Bob and Bren were back in town for their annual summer sojourn and this wouldn't be complete without their visit to Napa Valley with their best wine buddies. That is us. We went to Chimney Rock as our first winery in the list. I guess I can say that we all loved their wines. But there is more. It is either Mijo truly loved the wines or truly loves me because he bought a bottle of wine that maxed out our wine budget for that day. :)
We started our day early. We got to the Stag's Leap district of Napa Valley before 10 a.m.
The vines were already bathing in the warm Northern California summer sunshine when we stepped out of the car. This is one of the reasons why Napa Valley is easy to romanticize. Look at that.
I found it funny that the sign Closed was still hanging on the winery's door but I saw a winery staff coming out from the inside quickly took the sign out just as we reached their front garden. I wonder what were the winery's staff were telling each other when they saw our car approaching before they were even open. I suspected that we were going to be the first customers of the winery.
Well, my hunch was correct. We were the first ones in the winery. I didn't know whether I should congratulate us for being early or I should laugh. In the end, being early turned out to be a good thing because our pourer was very enthusiastic and very helpful in answering our questions. Plus there was no crowd. He even let us tasted a couple of wines that were not in their list that day.
I was glad to see that they offer vertical tastings of their Stag's Leap Cabernet Sauvignon. Vertical tasting is when wines from the same winery and the same grape varietal but different years are tasted side by side. We tasted their 2006 through 2009 Stag's Leap Cabernet Sauvignon.
We also sample their 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon, 2005 Elevage, 2006 Elevage, and their 2006 Tomahawk Vineyard Cabernet.
Everything was good! It was very challenging to decide which one to bring home. I was leaning on getting two from the vertical tastings but all of us truly loved the Tomahawk. But then the price for a bottle of Tomahawk will deplete our wine budget for the entire day. Well, it is either Mijo's love for me or his love for the wine because he picked the Tomahawk and paid for it. He said we'll open it for special occasion like a birthday or anniversay. We'll see. :)
Starting the wine tasting very early was not bad at all. In fact, it was the perfect time to wine taste.
Chimney Rock is located on Silverado Trail in Napa Valley.
~rl
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