2008 Chardonnay

I like Chardonnay, both stainless steel fermented and oaked.  While I was sitting at my computer my husband surprised me with this Palaia 2008 Chard for tasting.

On the nose I got a suttle bouquet of green apple and lime. It didn't have the bouquet of a strong Chardonnay that I am use to.  The taste was tough...It had a hint of honeydew melon.  The mouth feel was soft, rounded and a little melted butter mixed in. The finish was a tad sweet.

The wine was stainless steel fermented. I like unoaked Chards very much, but I like them with some crispness to it.  This wine lacked even a hint of crispness you would get from steel fermentation.

 Purchase price is $19.99 from their tasting room or website.

22 Years of Wedding Bliss

Paul, Melanie, me, Michael

Tomorrow marks 22 years of marriage for me.  That's a pretty long time. I must say I have a beautiful family to show for it.  A wonderful husband and two great kids.

What will Paul and I be doing and drinking on this wonderful occasion?  About two months ago my very good friend in the Bay area called to tell me she was getting married on October 9. (We will now share a wedding anniversary)  She said a private wedding but a party on the 10th for close friends and family.  Where else would I rather be on my anniversary than sipping wine in California Wine Country and going to a party the next day with close friends.  Plane reservations made, as you read this I am up in Napa/Sonoma enjoying time with my husband tasting California wine.

On October 9th we will be sharing the day with Russ Beebe aka The Winehiker, founder of California Wine Hikes hiking Napa Valley's "The Palisades."  Paul and I hike Mount Beacon and The Gunks here in the Hudson Valley, so when Russ asked me our level I said medium to tough.  This is what we are in for - October 9th Hike.  At least I know there is good wine at the end of the hike!  A big THANK YOU goes out to Russ for arranging the hike.  


We will end the day having a nice anniversary dinner at John Ash & Co.  Hopefully I'll still be able to walk.

Conversation with Kate

When I was at Whitecliff Vineyards two weeks ago there was a lot of activity going on.  I caught assistant winemaker Kate sitting on the pad with some tools recording information.  She explains to me what she was doing.