San Francisco & Napa Valley Favorites

Napa Valley:

Opus 1 - Best tour of their facility and process, they give you a great tasting at the end.  You can enjoy it on the roof overlooking the Napa Valley.  On this one you MUST book ahead online.  Well worth making the arrangements prior to the trip.

Mondavi - Up front they have a fairly pedestrian tasting room full of tourists.  Go to the back and they have the library tastings.  He you can pay for well aged reserve products from the 90's to current.  Best way is to share a few tastings with your wife (I assume she is going) and you get a better selection.  The pours are quite liberal.

Heitz - Joe Heitz was one of the pioneers of Napa winemaking.  Good product and occasionally they let you sample the Martha's Vineyard which is their flagship.  Trailside is another line they have that is highly rated.  Try the white they are growing in Stags Leap (usually red territory) but it was a real surprise.

Joseph Phelps - On Silverado Trail with a great selection of reds (Flagship is Ensignia but their high end Cabernet is wonderful). Book ahead by sending them an email and they will schedule a tasting of the portfolio.  They have some great whites that are from grapes grown on the coast.  Lots of local stuff that never makes it to Canada.

Cult Wine Central - Located around the corner from the Oakville Grocer (in Oakville).  They have a communal facility that many of the boutique producers use.  Lots of great wine that varies yearly depending on who uses them.  A great stop, they have samples of the wines produced there and can give advice on things you will never see up here.  You can make one stop here and get a great sample of what the smaller winemakers are producing across the entire valley.  Wines from different areas in the Napa Valley can vary with the same grape showing different characteristics that different parts of the valley provide with slightly different teroir and micro-climates.

Cliff Ledge (pronounced Lady) - In the Stags Leap District.  Used to be S Anderson and a producer of sparkling wines......ripped up most of the plantings in favour of reds which the region seems best for.  Great reds and if they still have some available try the sparkling wines.  Btw, Cliff is a Canadian and made his money in the construction business in Edmonton.

Silver Oaks - The tasting room offers sales and tastings of some great vintages.....again we only see select years up here.

Chateau Montelena - Bo and Jim Barrett have been making great wines since the '70's.  Jim passed away last year so Bo runs the place now.....he's a great guy. Their chardonnay won the Judgement At Paris vs. stellar French wines, the movie Bottle Shock showed this (in an almost factual Hollywood way)..  They have a library tasting (again book ahead online) that gets into some our vintages that are wonderful.  They also sample a Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc and Zins that you won't see here.  A beautiful facility with great gardens to visit around a lake.

Mumm's - Great sparkling wines produced with local grapes.  Owned by Mumm's in Champagne, France).  Interesting sparkling wines including a single varietal Pinot Meunier that they only produce about every 10 years.  You can sit on a patio overlooking the vineyards.  If its a sunny day I have a hard time leaving this place!

Domaine Carneros - Owned by Tattinger in Champagne, France.  If you want a tour of a sparkling wine producer this is worth the time.  A great patio with great views from their terrace.  I've had the tour and many tastings here but still prefer the Mumm's terrace.

Jordan (Sonoma) - A quality producer of Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon and they do it well!  Very informative tour and tasting in a facility that looks like and rivals French chateau in a beautiful Sonoma setting.

Ravenswood (Sonoma)  - No wimpy wines is their motto, demonstrated when you taste here.  What was impressive was the variety of varietals produced and available at the winery that never make it to Canada.  Joel a Peterson is a pioneer of Zinfandel production in the Area.

Ridge (Sonoma) - Wines with a loyal group of followers produced by Ridge in multiple California facilities, this being their Sonoma facility.  Another producer that pours varietals produced and available at the winery that never make it to Canada. 

Food (Napa)

Mustard's Grill - Awesome food, informal setting.  We've been going there since the late 1980's and have always been satisfied.  The wine list is entitled "Too Many Wines" and has a brilliant selection.  Everything is good so I am hard pressed to recommend anything.......the food is fresh, homemade and The owner (Cindy) has achieved celebrity chef status.

Oakville Grocery - This is a great stop for lunch.  Handmade sandwiches and salads which are a nice break on a full day of tastings.  My favourite is the beef and blue sandwich.  A great place to stop before or after Cult Wine Central.

