Napa Wine Trip

[vintner]

Okay, figured I would move the wine part of our Napa trip to the wine section of the forum.

We found some really nice wines. We were tasting about 3 wineries a day, Sunday-Friday. The DW (Kim) tasted the standard tasting, and I did the reserve tastings. I would taste some of her wines, she tasted some of my wines. So for the wine tastings generally in the $5-15 range, we tasted a lot of wines.

We joined a new wine club, Turnbull, and rejoined the Kendall Jackson wine club, but at a higher level. Our other wine tasting partners joined the Seghesio wine club with a 4 bottle shipment that we will split.

Wines we brought back as extra luggage include:
V. Sattui Lodi Zinfandel 2006 qty 2. I also bought a case of zin futures. It will be bottled next year and shipped.
Louis Martini Alexander Valley Cab Sauv 2006 qty 2
Turnbull 2005 Black Label (Cab, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Malbac, and Cab Franc) Wonderful wine, big, complex but darned expensive.
Turnbull 2006 Zinfandel
Trinchero 2006 Meritage
Ferrari Carano Muscat 2008 qty 2 (go to see the grounds more than for the wines).
Rosenblum Zin port
Gustavo Thrace 2006 Barbera-best barbera I have ever had.
The Terraces at Quarry Vineyards 2006 Zinfandel-We bought a bottle of their Chard to serve with dinner. Our partners have found a local store to be able to buy it here.
We also found a wine on the wine train (the wine train is a story all on its own, but is was a great experience). It was a Hess Cab. with a purple lable and I can not remember the vineyard.

Plus, I bought a case of the Seghesio Sonoma Zin that was shipped and picked up today. Seghesio is a small producer, making only about 67,000 cases of the zin. While that sounds like a lot of wine, when you ship all over the country, that doesn't leave a lot in each location. That is why I got a case as soon as it was released.

Wines purchased at the tasting rooms are generally more money than buying them at your local wine supplier, but, you can not always get those wines locally. That is why we took the chance and hauled a case through the airport. That is a story too.

That is my week in wine country. A great time was had, and there is talk about doing it again in March 2011.