Corison Winery is located just south of St. Helena on Highway 29 in Napa Valley.  This is the most crowded section of road in all California wine regions because it is where many large and famous wineries are located.  Visitors often overlook the small wineries along this route but there are real treats here.  Cathy Corison’s winery is one of them.  You taste in the working winery with barrels stored all around you.  Nothing fancy.  I even caught Cathy doing her own weeding of the very limited landscaping.  It is a superb old-time winery experience among the big high traffic wineries.

I dropped by to interview Cathy for our Discover Napa Valley Wine Region video and picked up a bottle of her 2002 Napa Valley Cab for our wedding anniversary dinner.  Still a bit of a tannin bite when first opened but with a little air it opens nicely as a full bodied Cab but not heavy. The nose is almost delicate and softer than most Napa Cabs. Light oak. Very refined and upscale taste. Cathy’s Cabs are in the $75 and up range.

We paired it with lamb chops, mashed potatoes with caramelized onions and broccoli then followed up with a selection of Lindt chocolates, raspberries, and apricots.  At the end of the meal the bottle was empty.  Very nice!

I first met Cathy a few years ago at a wine blogger’s event.  She was pouring her Cab next to those of other  well-respected Napa Valley vintners.  I was impressed with her style and deep knowledge of the local earth.  She has been working this area for decades and seems to know every row of Cab in the Rutherford area.  Cabernet Sauvignon is her whole focus.  A visit to Corison Winery will put you deep into the Napa Valley Cabernet experience.

- Jim

We love visiting Clos Pegase in the upper Napa Valley off Silverado Trail. The owner’s pitch it as a temple to wine and art and we agree.  The Michael Graves designed building is both unique and beautiful.  The landscape art is is intriguing.  The wine fits our palate perfectly. 

We attended an event there a couple of years ago and shot some video that will be in our upcoming Discover Napa Valley video.  Fortunately part of the event was a slide show by the owner Jan Schrem about his huge art collection.  The show was in an intimate theater deep in the barrel caves.   If you have an interest in art this is a must see show – and winery.   The giant thumb sticking out of the ground is a Napa Valley icon and popular photographic target for visitors.  The art collection is displayed around the winery grounds, in the courtyard entrance, and inside the tasting room and barrel cave.  It will appeal to a variety of art tastes.

Wine distributor Wilson Daniels recently sent me a couple of bottles of Clos Pegase wines to review.

The 2009 Chardonnay is from Clos Pegase’s Mitsuko’s Vineyard in Carneros at the southern end of the Napa Valley near San Francisco Bay.  This is a popular area for Chard due to the cooler temperatures.  It is a malolactic wine aged 8 months in new and neutral French oak.   These grapes are from the 4th year of low rainfall and the vines were a bit stressed.

We paired the Chard with Trader Joes chicken salad nested in grilled endives and grilled turkey and ham kabobs on our patio on a warm summer evening.  The Chard has a big nose full of bouquet and aromas, full fruit with oak that compares with Rombaur.  My nose picks out soft banana tones, which I love, but many people don’t seem to get that aroma.  Whatever; you’ll find plenty to explore here and a very reasonable suggested retail price of $24.

Next up was the 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon.  The grapes are from several vineyards around the winery and were aged 18 months in both new and neutral French oak.  The winery is near Calistoga in the north and hotter end of Napa Valley.  This is the heart of one of California’s most famous Cab regions and home of the big Napa Cabs.  The lower rainfall stressed the vines and produced bigger favors than normal.

The tasting notes supplied by Clos Pegase speak of blackberry, plum, cherry, vanilla, baker’s spices and a hint of licorice.  OK, maybe.  We found a wonderful cherry chocolate with a big nose of aroma with refined fruits that open beautifully in the glass.  Could we detect the specific aromas in the tasting notes?  Yeah, sort of, but we actually don’t care.  Too much work for us.  What we tasted was a drop-dead terrific big Napa Cab with very modest tannins that followed up our light dinner as desert.  While a retail price of $43 is a bit much for our limited and stretched budget, remember that developing WineQuesters.com and our iPhone app Winery Quest cost us over $1M in time and money, this Cab is worth it.  It is a thrill to drink.

We pumped the air from the bottle and opened it the next evening.  The wine was a little softer but still excellent.  The flavors and aromas held up even without using argon gas to preserve them.  Nice.

- Jim

Casa Nuestra is a small old style tasting room on the Silverado Trail in upper Napa Valley.  For those who think that the Napa Valley is highly commercialized this winery (and many others) will give you a shock.  The grounds are more like a small farm than the typical winery and the property is forested with old oaks for a woodsie ambiance. This is a fine place for a relaxing picnic.

