Chiles Valley

We're staying in Napa Valley, but we are moving from hte generally low elevation of Calistoga to the Chiles Valley American Viticultural Area (AVA), one of the smallest within the broader Napa Valley AVA. First given its status just before 2000, Chiles Valley is one of the smallest AVAs within what is considered Napa Valley

AS the crow flies, the trip from Calistoga to Chiles Valley is not far at all. But, our car doesn't go as the crow flies. So, it's going to take us nearly 40 minutes to make the otherwise short trip to the Vaca Mountains roughly 1000 feet above the northeast corner of Napa Valley. Coming back out of Calistoga, we head south on Silverado Trail, back to Highway 128 that we took into the valley coming from Sacramento Airport. But, this time, just after we pass Lake Hennessey, we make a sharp left hand turn and head up the hills on Chiles Pope Valley Road overlooking the larger Lake Berryessa to our east.

While this AVA is relatively new, many of the wineries are quite old. Unlike many of the wineries "down valley" from here, the nasty phylloxera mites didn't make it into Chiles Valley, so many of the vines that we see here, particularly Zinfandel, are quite old, some dating back to the late 19th century.

Because of its distance from Russian River Valley, the morning fogs don't reach Chiles Valley, so the mornings warm up quickly. At this elevation, however, evenings get quite cool. As we have seen in other Napa Valley AVAs and, in fact, it is a little-recognized hallmark of Napa Valley, generally, that helps to make the valley the wine haven that it is, the significant diurnal temperature shifts result in more acidic and better balanced wines.

The mountain terrain here has a largely volcanic soil and is often viewed as somewhat rugged. So, while the temperature profile does allow for growing both Bordeaux and Burgundy style grapes, Pinot Noir is out of the question. What we tend to see here are the Bordeauw grapes, both red and white, as well as a suprising amount of Chardonnay.

Red wines from Chiles Valley tend to have structured tannins, so they are approachable fairly young. That said, however, most come into their own after a bit of aging. The telltale sign of a true Chiles Valley red wine are the black cherry and blackberry notes on the nose and striking the palate quickly. 

On the white side, most of the Sauvignon Blanc, often integrated with a significant addition of Semillon (not so much as to not be able to call the wine Sauvignon Blanc) have characterstic notes of orange, both mandarin fruit and zest as well as orange blossom.

Get ready for another drive tomorrow. Going through these AVAs alphabetically seems to be taking us all over the valley in a quite circuitous route.