Grape of the Day

We arrived in Stags Leap a bit late today because one of our loyal readers caused me to explore a few too many appellations last night. Shame on that reader. But, our trip was short, just a few miles south on Silverado Trail. The Stags Leap American Viticultural Area (AVA) is small, just 3 miles by 1 mile. It's unique in that it was granted AVA status based on its distinctive soils. The soils are a mix of volcanic residue from the Vaca Mountains and loam and clay from the nearby Napa River. Sitting particularly low in elevation, Stags Leap is often thought of as a valley with the larger Napa Valley. While it did not become an AVA until 1989, the Stags Leap District first rose to prominence in 1976 when at the Judgment of Paris, the 1973 Stags Leap Cabernet Sauvignon was judged the best of the red wines by a panel of European experts despite being regardsd as the best by only one judge. While grapes were planted in Stags Leap as far back as the 1870s, curiously, the Cabernet for whi...

We have another easy trip today. We simply got in our wine barrels and rolled down Spring Mountain to the town and American Viticultural Area (AVA) of Saint Helena. For those who think I don't know how to alphabetize, I treated Saint Helena as St Helena, the way if frequently appears on wine bottles. Immediately after the Gold Rush, the hills around St Helena were found to be rich in cinnebar. And, in fact, the Silverado Trail was built as a way to get the ore from St. Helena down to San Pablo Bay so that it could be distributed to the rest of the country. As a wine region, unlike Spring Mountain just to its west, St. Helena is perhaps the hottest and driest of all the AVAs in Napa Valley. Boasting a record high of 115F/46C and having more frequent than we might like temperatures over 110 in Spetember, this is not just warm, this is hot. And over the period from June through September, the average number of days with measurable rain is just 2, but 0 is not an entirely infrequent nu...

Heading north and west on Highway 29 out of Rutherford, through the quaint town of Saint Helena with its little boutiques selling mostly grossly overpriced wares, we reach the unofficial entrance to the Spring Mountain American Viticultural Area (AVA) on the eastern side of the Mayacamas. Almost all of the wineries in the Spring Mountain AVA are accessible via Spring Mountain Road and not a whole lot else. Spring Mountain is unique within Napa Valley. It's cooler and wetter and almost all of the vineyards face to the east. Let's consider what that means. The grapes get morning sunlight, but are more shaded in the afternoon. Spring Mountain is cooler because of both its proximity to the Pacific Ocean (only about 30 miles away) and its accessibility to the mountain gap between two bays as the cooling air runs through the Santa Rosa Plain. Interestingly, however, and curiously to me, the same terroir results in warmer evenings than in much of the rest of Napa Valley, so unlike alm...

Yesrerday, we had a short trip from Oak Knoll to Oakville. Today, it's even shorter. In fact, the Ritherford American Viticultural Area (AVA) sits on the northern and northwestern borders of Oakville. Despite the close proximity, however, the short drive is beautiful Whether we're on Highway 29, Silverado Trail, or on one of the crossroads in between, we see sprawling vineyards to our left, sprawling vineyards to our right and because the roads tend to have at least a little bit of curve thanks to the Napa River, sprwaling vineyards up ahead. Rutherford was named for a man by the name of Thomas -- Thomas Rutherford, that is -- who found himself overwhelmed by the wheat crop of the area. From the base of the Mayacamas Mountains to the SIlverado Trail, there was wheat. Mr. Rutherford chose to be the maverick and deciding that both the soil and climate were ideal, planted grapes. And, obviously, his decision was a success as Rutherford, while not demanding the prices of its neighb...

This is likely our easiest drive of this roughly two week journey through Napa Valley. To get from the heart of Oak Knoll to the center of Oakville, we simply head north and a bit west on Highway 29 for a few miles. The top on the convertible is down, there's a breeze in our hair, the sun is shining, and we're just far enough south that the traffic that we would encounter as we get close to downtown Saint Helena is nowhere to be seen. The town of Oakville, and therefore the American Viticultural Area is named for the oak groves that once formed the bulk of the town. Initially, during days when ore was being transported from Saint Helena down to San Pablo Bay, there was the Oakville train stop. It was not one of the busy ones. In fact, writings that remain suggest that most locals found no particular purpose to it.  A notable exception was a man known as H.W. Crabb. Why H.W.? Well, there are disputes over what his name really was. Some records say Henry Walker, some say Hamilton...

It's another short trip as the crow flies, but a long drive by car. Perhaps 6 miles by direct route, there is just no easy way to drive from Mount Veeder to the heart of the Oak Knoll American Viticultural Area (AVA). And, in keeping with significant changes in scenery over the course of the drive as we head down the ridiculously steep hillsides of Mount Veeder to the valley floor of Oak Knoll, so are the wines quite different. Oak Knoll was awarded AVA status in 2004. The winemaker sought AVA status for the area to recognize its unique terroir -- relatively cool climate thanks to the breezes from San Pablo Bay, long growing season, and the largest alluvial fan in Napa Valley created by the flow of water off the mountains to the west. The alluvial fan results in a particularly granular soil starved of water and nutrients near the surface and causing the grapevines to dig particularly deep below the surface for water and nutrients. The resultant grapes are thus quite small and have ...

Bordering Los Carneros and almost directly to the north, what a difference a few miles makes. Today, we are in the Mount Veeder American Viticultural Area (AVA). The ride here takes only 15 minutes and if there were a raod that would take us directly, it might be only 5, but the terrain. climate, soil, and virtually everything else about Mount Veeder makes it unique. Likely the single most unique thing about Mount Veeder AVA among the Napa Valley appelations is the slope of the hillsides. When we visit the other mountain AVAs within the broader Napa Valley AVA, we see some pretty steep slopes that grapes are growing on -- 10 degree grades, 15 degree grades. In the Mount Veeder AVA, that would be looked at as perfectly flat. And, that is what makes Mount Veeder different. The typical 30 degree grades make access difficult. When we think about what a 30 degree slope really means, consider what it is like to get mechanical equipment into the vineyards. For the most part, it's just not...