There are at least four wineries in the Napa Valley and Carneros that are making an Albariño wine. Could this be the beginning of a hot new wine in California? Albariño is a Spanish grape found in the area of Spain known as Galicia, in the wine region of Rias Baixes. The grape needs a cool and damp environment to thrive.

Here in the Napa Valley and Carneros the Albariño grape is grown only in the cool climate of the Carneros region and on Hendry Ranch. Both of these wine areas are in close proximity to the San Pablo Bay. The winds from the Bay provide cooling temperatures to both these areas during most of the growing season. The wineries that produce an Albariño in the Napa Valley and Carneros are Hendry Winery, Havens Vineyards, Mahoney Vineyards, and Artesa. An Albariño wine is a refreshing wine with lemony characteristics and good acidity. In Spain, this wine is very popular with all types of seafood. A huge amount of Spanish Albariño is exported to the U.S where the demand is increasing annually.

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The Napa Valley Destination Council
The Napa Valley Destination Council, formerly the Napa Valley Conference and Visitors’ Bureau, not only changed its name but its focus. On October 1st, it unexpectedly closed the downtown tourist office located in Napa in the Town Center. The Napa Downtown Merchants Association practically staged a coup, forcing the Council to re-open on a permanent basis. The Napa Valley Destination Council launched a new theme along with a website: Legendary Napa Valley.

2008 Auction Napa Valley raises $10 million
Jay Leno and Oprah Winfrey were on hand at the 28th annual charity event. The top auction bid by a single bidder was $500,000 for six magnums of 1992 Screaming Eagle and a dinner at the winery. Read the rest of this entry »

Stag’s Leap Cellars literally leaped into fame when it was a mere six years old. The winery stunned the wine world when its 1973 Cabernet Sauvignon was selected as the best of the best at the famed 1976 Judgment of Paris. The Stag’s Leap Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon topped the first-growth French Bordeaux wines, shocking the French. The event gave credence to the Napa Valley as a bonified wine region of the world. Stag’s Leap Cellars has always touted this 1973 wine as its first vintage. But my wine friend Mike Beltran recently discovered something very interesting that had been hiding deep in his wine cellar, three bottles of 1972 Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon. How could this be?

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More Economy Wine News

My latest Newsweek issue contains an article entitled “Toast to the Slump.” In the article Newsweek reports that sales of wines under $9 have increased 5.3 percent while premiums wine sales have declined 10 percent, all this according to a recent Nielson finding. The article also mentions that the wine consumer can find plenty of wine sales with more to come. The article is on page 62 of the December 22th issue of Newsweek.

I had to laugh at one sale item offered by Salvestrin Winery. The winery is having a wine sale based on the theme of The 12 Days of Christmas. Each day the winery offers something different for sale. On the Ninth Day, the sale included three of their wonderful wines and a half bag of their Estate grown walnuts, all for $89. That’s a first, wine and walnuts for sale together. If they had done a full bag of walnuts I may have gone for the deal. Read the rest of this entry »

Mike Chelini began making wine at Stony Hill Vineyard in 1972 and has never looked back. Mike is one of Napa’s old guard, a member of the G.O.N.A.D.S.,* and a throwback to another time and era in the Napa Valley’s wine history. I visited Mike Chelini with my friend Mike Beltran, who was working retail for a San Francisco wine shop many years ago when he’d first met Mike Chelini. If you want stories about the Napa Valley, then Mike Chelini is the man. I heard at least a dozen good ones as Mike and Mike reminisced about the old days of the Napa Valley.

In a sense, things at Stony Hill are about the old days. There is nothing fancy here that smacks of modern innovation in the wine world. In the winemaking room, you won’t find a cutting-edge crush machine or jacketed, temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks or rows of brand new barrels. Quite the contrary, everywhere you turn, the winery has that old fashioned look. In fact, Mike Chelini keeps track of all his winemaking data in a notebook. Why use computer when a notebook has worked just fine over the past 36 years? Read the rest of this entry »

At my local Costco in Foster City, California, I found two very good Napa Valley Cabernets selling for under $20. The 2005 Robert Mondavi Napa Valley Cabernet is selling for $18.49 but until December 24th, or while supplies last, you can buy any number of bottles with a Costco coupon for $4.00 off that price. I checked Wine-Searcher.com and found this wine selling for $17 to $24 at wine shops across the country. K&L Wines is selling this wine for $19.99. On the Mondavi Website, this wine is not listed, but the 2006 vintage of this wine is selling for $28 a bottle. The Wine Enthusiast gives the 2005 wine 91 points, and Wine & Spirits gives it a 90-point rating. Mondavi must have made a ton of this wine. 2005 was a record harvest and most wineries were not about to turn wine juice loose on the bulk market. The last time they did that, Charles Shaw wine became famous. The wine was moving quickly and it appeared that many savvy buyers thought this was a very good deal at $14.49. I quickly got caught up in the frenzy and snagged a case.

