(bear with me here, folks.  The Napa trip was fast and furious and now that I’m back I’m getting this stuff blogged as fast as I can)

Caldwell

Our second day in Napa started at Caldwell Cellars.  Situated on a beautiful valley in the Coombsville , Caldwell might just be one of the very best wineries you’ve never heard about.  John Caldwell purchased land in the mid 70’s and had originally wanted to develop it to a sub-division but was thwarted by a new regime in Napa County government.   With no other options, the shoe store owner-come landowner instead developed his land to vine.  By the mid-80’s the land was in full swing, he had a very good nursery and vine planting business on the side (having nefariously gotten in many French clones of vine) and things were good for Caldwell.  At the time, however, he still wasn’t making any wine, rather he was selling his grapes to Jason Pahlmeyer and helping put that winery on the map is a big way.

As time went on, the vineyard clients of Caldwell grew and, in addition to Pahlmeyer, also pulling from his vineyard are Phelps, Mura, Maris, Viader and others.  Tough times struck in 1998  when a freakishly bad vintage hit Napa and Caldwell was forced with the prospect of making his own wine, which is good for us because since then he has begun producing some incredibly rich, intense, deeply fruited wines including his Rocket Science, the Silver (Cab/Syrah) and the massive Gold (100%) Cab.

Our tasting included all of those three, and in addition he poured his Chardonnay which will be part of a new line of varietal wines deftly made by winemaker Marbue Marke.  In addition to having an incredible understanding of layered textures in red wines, Marbue has a very interesting background in producing Chardonnay as evidenced by the rich, gorgeous, balanced and crisp almost – ALMOST, but not quite – Burgundian Chardonnay. There are some great things going on at Caldwell and we can’t wait to get some more of these wines in our happy hands.

Oxbow

The Oxbow Market is a public market started by Steve Carlin who was with Oakville Grocery for over 20 years (more on them later) and then was the Project Manager of the San Francisco Ferry Building Marketplace.  Effectively what he has created here on the ‘east bank’ of the Napa River is a virtual knockoff of San Francisco’s Ferry Building Marketplace in Downtown Napa.  This was certainly a very well done project, creating a big, bright, airy marketplace with grocery, cheese, snacks, a wine bar and other specialty goods but something seemed a little empty.

After sitting around for a bit I realized what it was: people.  There was nobody there in that cavernous expanse of expensive snacks and consumer goods, nobody to pay $11 for the carnitas pocket sandwich with yuca fries, nobody to pay $4 for a head of organic lettuce, no one to pay $1.75 an ounce for standard 6 month aged Manchego (and lets not even talk about the organic ice cream).  I wrote the lack of people off to the fact that we were there at the very end of the winter rainy season (despite our picture perfect day) but as I talked to others around Napa I think there is a collective breath-holding to see if this place will make it.  One winemaker theorized that there was a big “misunderestimation” of how much demand there was on a sleepy block three blocks away from the Napa River as opposed to a big, beautiful building on the epicenter of San Francisco’s tourist area.

I don’t know about all that, all I can say is that I enjoyed the hell out of my Mexican flatbread sandwich with yuca fries (even though at 12:45 we were the only people in line there).

Patz and Hall

In 1998 Donald Patz and James Hall got together to make a line-up of wines inspired by the single-vineyard approach of Burgundy and have thus far succeeded in creating a portfolio of well made single-vineyard Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs.  They don’t make Merlot or Syrah or some “Field Blend” – they make Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, and as such, have become synonymous with those two grapes and known as a true artisanal winery.

By virtue of their approach of making wine from single vineyard sites all over California they don’t have a winery, per se, that you can go and tour, but they have set up a tasting “salon” at the edge of the big business park in Downtown Napa.  Hardly a romantic setting on the outside (think Elmwood Business Park with a winery) inside they have created a smart, stylish wine tasting lounge more comfortable along Union Square than its industrialized environs.  Nevertheless, we met with James Hall as we went through a flight of three Chardonnays and three Pinots who gave an interesting perspective of why single vineyard sites are important (a bit of info that will make a very good blog post in the coming weeks).

Hendry Ranch

I was very excited about this appointment.  George Hendry is everything that is right and good about the Napa Valley, indeed an untarnished glimpse of what Napa was before big money took over.  This log cabin-esque facility is on the end of a dusty road at the base of Mount Veeder was bought in 1939 by George’s father and originally included plum trees, pastureland, 6 acres of vineyard, an old farm house and a Ford tractor. At that time prohibiton has just finished a few years prior, so the ranch had a vineyard, but it was certainly an aside to what was intended for the ranch to become.

After growing up on the ranch with his brother Andrew, and then becoming a particle physicist, George returned to the ranch and began farming it in mid-70’s.  He turned many of those old prune orchards into vineyards and it didn’t take too long for others to recognize how perfectly situated the grapes at Hendry were, as evidenced by the fact that the Cabernet Sauvignon coming off the Hendry Ranch were some of the original vineyard sources for Opus One and Robert Mondavi Reserve, the Zinfandel was one of Rosenblum’s first reserves and his Chardonnay and Pinot Noir were also an important vineyard source for Mondavi’s Reserves.

In ‘92, George withheld a little bit of the Zinfandel Block 7 that Roseblum was using and he made some of his own wine, and after pulling the thread on that sweater now he uses virtually all of his grapes to make his own wine with only a very little sold to outside wineries (Rosenblum still gets some Block 7 Zin and a very little Cab goes to Genevieve Jensen, former winemaker for Opus One and Robert Mondavi Reserve).

Considering the an almost perfect situation right on the cusp on the coolness of Carnernos and the heat of “up valley” Napa, these are some of the best situated vineyards in the Napa Valley.  Our appointment was with George, who unfortunately had the flu and Mike Hendry, George’s nephew (and vineyard manager and assistant winemaker) took us around.  Based on the expert knowledge of his estate and his understanding with the connection of land and grapes, this third generation of Hendrys to work in the vineyard makes me highly optisimistic this estate will go on for several generations more.

Hess

No great story here, just a picture of a quick taste of wine we stopped in for near the top of Mount Veeder.  Hess winery is a beautiful place, by and large the wines are ok, and we were in and out – like I said, no big story.

stay tuned for Day 2 food, and the AMAZING events of day three, maybe one of my best days in Napa – ever!

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