Silverado Winery - Breathtaking views, beautiful wines

Silverado Winery has one of the most breathtaking views of the Napa Valley. Silverado’s wine portfolio, like their tasting room view, is equally enchanting and, when visiting the winery, you’ll want to leave plenty of time to relax and enjoy them both together. Silverado has something for everyone - many wine tasting options, from refined single vineyard tastings paired with cheese to a more casual tasting on the outdoor patio, all boasting sweeping views since the winery sits atop a hill off the famed Silverado Trail.  Perched up on the hill, the winery is not visible from the Silverado Trail, so be sure not to miss the sign at the front gate, which  which leads up a steep narrow road to the grand circular driveway.   The site of the winery used to belong to Harry See (of See’s Candy fame), and was purchased by Diane Miller and her husband Ron Miller (former President and CEO of the Disney Corporation) in 1976.  The property is at the same time magnificent and welcoming, built in a Tuscan Villa style with beautiful stonework that compliments the trellised terraces, majestic with the surrounding hills and hawks circling overhead.

Entering the tasting room, a warm, welcoming room, makes you feel as though you’ve stepped into a family’s home - if that family had framed movie posters that decorate some of the walls.  It is not well known that Silverado is a winery founded by the Disney family, and they mean to keep it that way, understated, humble, and down to earth even though it is situated on what seems like the top of Napa Valley; my version of a Disney castle.

Diane Miller, the eldest child of Walt Disney, first came to the Napa Valley with her mother in 1975, and never forgot this beautiful place. While attending USC, she the cheerleader, met her future husband, Ron Miller, the USC  football player, a story worthy of a Disney film.  Later on the couple  devoted their lives to pursuing ways in which to delight families and support causes dear to their hearts, so it was no surprise that as the winemaking industry was taking off in Napa, they were intrigued by the idea that it might be a good investment and returned to LA with the decision that they’d seek some proven vineyard land to invest in rather than an existing winery.

The Millers ended up making a bigger investment than initially planned, purchasing both Harry See’s beautiful 90 acre property as well as See’s niece’s property, approximately 80 acres across the river from his property where they eventually built a winery and founded Silverado Vineyards. They re-planted much of the vineyards on phylloxera resistant AXR rootstock and grew Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Sauvignon Blanc from which Jack Stuart,  their founding Winemaker,made consistently beautiful wines. The Millers were successful and began to seek out additional vineyards and eventually purchased historic vineyard sites and redeveloped these as well including the Mount George property, planted to Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Malbec. In 1988 they purchased the Carneros property now called “Firetree”, which grows Chardonnay. Then in 1992 they purchased the Soda Canyon property, planted to Sangiovese, Zinfandel, and later Sauvignon Blanc. The olive trees on that property are the source of the oil sold exclusively at Silverado Winery. Another Carneros property, the Vineburg Vineyard, is the most recent acquisition, and is the source of their premier Chardonnay.  

The day we visited Silverado, we were greeted at Silverado by Clint Wilsey and welcomed with the utmost hospitality, despite the fact that it was a mere week after the Napa Earthquake of 2014 had struck.  According to Wilsey, not a barrel had fallen during the 6.0 quake which was astonishing giving the height the barrels were stacked and the volume of wine aging at the facility.  There was an almost spiritual ambiance in the barrel room - stained glass windows bearing the California state flower, the poppy, were reminiscent of a Cathedral and overtook my mind and spirit when paired with the yeasty, earthy aromas of fermenting wine. It is that blend between the ethereal and the down to earth that makes Silverado such a rarefied yet approachable destination.   

The tour of the barrel room and fermentation room illustrated just what a large scale Silverado is able to produce, and what more, all on it’s estate from fruit they control all over the valley. Their ability to grow and tend to their own vineyards gives them a consistency to make quality wines year after year so that when people see the Silverado label, they can recognize and trust it as a selection that will be a beautiful,  balanced wine.  I was also delighted to hear the winery prides itself on having a strong community, and being a champion of green farming practices.  100% of the estate is sustainably farmed, and 50% of the winery is powered by solar panels.  

