Monday in Napa

Monday was the first wine tasting day.  We visited 4 wineries, starting out at Whitehall Lane.  We then proceeded to Grgich, Robert Sinskey, and finally Chimney Rock with lunch thrown in.

Whitehall lane had some excellent wines, but in the scheme of things was a 'standard' wine tasting experience.  Grgich was more interesting as it had a real history.  Escaping communism, Miljenko "Mike" Grgich came to the Napa valley in the mid fifties and proceeded to be one of the early 'pioneers' of Napa Valley and California wines.


In 1976, there was a 'Paris Tasting' and a panel of eminent French Judges in the white wine category sipped samples of fabled white Burgundies of France along with the relatively unknown and upstart Chardonnays from the Napa Valley.  The tasting was blind, so the judges did not know which was which.

The judges expected to sip then gag at the American's attempt, but when the results were tallied, it was a complete surprise.  Mike Grgrich's Chardonnay won hands down.  The 3rd and 4th place finishes also went to Napa wines.  To add insult to injury, the Stag's Leap Cabernet won in the Red category.  Napa was on the map in the wine world.

Robert Sinskey Vineyards had an impressive view and their tasting was accompanied by some light food.  Jodi could describe it better than I, but the olives marinated with fennel and olive oil were excellent.

The highlight for Kelli (ok, for me too) was the koi pond.  Huge koi you could feed by hand.

The final stop was Chimney Rock.  Excellent wines.  Wonderful, special occasion wines.  We tasted 'vertical', sampling the same wine from different years.

Arriving home it was pool time, followed by a 'grill your own' food night.

Below is a 3 minute movie of the day.  You may need a PC to see, it doesn't come across in email.