As we drove through the Napa Valley from Mendocino on Day 14 we passed many small wineries so it would not be right to be in the Napa region of California and not go on a wine tour.
We were picked up from our hotel for the tour along with eight others, four of whom were from the UK. Our tour guide told us that we would visit four wineries and taste four wines at each. The wineries were Rutherford, Ghost Block, Cosentino and Fred Razi.
Along the way to the first winery she explained the history of wine making in the Napa Valley which started in the 19th century, the effect prohibition in the 1920s had on the industry and how many wineries were abandoned.
The catalyst that put the Napa Valley wines on the world map was the ‘Judgement of Paris of 1976’ where, in a blind tasting, Napa Valley wines were compared to French wines by a panel of predominantly French judges (9 of 11). The top wine, to the horror of the French judges, was the Napa Valley Stag’s Leap Cabernet Sauvignon.
90% of American wines come from California with, surprisingly, only 4% coming from the Napa Valley. This statistic is not so surprising when it was explained that the Napa Valley is only a small part of the wine growing area of California with regions such as Sonoma (which is next door) being much larger.
Now to the wines, we tasted four at each winery and starting with Rutherford.
It was interesting to hear that some of the wineries offered ‘estate bottled’ wines (ie grapes grown, produced and bottled all at the winery) with others buying grapes from other wineries.
The next was Ghost Block. Many of the wineries offered wines under different brand names some of which were the names of the owners’ sons or daughters.
We were told about the fermentation process, how the grape skins were used to make red wine, how French or American oak barrels were used to give the wine a different level of taste and how the length the wine stayed in these barrels made the characteristics of the wine.
The third was Cosentino.
One of our wine hosts said that white wines should be drunk within 1 to 2 years of the production date on the bottle. Red wines, however, mature in the bottle so could be drunk 5 to 6 years after the production date. That is if they last that long.
Our last stop was Fred Razi.
After visiting Fred Razi, it was decided to take another group shot and it is clear that 16 glasses of wine had taken it’s toll.
Day 16 and we make our last drive of the holiday from Napa to San Francisco for our flight back to Seattle. The 60 miles seemed easy compared to the 200 plus miles of other days but going into a major city did involve a lot more traffic, tolls and a 6 car crash (thankfully not involving us) so it took a bit longer than expected. Having spent the best part of 13 days and 1700 miles driving from Seattle to San Francisco, it only took 1 hour and a half flying back on Alaska Airlines.
Tomorrow is our last full day in Seattle and we are going underground. Find out more in our next posting.