The wines we tasted were all beautiful, balanced, nuanced and clearly perfected - crowd pleasing wines that can be enjoyed now or set aside to age for years to come.  This winery is perfect if you’re looking for a romantic Napa Valley destination - bring a small picnic and enjoy a leisurely tasting on the patio overlooking the valley, or being a group and enjoy wines and a setting that will please both novices and wine geeks alike.   What’s next for Silverado?  As a result of Silverado’s growing confidence pride in each unique vineyard, they’ve now started making vineyard-designated Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, and Cabernet Sauvignons.  Try the SOLO Cabernet Sauvignon, which Steve Heimoff from Wine Enthusiast and Robert Parker from The Wine Advocate have both heralded as a perfect expression of Stags Leap. For Disney lovers, this is an adult version of the fairytale experience you only wished could be true.

Tasting Notes on my favorites below:

2011 Miller Ranch Sauvignon Blanc: $22

Ripe grapefruit and melon, with grass aromas. Light and bright on the palate, flavors are crisp, citrusy with mineral notes.

2010 Mt. George Merlot: $36

Wet stone minerality, bright cherry fruit and notes of rosemary and mint on the nose set the expectation of complexity which this Merlot delivers. On the palate it is loaded with fruit, blackberries, cherries and plums enhanced by an herbal quality.Hints of spice and cocoa, coming from the barrel, are also present. These lush layers of flavor are held together in a

structure of fine tannins, giving a smooth texture which extends through the long, pleasing finish.

2010 Estate Cabernet: $48

Plum, spice, earth, dried herb and sweet oak aromas. Medium body with well-integrated fruit, spice and oak flavors. Balanced acidity and tannin give a long finish with flavors that linger.

2011 Solo Cabernet Sauvignon: $100

Spice, vanilla, plum, and cherry fruit aromas. Medium body, mineral and fruit flavors, well structured and balanced with a long finish.

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Effortlessly Hip - Scribe is one of Sonoma’s hottest wineries

It would be easy to miss the road to Scribe if not for the iconic mile-long palm tree lined dirt road that leads to an epic white Hacienda.  At the end of this road, we alighted at a magestic white edifice. Strangely, it looked to be abandoned and would have caused us some confusion had we not heard music wafting through the air coming from a rustic, chic building just a short way up the road. Realizing that this other building was the Scribe tasting room, we quickly changed course, passing organic gardens, wildflowers, and sun-speckled pristine grapevines to get there, a couple minutes away. Though the tasting room sits just a mile off the road, we felt like we had entered a new wilderness of wine country that was authentically sexy. 

Scribe is part of a growing revolution of winemakers who are electing to share their wine in intimate settings sans fancy tasting rooms, and in the process scoring a robust following of evangelists and fans. After Scribe's opening in 2009, the young owners and vintners, Andrew and Adam Mariani, quickly became darlings of the wine world, known almost as much for their incredible parties at Scribe’s Hacienda as for their beautifully austere wines.

30 year old Andrew Mariani purchased the Scribe estate, which lies three miles east of the Sonoma Square, in hopes that the old hacienda and surrounding acres of land would be the perfect spot to make wine using wild yeasts.  The now dilapidated hacienda was built a century ago by two bootlegger brothers from Germany and renovation is set to start in July, 2014, to build it into the central winery and tasting room.  For now, Scribe wine can be tasted by visitors in the most natural agrarian style - set out on picnic benches with a side of organic fruits, nuts, cheese and olives under hundred year old oak trees overlooking the Carneros region all the way to San Pablo Bay.  While Scribe is sold at a few restaurants (such as Bouchon, Napa), it's not widely distributed and mainly available for sale only via the wine club or purchased at the tasting room.

The Scribe credo is to experience wine is in a natural way; people sitting down together and eating, drinking and talking while enjoying the wine as a complementary sensory experience. When we arrived at Scribe, we were welcomed by several staff who all had a genuine camaraderie and pride in the Scribe winery, its philosophy and its patrons. Our host, Emma encouraged us to plop down at any location outside on the hilltop underneath the oak trees. We settled into the relaxed environment from our perch on a sunny picnic table overlooking the valley. As upbeat music played from the outdoor speakers, we were delivered an artisanal plate of cheese, green olives, one beautiful fresh organically grown apricot and walnuts, sourced locally from from Andrew’s uncle’s farm.