Casa Nuestra's tasting room off the Silverado Trail, Napa Valley.

The tasting room is in what looks like a small old barn style house that is maybe one level above being a shack.  It is rustic and charming.  We arrived on a cold and rainy day and the fireplace was keeping the room toasty and cozy.

While Casa Nuestra (“our house” in Spanish) is open by appointment only they occasionally hang an open sign from their winery sign on Silverado Trail.  That means walk in and make an appointment, which we did.

I hadn’t tasted there since the 1980′s and finally found the time to stop in. The warm hospitality and friendly staff were as I remembered.  The wine selection is broad and deeper than I recall from decades ago and it took us a while to get through it.  One of our purchases was their 2009 Riesling.  It is lighter and dryer than most with mild aroma.  We recently paired it with halibut tacos and it was perfect and an excellent and maybe even a bit unusual choice.  We wanted a wine that didn’t overcome the wonderful flavors of delicate halibut and avocados and this Riesling worked.

If you are looking for an old-time Napa Valley winery experience then add Casa Nuestra to your travel plans.

- jim

It wasn’t really our plan to stay in the Napa Valley after a Saturday video shoot at Clos Pegase Winery.  Our budget is tight and Napa Marriott, always helpful that way, was full up and couldn’t take us.  As we headed down Silverado Trail from Clos Pegase for a late lunch in Yountville we stopped in at Paoletti and Casa Nuestra for tastings. Again, not planned  but their open signs were too tempting.

Scene from the bed into the wonderful courtyard of the Hotel Luca, Yountville, Napa Valley

It was 5:30 PM when we left Casa Nuestra and a big storm was approaching.  Katya called around to several hotels but they were full. Our destination was the warm and inviting Piero restaurant in the upscale boutique Hotel Luca.  We knew we couldn’t afford this hotel but Katya pleaded that we are wine travel media which everyone knows doesn’t have a budget for such places.

The Hotel Luca folks pitied us and took us in from the gathering darkness at a rate we still couldn’t afford but at least much less than normal anyway.  Only one night is really not enough there but that was the best we could do. What a beautiful, warm, inviting, and cozy little Tuscan style hotel!  We are in LOVE with the place.

The restaurant Piero is becoming a favorite not due only to the good menu and food but we really like the staff and sitting at the counter observing the kitchen activity.  We feel a bit like gulls waiting for treats to be thrown at us but it’s fun to watch everyone’s meals being prepared and chatting with the kitchen staff.

The room we had at the hotel was on the small side, especially with the king bed upgrade they gave us, but the bath was huge.  The bath travertine tile floor is heated which was good because the storm was rather cold and very wet.  There are two sinks, a large tub, and a separate shower, all better than usual.  The courtyard that all the rooms share is architecturally interesting with a Tuscan village ambiance.  I dipped in the hot tub on Sunday morning for a while before their included breakfast at the Piero.  There is a pool available and a spa.

While not within our travel budget means this little hotel will stay in our dreams.

- jim

We were recently surprised to find wineries in what was once one of our favorite fine art galleries in Yountville in the Napa Valley.  The gallery moved out for whatever reason and Cornerstone and Page moved in.

The Page Cellars tasting room in Yountville near the restaurant Jeanty.

Page has some very nice wine.  We just finished their Revolver brand 2006 Napa Valley Cab Franc.  It is full of life from the initial nose through the finish.  It held up very well over several days and was a treat each time we tasted it.  We love full-bodied wines with lots of nose and long finishes.  This wine meets those high standards.

Page is really into rock with some guitars from the stars and other memorabilia to peruse.  The tasting room music is soft so it doesn’t interfere with tasting.  I’ve heard a rumor that Carlos Santana hangs out in this tasting room.  If you are near Yountville check out the decor and ambiance at Page Cellars.

- jim

Napa Valley Marriott guests are invited to a complementary tasting in the afternoons most days.  The wines are from quality vintners in the Napa Valley, many of them very small operations, and the pouring is done by the vintners or their staff.

Tasting Salvestrin's fine Napa Valley wines at Napa Valley Marriott

Most of the wineries seem to be by appointment only types so this is a chance to taste their wines without an appointment.  But that isn’t the only attraction.

This is a great opportunity to meet with visitors from around the world and discuss a wide variety of topics.   The people who hang out at this hotel are interesting and well traveled.  The lobby design encourages mingling and socializing, a far better design than most hotels.

