Calistoga

Our car went down the steep slope of Atlas Peak down Soda Canyon road making the sharp right onto Silverado Trail and headed mostly to the north. We're going past some of the most storied vineyards in the US and based on recent history only, in the world. 

Silverado Trail was built in the 1850s. It was a way to get ores mined in Saint Helena (we'll be there in a couple of days) down to San Pablo Bay where it could be loaded on boats to get out to the country. In the 1880s, Black Bart made his living robbing wagons bringing silver up and down the trail. At around the same time, some of the early wineries of what is now Napa Valley popped up, but many were hit hard by phylloxera and had to be re-planted. We see many of those re-plantings today as we look at the windows on either side. As the Trail heads more westerly bending along with the bends in the Napa River, we pass Glass Mountain, the origin of the Glass Fire that ravaged Napa Valley in 2020. The remnants of that fire remain. They are tragic. Much is unrecognizable to those who are used to the scenery of old.

Finally, the Trail ends in Calistoga, today's destination. Geologically quite uniform, Calistoga can get hot. Not warm, but hot. Especially in recent years, daytime highs have frequently exceeded 100F /38C and there is just no humidity. They get an average of about one sprinkle of rain during each of July and August most years. Yet, nights, even in the middle of summer often get quite cool. It is that diurnal temperature change that leads to grapes with high acidity in grapes that are able to fully ripen.

When you think acidic and ripe, you think red. And, not just any red, but Cabernet Sauvignon, Durif (Petite Sirah), Syrah, and Zinfandel. These are the grapes that put Calistoga on the map.

The soil here is a uniformly volcanic bedrock covered with minerally soil. As a result of that soil and the often extreme summer hear, the grapes grown here produce generally big, bold wines. Even Merlot grown in the Calistoga American Viticultural Area (AVA) tend to be lush, ripe, and a bit jammy, more reminiscent of Aussie Shiraz sometimes than of Right Bank Merlot-based blends.


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