We first tasted a star bright Sylvaner (a German varietal similar to a Riesling), one of the original grape varietals planted on the Scribe estate. Later moved on to a beautiful Riesling, Chardonnay, and several Pinot Noir wines, notable was the 2013 unfiltered Pinot Noir a beautifully balanced and elegant wine. Rare is it to find the owner of a trend-setting new winery available on a Saturday to join in and genuinely connect with visitors, but Andrew is the exception. He came to sit and talk with us, welcoming us as if we were guests at his home.  We tasted the Riesling together as Andrew recounted his passion for winemaking at the young age of 24 while working on a winery in Greece. Mariani’s philosophy is to give the wine “the freedom to do its own thing”, including allowing the wild yeasts that live on the grapes to start the fermentation process, instead of adding commercial yeasts.

Mariani and his partners, wine-industry veterans Kristof Nils Anderson and Andrew Avellar (Mariani's uncle), are now growing 35 acres of Pinot Noir, Riesling, Chardonnay, and Sylvaner. Scribe Winery also buys grapes from Carneros and leases vineyard property in Napa on Atlas Peak, which they call Scribe Outpost East making a Syrah and a Cabernet Sauvignon both of which were sold out at the time of our tasting - how’s that for creating demand?

In addition to growing vines, Mariani has planted an acre of organic fruits and vegetables, rotating plants seasonally, has 150 acres of nature preserves brimming with wildlife, and an apiary that produces honey. One friendly staff mentions that one of his roles working at the winery is to pick fresh produce (and often give it away to visitors), collect eggs from the chicken coops and handle other farm-related tasks.  Scribe is of the recent trend of wineries trying to stay true to being a farm first and foremost. More and more California wineries are offering unique experiences that are becoming more about a style of winemaking and how wine is shared with people which is progressively moving away from overcrowded fancy tasting bars that showcases wines only after they’ve been bottled. 

As the name denotes, Scribe starts with the story of how the wine came to be, told and tasted in the actual environment that the fruit grows in. Andrew quotes, “farms generally don’t have grand tasting rooms”, and so the outdoor picnic benches fit the bill. There is a hip-looking demographic at the winery - it’s buzzing with people, but not overcrowded. Scribe doesn’t do any traditional marketing; word of mouth has garnered the cult following that continues to grow. They host parties for their wine club, partnering often with local chefs to create perfect food and wine pairings, and partner with popular DJ friends. Authenticity, family, farmers...Scribe tells the story of the wine and its history and it is beautiful with exciting chapters to come.

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Saber a Bottle of Schramsberg

There’s no better way to embrace a Sunday morning in Napa than with a glass of the valley’s finest sparkling wine and it’s a the icing on the cake to take in an awesome history lesson during the process. Our day began with a singing frog in the Schramsberg pond and ended with a lesson in champage sabering (watch a demonstration here ). The Schramsberg Winery Cave tour is fun, interesting and shouldn't be missed, so book ahead of time and come early to stroll around the pond and natural beauty of the Calistoga mountains where Robert Louis Stevenson used to find inspiration. (Cave tour times are: 10:00 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m, 1:30 p.m, & 2:30 p.m). We began outside the caves with the interesting history behind Schramsberg Winery - which, founded in 1862, is the second vineyard and winery on record in Napa Valley. Our guide (who moonlights during the week as a high school science teacher) gave us a great account of the winery’s history, peppered with insider stories from when Jacob Schram came from Germany to Calistoga to the winery’s current ownership (Jack and Jamie Davies). His stories were brought to life by historic photos hanging on the tasting room walls featuring a bevy of famous celebrity and presidential candidates enjoying the bubbly.

