While having a cup of coffee at the Napa Valley Roasting Company, an article in the St. Helena Star caught our eye. It was about two brothers who grew up in the Valley, started a career elsewhere, and returned to make wine and start a family winery. We called Kelham Vineyards and scheduled a fancy sit down wine tasting for 2 p.m that afternoon. The Kelham winery and tasting room is tucked away just off Zinfandel Lane in St. Helena.

When we arrived the principal owner of Kelham and resident host, Susanna Kelham, graciously greeted us. Susanna gave us the choice of sitting at a table inside their lovely tasting room or at a table on the veranda. On this beautiful and delightful day, we chose to be outside near the vineyards.

For $20 per person, we tasted six wines, all well structured and very delicious. Three of the Cabernets we tasted came from vineyards in Oakville. Winemaker brothers Ron and Hamilton have an inside connection to getting some of the finest grapes grown in the Oakville AVA. Their father, Rawson Kelham has been growing premier grapes in Oakville since the 1970s.

Susanna is passionate about the wines describing each in great detail. We sit and chat, and spend about an hour tasting the wines. We really enjoyed our visit here and the chance to try wines we normally would not. These are high-end wines that are truly out of our pocketbook. But it’s a good treat for us.

The Good: A fancy wine tasting experience among the vineyards and redwood trees. Wines are delicious. Susanna is a terrific host.

The Bad: No other way to taste the Kelham wines without doing the fancy sit down tasting for $20 per person. If you are looking for wines under $20, this is not the place.

We tasted some Saddleback Cellars wines at the recent Family Winemakers event in San Francisco. We thought all the Saddleback wines were very good so we decided to visit this small winery in the Napa Valley.

The winery is open by appointment only so we scheduled an appointment via email for noon during the mid-week. We also asked if they had picnic facilities, which they said they did.

We drove along Oakville Cross Road in Oakville and turned up Money Road to the winery. Once we drove into the small winery, we were directed to park our car and then sit at the picnic tables for wine tasting. The tasting fee is $5 a person.

Our server brought out a tray of wines and gave us some brief details about the winery and the wines. From the get-go, we just did not get that warm and welcoming feeling you get at most small wineries. We did not feel any passion or enthusiasm for the Saddleback wines. Something was definitely missing. Occasionally, our server would go back into the winery to retrieve something. This gave us the feeling it was private and visitors were unwelcome inside. There was also a nearby boom box that was blasting music. That definitely destroyed any vineyard ambiance.

Following our tastings, we asked if we could purchase a chilled bottle of Pinot Grigio so we could enjoy a glass with our picnic lunch at Saddleback. Our host checked inside and returned saying that no chilled Pinot Grigio was available. It was then we discovered there had been a misunderstanding and that Saddleback does not have a permit for picnicking. That meant packing up and trying to find another winery for a picnic as our stomach growled with frustration.

Despite our disappointing experience, we did purchase a few bottles of the Saddleback wines. We think their wines are top notch.

The Good: Very tasty wines, especially the Zinfandel and Cabernet. Beautiful vineyards.
The Bad: No picnicking available. An overall drab experience in wine tasting. Maybe it was just a bad day.

This is a funky little winery on the Silverado Trail not too far from the town of Calistoga. They only make 1500 cases of wine per year, and many of these wines are unusual varietals that you don’t normally see. The tasting room is a kick, mostly cluttered with memorabilia. Years ago Elvis Presley shot a scene for one of his movies in the Casa Nuestra vineyards so there is good collection of Elvis items in the tasting room.

We visited Casa Nuestra at mid-week and it was very quiet with just one other couple in the tasting room. After we tasted and enjoyed the wines, our host, a very polite young man, lead us to the barrel room about 100 yards from the tasting room.

Efrain gave us a couple of barrel samples and we enjoyed a conversation about the Casa Nuestra wines. Our favorite Casa Nuestra wine was the 2005 Rosato. It’s perfect for a picnic lunch.

The Good: Family owned, tasting fee applied to a purchase, very relaxed atmosphere, nice picnic area.
The Bad: Nothing really unless you are looking for the typical chic Napa Valley tasting room.