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

I heard about Carol Shelton’s wines for years before I had time to catchup with her recently at a wine trade event for the Rockpile AVA.  I was blown away with the wine she brought to this tiny event at Rockwall Winery on Alameda Island in San Francisco Bay.  Zinfandels from Rockpile are some of my favorite and I was excited to try Carol’s.  The big surprise was that she brought 8 sequential years of her Rockpile Zin to this tasting!  Unbelievable that she still has these laying around and stunning that we were able to taste from a single vineyard that many years of the elusive Rockpile Zin.

Video of Carol explaining a bit about her Zins.  Requires the Quicktime player.

Video: Carol Shelton and her Rockpile Zinfandel family

More recently we stopped by her winery in a light industrial park in Santa Rosa.  Nothing special to say about the winery, industrial bays rarely make for great ambiance, but her staff is warm, friendly, and highly informed.  Our tight budget being what it is we left with only two of her interesting wines; 2007 Wild Thing Mendocino old vine Zinfandel and, well, you guested it, 2007 Rocky Reserve Florence Vineyard Rockpile Zin!  While both are interesting to explore we preferred the Rockpile Zin for the dry earthy terroir.

The interesting thing about Carol is that she quietly produces some of California’s best Zinfandels and her prices are stuck in the past.  These dry fruity 15% alcohol wines with rich Zin flavors are maybe half the price of comparable wines elsewhere.  Her wines are all vineyard designate and a great opportunity to taste the terroir.  While visiting an industrial park may not be your idea of wine country you’ll find seriously interesting treats at Carol’s winery.

- Jim

The Opatz family harvests their grapes from their vineyard in the Yorkville Highlands on Route 128 north of the Alexander Valley.  As we have seen a lot of recently they are growers who turned to wine making and eventually opened their own tasting room.  Their tiny Route 128 Winery tasting room is located off the main street through Geyserville, Route 128 also, and is always a delight to visit.  This is a vintner-pours tasting experience and a mom and pop operation.  The tasting room has seating and the hospitality begs you to hang around a while.

We love all their wines.  They are typical of that area – big flavors, medium acidity, and a lot for the taster to explore.  In this post I want to point out their Viognier.  The grapes come from their Yorkville Highlands vineyard which is at a much higher elevation than nearby Alexander and Dry Creek Valleys.  It has the bigger Viognier flavors with little grassiness.  We served it on our patio with shrimp on a warm summer afternoon and tasted the wine blossom during and after the snack.  We tend to drink whites a bit warm for the bouquet.

We believe that terroir matters and the Yorkville area wines are a real treat.  The combination of the soils plus the shifting cool and hot weather gives the wines a different experience than their lowland cousins.

- Jim

Two years ago I blogged about crashing a wine club event at the Heller Estate Vineyards winery high in the mountains above Carmel Valley.  That was one year after the huge Basin Complex fire burned into Big Sur and north almost to this winery.  The smoke blanked the region for a couple of months and of course the grapes were affected.   At the winery event I pleaded with the winemaker to bottle what we were tasting in the barrel, smoke flavor and all.

We recently visited their tasting room in the Village of Carmel Valley to taste the results.  WOW!  Sure, smoked wine is not as well known as say smoked salmon or cheese, but it is great!  You can still taste Cab but the smoke in their 2008 organic Cachagua Cabernet Sauvignon is up front and exciting.

We enjoyed drinking the whole bottle on our patio on a warm summer day and paired with only light munchies such as sausages.  We would like to buy more and pair it with roasts, salmon, etc. and see what happens.

I’ve heard that most of the other vintners in the area did their best to eliminate the smoke from their local 2008 wines but fortunately Heller decided to see if there is a market for a wine that needs to be explored beyond the frontier of wine tasting.  Last I heard there are only a few cases left.

- jim

Alexander Valley is a quiet and laid back part of Sonoma County.  For decades there have been only a few wineries in this famous Cabernet growing valley but lately we are seeing new wineries.  Trione built a beautiful winery next to US 101 just south of Geyserville a few years ago.  They have very nice landscaping, landscape art, and are gracious tasting room hosts.

Jessie, the tasting room manager, really wanted us to try their 2007 Russian River Pinot Noir and 2008 RRV Sauvignon Blanc.  The Sauv Blanc was excellent as expected. Full bodied, full flavor, but not as much as a big New Zealand Sauv Blanc.  Same with the Pinot.  For those who like light delicate Pinots there are other wineries in RRV for that.  In the Alexander Valley they make wine you can taste and explore.  Trione’s Pinot changes nicely as it gets air and never flattens out in the glass.  This is a medium bodied Pinot which of course is still light compared to Cab or Zin.