Jacob Schram was born in a wine making family in Germany, and came over to New York, then San Francisco to work first as a humble barber. In 1862, he decided to move up to Napa and revisit his winemaking roots and he thus purchased a large piece of land on the Calistoga countryside. In 1870, Schram planted 30,000 vines and recruited Chinese laborers in town from the recent completion of the Transcontinental Railroad, to dig Napa’s first hillside caves for wine-aging and storage. By 1876, his wines were winning awards at American and International competitions. Soon after, Schram built a huge stately Victorian mansion where his many friends (many who were famous such as Robert Louis Stevenson) often visited, drinking until late into the nightwith Schram. The home is still lived in today.

Schramsberg has proven its high quality and demand garnering a presidential and leadership following: In 1891, Schramsberg Riesling was served to President Harrison at Palace Hotel in San Francisco. The Schramsberg Blanc de Blancs gained international recognition in 1972 whenthen President Nixon served the wine at the historic “Toast to Peace” in Beijing, China. In 1987, Schramsberg served at official banquet in San Francisco honoring Pope John Paul II and, in 2007, Schramsberg 2005 Brut Rosé was served at the White House State Dinner honoring Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. There are also photos hanging in the winery depicting presidents Reagan, Clinton and both Bush Junior and Senior drinking Schramsberg at presidential events.
Despite being steeped in history, Schramsberg is still progressive, and managed now exclusively by "Schramsberg's princess", Mrs. Jamie Davies (Be sure to ask for theJamie poker story during your tour)! In 2009, Schramsberg was certified under both the Napa Green Winery program and the Napa Green Certified Land program and just recently, in 2010, the winery installed 466,806 kilowatt-hours solar array, consisting of 1,655 panels. Yet despite the progression, the winery continues to produce wine in the method tradicional, (read more about this on my blog post about champagne production), giving each bottle the tiniest bubbles and interesting flavor extract.

Our tour concluded with a fantastic tasting featuring 4 sparkling wines. Our guide continued to educate us on champagne facts and food pairings - some of which surprised me (try brut rose with barbecue)! He demonstrated the proper way to uncork a champagne bottle -something I’m trying to perfect- and described the proper technique for sabering the top off a bottle of champagne. This I found to be most interesting and couldn’t resist purchasing a wine saber in the gift shop, and plan on asking my father to do the honors of sabering champagne bottles for my wedding this fall! I’ve posted the tasting notes from the Schramsberg tasting guide are below:

Blanc de Blancs ~ $36.00 retail
Blanc de Blancs (white from white) made from Chardonnay is the counterpart to the Blanc de Noirs (white from black), made from Pinot Noir. Blanc de Blancs was the first wine Schramsberg produced in 1965 and was America’s first commercially produced, Chardonnay-based brut sparkling wine.

J Schram ~ $100.00 retail

From the inception of our efforts in 1965, we have sought to achieve the greatest elegance and individuality possible in our sparkling wines. J. Schram epitomizes our philosophy to create a wine in which no effort has been spared and no care has been omitted. This wine is a fine expression of American individuality and innovation.
Wine grapes from the finest vineyards of Northern California are nurtured throughout the ripening process, before they are hand-picked. Complexity is gained through fermentation in both oak barrels and stainless steel tanks. Some small lots undergo malolactic fermentation to enrich aromas and infuse creaminess on the palate. The wine is then aged in our historical mountainside caves for over five years.

Brut Rosé ~ $41.00 retail
Schramsberg Brut Rosé is flavorful, complex and dry, making it both versatile with food and delicious by itself as an apéritif. The character of the wine is most strongly influenced by bright, flavorful Pinot Noir grown in Carneros, Anderson Valley, and the Sonoma and Marin coastal areas. A few small lots of Pinot Noir are fermented in contact with their skins to add depth and subtle color to this unique sparkling wine. Chardonnay gives spice, structure and length on the palate. Hand picking, careful handling and gentle pressing produce a wine of delicacy, free of skin and seed tannin. Following the fall harvest and base winemaking period, an extensive process of blending trial and refinement is carried out in the spring. The finished blend is aged on the yeast in the bottle for about two years, just enough to achieve refined effervescence and toastiness without diminishing its refreshing, vibrant appeal.

