[hubbahubba]

The last 2 bottles I opened.

[RickFLM4]

We opened a bottle of Realm Cellars’ The Bard (2014) last night. Excellent as always.

[ASAP]

I am late to this thread but here are some of my favorites-

Any thoughts?

Caymus Cabernet
Austin Hope Cab
Daou Cabernet
Beringer Knights Valley
Josh Cellars Heritage Cabernet

[hubbahubba]

Originally Posted by ASAP

I am late to this thread but here are some of my favorites-

Any thoughts?

Caymus Cabernet
Austin Hope Cab
Daou Cabernet
Beringer Knights Valley
Josh Cellars Heritage Cabernet

I have tried the first 3. Caymus is tasty. For the AH and Daou, up it to the Reserve. There is a big difference for both of those IMO. The Daou Reserve is a quite a bit less expensive than the AH Reserve, and is probably my favorite of the 3 I have tried on the list you gave. YMMV.

[hubbahubba]

Speaking of Caymus…

[ASAP]

Originally Posted by hubbahubba

I have tried the first 3. Caymus is tasty. For the AH and Daou, up it to the Reserve. There is a big difference for both of those IMO. The Daou Reserve is a quite a bit less expensive than the AH Reserve, and is probably my favorite of the 3 I have tried on the list you gave. YMMV.

Originally Posted by hubbahubba

Speaking of Caymus…

The AH reserve is a bit too pricey for me, I'd prefer a high end tequila at that price or bourbon. For the daou, i've heard mixed reviews on the reserve vs non res... however i'll give it a shot.

That Caymus bottle must have been with u for a bit because I haven't seen a 2018 in ages... all of them are great tho.

[hubbahubba]

Originally Posted by ASAP

The AH reserve is a bit too pricey for me, I'd prefer a high end tequila at that price or bourbon. For the daou, i've heard mixed reviews on the reserve vs non res... however i'll give it a shot.

That Caymus bottle must have been with u for a bit because I haven't seen a 2018 in ages... all of them are great tho.

The AH is a bit too pricey for me, too. Hence the rec for the Daou. And the Daou is very good for it's price.

I think I ordered this case of Caymus about 2+ years ago. Holding on to it for a while. After opening this bottle, it does seem to have mellowed some. I'm guessing that I haven't opened a bottle of it for maybe a year? Still have 6 left.

[hubbahubba]

I just booked us for next Monday at Tor for the “Oakville Experience”. In honor of that, cracked a bottle that I have been hanging on to for a few years.

[hubbahubba]

Finalized our bookings for next week’s tastings in Napa. Tor, Pride Mountain, Caymus, Stags Leap, and finish with Opus One. May be able to squeeze one more in, will wing it. Anyway, opened this tonight.

[RickFLM4]

Originally Posted by hubbahubba

Finalized our bookings for next week’s tastings in Napa. Tor, Pride Mountain, Caymus, Stags Leap, and finish with Opus One. May be able to squeeze one more in, will wing it. Anyway, opened this tonight.

If I recall, and it has been many years, Silver Oak may not be too far from Opus One and Realm Cellars may be close to Stags Leap. I also think Silver Oak has some stuff going on for their 50th Anniversary.

Sounds like a great trip. Enjoy and post up some pictures!

[evil-G-nius]

Originally Posted by hubbahubba

Finalized our bookings for next week’s tastings in Napa. Tor, Pride Mountain, Caymus, Stags Leap, and finish with Opus One. May be able to squeeze one more in, will wing it. Anyway, opened this tonight.

Pride Mountain is real good! One of my favorite places. I love how they "stuck it" to Napa...they wanted to use Napa as their address but were denied (I forget the reason) so they said fine! They are designated as a Sonoma County winery but since their property stradles both counties, they get grapes from Napa as well as Sonoma and they don't have to pay Napa taxes which are higher. I found that funny, a guy that used to work there and always took care of me and my family when we went there told us that.

If you squeeze one more in, maybe try Frank Family. They make some really nice wines

[eluded]

Maybe we should have a BMW winetasting event?

https://www.wineroad.com/events/barr...ting-weekends/

[hubbahubba]

Pride Mountain is real good! One of my favorite places. I love how they "stuck it" to Napa...they wanted to use Napa as their address but were denied (I forget the reason) so they said fine! They are designated as a Sonoma County winery but since their property stradles both counties, they get grapes from Napa as well as Sonoma and they don't have to pay Napa taxes which are higher. I found that funny, a guy that used to work there and always took care of me and my family when we went there told us that.

Originally Posted by evil-G-nius

If you squeeze one more in, maybe try Frank Family. They make some really nice wines

Great story about Pride Mountain! I’ve always wanted to visit, glad to have the chance. Thanks for the tip, will check out Frank Family if time allows.