Wonder how a new winery can have great wines?  The Trione family have been growers for decades and wine making for many years.  When they opened this winery they were already on a roll with great local wines.

- Jim

Heritage Oak is a small family winery northeast of Lodi. The tasting room is in the working winery and while the architecture or interior ambiance isn’t special the setting and the people make this winery a good destination. They have one of the larger Zin selections in the area so visitors should be able to find the right wine for their taste preferences.

The most striking feature of this winery is their river walk nature trail through the vineyards to a secluded beach on the Mokelumne River. Bring a bottle of their wine to enjoy a picnic on the beach or picnic at the winery.

While we enjoyed all of their wines we came home with their Zinfidelity Zin and Cab blend and their Chardonnay. The Zin is medium bodied and pleasant nose and finish. The Chard is non-oaked with no malo-lactic fermentation with fresh fruity flavors. Both are very good wines and an additional reason to stop by this winery if you are wandering around Lodi.

- Jim

I’ve blogged about Fenestra before and their very large wine selection, picnic area, and historical old barn winery. This winery isn’t to be missed! We just finished a bottle of their Lodi sourced Alvarelhao and I want to make a quick mention of it. This is a Portuguese wine that is rare in California. It has medium body with a light-medium nose and finish. I enjoyed the soft fruit and aromatic finish.

On its own it is interesting and enjoyable but we paired it with crab and shrimp and that makes this wine pop. I recommend dropping into Fenestra and trying this unusual wine. You may find it a treat.

- jim

The Creekview Vineyards winery is located near tiny San Martin between Gilroy and Morgan Hill south of San Jose. While the winery is occasionally open a good bet is to head into the heart of downtown San Jose and drop in on Tim in the Sherman Cellars tasting room. The only wine available in Sherman is Creekview.

The tasting room is cozy and intimate. Tim is a wonderful conversationalist and really knows wines. He used to work in Napa and Sonoma tasting rooms. On a recent rainy Saturday the tasting room was moderately busy with both local and out of state tourists. Tim brought everyone in on the conversations and added extra interest to the tastings.

I enjoyed all the wines very much. They are the trademark Gilroy wines that are medium to robust with big nose and long finish – my thing. I came home with their 2007 Santa Clara Valley Cabernet and the 2009 Sauvignon Blanc with the grapes sourced from the wonderful Arroyo Seco area of Monterey County. These wines are full of flavor and a delight to explore. Their prices in the $20′s are reasonable for the quality.

- jim

J & J is a bit out in the boonies but then again half the wineries around Paso are in the boonies and that is part of the adventure. A nice drive back through the vineyards and up a hill and the adventure begins.

We only had time for a brief tasting and look around. The tasting room is comfortable, well appointed, but not special. The picnic area is very nice and the tasting room staff is conversant. The wines are not expensive, tend to be medium to robust, very nice quality, and we found some great case sales. We brought home a case of their Autumn Flight Estate 2008 Syrah. This is a nice robust Syrah with deep color, big nose with a little oak, and an enjoyable extended finish.

So would we return? Yes. The reason would be the friendlier than normal atmosphere and the wine styles meet our preferences and budget.

- jim

Newsome-Harlow tasting room along the main street in the romantic Gold Rush town of Murphys sits back off the street down a narrow ally. Like many of the tasting rooms in Murphys it is a hidden treasure. The little tasting room is light and airy but on snowy days warm and cozy.

It is also one of the few tasting rooms in town with a decent picnic area – that long narrow ally. Tables with umbrellas are available for picnicking. Buy a bottle of wine and feast.

Their wine selection is limited but the wine is high quality and the prices are reasonable. Tasting room staff are informative and pleasant.

We attended a wonderful Sierra Foothills wine event in the SF East Bay community of Danville recently and as the event was wrapping up we were gifted a bottle of Newsome-Harlow 2008 Calaveras County Zinfandel. Sierra Foothills Zins drive us crazy with desire so the next evening we popped the cork. This wine is a medium nose, body, fruit, and finish delight with a relatively low alcohol of 14.5%. While we often prefer the “bigger” Zins of Amador County and Lodi for casual sipping we found this wine to be perfect with lighter foods.

So expect to see us in their tasting room for the next lively wine event in Calaveras County that we can make time for. We LOVE visiting the wineries in that region with their warm and friendly people and great wines. One of our very favorite wine regions.

- jim