Reserve ~ $100.00 retail
Schramsberg Reserve is our top Pinot Noir-focused brut sparkling wine. Typically representing about 3% of our annual production, this richly-flavored and full-bodied sparkler is made from only the finest base-wine lots produced each year. Six years old upon release, this fruitful, yet dry, toasty and creamy bubbly will age gracefully for a good 20 years beyond the vintage date. More than 80 cool-climate vineyard sites in Carneros, Anderson Valley, and the Sonoma and Marin coastal areas are managed each year to achieve the best possible fruit for our sparkling wines. Hand-picking, early-morning harvesting, and light pressing are critical. Small amounts of select Chardonnay are included in the blend to lend additional backbone and length to the palate. Distinct barrel and malolactic fermentation lots are layered in to provide viscosity and depth. Extensive tasting is conducted over the winter months, with as many as 200 base wines being taken into consideration. Following bottle fermentation, each bottle is aged in contact with its own yeast in our historic Diamond Mountain hillside caves for a minimum of nearly five years. The finishing dosage is the result of comprehensive trials to fine-tune balance of flavor and acidity.

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Stag's Leap Harvest Dinner - and a Surprising Take on Time

Last weekend, I attended a private event at Stag’s Leap Cellars this past Saturday, hosted by Red Rock Resort, and despite the fact the I had to board a plane to Orlando the following morning at 9:00 am, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to enjoy some of the best California Cabernet Sauvignon I have ever tasted in a truly magical environment. After an afternoon tasting at Goosecross Cellars and Cliff Lede Winery,in Yountville, Garrett and I along with two special guests of ours, dressed up for the evening and made our way along the Silverado Trail to Stag’s Leap Cellars. Stag’s Leap Cellars (not to be confused with Stags’ Leap Winery) is best known for its estate-grown Cabernet Sauvignon’s, CASK 23, S.L.V. 23 and FAY, which are some of the most smooth, elegant, velvety cabs I have ever tasted and highly regarded and collected worldwide. Stag’s Leap Cabernets are also famous for their first place title earned alongside California’s Chateau Montelena at the infamous Judgement of Paris, 1976, where its 1973 Cabernet Sauvignon won first place in a Parisian blind tasting against ten other Parisian and Californian wines.

As the sun set, an intimate group gathered outside the cellars at “the Outlook”, perched above Stag’s Leap’s FAY vineyard and named for it’s breathtaking views of the Stags Leap palisades which jut out dramatically against the skyline. We enjoyed a crisp and refreshing glass of Sauvignon Blanc and nibbled on ahi tartare cones while we mingled with other guests and counted exactly fivespectacular homes that were beautifully constructed to fade in with the palisades above the Stags leap vineyards - oh, to own one of those!

We then alighted on a brief tour of the impeccable $5 million wine caves past the world-renowned wines aging in French barrels stacked neatly along the labyrinth and then paused for a reception in the Round Room. Many special wineries in Napa have a surprise element within their caves, and we found an unparalleled surprise here. Entering the dramatic space, 100 feet underground,we were awestruck by the enormous Foucalt Pendulum hanging from the center of a domed ceiling- one of only fifty in the world. The Pendulum can tell time, but is usedmore for effect and its dual appeal to theart and science fans that visit the winery. The dome walls are lined with a type of rock called feldspar that sparkles, giving off the same effects of stars in the sky - creating a natural solarium. The floor of the room is slightly curved, alluding to the natural shape of the earth, so standing in the room is literally dizzying! We were served our first SLV Cabernet of the evening as our palettes were amused by little bite sized canapes - quarter-sized round slices of lamb served with ripe berry jam atop mini golden potato rounds, and truffled trumpet mushroom-mousse “sliders” the size of nickels - hinting at the culinary delights that were to come.
We finally made our way past an adorable bronze sculpture of a sleeping bear and her cub atop an old iconic French wine barrel into the Great Room, where a long King Table was set festively for 30 or so guests. The stunning space glowed with the light of hammered copper sconces and glistening quartzite floors. We sat down to a beautifully catered dinner by Scott Price, enjoying mushroom rissoto with port wine glaze and the 2007 SLV Cabernet, followed by a most flavorful ribeye with shaved beets and braised swiss chard. The food was perfection, but the wines were truly unparalled and the food pairings did a wonderful job of making the wine the focal point of the event.

