Kenneth E. Harker
2004 Napa Valley

Jen and I spent a day in Napa Valley, California in May, 2004. This was our first visit to California wine country. We visited the tasting rooms of five wineries and a wine merchant, had a picnic lunch and took a winery tour, and finished with dinner at a Spanish restaurant in the town of Napa.

After our visits to the wineries and before dinner, we went to a tasting at Back Room Wines in the town of Napa. Every Friday night, Dan offers a different wine tasting program. The night we were there, we tasted eleven classic California red wines, mostly from small Napa producers that do not have their own tasting rooms, and which we would never find in wine stores at home. After the tasting, we ended up buying bottles of 2001 Spencer Roloson La Herradura Syrah Napa Valley, 2002 Branham Petite Sirah Napa Valley, and 2002 Elyse A.K.A. Zinfandel Napa Valley. We also really liked the 2001 Delectus Cuvée Julia Napa Valley, but it was a little too expensive for us. We were able to walk to dinner from the wine store, which was probably a good thing.

These photos are copyright © 2004 Kenneth E. Harker. All rights reserved.

	With our tastebuds fresh, our first stop of the day was Opus One Winery. The winery was founded as a joint venture of Robert Mondavi of Napa, California and Baron Philippe de Rothschild of Bordeaux, France. This winery facility was built in 1991.
	We tasted the 1999 and 2000 vintages. Each tasting pour was $25, served in Riedel stemware. We carried our glasses upstairs to the garden patio on top of the winery. Opus One was America's first ultra-permium wine, and today sells for at least $150 a bottle. We'd probably already consumed about half of each glass when this photo was taken.
	This is one of the vineyards used to make Opus One wine. The two vintages we tasted were 84% Cabernet Sauvignon, 6-7% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Franc, 3% Malbec, and 1-2% Petit Verdot - classic Bordeaux-style red wine blends. Jen and I both preferred the 1999 vintage. It was the first time either of us had tasted wine valued at over $100 a bottle.
	This is the vineyard between the winery and California SH 29, one of the two major roads through Napa Valley.
	Ken, on the patio on top of the winery. The winery is built into a man-made hill that facilitates both the winemaking process, by allowing gravity to replace pumps when the wine needs to be moved from tanks to other tanks or barrels, and the barrel aging process where the wine is cellared underground. A patio on top of the hill for visitors offers great views of the vineyards.
	Some of the vines at Opus One come right up to the parking lot.
	Our next stop was Silver Oak Cellars, which was just down the road from Opus One. Silver Oak Cellars makes only red wines from Cabernet Sauvignon. The winery building at their Napa Valley estate used to be a dairy. We tasted the 1999 Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon (100% Cabernet Sauvignon,) and the 1999 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon (83% Cabernet Sauvignon, 8% Cabernet Franc, 6% Merlot, and 3% Petit Verdot.)
	Jen, outside the winery building. We both preferred the 1999 Napa Valley vintage, which sells for about $100 a bottle; the 1999 Alexander Valley vintage was $60 a bottle.
	These wine grapes are right next to the Silver Oak Cellars winery, but as we later learned from a sign, are actually a parcel belonging to Franciscan Oakville Estate, a winery we did not visit.
	After Silver Oak Cellars, we stopped in the Oakville Grocery and picked up some sandwiches, potato chips, and water, and headed to the picnic tables at Rutherford Hill Winery. This bluebird came to join us for lunch at our picnic table. He came so close, my camera couldn't quite focus properly.
	Rutherford Hill Winery is one of the larger wineries in Napa Valley, and is famous for their Merlots, although they make wine of several other varietals. We opted for the Reserve tasting, which included the 2001 Sauvignon Blanc, the 2000 Sangiovese, the 2001 Malbec, the 2000 Reserve Merlot, and a 2000 Vintage Zinfandel "Port." The Reserve Merlot was quite good, and sells for about $75 a bottle. Unfortunately, the so-called "Port" was all sugar sweet and no flavor.
	We took a 45-minute tour of the winery at Rutherford Hill. The tour starts with the fermenting tanks. The dimpled aluminum on the outside of the tanks can be filled with liquid nitrogen to cool the wine during fermentation.
	In May, none of the fermenting tanks were in use. The only time they are used for wine production is immediately after the grape harvest in the fall. There were a lot of them. When we walked back through this room at the end of the tour, we were all offered an extra tasting of the 2001 Petit Verdot.
	From the fermenting tank room, we walked across the parking lot to the wine cellar. These doors open to a horseshoe-shaped cave that was bored into the hillside behind the winery.
	Inside the cave, there were many side tunnels, all filled with barrels stacked four high.
	Rutherford Hill uses both American and French oak barrels from several different manufacturers and regions. According to our tour guide, they never use any given barrel for more than three vintages.
	Our next stop was Grgich Hills Cellar. An immigrant from Croatia, Miljenko Grgich is one of the most famous vintners in Napa Valley, having made wine there since 1958. We tasted the 2002 Fumé Blanc, the 2000 Cabernet Sauvignon, the 2000 Merlot, and the 2000 Violetta, a late harvest blend dessert wine of 45% Chardonnay, 40% Riesling, and 15% Sauvignon Blanc. We also had a barrel sample of the 2002 Cabernet Sauvignon, which was still several months away from bottling.
	The vineyard behind Grgich Hills Cellar. Many of the Napa vineyards had large propellors in them like this one, used in emergencies to help mitigate potential early-season frost damage.
	Our final winery visit of the day was Stag's Leap Wine Cellars. We chose to do the $30 reserve tasting of three different Cabernet Sauvignons. We tried the 2000 Fay Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, the 2000 S.L.V. Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, and the 2000 Cask 23 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon. Like Opus One, Cask 23 was phenomenally good. I've never had wine like that before. It was stupendous. It sells for about $150 a bottle.