Napa Valley ~ Beringer Winery

After spending two days in some of the wine regions in Sonoma, California that I described in my prior blog posts, we drove to nearby Napa Valley.  You can view an interesting video created in 2002 by the Napa Valley Vintners called "Bottling Poetry,"  on this link which takes you through some of the fascinating highlights and history of the Napa Valley. (All photos will enlarge if clicked on once and then again when they open in a new window)

Napa Valley features more than 400 wineries that grow many grape varieties including Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Merlot, Zinfandel, and other popular varietals. From north to south the major towns to visit are Calistoga, St. Helena, Rutherford, Oakville, Yountville, and Napa.  Bounded on both sides by mountains, the Napa Valley stretches approximately 30 miles in a northwesterly direction, its width ranging from five miles at the widest point near the city of Napa to just a mile where the valley narrows near the town of Calistoga.

My husband and I felt fortunate to be able to take the Vintage Heritage Tour of the Beringer Winery located at 2000 Main Street in St. Helena in Napa valley.   Beringer is the oldest continuously operating winery in Napa Valley since its establishment in 1876. From their beautiful and historic Rhine House seen in the first photo upper left, to their wine aging caves which were dug into the hillside of Spring Mountain from the late 1870's, in the last photo lower right, the tour highlighted all the special features of Beringer's wine making.  It also included a barrel tasting of a pre-release wine, and a sit-down tasting in their Cellar Room of 2 current-release wines. 

Walking through the vineyards while sipping tastings of their famous wines was a delightful way to spend a few hours in Napa, and we learned quite a bit about the process of wine making.

Come back for my next post where we'll take a ride on the Napa Wine Train that includes a gourmet lunch and a visit to another historic winery! I'll also be visiting Food Network chef Michael Chiarello's Restaurant "Bottega" in Napa Valley.

I'm adding this post to Mary's blog The Little Red House for her "Mosaic Monday" event.  Please visit Mary today to see her beautiful photo mosaic and links to all the blogs participating in her event.

Sonoma County's Wineries 2 ~ Francis Ford Coppola

Sonoma County is almost as long as it is wide and visiting all the wineries in this region would take a long time as they are nestled among four main valleys -- the Alexander Valley, Dry Creek Valley, the Russian River Valley and Sonoma Valley, plus nine other appellations. There are more than 55,000 acres in Sonoma County planted with grapes, and approximately 200 wineries in all.

The history of the wine industry in Sonoma begins when the Franciscan Fathers traveled north through California in the late 1700's to early 1800's, establishing missions a day's journey apart, from San Diego to Sonoma. By the time California became a state in 1854, wine grapes were an established part of agriculture in the region.  The vineyard of General Mariano Vallejo, the military Governor of Mexican California, were producing an annual income of $20,000. In 1855 the man considered "The Father of California Wine Industry," was an Hungarian Count named Agoston Haraszthy who purchased the Salvador Vallejo vineyard in Sonoma Valley, renamed it Buena Vista, and soon began producing fine wines from the vineyard. In 1861 he was commissioned by the California legislature to study viticulture in Europe. He returned to Sonoma County the following year with over 100,000 cuttings of prized grape varietals from France, Italy and Spain. Haraszthy is credited with first promoting the concept that fine table wines could be produced in Sonoma County as well as Europe.

With so many wineries to choose from we had to narrow our visits down to about ten in all. In my last post I showed you the very beautiful Ferrai-Carano Winery.  One of the most interesting we visited was the newly renovated Francis Ford Coppola Winery located in the Alexander Valley at 300 Via Archimedes, Geyserville, California.

Although still under construction, it was an impressive sight to see! As you may know Francis Ford Coppola is an American film director, producer and screenwriter as well as vintner. He is primarily known for directing the movies "Godfather Trilogy,"  "Apocalypse Now,"  "Dracula", and "The Conversation," and for writing "Patton."

