Barrel tastings...FINALLY!

January 31...Luckily, I slept until almost 6:15, when Tuck texted me forgetting the time change. We got up and going, and headed to our first appointment of the day: Cliff Lede Winery.

Cliff Lede is an amazing design, with stunning views of the Napa Valley floor, in the Stags Leap District. Jack Bitner met us and took us thru the 20,000 square foot cave system (used for barrel storage), and on to our private tasting (the tasting room is on the 2nd floor, overlooking the production area and the vineyards and mountains. The wines are amazing, and we even managed to acquire a bottle of delish Sauvi B for the road. During our tasting, Denis Toner rang Jack to tell him that we were shoplifters and not to be trusted. This became a fantastic pattern, as Denis "phone-stalked" us from Nantucket.

Off to lunch, and since we have decided that (a) we will not eat at French Laundry, but (b) want to eat at one of Thomas Keller's place we shall hit Bouchon. And how. The meal began with us once again toasting ouramazing lives with 3 glasses of Dom. Chandon bubbly. Kelly and Kim shared a house made pate, while I had the soup du jour, Butternut Squash. The pate was amazing, simply amazing. They also had chicken for a main, while I opted for the Quiche Florentine. Now laugh if you wish, but that was pretty much the most amazing quiche I have ever had. The girls have the same opinion regarding the chicken it seems.

Now, to Darioush, which they say is "Las Vegas meets Napa Valley". Well, they would be correct. It is dumping rain, and once again we are stuck with a civilian "tour" (read: we were sat in the corner and given wine). The tour guide told us more about the owner's bank account than the grapes and techniques, and didn't seem to understand that we were not vacationing for pleasure. He did take us into the cellar, where there just happened to be a table of glasses and some candles lite for a barrel tasting.

As we contemplate dinner (and recall our new love for Bouchon) we dash to the Bouchon Bakery for supplies. A loaf of bread, some desserts, and some "Foie Gras dog bones" for Angus and Scout and we are off to the next appointment: Elyse Winery.

At Elyse we get very nervous: the first gentleman we are greeted by doesn't know us. Oh-no...did I screw up the itinerary? Damnit...
Well, actually no. The owner, a lovely gentleman named Ray, came out from his office to take us on the tour himself. We start going thru the bottles that are our for tastings, when Ray decides we are tasting from Barrels. Sweet. We must have tasted 15 wines straight from the barrels. To date, it is the high-light of my trip.
While we are with Ray, Denis Toner calls to warn him of our theivery and tactics (see picture below for confirmation of this fact.) Also, Sean Larkin rings him, a Scot-turned-New Jersey winemaker who is a favorite of mine from the Nantucket Wine Festival. He makes an amazing Cabernet Franc...we make plans to hook up at...you got it....Bouchon.

Bouchon again, there may be a restraining order against us now. We had a fantastic time: Kim, Kelly, me, Ray from Elyse, Sean Larkin, Jack from Miner and Sean's friend Ira (who we are still unclear about his line of work [Kelly: I think he is in the business of spending money on shit]). 2 glasses of 1999 Veuve Cliquot and we were off to Sean's for some Cab Franc, then back to the casa.

Elyse Winery...our favorite so far?

