We have several wineries that we are already connected to (or have at least visited in the past), so we usually don’t have too many new places that we go to. This trip, we went to many wineries that we have visited in the past, and a few new ones.
We are members at some of these places, including the ‘Foley Family’ places, which makes it easy to go there for tastings — especially when you know the wines and the people.
Our visit:
Sunday (February 2) — After our uneventful flight from Las Vegas to Sacramento and an uneventful drive from Sacramento to Napa, we visited Arch & Tower. This is a tasting room in downtown Napa for Robert Mondavi. Their usual winery/tasting room is being totally remodeled (and won’t be ready for another year). This was an add-on for us and it was very nice. The facility was last used as a brewery, but Mondavi has made significant changes that look excellent. Our host was a young woman named Joi and she was very pleasant and the wines were nice.
Monday — Silverado (www.silveradovineyards.com) and Merus (www.meruswines.com)
We have been to Silverado before; it is a lovely property with great views. The wines were very nice and service by our host Frank was good. Our favorite wine there was one of their cabernet sauvignon wines called GEO; we bought a bottle of it to drink later in the week.
We have not been to Merus before; it is a very high end winery (in our estimation) and we consciously decided to go there the last time we visited the Napa Valley. It is quite out of the way to the east of Silverado Trail. Our host there was Kevin, who we had had as a host during a previous visit at Foley Johnson. It was a great experience that started with a Merus chardonnay. It is the first one that they have produced — and they are producing it (we were told) because chardonnay is almost the only wine that Bill Foley (the owner) will drink!
After the chardonnay, we tasted a 2013 cabernet sauvignon [by the way, until the chardonnay, all that Merus had made was a single cabernet sauvignon each year]. From there, we went to a barrel tasting of the 2022 cabernet sauvignon. Finally, we had a vertical tasting of 2014, 2015, 2017 and 2018 cabernet sauvignons (the 2016 is sold out). With all of the wines, Kevin provided small bites to pair with the wine. It was a great experience that we would recommend to anyone that enjoys fine red wine.
Tuesday — Biale (www.biale.com)and Foley Johnson (www.foleyjohnsonwines.com)
On Tuesday, it was raining all day and quite cool. Our first stop that day was at Biale. It is a fairly small winery that makes mostly zinfandels (which we have determined to be Lori’s favorite varietal). We had the same host as our previous visit (Elena); we were the only visitors for the entire time we were there, so it was quite a personal experience. Their most famous wine is the “Black Chicken” zinfandel. Back in the 1940s, the family was primarily farming and sold their produce to people in the valley. When people called them and placed their order, if they asked for “black chicken”, that meant that they wanted a jug of the wine that the family made.
Our other stop that day was at Foley Johnson. We have visited there before (with Kevin as our host) and wanted to go there again. This time our host was Phil and he was excellent. Foley Johnson has mostly red wines; our favorite there is called Pat’s Blend, which is named for Patrick Foley, a son of Bill Foley and his wife Carol Ann. Patrick passed away a few years ago.
We ate dinner at a restaurant called Cook St. Helena (in St. Helena). It is quite a small restaurant that serves northern Italian food — excellent.
Wednesday — Ghost Block (ghostblockwine.com) and O’Brien [more on this] Merryvale (www.merryvale.com)
The weather was much better on Wednesday — sunny and cool. There was a LOT of standing water throughout the valley; we had actually had a road closure on the way to where we were staying on Tuesday night.
We had lunch at Oakville Grocery (www.oakvillegrocery.com); we usually have lunch there at least once during our stay in Napa. They have really good sandwiches and pizzas — we chose a pizza that day.
Oakville Grocery is right across the street from Ghost Block winery, so it is really convenient to have lunch and then go to Ghost Block. They are one of our favorite wineries; they have three labels — Elizabeth Rose, Oakville and Ghost Block. Our host this time was Louis; he was not as ‘generous’ as our usual host there (Luis), but he is at least a third generation Napa Valley resident and knows a lot of the history of the wine making there. Our favorite Ghost Block wines are probably the Ghost Block cabernet sauvignon and the Oakville cabernet sauvignon.
Our other stop was supposed to be O’Brien winery. We know the owners, Bart and Barbie O’Brien, quite well (I actually did a gyrocopter ride with Bart last year!) and I contacted Bart to schedule our tasting. We had planned to get together with some other friends that live in Napa and bring them to O’Brien and then have dinner. Unfortunately, they had to cancel the wine visit and we just had dinner (more later). So, we were going to go to O’Brien, but I received a call a few days before informing us that our tasting would have to be cancelled because the host had a family emergency and was unavailable. Because of that, we chose to visit Merryvale — the first winery that we had visited on our first trip to Napa shortly after we were married.
Merryvale was very nice; our host was Chris and they again are primarily a cabernet sauvignon house. We tasted several and our actual favorite was a 2013 Profile; however, it costs over twice as much as an excellent 2018 cabernet sauvignon. During our tasting, I received a call from Bart O’Brien — wondering why we weren’t there! Apparently, there was a communication mix-up there and the other person didn’t realize that Bart was going to host us himself (oh, well — there is always next time!).
