Friday, June 15th
Because it's a bit of a haul and our first tasting appointment in Napa was at 10:00a, we herded the cats together and left the Flamingo at 9:00a today.
The HOB Wine Tour has never been to Napa; well, that's not quite right. We did go to Pride Winery which has the Sonoma/Napa county line running through their vineyard -- but that's it. For 2012, we devoted a single full day to visit Napa Valley.
Our first winery was Frank Family Vineyards.
Monte was behind the bar; he was great:
Frank Family has an interesting workflow; you pay the tasting fee (non-refundable even with purchase) at the door. The tasting room staff doesn't do the write-up; they have cashiers for that.
Oh, but the wines! We tasted their Chard, their Pinot Noir, their Zin (a personal favorite) and their Cab. All very good. Gael asked Monte (in her best pitifully cute voice) "isn't there anything else we could taste?" And then, just for us, Monte poured their 08 Reserve Cab. If you've followed my wine writing, you know I'm not a fan of Cabernet Sauvignon. I find them too tannic for my taste. But today I discovered that it's just that I don't like cheap Cabs; the 08 Reserve was one of the best mouthfuls of wine in my lifetime. Expensive? Yes, but Gael bought me a bottle for Fathers' Day (YES!!!) and it was a bargain at $91. Seriously.
Everyone agreed the wines were terrific.
There was a gaggle of bridesmaids there so I convinced them to pose for an article I'm doing about bridesmaids and Napa winery visits for People magazine. Riiiiiight:
Our next winery was a personal favorite of Gael and mine from the previous December; we visited Clif Family Winery while vetting wineries for this tour.
We were impressed by the frendliness of the personnel, expecially Corey.
She met us at the door and ushered us into a private tasting room where we were hosted by John, the tasting room manager:
He's not as mean as this photo might indicate :)
He did a great job describing the origins of the winery and the connection to Clif Bar and Luna energy bars.
The tasting room has a definite bicycling theme featuring the cycling adventures of co-owner Gary Erickson.
There are a number of bikes displayed:
Above is Gary's first touring bike named "Fred"
Here's Fred's story in his own words (complete with the word "came" misspelled. Bikes are NOT good at spelling):
And here's Fred .. with Fred:
The winery is also known as Velo Vino; "Velo" from the French for bicycle and "Vino" from the Italian for, well, you know.
We tasted their Sauvignon Blanc, the Gewurtztraminer (best I've tasted), Zinfandel, current release Cabernet, a great bargain in their 06 Cab and finally their 09 Climber Bordeaux Blend. All their wine was tasty and at a real bargain price-point. This was a great experience!
Next on our Napa list was lunch at Gott's Roadside. This historic place in St. Helena has the best garlic fries and burgers in the state. It took a while but we manged to stuff ourselves in good order.
Gott's used to be called "Taylor's Refresher"
Our next winery was Judd's Hill.
Beautiful vineyards!
Newsom and Beverly had some history visiting them years ago and had a great visit with the owners, Art and Bunnie Finkelstein. Sadly, our experience wasn't nearly as good though we did meet Judd (the Judd in Judd's Hill) Finkelstein:
We had a nice private room and a knowledgeable presenter in C.J.
Unfortunately, her style was a poor match for our group; we felt we were being lectured like fourth-graders. She even had the temerity to tell Beverly she wasn't holding her glass properly! The wines were OK with my favorite being the Rosé. The overall feeling was one of being talked-down to which reminded Gael and me why we don't like tasting in Napa much.
Beverly recovered from her chastening nicely...
It seemed "all about them" rather than "all about us". The most notable exception was our great experience (above) at Clif Family Winery.
Hoping for better, our last winery of the day (and the last in Napa Valley) was Reynolds Family Winery
...where Angelina helped restore our good spirits. Their best was their 08 Reserve Stags Leap Cabernet though their 08 Stags Leap Merlot was very good as well.
Perhaps the fact that the owner, Steve Reynolds, is a former dentist was a factor in our enjoyment?
Off to dinner at Redd in Yountville, one of the best dining experiences of the tour.
We had a table on the patio and, once the sun went down enough so it wasn't in our eyes, the food and service was excellent. Highly recommended! Though I don't eat 'em, I'm informed that the oysters were excellent as well:
Well-wined-and dined, we took the hour-and-a-half trek north to the good old Flamingo again. It's hard to believe that tomorrow is the last day of HOB 2012 
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