+ While I am researching a bit online to add the background from many of these posts, I cam e across Elyse's webpage, and couldn't think of a more fitting addition to the Elyse post. Ray Coursen, the owner/winemaker, was an amazing wealth of knowledge for the 3 girls from Nantucket, and really did a great job with us. We can't thank him enough....
"Welcome, I’m Ray Coursen, winemaker and owner at Elyse Winery in Napa Valley, California. My wife Nancy and I run the winery and these are our children, Elyse and Jake. Before you look around the website and see what we’re up to now, I’d like to tell you how we have gotten this far.
In 1983, when Nancy and I were both working in Cape Cod restaurants, I asked Nancy when she’d be ready to move to California. I had a dream of learning to make wine. “Tomorrow,” she said. I worked the harvest that year at Mount Eden Vineyards in Saratoga, starting at the bottom, picking grapes and digging ditches. After the harvest, we moved to Napa Valley and worked at a B&B. Nancy ran the place and I tended the gardens and planted a vineyard. I then worked at Tonella Vineyard Management, where the owner taught me why you need to prune, trellis, train, and generally coddle grapevines, and the vineyard workers gave me on-the-job-training.
Next I worked at Whitehall Lane Winery. Though I started in the tasting room, the winemaker, Art Finkelstein, took me under his wing, put me in the cellar, and eventually promoted me to winemaker. Art taught me that the secret of great wines is in the blend. In 1987, we started Elyse Wines with 286 cases of Zinfandel from the Morisoli Vineyard, which is still one of our primary fruit sources. For a decade we were nomads, buying grapes and crushing at various custom crush facilities, and then in1997, we finally bought a small winery on Hoffman Lane.
What will you find in a bottle of Elyse or Jacob Franklin wine? I make wines that I want to sit down and enjoy – juicy, rich, voluptuous wines. I like a little oak, but I don’t want it to be overpowering – I want to taste the fruit. I love wines that pair well with food. A meal without wine is eating; a meal with wine is dining – it’s a conversation, an event. It’s what wine is about.
When I make a wine, my tastes and techniques will influence the process, but what’s most important is the fruit. The fruit dictates what the wine will be. We’re fortunate to work with an amazing group of growers and vineyards, whose fruit keeps taking us to wonderful places. We started out making Zinfandel, then expanded into Cabernet Sauvignon and Petite Sirah. No doubt those will continue to be the focus of our winemaking, but now we’ve made a tiny quantity of Chardonnay, and soon we’ll be releasing our first Pinot Noir. What wines we make after that will depend on the fruit that’s available, because I just can’t say no to wonderful fruit.
- Ray Coursen"~~~pulled from www.elysewinery.com by Melissa

Cliff Lede

All sixty beautiful acres of Cliff Lede Vineyards reflects a dedication to exceptional quality and gracious hospitality. The independently owned winery boasts two hand crafted Stags Leap District wine brands, a museum-level art gallery and an exclusive luxury inn, making it the ideal wine country destination for those who appreciate life’s finer things. The Cliff Lede brand highlights Bordeaux varietal wines from its Stags Leap District estate, while the grapes for the Poetry Cabernet Sauvignon hail from the steep terraces of its Stags Leap District acreage. Guests can spend the day relaxing on the winery’s sun-drenched porch area, strolling through the landscaped grounds to admire contemporary sculptures from owner Cliff Lede’s personal collection, or checking out the rotating exhibits from both up-and-coming as well as established artists at The Gallery.

Committed to producing first-rate Bordeaux-style wines, Proprietor Cliff Lede put together a top-notch winemaking triumvirate that includes the extraordinary talents of Winemaker Michelle Edwards (formerly of Colgin), Vineyard Manager David Abreu (Harlan, Colgin, Bryant Family Vineyards, and Screaming Eagle), and internationally renowned Winemaking Consultant, Michel Rolland (Harlan, Bon Pasteur). Completed in time for the harvest in 2005, the state-of-the-art winery is a testament to the complicated balance of art and science in winemaking. From its triple fruit sorting system to truncated tanks to new caves, no corner was cut in creating a winemaking facility that will make the most of Cliff Lede’s exceptional fruit.
The labor-intensive three-stage hand sorting system limits the amount of grapes that can be processed to a half ton per hour, but ensures that not a single inferior grape makes it into the tank. The chosen grapes are then lifted by a unique crane system that gently places the grapes inside the tanks foregoing the harsh, traditional pumping process. This eliminates shredded grape skins and facilitates the vineyard’s preferred method of whole berry fermentation. Lede commissioned American tank manufacturer Mueller to recreate the distinctive truncated tanks he saw on a trip to Chateau Latour in Bordeaux with Michelle Edwards and David Abreu. The tapered shape of the tanks creates a higher juice-to-skin ratio to create wines of deeper color and greater concentration. Following primary fermentation, all red wines are aged in a recently expanded 25,000 square-foot cave system. Naturally cool with high humidity, the caves are the ideal place for wines to go through secondary fermentation and barrel aging.
All of this cutting-edge technology is housed in a stunning contemporary building that celebrates its site. Renowned architect Howard Backen designed the facility to be functional yet aesthetically engaging, allowing the winemaking team to craft its wines in a landmark building that boasts natural light from abundant skylights and floor-to-ceiling glass entry doors.