While I liked both wines equally and thought both were elegant and perfectly balanced and soft as velvet on the finish, there were subtle differences, which I learned come from the slight difference in the terroir that the grapes grow on. The S.L.V. vineyard grows on predominantly volcanic soil, which contributes greatly to the spicy intensity, concentration and complex layered structure of the wine - this is the more “fiery” of the two Cabs and was perfectly suited to accompany the savory , meaty-mushoom risotto. The FAY vineyard is more alluvial, so it yields more of the “watery” qualities making it elegant, soft, perfumed, and rich with fruit-forward berries. The Stag’s Leap signature style has often been described as "an iron fist in a velvet glove," in reference to the perfect balance the wines achieve between ripeness and restraint, softness and structure, yielding wines of exceptional beauty that can be aged or enjoyed relatively young. Stag’s Leap picks their wine in small lots which they carefully harvest after measuring the ripeness daily. The small lots are then blended together artistically and scientifically with a team of enologists evaluating the wine daily to ensure it is perfectly balanced and healthy before bottling. The wines are aged in French oak from a variety of coopers and forests which also assist the wine in achieving a subtle harmony and hints of baking spice.

We departed the event halfway through the divine dessert course of lava cake and fresh berries and cream, departing through the Arcade, designed by Barcelona-based architect Javier Barba. The Arcade is typically used at the entrance to the caves and boasts beautiful arches with exposed masses of rock and hanging rosemary vines that drape over the walkway. The beauty of the structure is that it incorporates elements of the land around it and blends into the environment elegantly.

Reviews:
2007 S.L.V Cabernet Sauvignon: The wine is a brilliant ruby color and the nose gives off aromas of vanilla, subtle toast, dark berry fruit and black cherry. The wine is medium bodied with nice integrated tannins and hints of mocha and toasted almond. The foremost flavors are dark cherry, chocolate and coffee with hints of caramel and vanilla on the finish.
2007 FAY Cabernet Sauvignon: The wine is dark garnet, exuding a lovely perfume of rich black currant, boysenberry and cassis. This cab is fruit-forward but not overly ripe with notes of chocolate, tobacco and light toast to balance out the bold dark berries. Like the S.L.V., it exudes the impeccable balance and finesse with a smooth mouth feel and incredible structure.

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Happily Ever After...Storybook Winery Guarantees It

Once upon a time, two weekends ago, we went looking for a big, full-bodied, spicy, juicy wine...and we found our knight in shining armour at Storybook Winery. Tucked away in Napa close to Calistoga, Storybook Winery sits on an eastern slope of the Mayacamas Range whose ridges separate Napafrom Sonoma. The winery bottles and ages itsEstate wines where its vines grow - 46 acres of vines, among 120 heavily forested acres that receives warm eastern sun exposure, an orientation shared with many of the greatest vineyards in Bordeaux and Burgundy. The winery was founded in 1888 by the Grimm Brothers, who dug the original 3 wine cave tunnels that remain today, and also named the winery “Grimm’s Vault” - not quite as playful or endearing as “Storybook”.Unfortuntely, the Grimm Vault came to a grim finish when a fire in the 1970’s destroyed the entire vineyard. Enter Jerry and Sigrid Seps - a couple of city folks from southern California who had no experience with farming or making wine whatsoever, but loved the charming plot and were determined to learn everything they could to transform their new land into a successful winery. The Seps’ re-named the winery Storybook to honor its majestic beauty and to pay homageto the original founders - the Brothers Grimm. After spending a year clearing it out, they determined that the land was best suited for growing Zinfandel - the thick-skinned grape with big bunchesof tightlyclustered purple berries that requires plenty of warmth to ripen, yet cool nights to create perfectly balanced wine. In the mid-seventies, Zinfandel was rarely planted in the Napa Valley - so when the Seps’ decided to plant their vineyards with 100% Zinfandel, many were skeptical. However, the Zinfandel produced by the winery was hugely successful (the winery won its first gold medal in 1983 and won the became the highest rated Zin in history in 1989) and thus Storybook produced exclusively Zinfandel for 20 years! Only after phyloxera (which attacks only Zin in California) spread through Napa Valley did the family decide to take some precautions and plant 20% of the vineyard with Cab, Merlot, Petit Verdot and Viognier to insure against a deadly outbreak, which fortunately never harmed the precious Zin vines. However, the 20% non-Zin varietals are still grown and bottled at the Storybook Estate, but are given the name “Seps Collection” so that the Storybook names denotes strictly Zins.

