A California "First Growth" estate featuring two wines, a Bordeaux-style Harlan Estate Proprietary Red Wine, and a second wine, The Maiden. Prepare to pay well for a bottle of the Harlan Estate Proprietary Red Wine. Robert Parker has given the Proprietary Red perfect scores in 1994, 1997, 2001, and 2002.
Arns Winery is definite Must Try and Buy wine and winery stop while in the Saint Helena area of Napa Valley, CA. I arrived at the winery and was met by John, Sandi, and Kathi as well as their lovable yellow lab. I tried their 2008 Estate Grown Cabernet Sauvignon, and their 2008 Syrah (Melanson Vineyard). The Cab is full-bodied, with luscious chocolate and black cherry, a tiny bit of pepper, and has one of the most lingering, long-lasting finishes I can remember.
corks and wne glass - Pixabay
Conn Creek is a small but nice winery located in St. Helena. The staff was very friendly and knowledgeable about the wine and estate even explaining to us the different regions around Napa, Sonoma, Rutherford, etc. I really liked the Cabernet Franc and the Cabernet Sauvingon. If you're a big red wine fan, they have a flight tasting of just red wines if you don't want to try their mixed wines.
Most of the 2000 case annual production is sold to a mailing list on a first-come basis. Part of each offering is a very limited amount of the Cabernet made ten years earlier, as an illustration of the ageworthiness of our wine. The balance is split between a broad but thin presence in many of the well known wine stores in the U.S., and a definite presence in almost all European countries together with the principle Asian markets.
Silver Stag Winery sits on a prime piece of Tulocay acreage in the heart of Napa Valley, just east of the town of Napa and about three miles from the Bay. Planted in plums back at the end of the nineteenth century, the soil is rich enough—and distinct enough—to have earned it consideration as an official viticultural appellation. The vineyard is defined by a gentle swale that sits at the foot of Mount George. Its microclimate, comparable to "cool Bordeaux", is a bit warmer than Carneros, but it still feels the marine intrusions flowing up the path of the Napa River. The effect is to extend the time on the vine, yielding smaller berries with less tannin and far more concentration than the Napa average. Silver Stag has planted the majority of its land in Cabernet Sauvignon, with some Cab Franc and Petit Verdot. Visits by appointment.
We popped into this beautiful tasting room. The lady behind the counter was very informative and sweet, and understood that we were in a bit of a time crunch so she poured our wines quickly while still giving us explanations of the grapes that were used to produce each wine. I thought the wines here were very different because they were blends of grapes grown in different regions. We had the general tasting ($15/person) and particularly enjoyed the pinot noir and the syrah. Art work from wine artist Agata Zaborowski - Agata Art Gallery
Jim Barbour was raised on his family’s ranch in Rutherford where he learned the life of farming, a passion for land, and the understanding that hard work breeds success. In 1992, he planted his own vineyard and in 1995 produced just 50 cases of his first vintage of his eponymous Barbour Cabernet Sauvignon. Barbour is an estate wine handmade by Celia Welch and produced from dry-farmed and sustainably grown grapes from Barbour Vineyard.
This is a Famly business run by four Brothers, all native residents of Napa, and all grew up making wine in their garage as kids.... Needless to say they produce some outstanding wine! The brothers take turns conducting private tours at a cave winery in the southeastern hills of the Napa Valley. It's a great tour and a REAL Napa Winemaking experience.
Brandlin has "Two locations" and "Two Experiences" for tasting. The historic tasting room is located at 4550 Silverado Trail just south of Calistoga and is open to the public daily. The Carneros Tasting Room is at 1221 Duhig Road just off Highway 121 and is by appointment only.
Our 17,000 square foot facility was designed by Jon Lail, principal of Lail Design Group, LLC, to reflect the marriage of Chuck’s tech background, and Philippe’s Old World winemaking philosophy. Completed in 2002, the winery is built of stone materials and terraced with landscape plantings to fit beautifully within the natural landscape of the vineyards that surround it. The winery design is gravity flow in nature, increasing the quality of the wine produced and substantially reducing undesirable aeration by pumps and winemaking machinery. Designed to make the least environmental impact, the facility generates its own electricity using microturbines. As a byproduct, this system “co-generates” all the winery’s hot and chilled water and cools the winery’s 13,000 square feet of caves.
