Our mini (very mini) wine tour of the California wine regions begins in Napa Valley, touring up Highway 29 and dropping in at a few of the wineries that offer a Chardonnay. We're keeping it simple and sampling only Chardonnays on this tour.
Yet, nothing really appeals to us. Napa is big money, big egos and big winery estates with audacious buildings and grounds. It's a struggle to get past all the pretentiousness and into the scene. Napa, we learn, is a product of its own past decisions. In the late 60's, the state designated Napa Valley as an agriculture only area and stipulated that the smallest parcel of land could only be 40 hectares. As land values skyrocketed, it meant wine makers needed a lot of coin to own land in Napa. Thus, it's become the wine playground for the very wealthy and big corporations.
What's up with the big thumb?
We check out the Hess Collection which is a massive estate in the Napa hills that does wine and also has a varied art collection on display, including work by natural artist, Andy Goldsworthy. That part is neat to see — the wine, however, is nothing to get excited about.
A couple of other visits to the big houses leave us feeling indifferent. We stop at Sterling Estates, a wine we enjoy when back in Canada, only to find it's $25 each to ride the gondola (yes, gondola!) up to the winery for your five tastings. That's it. We're done with Napa. Let's head over to Sonoma!
Where we feel much more at home. It's a pleasant drive through the green hills and vineyards, just like you'd imagine California wine country to be — quiet, simple, and full of wineries without attitude.
We check out Wilson's (no special reason) in the Dry Creek area of Sonoma County and sample some of their tasty Zinfandels (okay, it didn't take long to break the Chardonnay focus...).
By this time, it's late in the afternoon, so we stop at the Best Western in the small town of Healdsburg which, lucky for us, just happens to have a special on for the post Memorial Day Weekend — their deluxe $350 rooms are on for a mere $99. Woo-hoo, were in!
We enjoy a great dinner (and more Chardonnay) at Willi's Seafood in town and the next morning, we hit more of the wineries down in the Russian River region — Rodney Strong, Hook and Ladder, Deloach.
All very good and interesting wines. Deloach is a standout — every single wine we try (and we try them all) is top notch and one to remember. Maybe we even buy a few for the road...
From there, we 'fly' back over to coastal Highway #1 and land at another place made famous by Mr. Hitchcock — Bodega Bay!
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