We did end up meeting our friends for dinner at a small family restaurant called Il Posto Trattoria. We have eaten there before and the food is always very good. It is Italian (obviously), and the portions are large and sauces very flavorful.
Thursday — Ferrari Carano (www.ferrari-carano.com) and Banshee (www.bansheewines.com)
Thursday, it was pouring! Our plan was to drive over to the Sonoma side for the rest of the week. We started out and stopped at a restaurant that we like that is on the way called Boon Fly Cafe (www.boonflycafe.com). They have huge portions (we ought to share) and they have ‘boon fly donuts’ that are a must every time we go. This time Lori actually had a BLT while I had the Boon Fly benedict.
From there, we had a long drive in the rain; the GPS rerouted us because there were a couple of road closures along the normal route. We were going up to Ferrari Carano, which is pretty much at the top of the Sonoma side in Healdsburg. There was no one else there, so another personal tasting. Our host was Justin, who had previously worked at Total Wine. He left because they wanted to promote him, which would have meant his girlfriend having to be let go. She’s still there at Total Wine and he is enjoying the winery!
We had some chardonnays (they have several) and many different reds. My favorite was the 2021 cabernet sauvignon; Lori’s were the 2021 sangiovese and the 2021 zinfandel.
Our other stop that day was at Banshee — again at the northern part of Healdsburg. It is one of the many Foley properties that I mentioned. There our host was Benjamin who was, as they pretty much all are, nice and friendly. They have several chardonnays and pinot noirs and our favorite was the Trenton pinot.
After our tastings, we had a dinner reservation at Goodnights (www.goodnightsrestaurant.com), which is another Foley property — they have wineries, restaurants and distilleries in the western US and New Zealand. We had a really nice dinner — I had a special for the evening, a prime rib, and Lori had a sirloin bavette (which we had to ask about because we didn’t know the cut). All was really good and we had a nice dessert as well.
Friday — Chalk Hill (www.chalkhill.com), Roth (www.rothwinery.com), and Seghosio(www.seghesio.com)
The weather was much nicer on Friday (and Saturday) than on Thursday — it was again sunny and cool. We had reservations for a tasting at Chalk Hill which was the first Foley winery that we had had a tasting at a couple of years ago. Our host was Alex, who we had had as a host previously. One of the reasons that we chose to join the Foley Family club (we are in the ‘connoisseur club’) was that they had several nice chardonnay wines and we had decided to drop a chardonnay club in Santa Ynez. So we had several chardonnay wines there as well as a fantastic charcuterie board and a few reds. Lori’s favorite was the Wright Creek chardonnay.
Right across the road is the Roth winery (another Foley property). We have often (three times) gone to both of these wineries the same day because it is very convenient for us. We had heard from some folks that they seem to be catering to the ‘younger crowd’, so we were interested in seeing how things were there. Our host was Jesse and he was a nice guy. They have an ‘OK’ menu of wines and that is what they were, OK. There was a malbec that Lori liked, but I think that this is one of the Foley properties that we might skip on our next trip.
Our final tasting was at Seghesio. This is a fairly well-known zinfandel house; many of their wines are available for purchase throughout the country (at least in California and Nevada). We have been here before and had an excellent experience last year.
This time, we were inside (since it was pretty cool outside); Oh — we had a different plan with them as well; I had a reservation and they called me and said that our reservation was on a day (Saturday) when they were having a member pickup day and we couldn’t attend. Because of that, we had to change to Friday (and were supposed to have a better experience than paid for). Our host was Kathleen; she was very nice, but it seemed clear to me that she was already getting ready for the Saturday activity. We had an OK tasting; Lori’s favorite was the Marian’s Reserve zinfandel.
Saturday — Lancaster (www.lancaster-estate.com) and Rockpile (rockpilevineyards.com)
Our final day of wine tasting and our vacation (not sure how you are on a vacation when you are retired…) started with Lancaster, another Foley property. Lancaster is another primarily cabernet sauvignon property. Our host was Michael; he was really pretty good and I thought that he did an excellent job. We had several cabernet wines and they were all very nice. He had also included some little tastes to help appreciate the wines. I don’t know that I could pick a favorite, but the 2019 reserve cabernet sauvignon was certainly a favorite.
Our final wine tasting was less than impressive, but not the fault of our ‘host’. We had previously had a wine tasting at a property that is associated with this property and I had received an email that said that their tasting were ‘free’ this month. Because of that, I thought that I would try these guys since they were in the area. We had seen the tasting room the previous evening because we were in the area; it is pretty much a place to have some wine while you are walking around the area.
Our host was Reed; when we first got there, he wasn’t that busy, but we seemed to start a trend and there were several people that showed up after we did. He took care of us as well as several other guests, but it was clear that we were not going to have a nice tasting experience. The wines were OK — again, focused on zins, but we probably won’t be visiting again.
Our last night finished with a lovely dinner of pizza slices from Costco (across from our Fairfield Inn hotel in Rohnert Park).
Our drive back to Sacramento and flight back to Las Vegas were both fine and we are back in Sin City for a couple of months.
Sunday Travels 