Author: rdilauro

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Napa/Sonoma

The California Wine Trip was in 2005.  My wife and I along with two close friends flew out to San Francisco.  We rented a car and then proceeded to tour the wine areas of Napa, Sonoma and Mendocino.

We stayed for 10 days and visited 40 different vineyards.   I had plotted out each vineyard that we were going to visit, made arrangements if tickets were necessary.    Of course along the way , there were many other vineyards that we had to stop out.

Overall, I felt that Napa Valley was more rigid in terms of tastings and they were more formal .  Some had teak top tasting tables and pourers that were wearing suits.   While in Sonoma, we felt like we were in Tuscany, Italy.   The people were very relaxed, some dressed in jeans and if you wanted to pay for the tasting you could or not

NAPA VALLEY

Domain Chandon      Good information on the true French champagne method

Domain Chandon

 

 

 

 


Del Dotto       Cave tour , first time doing barrel tasting – best wine  The  David

Dell Dotto Caves and Barells


Silverado        Outstanding views, full rich Cabernets

Silverado Vineyard

 

Mondavi         Nice grounds, but overall the wines were disappointing to us

Mondavi Entrance

Francis Coppola  Before he moved to Sonoma, it is a Museum fun place to visit

Cakebread    Not much to see here, Chardonnay was nice

Beauliev Vineyards  No vineyard, just a tasting room of nice value wines

Sawyer  The secret Great Meritage and Cabernet, owner had us taste Savignon Blanc right out of his fermenting barrel

Frank Family  Owner greats with a sparkling wine, best Red Zinfandel I have had

Frank Family Zinfandel

Berringer Very commercial, nice tour, beautiful house, tasting wines average

Grigsch   My wife was able to stomp on some grapes.  Nice whites

Franciscan  Very formal wine tasting room, a bit too stuffy

Raymond  Very nice Cabernet , plus I was able to grab a handful of Cabernet grapes.

Ron Taking GrapesHeitz   Cant say more about their Cabernet Sauvgion

Merryvale  Amazing tasting room, large wine barell for wedding parties of 16

 

SONOMA

 

Murphy Goode   First stop in Sonoma, Sauvgion Blanc was nice

Golden Eye  Have to see this place, beautiful and the best Pinot Noir I have had in a very long time.

Golden Eye Vineyard


Seghsio  All of their Italian style wines were BONE dry, I mean BONE dry

Chateau St Jean  Beautiful grounds, looks like a French Chateau.  The Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve was worth the extra money

Chateau St Jean


Quivira Vineyards  Wines not to talk about, but 100% organic and  Sustainable

Armida Forget the wine, just enjoyed the views

Belvedere  Nice grounds average wines

HopKlin  Strange, very inexpensive wines, but all very tasty

Davis Brynum  Couldnt taste much, it was Pinot Noir crushing day!

Crushing Pinot Noir

 

 

 

 


Porter Creek  All they had to offer was Pinot Noir – average

Valley of the Moon  Outstanding whites, Chardonnay and Pinot Blanc

Benzinger  Best tour in California, tractor pull cart all over – super reds

Kundee  Not much to say here

Kenwood The Jack London Area – wines just average

Blackstone Inexpensive but very nice Merlot and Zinfandel

St Francis One of the best Cabernet Sauvignons on our trip

Gloria Ferrier Full glass tasting only, not really a tasting environment

Cline  All of their Zinfandel were so good, Red Truck blend a hit

Viansa Like visiting Tuscany, Italy, shops, food and lots of wine

Vinasa Vineyard Sonoma

 

Roche  Last stop in Sonoma, it looked like a Western Dude Ranch

 

Mendicino

Handley  Forgot we were even there!

Roederer Estate  Beautiful grounds, closest sparking wine to a true French Champange.

Husch  Not much to say

Navarro A very nice Pinot Noir

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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How to read a wine label

Reading a wine label is like reading a road map.

There is so much detail on wine labels that you can basically identify what the wine should taste like.   The French and German wines have been providing details on the labels for years.    Many other countries provide only a few items.   Hopefully, some day all wine labels will be as detailed as the French and Germans have been.

 

FRENCH WINE LABEL

 

GERMAN WINE LABEL

 

ITALIAN WINE LABEL

 

SPANISH WINE LABEL

 

AMERICAN WINE LABEL

AUSTRALIAN WINE LABEL

 

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Its been a while

I started in the wine business around 1971.  Then in 1974, I joined IBM where I worked for 35 years.  During that time, I still stay closed to wine.   I continued to read all about wines and taste wines from different countries.

In 1996, I started working at a local wine shop as their person to help customers taste wines.  I did that for 5 years and was able to increase my working knowledge of many domestic wines.

In 2009, I retired from IBM and started working at a local wine shop.  I took over as their wine manager.  I expanded my wine workings into almost every continent and type of wine.    I ran daily wine tastings, plus I conducted monthly educational seminars on wine.

During this time, I also ran Wine Dinners for about a 100 people.  I would select the wine theme and then work closely with the caterer in coming up with the perfect pairing of wine and food.    Some of the themes, I had were

Champagne Night
Around the World in 80 Wines
CT and NY Wines
Dont Wine for me Argentina

I still spend a lot of time reading, researching and tasting various wines.  One of my hobbies is to visit different wine shops.   I like to see their inventory,  I want to see how they display their wines and also how the staff at the store can help with wines.