Day 3

Monty

Breakfast: Chateau Montelena ;-)
The grounds at Montelena are just gorgeous, especially in the rain and mist (It looked straight out of Myst 3: Exile). And on the day that became the winery-animal-discover tour, Montelena is a cat-winery.

Monty is huge and adorable and another HUGE black kitty with green eyes (who’s name escapes me) is the cat I always wanted. Our breakfast began with a 2000 Napa Valley Chard…Apples, pears with a lemony finish. It had a caramel creaminess but it wasn’t too soft, it still had an acid bite. The 1999 Cabernet Sauvignon had a little hung-meat at the finish and tannins on the back of the tongue and was full of blackberries, a little cherry and a hint of coffee. The ’99 St. Vincent Zinfandel was full of pepper. It was soft at the onset but finished with a pepper bite and tannins that hit the sides of the tongue. We came home with a bottle of the ’97 St. Vincent…I’ll let you know how that is in a couple of years ;-)

The next stop was a winery we knew nothing about but it was mentioned in Food & Wine for its Pinot Noir: Clos Pegase. The first thing you see is a bunch of bad art. The we found out that the slough of bad art is actually worth millions but that money wasn’t made from wine…I get annoyed with tasting rooms that try to win you over with the appearance rather than with the wine. The Pinot was good but nothing to write home about. The ’99 Cab was very, very tannic. The 1998 “Full Monty” Cab was good and full of blackberries. But the surprising bit about Clos Pegase was that I liked the Merlot! Wha, wha, what??? I don’t like Merlot, it’s boring, flat, soft…but this had a smoky syrah nose and had a bite to it. It was not like Merlot at all—Yay!

Sam

Now, off to Wine Mecca: Silver Oak. 1998 Alexander Valley Cab….This is so good that it’s hard to put into words. The tannins (although not too many) hit the front of the tongue, it’s full-bodied and sour-cherried. I wanted to stay and keep drinking this all day, unfortunately, I don’t have that kind of cash! The ’98 Napa Valley Cab was also reallly good but the tannins were softer and it was a bit sweeter. I preferred the Alexander and he came home with us.

Plumpjack next. They’re a dog winery. A cutie named Sam who loves to play and also loves red wine—smart dog. The 2000 Rutherford Merlot was also full-bodied for a Merlot (what is going on around here?). It leaned more toward the feeling of a young Cab.

Their ’99 Oakville Cab was also very good—Sam has good taste. It had mid-tongue tannins and was quite tasty. Unfortunately we had to leave Plumpjack empty-handed.

On our way out of the area we spotted Groth and decided to check them out. We’d heard good things. They are also a dog winery but they have pugs which, I’m sorry if you’re a small-dog person, but they creep me out. But they too prefer red wine over white…these dogs I disagreed with. The Merlot was alright (more full-bodied that most but still a Merlot to me). The 2000 Chardonnay was good and creamy and orangey, not overly oakey, a well-balance white. But the winner for bang-for-the-buck was the 2001 Sauvignon Blanc at $15. It was sharp, acidic and citrusy, it came home with us too.

The time had come to mosey over to the Culinary Institute of America in St. Helena for a cooking demonstration. Our chef, Joe Ferrara, showed us how to make Flourless Chocolate Torte with Raspberry-Mint sauce. We were the only two in the class (it pays to go to a demonstration on a Monday afternoon in January!) so we got to sit up at the counter rather than back in the classroom seats. I have to say, I think I could make this dish, make it well, and I’d rather use better chocolate! Don’t get me wrong, it was fantastic but the great thing is, it wasn’t overly complicated. We own the same mixer (a KitchenAid of course!) and there wasn’t any part of the recipe that I thought was unnecessarily thrown in for show. Semisweet chocolate in a double boiler with butter, egg yolks, egg whites, sugar. Simple ingredients, simple preparation, excellent result. The raspberries weren’t fresh (it being January and all) they were fresh-frozen from a company in St. Helena, heated in a saucepan with the mint and strained. Once the cake and sauce were cooled, introduce them to each other and sprinkle some mint on top for kicks….rich, good, yummy chocolate death.

I’m ready to take a nap after that but it’s home for us. It was a wonderful journey and I can’t wait until we can go back again!