Coppola has said: "When I make a movie, I always have a theme. Sonoma's theme is 'life.' Life with a joyous, Italian family feeling." Coppola's family made wine over many generations beginning with his grandfather who had hand constructed vats in his apartment basement in New York City. They believed wine was a fundamental part of family gatherings along with good food.

The tasting bar area, Rosso and Bianco wines are pored gratis, while there is a fee for tastings of his more sophisticated wines such as his reserves and his Diamond Collection and Director's Cut.

His visitors center is full of movie memorabilia! This display case contained some of his many awards.

Costumes used in some of his movies.

The desk where Marlon Brando sat when he played the Godfather Don Corleone.

Looking down the balcony of the visitor's center at the beautiful red car used in the movie "Tucker: the Man and His Dream." You can also see some of the gift shop items in the background.  All photos will enlarge if you click on them once, and then again when they open on a new page.

More beautiful gift shop items.

We visited during an early dinner hour and so we decided to dine at Rustic, his on site restaurant.

On such a beautiful day we asked to be seated at an outdoor table.

The outdoor tables sit on a terrace overlooking some of Coppola's vineyards.

Rustic's menu can be seen in its entirety here.  Our dinner began with a piece of  fried bread presented in extra virgin olive oil, sort of savory zeppole instead of the usual bread. It was so good I could have eaten many more of them! We ordered a bottle of Diamond Cut Merlot wine which was to be a perfect accompaniment for our dinner selections. My husband and I shared an appetizer of Crispy French Fried Zucchini. They were hot, salty and delicious.  Deciding to try pasta dishes I ordered "Bombola Con Broccolie Salsiccia" (pasta with broccoli rape and sausage), and my husband had Rigatoni and Meatballs. Both were very good and filling although my husband told me he preferred my style of sauce and meatballs.  I guess after soon to be 36 years of marriage he would have to! For dessert we shared a vanilla panna cotta (heavy cream pudding) with raspberry sauce that was heavenly, and we each had an espresso.

It was just so relaxing to dine looking at such a beautiful view that I believe anything we ate would taste good!

At Francis Ford Coppola Winery, all 24 planted acres are sustainably farmed and part of the California Sustainable Winegrowing Program. They only purchase fruit from growers who farm sustainably, and some of the vineyards they source from are certified organic as well. Cory Beck is the Director of Winemaking and General Director.

Eventually The Francis Ford Coppola Winery will be a place which entire families can visit and enjoy as there will be two swimming pools and twenty-eight European-style personal changing rooms called "cabines." There will also be a pool cafe available which will serve summertime fare. Also in construction is a Pavilion which will be a platform for all kinds of entertainment at the winery, from daytime performances, which can be viewed poolside, to romantic evening music. Finally there will be four regulation-sized bocce courts and a park which also feature game tables for classic card and board games such as backgammon, chess and checkers. The bocce and all board games are available to use free of charge all day long!

It is a very ambitious plan but who else but an epic movie director would include such amenities in his winery? It will certainly live up to its motto of "Wine Food and Adventure"!  We can't wait to visit it again some day!

I'm linking up with Claudia at the blog Dippity Road for Friday "Finding Beauty" and Sandi at the blog The Whistlestop Cafe  for"Friday Favorites ♥ Linky Party♥"  Please visit their blogs and join in all the fun!

 
 
 

Sonoma County's Wineries ~ Ferrari-Carano

After leaving San Francisco and a side trip to Muir Woods, we visited the heartland of California's Wine Country in the Sonoma and Napa Valleys for four days. California is the fourth largest producer of wine in the world, behind France, Italy, and Spain. 90% of all the wine produced in the United States comes from here. Including Mendocino County and Lake County, the Wine Country occupies over 7,000 square miles and is home to hundreds of wineries that are open to the public for tours and tastings. There are many lodging accommodations, fine restaurants, one of a kind shops and beautiful scenery that would charm even a non wine enthusiast.

