Don's Gillette's Wine Blog
Musings from our store's resident wine guru
Don has over thirty years experience in the wine industry. For the last eighteen years his attention has been focused on the growing local industry. Don has a large following of customers who search out his opinions (never in short supply!) on new releases and on what's currently most distinctive on our shelves. Others seek his insights on wineries and trends that are still under the radar. Read Don's full bio...
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Napa Valley, Saturday, November 17th - part one
I have been to the Mountain
Last Saturday was a long day, a Napa excursion that started and finished with effort, but was fun and rewarding in between. I left San Francisco's Sunset District before 8:00am, heading north toward breakfast with Mark in Napa Valley.
My path led up 19th Avenue through Golden Gate Park, an east-west running strip of greenery a few miles long and a half-mile wide. It took me thirty minutes to cross my half-mile, while transit workers made a chemical spill at the north end of 19th passable. My breakfast, if fortifying, was brief.
Our first excursion was to the top of Spring Mountain to join Jim and Barbara Richards, the wonderfully gracious owners of Paloma Vineyard, one of Napa's Crown Jewels. Mark and I were met on the mountain by Greg and Carmen, our co-explorers.
The air is crystal-clear and the view from those western heights is startling at this time of year. One looks down Paloma's dew-drenched vineyards at the wisps of fog that linger above the valley floor, and up at a broad postcard view of the forested, vineyard-dotted, eastern mountain range and the pale blue morning sky above its peaks.
Napa Valley Winery Exchange sold the first vintage of Paloma and has gladly sold every vintage since, including the 2001, winner of Wine Spectator Magazine's "Wine of the Year" award. We met to barrel-taste the 2006 with Jim, having no clue as to his new wines style or quality. He did not boast about the wine, but one sip was enough for us all.
I have re-tasted the 2001 Paloma each year since its release and watched it become as heroic as was promised; yet I have little doubt that 2006 will be its equal. We gave each other "we are not worthy" looks as we tasted. Before leaving, we tasted Paloma's little-seen Syrah; a vivid and intense bottling that is available direct from the winery exclusively.
Our next stop, just a few blocks away, was with Donna at Sherwin. Our visit could not include barrel tasting, as Steve Sherwin (who is generally the barrel-climber) and his wife Linda were back east. Donna had her hands full with a group of ten picnickers, so we enjoyed their "Cellar Series Two" Meritage (direct sales only) and re-tasted the brilliant and age-worthy 2004 Sherwin Estate Cab while we surveyed the property.
Our view was a polar opposite of what we saw at Paloma, as the sense of privacy here is acute. The winery sits on one side of a bowl-shaped mountain valley, with sky above, but forests and vineyards on all sides and a private lake in the center. We each whispered: "Why don't I live here?"