Last Day of Wine Tasting...
After the best sleep I'd had in days, we were up at the crack of 9 to grab some free hotel breakfast and head to St. Helena for our 11:00 appointment at David Fulton Winery.
We strategically planned to get to St. Helena at 10:30 for the opening of Gott's Roadside (formerly Taylor's Refresher) so we could grab some lunch to eat later since we had almost no time between tasting appointments.
At David Fulton we were greeted first by Trigger the friendly dog, and then her friendly owner, winemaker Stephanie Zacharia .
David Fulton is a family-run winery only makes Petite Sirah. That's it. And, as they've been doing it for many years, it's pretty gosh-darned amazing. Velvety, fruity, sexy, wonderful Petite Sirah. Pardon my drool.
Anyhow, tastings there are by appointment only, as they are with most of the wineries we visited, and you can imagine that with only one wine to taste, the tasting can be very short. To stretch it a little further, they also pull out some of their neighbor's wines to try. We tried several from Jana Winery and a nice cab from Calafia. They were all pretty good, but they definitely saved the best for last: their own.
We tried their 2007, 2008, Petite Sirahs, and 2008 Sweet Petite. Previously, I had been in love with the 2004 vintage, and I think the '08 is closer than that to the '07. The '07 has an edge to it that I think would be beautifully rounded out with food, whereas the '08 is so smooth already I just want to bathe in it.
After a quick tour of how and where the magic happens, we tried the '08 Sweet Petite. Now I would never, in a million years, think that anything minty could ever go with wine. So when Stephanie pulled out York Peppermint Patties to go with our luscious dessert wine, I thought perhaps she was trying to get rid of us.
What I learned that day is that there is, in fact, a wine for everything. Even York Peppermint Patties. They and that Sweet Petite sang a beautiful song in my mouth, and I'll never doubt Stephanie's wine pairing suggestions again.
I also learned that there's a palate cleansing water, San Tásti, which may sound like hooey, but actually works amazingly well. It makes tasting so much easier, and I wish every winery had a splash to give you between tastes. Next time, I'll carry a bottle of it around.
Good thing our next appointment at Titus Vineyards was only 5 minutes away, because we spent a little too much time chatting and buying bottles.
Titus Vineyards is another family-run winery and holds their tastings in a charming little house along the Silverado Trail. This one was recommended to me by Rich Reader of VineBuzz because he knew of my love of Petite Sirahs, and said they made a good one. They do.
Christophe Smith, associate producer of Wine Biz Radio in addition to his Titus duties, was kind enough to squeeze us in although he was holding down the fort alone during the holidays. He took us through a nice flight in which even Gregory liked the Sauvignon Blanc.
I enjoyed their Zinfandel, which balanced fruity and spicy quite well, and their Cabernet Sauvignon was lovely. Not as big and tannic as I'd expected, but mellow and rather easy to sip. As predicted, I loved the Petite Sirah the most, though, and took a bottle of it home.
Finally we had a few minutes in the car to scarf down our cold burgers that we'd ordered in the morning from Gott's and as a testament to how good their food is, I've got to tell you that they were still delicious. The ahi burger is my favorite, and the turkey burger with chutney was pretty fantastic, too.
From there we headed to Calistoga for an appointment with Emil Tedeschi at Tedeschi Winery.
Emil's grandparents emigrated from Pisa, Italy and settled in the Calistoga area in the 1920s. His father, Eugene, first planted grapes on his property in the 1960s, and Emil is back in Napa running the show after having been in Hawaii since the 1970s, making pineapple wine on Maui.
Somewhat shy but very friendly, Emil gave us a small tour of the facility, and brought us into their enticingly rustic tasting room. There he poured a few tastes and teased us with a dessert wine that we couldn't actually buy yet. Oh, well.
The biggest surprise for me there was the Rosé. In general, I'm a little snooty about Rosé and scoff at the idea of it even really being wine. However, I had once before had one that I liked (from Chateu Julien), and now I've had another. It's hard for me to pinpoint exactly what it is I liked, but I'll say this: It was the summertime-on-the-porch-easy-drinking that you always want from a Rosé, but hardly ever get because they're too yucky and not really wine. Present company excepted.
With my tongue feeling like it was carpeted, we headed to Heitz Cellar. I've always loved their Cabs, but this time I was so overwhelmed with wine already, it was harder going. I still liked everything, but didn't LOVE it the way I had previously. Naturally, my taste leaned toward the $70 bottle instead of the $45, so I had to forgo the Cab altogether. I'm of the opinion that-as a general rule- it's hard to justify spending more than $50 on a bottle of wine. I did, however, splurge on some Port. They make an awfully good one.
With a little time to kill before dinner, we meandered along Main Street in St. Helena. Wine shops, Woodhouse Chocolate, and olive oil tastings were a nice way to pass the time. If you're looking for olive oil, try tasting at St. Helena Olive Oil Co.
Our reservation for dinner was supposed to be at Rutherford Grill, but since we enjoyed Mustards Grill so much the night before, we changed our reservation to eat at another of Cindy Pawlcyn 's restaurants, Cindy's Backstreet Kitchen. Another win.
Our waiter, Tim, patiently answered all of our questions about the dishes, and aided us in our difficult food decisions. Our appetizers were Polenta Fries and Oysters Bingo (parmesan cheese, garlic, and spinach).
For libations, I enjoyed a spicy Thai-GIn-Tini (Tru2 Gin, fresh squeezed lime juice, & a cayenne rim), while Joe sipped on a delicious Sidecar Named Desire (Belle De Brillet Pear Cognac Liquer, Cointreau, & fresh squeezed lemon juice), and David took on a classic Mojito Monte (Meyer's Platinum Rum, fresh mint, fresh squeezed lime juice, & club soda).
Though we went round and round with what we wanted as main courses, it was finally decided that I would get the famous Chinatown Duck Burger with house made shitake mushroom 'ketchup' and fries, Joe would get the Pasta Del Giorno (which in this case was a sort of grown-up mac n' cheese), Gregory would go for the Mighty Meatloaf with horseradish barbecue and garlic mashed potatoes, and David would give quail one last chance to make him happy with the BBQ Quail, honey glazed cornbread & apricot BBQ sauce.
As we had come to expect based on our meal the night before, everything was fantastic. I especially loved my duck burger which had a delicate hoisen flavor and was topped with mushrooms.
The Warm Pineapple Upside Down Cake (with house made vanilla ice cream, rum-caramel, and pecans) was recommended highly by Tim. In fact, he said he'd marry it. I would, too.
It was a perfect way to end the Napa portion of our trip, and now it was nearly time for us to split up. Gregory drove us back to Oakland where I was left at the Greyhound Station to embark on a whole other adventure while they drove off on theirs.
Crap. Overnight on a Greyhound...
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