We drove through Sonoma North and South, but basically concentrated on the Dry Creek area of Sonoma in the north. Just look at this street sign at one of the intersections -- so many wineries, so little time!  Although we would have loved to visit them all, we chose a few that were recommended to us by friends who had visited them before us. It's my pleasure to now highlight a few of them for you!

One of our first stops was Ferrari-Carano Vineyards and Winery, located at 8761 Dry Creek Road, Healdsburg.  Owned since 1985 by Don and Rhonda Carano, they strive for wines with a consistent taste of style and elegance. Ferrari-Carano consists of 19 estate vineyards in four appellations, totaling over 1400 acres.

Their hospitality center called Villa Fiore is set in the midst of their 70-acre Dry Creek Valley estate vineyard.

This beautiful estate could be a travel destination just to see their immaculately kept five acres of exquisite gardens.

A 1,000 pound wild boar sculpture named "Boardeaux" greets you as you walk up the entrance. It is based on a sculpture that stands in an open market in Florence, Italy, and rubbing its nose is supposed to bring good luck.  I hope it also means we will be fortunate enough to make a return visit to both places one day!

There was still some morning mist rising up from the vineyards in the distance.

The gardens are truly spectacular! Much of the flora changes with the seasons.  You can see more photos on the Ferrari-Carano website.

The vineyards were also immaculate. They are directed by Don Carano and orchestrated under the supervision of Steve Domenichelli, Director of Vineyard Operations.

(To enlarge all photos, click on them once, and then again when they open on a new page)

You will have to enlarge this photo to read this informational board that was on display on the estate explaining all the interesting sustainable farming techniques used by Farrari- Carano.

 

We were cheered on our trip to learn that many Sonoma and Napa Wineries are striving to use sustainable farming, to be environmentally friendly, and, in some cases, to be totally organic.

Shall we take a little stroll together through one of the vineyard lanes?

The entire wine country had experienced a cooler than usual summer in this '10 year so the harvest was expected to be delayed as the vintners hoped for a few more hot days to help the grapes develop sweetness. Time will tell if this delay will mean good or bad vintage for 2010.

The profusion of grape clusters that were literally dripping from the vines was amazing sight to see! Quite a bit of careful pruning and trellising of the vines is practiced in most of the vineyards we visited.

"Wine is sunlight, held together by water." ~ Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)

We took a very interesting tour in one of Ferrari-Carano's wine making facilities where we were shown the process of making wine, as you can see in the photo collage above.  The whole cluster fruit press is utilized to gently provide intense flavorful berry extraction, and the stainless steel juice-settling tanks allow grape solids to settle naturally without the roughness of centrifuge, which can remove flavorful grape solids.  We also toured one of the five barrel cellars, including a magnificent French styled underground cellar used for the fermentation and aging of the Chardonnays. It was explained to us that the imported Austrian cobblestone floor is gently moistened daily to maintain coolness and humidity in the cellar.

Visitors may taste Ferrari-Carano's Classic Wines and Villa Fiore wines (sold only at the winery) at the tasting bar.  Pinot Grigio, Fume Blanc, Sonoma County Chardonnay, Siena, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon are available. Visitors can also elect to taste some of the limited release and reserve wines in the Enoteca Lounge.  There is also a gift shop where you can purchase bottles of wine and also an assortment of gift items such as tableware, linens, wine accessories, and logo clothing.

The Ferrari-Carano wines were truly multidimensionally flavorful, and visiting their magnificent winery was very memorable. We were very happy we chose to visit them!

In my next post I'll bring you to the new Sonoma Francis Ford Coppola Winery, and his on site restaurant called Rustic. They are spectacular places to visit!

I'm linking this post to Susan's "Outdoor Wednesday" event on her blog A Southern Daydreamer. I hope you will visit Susan to see her outdoor adventure and to see the links of all the blogs participating today!