Tag Archives: drink

Domaine Chandon Winery Review Napa Valley California

Posted on June 6, 2016 by waywardwine

Winding down our eight year anniversary trip to Napa Valley, we start our last day with bubbly for breakfast. Yesterday, Stags’ Leap stained us with their cabs (read here). So we may be a bit biased with fizz in our future.

Our rainy drive South finds Yountville and Chandon’s first vineyard: Continue reading →

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Stags’ Leap Winery Review Napa Valley

Posted on May 23, 2016 by waywardwine

Back to beginnings this week with one of Napa’s originals: Stags’ Leap Winery (not to be confused with Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars).

The Chase family built the stone Manor House in 1890 and planted vineyards in 1893.

Stags Leap PatioOur visit feels part historic home tour, part winery tour. We enter and get a glass of 2014 Viognier (dry, pale, soft pear, white peach, lemon blossom: very good 4 of 5 $32). Stags’ interior oozes Victorian oak and moodiness. I feel like I forgot my top hat, pipe, and misogyny.

Stags Leap Victorian StaircaseIn 1913, widowed Mrs. Frances Grange bought and turned Stags’ into a resort for Hollywood elite. Prohibition halted wine-making but didn’t halt Frances. She sold fruit to other producers and turned Stag’s basement into an underground speakeasy with a trap door.

Stags Leap Prohibition CellarTo absolve patrons’ sins, both lawbreaking and religious, widow Grange built a non-denominational church. Today, church Grange serves as winery: Continue reading →

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Etude Winery Visit Napa Valley Carneros

Posted on May 2, 2016 by waywardwine

After an unnecessarily ostentatious day-long tour from Mt Veeder to Howell Mountain with Cardinal (read P1 here read P2 here), we somehow wake up early. Our mouths blackened and livers tested by endless Cabernet, Merlot, and Malbec, we rejoice knowing that today, after four days of monster reds, we try Napa Valley Pinot Noir.

We bomb down to Carneros, Napa’s most southerly AVA.

Carneros Napa Valley Map Continue reading →

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Tasting at Lewis Cellars Winery Napa Valley

Posted on March 24, 2016 by waywardwine

We leave the vast caves and hobbit-infested knolls of Pine Ridge (read here). Already late and marginally sober we bolt south. Stags Leap AVA flattens into the vine-plain of Oak Knoll. We blast past the winery, turn around and pull up a long drive to the innocuous, tall, grey, free standing building with a big L on it: Lewis Cellars.

Inside, white wash and windows feel like a Southern tea room. We sit with two other couples on a long table.

Lewis owns no vineyards. They started sourcing grapes in ’89 as Oakville Ranch Winery. A car crash in 1991 ended Randy Lewis’ 23 year Formula 1 and 3 career. So he turned to completely to wine. Being Napa, it did not hurt being rich. Today they make 6,000 cases, 1/3rd of which are Chardonnay… Continue reading →

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St Clement Vineyards Napa Valley

Posted on March 11, 2016 by waywardwine

Charmed but challenged by Beringer (read here), we roll up the 29 to St. Clement Winery. Another lovely Victorian home awaits us at the top of a terraced vineyard.

St Clement WineryFar from San Francisco, North, at the narrowest, windiest (and today, wettest) gap in Napa Valley, Fritz Rosenbaum built his home in 1878.

Fritz gilded the Gilded Age, thanks to fancy mirrors and stained glass sold to San Fran (as well as the Beringers…$6,000 of their $28,000 was Fritz’s stained glass). This was in the bathroom: Continue reading →

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