Jerry Seps was originally a professor and carefully planted the vineyard based on the subtle differences in terroir. The winery is now comprised of 98 picking parts, which are hand-harvested separately by four workers who are kept very busy throughout the year. The grapes are not necessarily harvested in neighboring order - Jerry Sepps was originally a science professor and takes great care and a hands on approach to determine exactly when the grapes should be picked based on the perfect ripeness, sending the the 4 workers out to pick the vineyard each day as if they were on a scavenger hunt. Once the grapes have been harvested, Jerry, his wife, and daughter hand-sort the grapes, removing any but the best from the final blending mix. Once the juice is pressed by part, the family again tastes each individual part to determine which ones will make it to the elevated status of “Reserve” Zin. Apparently, Jerry Seps takes copious notes on the subtleties he tastes, while his wife, Sigrid, simply rates them by number as her final answer. This “first pick” blend creates the most intense, balanced Storybook Zins which also have the best aging potential. The wines are then aged in parts in three types of oak - French, American and Hungarian, for 12 months before being blended together in the original Oval Barrel (see pictured). After the wine is brought together inside the neutrally flavored barrel for 1-2 months, it is finally bottled and though it ages well, is also a good young-drinking full-bodied wine - already complex and balanced in its youth.

Back to the subject of visiting the winery: Your tour begins with a stroll up through the vineyards, which is a truly wonderful way to begin, because you can really see the different parts of vines planted in a quiltwork of different directions that best capture the sun. The tour then leads you through the ancient caves built by the Grimms and still used today. The highlight here is realizing that these are the original 100+ year-old caves and there are places where you can actually see the original unenforced ceiling and walls - cobwebs and all, and truly imagine you are in a fairytale. The caves provide the perfect temperature for wine making and require no additional cooling. After a tour through the barrel labyrinth and past the large oval tanks, painted with the storybook emblem (Fox and Grapes) you alight at a tasting room, to sample a myriad of Seps Family wines - from Storybook Zins, to Seps Cab and Viognier (added to some of their syrahs and also bottled separately if there is enough of it left over). Below are my notes on a few of the tastings:

* Zin Gris: A modern twist on “white Zinfandel” - this wine is perfect for summer, but nothing like the award-winning Zins Storybook is known for. It’s light pink in color and has hints of grapefruit, watermelon and strawberry.
* 2007 Mayacamas Zin: This Zin makes up 50% of the Storybook production and is rich and sexy with dark fruit flavors, blackberry, anise, tobacco, and mulling spices. It’s huge without being overpowering.
* Anteas: A blend of all the Seps red Bordeaux varietals: A strong, earthier wine - that truly tastes like its namesake Greek character, Anteas, who drew its strength from the earth. Lots of earth, and damp forest floor with foxy red cherry-berry notes.

Storybook Winery is charming, intimate and a beautiful place to visit. As we departed with bottles in hand, I had a happily ever after feeling - or maybe that was just the Zin...

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Silver Oak Winery – Why the Cult Following?