The afternoon of this photo we were tasting Salvestrin’s wines. Salvestrin is a small winery just south of St. Helena on Highway 29 that also includes a B&B.

They poured their 08 Sauv Blanc, 08 Cab which is Napa robust with nice tannins, and an interesting Super Tuscan blend with Sangiovese.  I found all their wines to have interesting nose, flavors, and finish to explore. None just disappeared on my palate.

After a long day of tasting wine in Napa Valley it is SOOOOO nice to sink into a Marriott bed and take a nap before heading out to the fine dining available nearby.  When I lack energy for dining elsewhere I dine in their cozy and comfortable cafe which has excellent food and ambiance.

- jim

I hang out on Twitter with a bunch of wine biz and wine blogger folks.  Late Friday PM I noticed a little post offering two free tickets for the Silver Pass.  What’s that?  I googled it and found that the Silverado Trail wineries have a passport weekend twice a year.  Not many participate but the 18 wineries that do are more than enough for an adventure.

Early Saturday morning 11/8/08 Katya and I met our benefactor at the farmer’s market in Healdsburg and picked up our tickets.  After some photography in the Alexander Valley for our video series we headed down Highway 128 to Calistoga and the wine questing adventures began.

We visited 10 wineries in two days.  All of them offered a limited selection to taste and the small wineries offered only 2 or 3 wines.  Most offered food.  Most of the wineries we visited are open by appointment only.  All had great wine, usually Cabernet. A few highlights:

• Pina (pinya – Spanish)  Winery is a small family-owned winery with a Spanish heritage.  This was our favorite.  They offered a sequential tasting of 2000 to 2006 (barrel) Cabernet’s from the Buckeye Vineyard and it was to die for.  Their wines are expensive but were real Big Reds, not this smoothed out stuff that is in fashion today.  The Cabs had real finish that lasted and the old robust aromas we used to enjoy.  Somehow they accomplished this without the biting tannins of the past.  Their Cabs are art in a bottle and we’ll be back.  Oh, I almost forgot to mention the huge pan of paella that tasters were gorging from.

• Midsummer Cellars is a micro-winery just off Silverado Trail where Highway 128 heads east from the Napa Valley.  They were gracious hosts with fine gourmet food and an incredible carrot cake, backyard ambiance under a 600 year old giant oak, and two Cabs worth your time to investigate.  Don’t pass them up on the next Silver Pass weekend!

• Titus Vineyards is a tiny winery on the Silverado Trail that is by appointment only and had a selection of 5 wines to taste as I recall.  This was a lively and friendly place and we’ll return.

• Athalon hides north of Calistoga and is by appointment only.  They are extra friendly, gourmet munchies, and had several wines to taste, along with a frisky winery cat to entertain us.  Great views of the lava cliffs on Mt. St. Helena.

• Conn Creek is one of the older wineries in the region and is open daily.  What was extra special about this winery for the Silver Pass is that they opened a barrel room display venue for us and we were able to taste Cabs from different vineyards that they source grapes from.  That was both interesting and fun!  They plan on expanding this service and will be remodeling their room in the near future.  Make an appointment in 2009 to taste in this room.

If you are curious we also tasted at Zahtila, Signorella (a favorite for the view!), Judd’s Hill (friendly family-owned), and William Hill which is open daily with good prices and a great view.

- jim

Not everyone is aware of the wonderful sparkling wine road trip experience in the lower Napa Valley and Carneros. All of these fine producers of sparkling wines can be visited in one day from the San Francisco Bay Area:

• Domaine Chandon – Napa Valley
  
• Mumm Napa Valley – Napa Valley
  
• Domaine Carneros – Carneros
  
• Gloria Ferrer – Carneros

Mumm is a traditional tasting room on Napa Valley’s Silverado Trail.  It has a nice view of the vineyards and mountains.  Domaine Chandon is nestled in oaks on a hillside overlooking Yountville with great landscaping and an indoor view-bar and outdoor tables with food available.  The post-modern design is unusual and interesting.  Domaine Carneros is a large French chateau style building with indoor and outdoor tasting and great views of the lower Napa Valley.  Gloria Ferrer is Spanish owned and features indoor and outdoor tasting with spectacular views of the Carneros region and the lower Sonoma Valley.  Small munchies are available but they are no substitute for lunch.

All the sparkling wines / champagnes are great of course and the ambiance at each one is outstanding.  This is a road trip that won’t be forgotten! Please see the Wine Questers’ profiles for more information.

- jim