I have one rule when drinking wine...drink what you like! It is really that simple. Wine has all sorts of pretension around it, but this is highly unnecessary. Wine has been around since the dawn of time and celebrated by and for the gods! The ingredients are pretty simple: some grapes, some sunshine, some rain, a little yeast and time. How hard can it be? I am sure you can make bad wine but I have not found it yet – there is definitely wine that I do not like (but that is my personal taste) and some that give me headaches (grrr phenols!) but by and large I will try anything. I have had, and loved, some very cheap wines and some more expensive wines. So drink what you like.
One night when we were avoiding the crowds at Halloween, Geoff and I headed to a local restaurant (sadly now closed). There were only a few people in the place so the waiter had some time to try out some of his new “wine toys” with us. This is when I learned about an aerator. We taste tested wine that had not been run though the aerator and some that had. I was surprised at the difference. I have heard “people” talking about “opening up wine” and “letting it breathe” but never really believed it mattered. I was like most people and drank wine within a few hours of buying. So this enables me to improve the taste of the wine and drink it shortly after it is bought! You can pick them up for between $20 -$ 100, depending on how fancy you want to be or just pour it into a different bottle and wait an hour or so.
There are so many hobbies out there – camping, hiking, stamps, etc, I just like good food and many of the things that go with it. Wine just happens to be one of those things that go delightfully with food. Honestly, you can pair anything with food including beer, even scotch, but wine is definitely the most common. So we tend to like to explore the wineries in the Niagara Region but this past weekend we were in San Francisco for work and were able to plan a long weekend to spend in the Napa Valley. What a treat! I never expected to be able to go so to be able to blend work and pleasure it was all the better.
There are hundreds of wineries in the Napa Valley, some very big and some very small. We only managed to get to 5 while there, but enough to get a nice sample. The weather there is incredible, about 31C during the day with no humidity and about 10C over night. The views were amazing, photo-ops galore!
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| Roses are traditionally planted at the end of the vines - red for red wine and white for white wine |
The weather and the land directly will impact on the grapes and the wine. We tasted one wine that was exposed to the smoke from the fires that were in the area in 2008 and there was a smoky flavour to the Pinot Noir. This year was very rainy in June and the grapes have not had as much sunshine. Normally, everything would be harvested by this time, but most wineries are not starting until this week and should be all done in about 4 weeks. I am including a little information and of some of the wineries we tried. I did a little searching when we got back and we can get some of these at my local liquor store, so you might be able to get them also. But these are my favourites – drink what you like!
The first place we went to was Domaine Carneros (http://www.domainecarneros.com//index.cfm). We had a wonderful host! He convinced us to have the Sparking and Pinot Noir and cheese pairing plate. It was 10am – it was 1pm in Ontario so that makes it ok to indulge in the morning! Both of these were just wonderful. And the views of and from this location was just stunning.
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| Domaine Carneros |
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| Who says wine only comes in one size of bottle |
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| View from Domaine Carneros |
Our next stop was Etude (http://shop.etudewines.com//index.cfm). This was the first place that I had heard of wineries using heirloom grapes. There has been a great interest in heirloom vegetables, mostly tomatoes, but this was the first time that I have ever heard of heirloom grapes. They had some grapes on hand and they were about 50% smaller than the other grapes.
We then headed off to Saintsbury (http://www.saintsbury.com/). This was a wonderful little winery, with only an outside patio with a couple of tables for tasting. Ralph, the cat, joined us for the time, mostly sleeping on our table. Carly did a great job showing us some of the wines they have been producing – Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. The concierge at the hotel we stayed at described them as “elegant” and that pretty much sums it up.
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| Tasting area at Saintbury |
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| Carly poured the wine, and Ralph supervised |
Our last night there, we tried out Brix (http://www.brixnapavalleygrille.com/), at the recommendation of the hotel. It was a wonderful dinner with very “California” menu. Geoff chose the pork and I enjoyed the chicken. We sat under a vine covered patio as the night air settled in. After dinner we walked through the kitchen garden, enjoying the last sips of a delicious wine (http://www.decoywines.com/wines/dc-pn/dc-pn-avpn/2009/) before ending our night in Napa.
We had a wonderful time and to be a cliché ...if you ever find yourself in Napa take a few minutes to explore and find some wine that you enjoy!
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