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Salvestrin is more of a typical family-owned winery than either Hooper Creek Winery or William Hill Estate, the two previous family-owned wineries we have reviewed on the Napa Valley Wine Blog. Since 1932, the Salvestrin family has been in the business of growing grapes and selling them to nearby wineries from their St. Helena property. Rich Salvestrin, a third-generation family member, decided it was due time that the family begin making wine from their fabulous vineyards that were winning awards for their client wineries. Rich enrolled in the Fresno State University wine program and, shortly after completion of his studies, began making Salvestrin wine. The first vintage was released in 1994.

Rich Salvestrin does just about everything around the winery including farming the vineyards, making the wine, and doing PR when time allows. Rich’s wife Shannon does much of the sales and marketing. During our visit, we saw their three daughters arriving home from school and, according to Rich, they also help around the winery from time to time. As we strolled the vineyards with Rich, we quickly learned that the winery and vineyards are more to him than just a business. It is a passion and a commitment to make the best wines possible from their vineyards. He talks about each plot as though it were a member of the family. Read the rest of this entry »

The William Hill Estate Winery is by definition a family-owned winery. It is owned and operated by a family, the Gallo Family. But nothing at William Hill presents itself as one of those old and small family-owned wineries run by generations of family members. We are not saying this is bad thing, but when visitors come to the wine country and are looking for a family winery, my guess is that William Hill Estate winery is not what the tourist has in mind. The Gallo Family purchased this winery in 2007 from wine conglomerate, Beam Wine Estates. It looks, feels, and acts like a winery run by a giant corporation. It is the polar opposite of our previously reviewed family-owed winery, Hopper Creek Winery.

The William Hill tasting room is very impressive with beautiful displays of wine bottles, an exquisite tasting area, and a picture window view of their barrel room, containing 3500 sixty-gallon barrels. The grounds are equally impressive, with a spectacular view of the vineyards below. The garden and picnic area are groomed to perfection. The tasting staff is well trained and informed. When we asked about the 140 acres of estate vineyards, our server immediately showed us a poster board displaying a layout of where each varietal is grown on the estate. Read the rest of this entry »

Has the wine bubble burst as yet? We made two trips to the Napa Valley during the month of November visiting several tasting rooms and one very large wine shop, JV Wines. From what I can tell Napa Valley wines have not made a move downward in price. Most of the wineries we visited were selling their top wines for $30 and well beyond. Nowhere did we find a single wine on sale. Even though most of the tasting rooms we visited were empty, tasting fees averaged $10 a pop for a basic tasting and up to $75 for an elaborate food and wine pairing at one winery. We got the feeling that wineries here are in total denial about our economic crisis and the impending burst of the wine bubble. The Napa Valley has never been in this position before.

Take these scenarios:

You just got laid off your job, one easy way to save some money is to cancel your membership in the Franciscan and Beringer wine club.

Maybe you work in sales, working on a commission, but no one is buying. Is it time to go back to your beer drinking days? $25 buys a lot more beer than wine. Read the rest of this entry »

This will be the first in a series of blog posts reviewing and comparing three family-owned wineries in the Napa Valley. Dieter Tede and his family purchased Hopper Creek in 1996. By far, Hopper Creek Winery is the most unusual of the three wineries we visited on a recent trip and one of the most unusual that any visitor is likely to encounter in all of the Napa Valley. It is small, off the beaten path, with a very funky tasting room character. You absolutely will not find anything at this winery that is pretentious or smacks of wine snobbery.

When we approached the Hopper Creek winery, we were greeted by tasting room manager Dan Blach, working on his laptop at the winery’s one and only picnic table. “Hi” he said, “we are only open by appointment so would you like an appointment for 1:00 pm?” 1:00 pm just happened to be the exact time we arrived. Dan is wearing a sweat outfit, baseball cap, and saddles, not exactly what you would expect from someone who runs a tasting room in the Napa Valley. Dan hands us a wine stained tasting menu that looks like it has been in use for months. Read the rest of this entry »