The Casa...at Alexander Valley Vineyards

Our lovely little home, for the 30th and 31st.


toasting our amazing lives

Darioush (and Shiraz vs. Syrah)

Darioush, a winery noted for its Bordeaux style estate wines, implements old world labor-intensive, micro-vineyard management and new world state of the art technology to craft fine wines from its estates located in the appellations of Napa Valley, Mt. Veeder and Oak Knoll. Under the direction of Darioush Khaledi and winemaker Steve Devitt, precision and quality are of the utmost importance at the winery.

The Darioush Story...
Darioush Khaledi grew up in Shiraz, one of Iran's prominent wine-growing regions. His father was a hobbyist winemaker and as a young boy, Khaledi used to sneak sips from the barrel; as a young adult he became a devoted collector of fine wines. Trained as a civil engineer and with a career in construction, Darioush left Iran in the late 1970's and emigrated to Southern California where he was faced with the challenge of rebuilding his life. Darioush and his brother-in-law pooled their resources and purchased a failing grocery store in the city of Los Angeles. Now thirty years later, together they operate one of the most successful independently owned grocery businesses in the United States, which alone employs over 1500 people.
As the success of his grocery business grew, his passion for fine wine transformed from collector to producer. No longer was Darioush interested solely in collecting the world's finest wines he was driven to create hand-crafted wines with the highest quality standards. Darioush is the culmination of the worldwide search for the ultimate vineyard estate. The Darioush Estates's ninety-five acres are planted to Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, Merlot, Malbec, Petit Verdot, Chardonnay and Viognier.

Nickel and Nickel and the Gleason Barn

Originally built circa 1770 in Meriden, New Hampshire by the Gleason family, the 3,000 square-foot pre-Revolutionary War-era hay barn was spared demolition by its purchase in 2001. After two years spent dismantling the barn, designing blueprints, restoring and saving the wood beams, the barn was shipped in pieces to Nickel & Nickel and was reconstructed at the winery in 2003 to house offices and a laboratory for the winemaking staff. The elements include:
original hand-hewn, white pine and hemlock beams, fashioned in post-and-beam, wood-pegged construction; the beautifully rough beams show centuries of wear
century-old, barn-red exterior siding, weathered to a lovely, aged patina, the barn’s interior is re-adapted to winery use, without compromising its architectural integrity,
the haylofts and animal stalls have been turned into glass-walled offices and lab space, retaining the floor-to-ceiling open feeling of the barn, new, double-folding, divided light doors recreate the barn’s original breezeway creative engineering enabled this 250-year-old barn to meet seismic building codes, while preserving its original interior and exterior elevations.

Paul Hobbs Winery

A little bit about Paul Hobbs: The focus is small production, single vineyard wines from properties which are the most distinctive in their appellation. The winemaking begins with constant, meticulous care in the vineyard in order to cultivate in the resulting fruit the richest yet most nuanced expression of terroir. Soil is prepared, vines are pruned and crops are thinned throughout the growing season to maximize concentration and flavor development in the grapes. They strive to achieve what is called physiological ripeness, which takes into account not only the fruit but the stems, skins and seeds, all of which must be fully ‘ripe’ to make a truly superior wine.They also harvest and sort the grapes by hand, allowing them to go through primary and secondary (malolactic) fermentation using native, or wild, yeasts that come in on the skin of the grapes. Skin contact is maximized during winemaking and the whites are pressed whole cluster and stirred sur lies, which allows for increased complexity in the resulting wine and imparts phenolics and textural components particular to each vineyard site. Wines are aged in hand selected French oak barrels until seamless integration is achieved. They are then bottle unfined and unfiltered to assure that nothing is lost in the translation from vine to glass. You might describe our winemaking as modern classic. Making wine, like living well, is a balance of experience and intuition, discipline and discovery. Paul Hobbs believes he can make the best wines by keeping his roots firmly planted in traditional winemaking principles, while availing ourselves of modern techniques which allow him to constantly improve the quality of his wines.

Meet Tim-Tim

January 30...Meet Tim-Tim. No, Tim Farley is not with us, he is in Costa Rica on vaca as well. Tim-Tim is our GPS tracker "Tom-Tom". He is really quite remarkable. He is British, so we drive on the "motorway" instead of the freeway, but other than that the language barrier is fine.

