How to Avoid the Tourist Crowds in the Napa Valley

We hadn’t heard much about Buehler Vineyards nor tasted their wines until we went to a wine tasting event sponsored by the Napa Valley Vintners Association. We enjoyed the Buehler wines we tasted and then shortly thereafter, the Wine Spectator rated their Buehler Vineyards 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon 90 points and listed this wine on its annual issue of Top Value wines. So on our next trip to the Napa Valley, we arranged to visit Buehler Vineyards.

You won’t find too many visitors at Buehler because the winery is open by appointment only and the winery’s location is at the base of Howell Mountain, some six miles in from the Silverado Trail. Don’t let this stop you from visiting, the views are breathtaking and the wines are a great value.

We met with John Buehler Jr. the owner of Buehler Vineyards and John gave us a brief history of the winery. In 1971 John Buehler Sr. retired and purchased this beautiful hillside property. John Jr. went to work managing the winery and making the wines until the winery became well established. In 1982 John Jr. hired Heidi Barrett, now the renowned consulting winemaker for several of Napa Valley’s most prestigious wineries. Today, David Cronin is winemaker and has been crafting the Buehler wines since 1993.

John took us on a vineyard tour that was quite amazing. The views are very pretty and there is also the structure that was a “ghost” winery before the days of prohibition. Today, it houses the horses and some bats and owls. The winery has 55 acres of hillside vineyards planted with Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel. In addition, the winery brings in Chardonnay grapes from the Russian River Valley to make its gentle Chardonnay wine.

Following our vineyard and winery tour John took us into the tasting room and we sampled five wines, three Cabernets, a Zinfandel, and the Chardonnay. All the wines were very delicious. We were surprised by the fact that the wines were priced so reasonably, compared to other wineries with the same type of hillside vineyards. For example, the vineyard designated Papa’s Knoll Estate Cabernet Sauvignon is priced at $45. We have seen many hillside wines like this for well over $100. Earlier in the day, we had tasted a Cabernet on the Valley floor that was not nearly as tasty but priced at $75. The Buehler Zinfandel was a lovely wine but unfortunately, even though it was available for tasting, there is none left to sell at the winery. Fortunately, we were able to find a few bottles of the Buehler Zinfandel at our local wine shop.

We had a very nice visit and once again reaffirmed our notion that visiting family-owned wineries is always a unique and exciting experience.

The Good: Spectacular views, hillside wines at reasonable prices, family owned.
The Bad: Zinfandel sold out.

This is indeed the winery of the famous Mario Andretti of Indy race car fame. Mario Andretti founded the winery in 1996, and it has since has become a public company trading shares under the name Andretti Wine Group. This beautiful Tuscan style winery is tucked away on Big Ranch Road near the Silverado Trail. Since is it off the beaten path the winery remains largely hidden from the tourist frenzy and traffic on Highway 29 and the Silverado Trail. The countryside on Big Ranch Road is beautiful and serene.

The tasting room is very inviting done in Tuscan style colors. The outside area has a great view of the vineyards and there is an appealing set of picnic tables in view of the tasting room. However, as inviting as those tables are, we were told that the area cannot be used for picnicking but only for tours and tastings by appointment. That is very unfortunate because the area is so beautiful and peaceful looking.

The tasting fee is $10 for a choice of four wines, but the fee cannot be applied to a purchase. We were a little put off by our server, so we decided to share one tasting. Maybe it was the bad start but none of the wines seemed outstanding and not worth the price they were charging for the wines. We were in and out of the tasting room in about 10 minutes. We did spend much more time outside gazing at the Tuscan winery and the surrounding vineyards. The scenery is very enticing and brought back many memories of our 2005 trip to Italy.

The winery offers winery and vineyard tours by appointment and wine and food paring classes. To get to the Andretti Winery, the easiest route is to head up the Silverado Trail and turn left on Oak Knoll Ave. Turn left on Big Ranch Road and go about ¾ of a mile to the winery. You can also pick up Oak Knoll Ave. on Trancas St. in Napa.

The Good: Lovely Tuscan style and setting throughout, Andretti race memorbilia
The Bad: Tasting fee too high, wines a bit overpriced

Chappellet winery is one of those wonderful hidden wineries and a secret place that remains largely an undiscovered treasure in the Napa Valley. The location is off the beaten path on the eastern mountains of the Napa Valley and open by appointment only, so visitors tend not to flock to the Chappellet winery.

We visited this winery for a special wine tasting event. Chappellet and its neighboring wineries hold a mini wine tasting event each year, the day before the Napa Valley Vintners Association Annual Barrel Auction. Besides Chappellet, the other wineries present were Cloud View Vineyards, David Arthur Vineyards, Krupp Brothers, Versant, and Kuleto Estate Vineyards.