Silver Oak Winery is famous for its extraordinary “Big Cabs” that draw cult-like crowds which gather at the Winery entrance hours inadvance of their New Release partywhich occurs semiannually in Napa each year. Silver Oak’s name and shiny silver embossed bottle logo may be synonymous with imperious, and even wine novices know the bottles aren’t inexpensive, the tour at the winery itself was down to earth and jovial – you’ll find no skyward pointed noses here. While there’s an Alexander Valley location, I visited the winery in Oakville, which was easy to spot with its famous emblematic white water tower out front - the winery used to be an old dairy farm. Silver Oak Winery was founded by Ray Duncan and Justin Meyer in 1972. Duncan was an entrepreneurfrom Colorado who was lured into the wine business after visiting a friend in Napa Valley and purchasing 750 acres of orchards and vineyards within a year. The current winery is striking and impressive - a beautifully constructed stone building with stain glass grape-themed windows and copper statues adorning the landscape. We entered the winery into the gorgeous tasting room where I couldn’t help but be lured over to the custom glass-encased wine cellar that spans the width of the tasting room and displays Silver Oak’s vintages from 1972 to the present in varying bottle sizes.
From the tasting room, we were met by an ancient, yet youthful guide, Deke, who led us first through a couple of rooms that housed pictures of the winery’s history. Deke provided great insight into the Duncan Family history and illuminated the warm and generous culture they create for their staff (for example, every five years, the Duncan family flies the entire Silver Oak staff- approximately 50 people- to an exotic destination such as Mexico or Hawaii for a week). Deke also offered fun tidbits – there are approximately 589 and a half grapes in each bottle of wine and 300 bottles of wine comprises one barrel. Given that each bottle costs an estimates $100, each barrel of wine costs $30,000! Some interesting history: In 2006, the winery suffered a fateful fire that destroyed 170 barrels of wine - doing the math, that would cost the winery $5,100,000 in wine alone! Given the resulting loss, and the fact that the winery had already suffered 3 floods prior to the fire over the previous decade, the Duncan family formulated a plan to build a new winery. The new winery was built using stones from a Kansas Flour Mill and designed with impressive sustainable features such as the raising of the entire site five feet to be above the flood plain of the Napa River which runs through the property. To eliminate breeding spots for bacterial contamination, no wood is used anywhere in the winery, just stainless steel and corrugated steel, and the building is designed without columns to allow for free access throughout.

Zeke gave a thorough tour, which included the tasting room,event space (which can host up to 100 people, catered by the in-house catering team), the crush pad, barrel room and bottling room, and even out to the vineyard itself. Yet the one thing he didn’t shed much light on was why the wine is so exceptional and so expensive. I prodded him with questions and can only provide my best insight based on his responses. Silver Oak uses American Oak barrels, which are much more cost-effective for the winery ($350 each as opposed to $1400 for French Oak!). The American Oak is toasted and less harshly tannic than French oak, and also imparts a spicy vanilla note that compliments the Silver Oak style of American Cabernet. The winery is also very selective on the juice it uses. Grapes are hand picked, and free run juice is used first - the press juice and lees juice is only added to the blend if the winemaker feels it meets the Silver Oak standards – otherwise it is sold to other wineries. Napa Valley Silver Oak is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Petit Verdot (classic Bordeaux style), while Alexander Valley Cab is 100% Cabernet. The wine is racked for 8 weeks, spends 25 months in the barrel and then finlly is stored another 24 months in the bottle before being released.

On the tour, we tasted three vintages:

the 2006 Alexander Valley Cab, the 2005 Napa Cab, and the 2003Napa Cab. I won’t lie that the 2006

Cab definitelyneeded more time in the cellar and was still young and tannic. The 2005 was similar, though it opened up by the end of the tour, giving off a nice blend of oak, spice and plumy fruit. It was definitely dark and peppery contrasting with the tart red fruit flavors I got from the Alexander Valley Cab. I wasn’t overwhelmed by the wines (which should have

been the main attraction) until I tasted the 2003 Napa Cab, which was rich and concentrated with great balance and length, giving off meaty, juicy flavors, chocolate, tobacco, baked fruit and spice. It was an elegant wine at 7 years and I am sure that all Silver Oak wines do best with ample cellar time. I’d love the opportunity to do a vertical tasting of several older vintages, but I’ll save that for mynext visit! To visit, make advance reservations…and be sure to get your hands on the oldest vintage they re pouring in the tasting room!

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