I started the day off in the lobby of the hotel at 4:45 am (7:45 ACK time) waiting patiently for coffee service. It begins at 6 if you are wondering. Jet lag is a bitch. But the girls (finally) woke up, and after I had consumed 4 cups of coffee, and advised the lady in charge of the contenental breakfast how to shave her food cost, we were off for the first appointment: Paul Hobbs.

We are greeted and shown into this amazing hospitality suite at the winery. We (private tasting, as PH does not allow visitors) did a tasting with the rep, and even tried a lovely Syrah which will be released (not in Massachusetts) in the Fall.

Lunch was at the Oakville Grocery, where Kelly and Kim opted for sandwiches while I dined on my favorite fat kid classic: A wedge of triple creme brie, sliced salomi, and a freshly baked loaf of bread.

Off to Nickel and Nickel, where we are shuffled into the civilian tour, with who could only be described as the cheesiest tour guide ever. An amazing production, after which a price sheet of the wines was not-so-discreetly slid under our napkins.

After N & N, we took a 30 mile (read: 60 minute) drive up to Alexander Valley Vineyards, who will be hosting us for the next 2 evenings. We are installed in a lovely 3 bedroom ranch style 1950's-ish home. After promptly popping open 2 bottles: one local Semillion and one Alexander Valley Vineyards Syrah, we sat on our terrace and toasted our lives (which we decided, are amazing).

Kim still has no luggage, and is involved in an exciting game of phone tag with the good people at United Airlines. She walks out to the front porch, and a darling puppy (Mattie) is standing in the front yard. The puppy seems to be holding something in her mouth, which Kim assumes is a toy. Sadly no; Mattie was offering Kim a recently deceased bird in lieu of her luggage. Mattie was very cute, Kim was distraught, and Kelly and I took pictures.

Off to dinner, at Ravenous, which came highly recommended. Dinner was rather uneventful, sans 2 possibly gay gentlemen (Kelly: there were no indications of this fact other than one kept pouring water for the other, subtle yet strong evidence) next to us who "didn't realize wine was big" in Massachusetts (K: they also tried to tell us that Silver Oak runs $1000 a bottle, and boasted of blind frizzante Lambrusco tastings at one's home in Amsterdam.)

Back home, and to bed by 11 pm (2 AM IN ACK).

Travel Day

January 29...travel day.

Kelly and I hook up at the ACK airport and fly to Boston, where we catch a flight to Chicago. Fairly uneventful, sans the fact that we were nearly shut out of the Boston to Chicago flight.

We meet up with Kim in Chicago, and take off for Sacramento, amidst a huge rainstorm. Sadly, Kim's luggage did not make our flight. We arrived in Cali around 6pm (read: 9pm in ACK). Kim filled out her paperwork, we grabbed our lovely Dodge Avenger, and took off for the Fairfield in American Canyon, our gateway to the Napa Valley. A quick trip to Target for some digs for Kim, and a takeout restaurant later, we were sound asleep.

T minus 2 days

While I am sitting here in Nantucket with snow piling up on everything that stays still, I am trying to organize and pack for our upcoming trip. Hmm....let's see: we are moving daily from vineyard to vineyard so less is better right? Will there be laundry arrangements? I expressed my concern to Kelly earlier today (who laughed and remarked that the laundry-mats are most likely B.Y.O.B). She also reminded me to stick with my key wardrobe colors of red and black, as we will be consuming an alarming amount of wine and spillage is always possible. In addition, packing for California is a bit tricky as we will be all over the place; warm and cold, casual and formal. So ski parkas and wife beaters are a must, along with my hiking boots and black heels.

I convinced Kelly to take the same flight as me (Kim is flying from Albany NY...wise woman); she has no idea what she is in for. Emergency stops, stale peanuts, and lost luggage will be a great way to kick off the trip. We are flying to Sacramento from Boston on Tuesday and Kelly is taking her lap top, so we will be sure to update this as often as we are able...surely those guest homes have internet access?

And for those of you who are curious and slightly confused as to what exactly is going on here, please visit http://www.kiwi-chronicles.blogspot.com/ for further viewing. 4 of our friends are spending their winter vaca in New Zealand...and it looks like a bit of fun so we are spoofing their blog. To sum it up: Kelly, Kim and I are heading to California for 2 weeks of wine drinking, vineyard touring, and the 15th annual Napa Valley Mustard Festival (kidding...Kelly hates all condiments).