[hubbahubba]

Sunday-Tuesday we visited Napa. Going to break this into a post for each day so they don’t get too long. Rolled in to the Napa Valley on Sunday afternoon. Checked in to our hotel, Rancho Caymus Inn in Rutherford and had no plans for the rest of the day, so hit 2 wineries very close by. We started at St Supery where we just enjoyed a couple of complimentary tastings, and got a reservation for Peju right next door for an hour later for a full tasting menu. Both of these were nice places, and the wines were ok. We felt obliged to purchase a couple bottles from each place. Nothing really special about either place, but decent. Finished the evening at Rutherford Grill, which was very tasty. Pictured are our room, Peju exterior and tasting menu, and St Supery interior.

[hubbahubba]

Monday morning we had a little breakfast at the hotel, and headed out. First stop was at a custom crush facility named JH Wheeler for a tasting with Tor. I was super excited about this one and it did not disappoint! We were greeted by John, who showed us around the facility and guided us through our tasting. The charcuterie was prepared by the house chefs and was dynamite. We picked up 2- 3 packs to take home.

Our next scheduled tasting was at Pride Mountain up the hill, and we had plenty of time to spare so we pulled in to Del Dotto. We were lucky as it was not too busy, and had a nice lady named Alana who guided us through our tasting menu, and snuck us in to the cave which had some gorgeous chandeliers. I was amazed when Alana told us who owned the winery. Dave Del Dotto, some of you may remember, was an early leader in overnight infomercials. As soon as she mentioned his name, it rung a bell for me. The wines were very good, and we took a nice bottle to go.

Next we drove up through St Helena and turned up a windy road to get to Pride Mountain. The first thing I noticed when pulling in was the fires that were burning on the hill. These were purposely set by staff for burning the STILL remaining debris from the fires of 2020. They are allowed to do this after a good rain, which was certainly the case. It was also noticeably cooler, as we had gained about 2000’ in elevation from the valley floor. When we entered the main building we were greeted by name, and began a walking tour of the grounds. Pride straddles the county line between Napa and Sonoma, and they have it marked with a brick inlay through the parking lot. We toured the cave, and were poured a few tastings as we wandered through and chatted with our guide about the history of the winery and the Pride family. We finished back at the main building, and ordered 6 bottles for delivery at home this week.

We drove back down the hill and had a great dinner at Goose and Gander in St Helena. Highly recommended if you are ever in the area.

[hubbahubba]

Tuesday we had 3 reservations, 11:30 Caymus, 1:30 Stags’ Leap, and 3:30 Opus One. After a little breakfast we headed about a mile down the road to Caymus. They are in the middle of remodeling their old area where they made the wine, and turning it into their barrel room. They are expanding the space for tastings as well, and the new space is so new they don’t even have art on the walls yet. Zach was our guy for this tasting. He was knowledgeable and quite the chatter. I was a little disappointed that they did not offer either the Red Schooner or the newer version called Transit. While Schooner uses grapes from Argentina, Transit uses grapes from Australia. I did pick up a gift set that includes the first 3 vintages of Transit, and will try it in due time. Or maybe I will save that set, and look for it at Total Wine…. It was cool to see the old Wagner family farmhouse!

On to Stags’ Leap. Not to be confused with Stag’s Leap. Back in the 70’s there were a couple years that Stags’ Leap did not make wine, and a neighboring vintner started using the name. It went through the court system, and resolved that the original Stags’ would use the ‘ after the name. Agatha was our guide for this experience, and of all 8 wineries that we visited, the history here blew them all away. Started in the late 1800’s, there were only 3 families that owned it before it sold to a conglomerate. During prohibition, the lady who owned it turned it into a speakeasy complete with a secret trap door to the cellar, and ladies of the evening. In order to keep local LEO’s away, she opened a post office onsite. A very clever lady! It is also home to the first in ground swimming pool in Northern California. We did the elevated tasting, which included all estate grown wines with the black label. All were excellent, and we picked up 3 bottles to bring home. I also joined the wine club for quarterly shipments. Time and money very well spent here!

Last stop of our trip was Opus One. Started as a collaboration between Robert Mondavi and Baron Phillipe de Rothschild in the 70’s, the building and art reflected the money you would expect to see from those 2 men. Very modern facility and super clean. Mark was our guide through facility and wines. He was knowledgeable, but seemed a bit rushed to get us out. We did see the crush room and the barrel room. We picked up one bottle to bring home.

All in all a fantastic trip filled with great wine and food. We brought 15 bottles home, having 9 more shipped in next week. 6 from Pride Mountain and the 3 pack of Transit from Caymus. I will post a pic of those when they arrive. The hard part will be having the patience to age them all a bit before we go back!

[hubbahubba]

Not sure what happened to them, but pics from Tor did not show up. Let’s try again!

[hubbahubba]

All that posting made me thirsty. Just popped this for later.

[RichF90M5C]

That’s my dream vacation hubba. Definitely on the bucket list for sure.

[hubbahubba]

Originally Posted by RichF90M5C

That’s my dream vacation hubba. Definitely on the bucket list for sure.

Do it man. We had a total ball. If you like your wine, 700+ wineries to choose from.

[dradernh]

Broke one of these out to go with lunch.

[Roman]

Apologies if this wine has been mentioned in this thread already but it is a favorite of ours. It's a $40 bottle that thinks it's a $100 bottle. SPOILER: It's not wrong.

Scout's Honor from Venge Vineyards