A Day in Napa Part 1: Venge for the Win

Once upon a time (ok, it was more like two months ago), I wrote a wine blog. Then life happened and I sort of abandoned it. This hiatus, however, was completely unintentional, and I’m going to emerge from the silence one blog post at a time. If you’ve been following along on Twitter or Facebook, though, you know that things have really taken off since the blog launched. I’ve been running around this city attending as many wine tastings, meeting as many wine industry folks, and chatting with as many fellow wine bloggers as much as possible (read: drinking lots of wine) to really dive into what I can offer to this project. It’s been fulfilling to hear feedback from readers as it helps me formulate a plan for producing content going forward on this journey. And Twitter? Well that’s just been way too much fun because connecting with wineries, wine shops, distributors, restaurants, and bloggers happens at any time of the day in a little wine-lover community bubble.

First time I'd ever seen such a clear view crossing the Golden Gate Bridge - where was Karl the Fog?

I feel like there’s so much to catch up on and so much wine nerdiness to share, so let’s go back to the end of February when my husband and I flew to California for our Honeymoon. I’m going to split the stories and winery visits up into multiple posts so I can hopefully provide the depth and detail that each place deserves. We worked diligently for a solid two months in advance to plan our route and appointments emailing with hospitality managers and hospitality reps. Our picks were strategically selected in an attempt to soak in a variety of vineyard experiences. For my husband who had never been to wine country, it was important to include big producers, small producers, off-the-beaten-path producers, and I-see-these-every-day-in-Kroger producers in our itinerary. Our plan of attack (yes, that’s how a wine nerd visualizes a trip to Napa) was to spend one full day in Napa followed by another full day in Sonoma. 

Our "Moon House" in Glen Ellen

Renting a lovely cottage on VRBO in the quaint town of Glen Ellen about 15 minutes north of Sonoma Square and just down the hillside from Beringer Vineyards allowed us to start from a centralized location both mornings for departure into both sides of wine country.

The blooming mustard created a golden hue in the vineyards

After crossing the Golden Gate Bridge on a crystal clear day, we arrived to find miles of vineyards popping with the golden yellow hue of blooming mustard – simply stunning.  This is a spring phenomenon that I’d only read about briefly prior to our trip, and it felt like such a treat to see it in person. We couldn’t wait to hop in our rental Prius and head out over the winding roads to the Napa side of the Valley on our first morning of the adventure. First stop? The famed Bouchon Bakery in downtown Yountville to properly fuel up for a day of sipping vino.

NO LINE at 8am and enjoyed a life-changing bacon cheddar brown sugar scone on the outdoor patio

Second stop (aka first winery stop and topic of today’s post): Venge Vineyards. And ultimately, this first stop won the award for our favorite stop of the entire trip. Looking back, I honestly think we could’ve purchased one of every bottle from this vineyard to take home with us…but because it was our first stop of the trip/day, we couldn’t possibly rationalize boxing up everything they had to offer – it was the bliss of being our first tasting appointment, right? We were in a Honeymoon fantasy state of mind, right? It couldn’t possibly be as outstanding as we thought it was, right? …no, guess what, it really was that awesome and we should have taken it all home with us). 

The callbox upon arrival makes you feel super fancy and special

This is a can’t-miss-must-make appointment when you visit Napa next time. It’s located at the northern tip of the Valley near Calistoga, so it’s also a perfect place to start your route for the day and then proceed to wind southbound through the wineries. They specialize in “dry farming”, a technique which relies only on natural annual rainfall for growing grapes that puts stress on the vines to ultimately reduce the skin to juice ratio for more intense flavor development. Winemaker, Kirk Venge, is third-generation in this talented family of viticulturists. In fact, Kirk’s father, Nils Venge, was the first American winemaker to receive a perfect “100 points” from Robert Parker for his Groth Reserve Cabernet in 1985. So yes, there’s some serious history of delicious wine in this family and they are worthy of securing a place on your wine visit itinerary.

Bone Ash Vineyard outside the lovely tasting room which has just one parking spot out front

We made our appointment for 10am (vacation rules of wine drinking for breakfast apply?) and after being welcomed through the callbox at the private gate entrance, we parked our Prius in the one parking spot outside the tasting room. Our host, Bradley, welcomed us in and told us to make ourselves “at home” which, well, was easy because the facility actually used to be a home. The windows next to our table faced the rolling estate vineyards, and the space felt like we were enjoying the comfort of a living room. Then…he started pouring the wines and that’s when we knew we had truly arrived in wine country! The 2013 Maldonado Vineyard Chardonnay kicked things off with an almost tropical finish followed by the 2013 Pinot Noir from the Bacigalupi Vineyard (…if you’ve seen the movie Bottle Shock then you’ll appreciate knowing that this vineyard contains 50% of vines which produced the wine served during the Judgment of Paris!) which expressed bright, clean, fruit tones. I personally prefer a bit of Oregon-style, dirty, earthiness in my Pinots, but my husband was a huge fan of the clean, bright, fruit on the nose and finish on this one. Their 2013 Scouts Honor Proprietary Red (a blend of Zinfandel, Petite Sirah, Charbana, and Syrah) was the epitome of a “pizza pasta wine” with spice on the nose and a food-friendly smoothness.

The setup feels like school but then they bring wine and you know it's better than school

Next up on the tasting flight was the 2012 Oakville Estate Vineyard Merlot…and this is when time stopped for a moment and I heard angels sing. Bradley got a kick out of my not-so-subtle reaction to the fantastic plums and roses on the nose, the strong tannins on the palate, and the jammy, long finish. He had decanted it for an hour prior to serving it to us which likely enhanced the complexity of this huge vino. My husband had never experienced a true Napa Merlot like this before, and his face was also priceless. For all the bad publicity this little varietal has gotten in recent years, it’s exciting to find incredible expressions of the grape coming to fruition again and knocking our socks off.

Learning about Cab vs. Merlot is like learning about Sagas vs. Short Stories

The tasting finale pour was the 2012 Silencieux Cabernet Sauvignon and again, wow. Just wow. The grapes for this vintage were collected from six different locations including the Bone Ash Vineyard located right outside the windows of our table in the tasting room. There was so much spice layered into the dark fruit with a balanced lacing of vanilla and caramel on the palate. Unlike the Merlot, however, this Cab lingered for what felt like hours on the tongue with an almost raisin-like finish. If I recall, I looked up from my glass with the biggest smile on my face and told Bradley that this was the best wine I’d tasted in a very long time (and I don’t think this was just because I’d consumed an entire wine tasting flight before 11am). I was also just so happy to find two common red varietals being expressed so truly to varietal standards. In a moment of pure genius, Bradley described the difference between the Merlot and the Cabernet Sauvignon as the difference between a “short story” and a “saga” – brilliant! I can almost still taste the saga-like finish of the Cab as I type this two months later…

Needless to say, we took that Cab home with us as the first of our “Honeymoon Wines” from the trip. But because taking wine home on the airplane is not as easy as it used to be, Bradley also hooked us up with a wine shipping box that could be checked as luggage at the conclusion of our adventure. We tucked that gorgeous bottle of Cab snuggly in one of the canisters, packed the case box in the trunk of the Prius, let Bradley take a photo of us on the porch in front of the Bone Ash Vineyard (had to), and headed out down the private road for more adventures.

And that is the type of magic that can happen before noon when you’re in Napa. A successful “Stop 1” at Venge Vineyards. If we would ever get off the waitlist to be in their Wine Guild which is limited to 1,000 members…I’d be one happy wine nerd. Til then? Well, we wait for the perfect occasion to pop the cork on that one bottle of the coveted Cab.