Out last wine tasting – we kicked the day into high gear with “tall pours” before breakfast.  Whoa-Hoo.  The nice cheese and nut plate that was brought out was “Hoovered”.  What a great winery – small (less than 5000 case production)  Primarily Merlot, Cab Sauv, Cab Frac, and Sauv. Blanc.   Unique to O’Brian was their owned bottling equipment whereas most smaller wineries opt to use a mobile bottling team when needed.   This allows O’Brian to so some custom labeling for VIP clients.    Great Wine, lower price point than we’ve seen for small production wineries.  We spent some time to test our own new leaf identification skills (which apparently suck)

 

Below – Cab Franc 

Below – Merlot

 

Below – Cab Sauv.

Much more of a relaxed experience when compared to our visit to Per Se two years ago.  The wine list at The French Laundry was inviting and welcoming to just about everyone – much more so than the very overwhelming wine list at Per Se.   Of course the service was off the charts – the “team” taking care of us was full of smiles and very fun.  The food of course was great.

“Tweel” filled with Salmon.

 

 

Sabayon of Pearl Tapioca wit Island Creek Oysters and White Sturgeon Caviar

Very nice local Sauvignon Blanc to start us off

 

Melon Gazpacho / Hawaiian Hearts of Peach Palm, Lipstick Peppers, Sweet Curry, Pea Tendrils

 

 

Polenta, Maple Glazed Bacon, Parmigiano Reggiano, and a blanket of shaved Australian black winter truffles.

 

Atlantic Stripped Bass, Chanterelle mushrooms, corn, celery, and mushroom consomme

 

Butter Poached Lobster Tail,  Basil Pain Perdu, Fino Verde Basil and Olive Oil Hollandaise

 

 

Telegraphe Chateauneuf-Du-Pape  (Breaking out of the Napa Wine theme for a bit)

 

 

Rillette of Pekin Duck – Marinated in Kadota Figs, Glazed Onions, Wild Arugula, and Aged Balsamic Vinegar.

 

Chateaubriand of nature fed veal, Santa Rosa Plums, Sunflower sprouts, garden turnips, sunchoke cream, and brown butter.

 

 

Peaches over a peach sorbet within a vanilla meringue

 

Olive Oil Ice Cream

 

 

Yummy thing made with chocolate and a nut nugget center.  (way way beyond full at this point – but it keeps on coming)

 

 

Home made chocolate (which you select from a secret box of chocolates) – Tina has Salted Carmel – I had Hazelnut.

 

 

Last course – Uhhhhh  –  Macarons (not Macaroons – these are Macarons)   Chocolate Truffles,  Cinnamon Doughnuts, and what looks like a mini cappuccino is a light chocolate mousse.

 

WOW – we need help walking home.  Crazy good. 

As random and last minute addition to the itinerary we took a trip up to Newton to fill a open time slot before our dinner at “The Laundry”   The drive up was unbelievable – actually being up on Spring Mountain just over the hill from Spring Mountain Vineyard which we visited during our HoneyMoon trip.   The terracing of the vines up the mountains was very beautiful.   The tour guide was new – only been with Newton for 3 weeks (a very bad sign) spend the tour reading from flash cards and repeating every 5 and 6 times.  I would rather stick my finger in my eye than endure that tour again.  Very painful.  The drive back down the hill was again breath taking.  Great photos.

Cool photo below from inside a mechanical destemmer which removes the individual grapes from the bunches.

 

WOW – The driveway marked only be a small hourglass on a post, winds thru the vineyard up to a unique cant-lever roof structure covering the HourGlass production facility.  As we drove up staff were wrapping up from a harvest of SB that am.  Entering into a unique cave we met Todd who showed us into a tasting room blasted out at the end of the wine cave.  Todd knows his wines – probably more so than just about anyone we met with all week.  Todd in addition to representing the HourGlass Winery – is also working on his own wine (Dakota Shy) of which he is the wine maker.  We were able to taste a young wine which was in “BottleShock” and the same wine a year older which had clearly adjusted well to being in the bottle.  Very interesting – Educational –  Very memorable.

One of the warmest “welcome back” welcomes we received – as members of their wine club we were immediately swept into a back private tasking room where we sampled some of their micro release single vineyard wines. (less than 300 cases each).  Fun place, great hospitality, fantastic property.   Highly recommended.

 

A stop back at Gargiulo  One of our favorites from our Honeymoon trip.   We were able to see their new concrete fermentation tanks from France which just arrived.

 

Dinner at RedWood – on the far North end of Yountville.  Very nice walk from the hotel.   Food was great – atmosphere was relaxed and warm – service was fun .

 

 

Coming down out of the mountains we next went into St. Helena to visit Anomaly Vineyards.  We met with Steve (owner) who told us their story of buying a home that happened to have 6 rows of vines on the property where they had no intent of being in the wine business.  Now 15 years since buying the home they operate a small winery that produces approx 900 cases of Bordeaux style Cab.   One of our favorite winery visits.

After Chappellet a quick zip around the corner to David Arthor.  We met with Tanner ~  this was a great visit – Great host with lot of energy and passion, great wine, and great property.  We sat under a 300 year old oak tree tasting the wines then visited the barrel room for a barrel tasting.  Tanner taught us more about identifying grape varietals by the leaf in 14 seconds than anyone has ever been able to do prior.      We finished the visit with a picnic lunch on the patio where Jim shared more of his knowledge of Napa Valley.   NVTT staff is very impressive.  Last time we were escorted by Ryan – this time by Jim – both times where fantastic.

Today we started on Pritchard Hill also on the east side south of Howell Mountain. From the top you look over the valley at Mount Veeder and Spring Mountain.   Production is larger than other wineries we have visited but the story of the Chappellet family is clearly in the core of the history of Napa Valley.  Our host was new to Chappellet which was evident as we toured the property.   We were early so Jim took us up to see the Continuum property which was beautiful.