The tasting was held in Chappellet’s attractive barrel room. The six wineries were stationed around the barrel room with owners and winemakers present to share information about their wineries and wines. For the most part, these are all boutique wineries specializing in Bordeaux style wines. The area here is known as Pritchard Hill. This hillside area is high off the valley floor presenting a climate conducive to growing the classic Bordeaux varietals.

With the festive atmosphere and the lovely appetizers prepared by Janelle Weaver, Kuleto Estates executive chef, it was hard not to find any of the wines anything but delicious and wonderful.

The Chappellet winery is one of Napa Valley’s oldest wineries, making wine since 1967.
Over these years, they have distinguished themselves among wine critics and collectors as one of the great producers of high-end wines in the Napa Valley. The estate vineyards include 110 acres. The winery practices sustainable farming throughout. At the tasting, members of the Chappellet family circulated and chatted with just about everyone in the room, making us feel all quite at home. The founding parents and five children work at the winery and you can certainly feel their passion and excitement about the winery and the wines that they produce.

Chappellet is located near Hennessey Lake on Highway 128 about three miles from the Silverado Trail. The views are fantastic. If you would like to visit Chappellet, call the winery or visit their Web site to reserve a scheduled tour spot. Sunday the winery is closed.

The Good: Family owned, exquisite wines, beautiful views, hidden winery, sustainable farming.
The Bad: Open by appointment only.

Hans Fahden Vineyards is actually in Sonoma County and this is a Napa and Carneros blog. So, why write about a winery that is not in Napa or Carneros? Well, for two reasons. The winery is only 600 feet beyond the Napa County line and secondly the best way to get to the winery is on the Petrified Forest Road from Highway 128 in Calistoga.

We found this winery to be quite interesting and worth a visit. We were greeted by Antone Fahden and he was very informative and quite pleased to show us around and talk passionately about the winery. Hans Fahden makes only Cabernet Sauvignon and there is no pretentious talk here about “cult” Cabernet. There is no tasting fee for the vertical tasting of 2000, 2002, and 2003 Cabernet. All the Hans Fahden Cabernet comes from their estate vineyards located on the Mayacamus Mountains at an altitude of 1200 feet. The price of the Cabernets is $25 and the wines are sold only at the tasting room or through their Web site. The Cabernet is very elegant without heavy tannins and the alcohol content is below 14%. The Hans Fahden Cabernets have a distinctive earthy characteristic to them. Only 2500 cases of wine are made per year.

The setting is very beautiful and peaceful, the perfect spot for a winery wedding or a special occasion event. Because Hans Fahden Vineyards is in Sonoma County, permitting issues for big events at wineries are much less restrictive than Napa County. Hans Fahden Vineyards has become a popular wedding venue, so much so that they are almost booked solid for 2008 with 116 weddings scheduled. That is impressive and hard to imagine.

To get to Hans Fahden Vineyards from the Napa Valley, head towards Calistoga. At the stop sign at Highway 29 in Calistoga continue straight ahead to Highway 128. Turn left onto the Petrified Forest Road and continue up the road until you arrive at Hans Fahden about 3 miles.

The Good: Pretty setting in the Mayacamus Mountains, Good Cabernet, Good value.
The Bad: If you don’t like Cabernet, they do not make any other wines.

The Hess Collection Winery is a popular tasting room despite the fact that is off the beaten path, seven miles west of Highway 29, in the Napa Valley. It was remarkable how busy this winery was on a Wednesday when we visited a couple of weeks ago.

The first thing you notice as you walk towards the tasting room is the beautiful ivy covered stone building. This building was built in 1903 by Theodore Gier as a winery and then later taken over by the Christian Brothers. In 1986 Donald Hess took over the property, remodeled and added a modern winery.

Inside the Hess Collection Winery is an attractive tasting room and adjacent gift shop. Upstairs is the galley where Donald Hess displays a portion of his wonderful art collection. Visitors can view the gallery for free.

Now to the wines: For a $10 tasting fee you get to taste four wines from a selection of eight wines. What we did was taste all 8 wines by each selecting a different wine from each other and then trading glasses. The pour was enough for two good swigs of the wine.

Our server was well rehearsed and quickly gave us a concise description of each wine. We thought all the wines were well made and balanced but none of them really stood out as a “must have.” The best wine we tasted was the Melbec but at $36 it was priced too high for us.

We recommend a visit here because there is much to see and the area of Mount Veeder is quite beautiful. To get to Hess, take the Redwood Road exit off Highway 29. Follow Redwood Road for about 6 miles. At this point, you will see a sign for Hess directing you to the left. You will still be on Redwood Road for another mile.

The Good: Art Gallery, stone building, and the barrel room.
The Bad: $10 tasting fee, beautiful area for a picnic but no facilities.