All in all this is a combination of old and new places that we love in the valley.  If I have 1.5 - 2 days in the valley these are the must visit stops for us.  Other than that take all the wrong turns you can taste everywhere!

San Francisco

There is a crush pad on Treasure Island that boasts of 7 "wineries" and a vodka producer.  Not a must but if you are over that way it's worth a stop.  I had some decent Pinot from one producer that rivals some of the better higher end ones from the region.

Food:

North Beach Restaurant - In North Beach which is the Italian section of the city.  They hang their own prosciutto on site and it's awesome.  The prosciutto and melon salad is to die for.  Great Italian food, veal is terrific.  They will give you a sample of their house wine that is produced for them in Sonoma but save your money for better deals on the wine list.

John's Grill - Best lamb chops I have ever had!  I've probably been there 20 times and had the same dish......so that should give you and idea.  Wine list is not too bad and not overpriced like some in the city.  Restaurant is over 100 years old and again just off of Powell Street by Market.  A fun fact is that this is where Dashiell Hammett wrote the Maltese Falcon.  It is referenced in the book and all of the sites in the '40's movie are located close to the restaurant.  This is my favorite movie so it really appealed to me, the restaurant is over 100 years old.  Btw, the lamb chops really are awesome!

Swan Oyster Depot - Fresh daily seafood served at a counter with about 20 stools so be prepared to wait in line.  Once you're in it's worth it brothers Jimmy, Tom and Steve have been serving since I started going there in the late '89.  The clam chowder and the dungeness crab salad or cocktail is a great lunch along with the draft beer.  Even Rachel Ray has been there but there were lineups before that.

Well there are a few of our favorites compiled over 24 years.........I had a hard time pairing it down to this list.

A Day or Two in the Finger Lakes....A Few Thoughts

If you want to spend a really good day in the region a good way would be to drive around the perimeter of Seneca Lake in your snazzy car.

Overall I find the whites better than the reds.  The reds are not generally full bodied thus the pinot's show better.  The whites show good acidity with pleasant fruit and good minerality.

Seneca Lake:

Favourite winery - Hermann Weimar.  He has been making the best whites and sparkling wines I have had down there.  His Riesling is well made and a great food wine.  The sparkling is as good as any I've had from Napa and always scores high in decanter.  If you go to one winery (like that's going to happen) this is the one.

Fox Run - Nice patio and a deli with decent wines.  You can taste the full portfolio and get a chance to see what I mean about the reds.

Stop at the end of the lake in Watkins Glen.  The view up the lake from the end is well worth the drive.  Stop on the hotel patio and have wine and enjoy the view.

Red Newt - It's on the opposite side of Seneca Lake from Weimer and has a terrific restaurant and some wines we found enjoyable.  They buy the grapes from local farmers and blend some good stuff.

Say Cheese?

If you do a loop around the whole lake you can hit some of the cheese trail.  Up on the north east corner of Seneca Lake there are 2 stops on the Cheese Trail well worth visiting.  One is Miranda Cheese, an artisan cheese maker that has some really interesting product, made in small quantity and really tasty.  The other stop is not far from Miranda and has some exceptional goat cheese.....best I've had outside of France.

If you stop in Geneva visit the Belhurst Castle.  They have a lot of the local wines and a great cheese plate on the patio.  It's a cool place.

By now if you haven't had enough, two other ideas:

Dr. Frank Vinifera Wine Cellars in Hammondsport, NY - This guy started it all and has some good wines - On Keyuga Lake - Kinda far from where you are.

New York Wine and Culinary Institute - Canandaigua NY - Another hike from Syracuse, well worth it.  Lots of wines and samplers from all wineries and good food pairings to match

BBQ Anyone?

If this isn't enough, stop in Syracuse at the Dynosaur BBQ.  It's like the bar in Wild Hogs and has some great craft beer.  Judy and I liked it so much we went there this year for our 33rd wedding anniversary dinner.  Ribs and chicken are awesome.  It has a cult following and yes, we're among them.  It's a ritual for us to take the kids there too.  Btw, the motorcycles that people ride there are quite a show.  It's like Harley heaven.

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