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The Best Of California Wine Country, 2010

by Michael B. Dougherty (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wine

Don't call it a "gift guide" (although you can certainly use it as such). Instead, this is our wholly unscientific, criminally biased, fervently defended and lovingly curated paean to California's wine country. Despite all the doom-peddling and sky-falling tales that seemed to dominate this year's coverage of the industry, the Napa and Sonoma regions continue to startle and surprise, competing on equal footing with any of the world's traditional or au courant wine terroirs. Check out our celebration of the highlights, and then let us know what we missed in the comments.

Tags: best of 2010, california, napa, Quivira, robert mondavi, Sequoia Grove Vineyard, ShaferVineyards, wine

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Going to Boot Truffle Camp is New Year's Resolution You Meant to Make

by Jonathon Ramsey (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels

There are base camps, boot camps, band camps, and low-rent gatherings in faraway locations for every sport known. But what if you want to ditch the grind and shack up somewhere idyllic and secluded so you can really focus on... truffles? What kind of options would you have? As fate – and Chef Ken Frank – would have it, there is exactly one: Truffle Camp in Napa Valley.

Chef Frank is the owner and culinary mind behind Napa's La Toque, one of but a dozen restaurants in the world to have a truffle menu. To begin your initiation into the arcane world of gourmet fungi – and distinguishing your Italian tuber magnatum pico from your French tuber uncinatum – you'll fly to Napa and settle into your room in the in the Westin Verasa. The first night you'll relax, to be ready for your first 3-hour truffle-laden cooking lesson under Chef Frank's tutelage the next morning.

Afterward, Chef will take you on a tour of Long Meadow Ranch to sample the local farm's delicacies. The next day begins with another 3-hour truffle extravaganza, followed by a tour of a private winery and barrel tastings with Chef Frank and La Toque's wine director, Scott Tracy. The evening concludes with an "All Truffle Dinner," paired with Tracy's wine selections. And you're not finished there: to properly prepare you for return to native lands, you'll be fed a truffle omelet breakfast and then plied with goodies to take home.

The camp runs from January 17-19, 2010. No, it doesn't have the awkward tenderness of a few weeks spent in a dorm with the tuba section, but you'll probably enjoy reminiscing about it a great deal more.

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Tags: california, cooking, journey, journeys, ken frank, KenFrank, la toque, LaToque, napa, napa valley, NapaValley, travel, truffle camp, TruffleCamp

Wine.com Makes the Crimson Elixir "By Appointment Only"

by Jonathon Ramsey (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels, Wine

Many a gift is made that much more compelling by the addition of a bottle of wine. So when the opportunity arises to give a gift that is sprinkled with phrases like "private" and "VIP" and "Napa," and that gift comes with not one, but three, bottles of distinguished ambrosia -- well, it begins to look like a little bit of attention might be in order.

Wine.com's By Appointment Only will stuff your mailbox with a package of cabernets from Quintessa, Chateau Montelena, and Caymus. Yet those are merely to get you in the mood. The feature delight comes the next time you visit Napa: private appointments at each vineyard, during which you'll tour the facilities, sample as-yet-unbottled selections straight from the barrels -- so bring a straw -- and if Madame Nature plays fair, a tour of the vineyard

These are no rush jobs, either: each group is just four people, and each visitation lasts up to 3 hours. Which means that when you've finished your preliminary samplings and you want to know what makes Caymus so subtly capricious, Chateau Montelena so delicately moving, and Quintessa so.. just plain divine, By Appointment Only is your peek behind their veils. Oh, and priced at $500, it also has a superb finish: it's good until the summer of 2011.

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Tags: by appointment only, ByAppointmentOnly, caymus, chateau montelena, ChateauMontelena, napa, quintessa, wine, wine.com

Milliken Creek Inn & Spa

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels, Spas

A recent article in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat reported that wine tourism in Napa Valley is down but that makes it a great time to visit, because it's less crowded. One place to get the complete Napa experience a bit off the beaten path is at the Milliken Creek Inn & Spa. The five-star luxury inn offers a tranquil retreat amidst redwood trees and Japanese maples, quiet courtyards, ponds, lush gardens, and a waterfall terrace. The property is located on the outskirts of Napa Valley and has romantic rooms with canopy beds and offers indlugent treats such as a riverside massage.

The inn serves a complimentary gourmet breakfast with guests' choice of several items prepared on property plus fresh pastries from Bouchon Bakery with coffees from Dean & DeLuca. Picnic lunches are available to eat on the property or take with you on your day's adventures. And best of all there is Magic Hour, a daily wine tasting for guests of the Inn. Wineries from across the valley come each night at sunset to share their latest offerings. Epicurean cheeses, artisan breads, and crudités are also served in the lobby of the Inn. Milliken has a strict "no-kids" policy and staffers can arrange for romantic adventures for couples including a hot air balloon ride.

Guestrooms include a 42" Plasma TV/DVD player, Bose Wave CD player, complimentary sodas and Voss water, king-size bed with down comforters and pillows, double spa therapy tub and gas fireplaces. The Milliken Vintners Vacation Package is named for a private tasting at Vintners Collective, where guests also sample anti pastas and cheeses carefully selected to enhance the flavors of each reserve. Vintners Collective brings together 18 winemakers into one beautiful tasting room in Napa's oldest stone building. The package starts at $320 per night.

Gallery: Milliken Creek Inn & Spa

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Tags: napa, napa valley, NapaValley, wine tourism, wine vacation, WineTourism, WineVacation

Wine Tasting: Fantesca Cabernet Sauvignon

by Laura Malesich (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wine

Summer may be within reach but no matter the season a great bottle of Cabernet always hits the spot. Fantesca's 2004 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon soothes your stress away and satiates your wine desires with notes of deep earth and rich fruit. The combination of chocolate cherries, cassis and warms the soul while a hint of earth-scented spice perks up the palate. Fantesca Estate on Spring Mountain is known for its superb sun exposure and long growing season offered by the elevation and hilly terrain which makes for high quality wines with a lasting impression. With only 800 cases produced the $65 bottle is certainly worth purchasing. If you prefer to cellar it you can count on fifteen or more wonderful years of drinking pleasure.

*Disclosure: This bottle was provided as a sample*

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Tags: cabernet sauvignon, CabernetSauvignon, fantesca, fantesca cabernet, fantesca wine, FantescaCabernet, FantescaWine, napa, napa valley, NapaValley

Bailout Wine Bets On A Rebounding Dow

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wine

Custom wine facility Crushpad has a unique answer to the financial crisis, Bailout Wine. The wine is a Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon which will sell for $39 per bottle. But what makes this wine with the bear and bull label so unique is that for every 100-point drop in the Dow Jones from the date of purchase to the projected bottling date of August 14 2009, Crushpad will knock another $2 off the bottle. If the Dow rebounds the $39 price stands. Only 500 cases of Bailout will be produced but the company could still take a hit if the Dow tumbles. For example if you bought when the Dow was at 8,800 and then on August 14, 2009 it closes at 7,300 (let's hope not) you would pay just $9 a bottle and get your $30 back. The wine will be shipped after it is bottled in Summer 2009.

[via Decanter]

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Tags: cabernet sauvignon, CabernetSauvignon, crushpad, napa, napa valley, NapaValley

Shepard Fairey Art on Kenwood Artists Series Wine

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wine

I've been a fan of artist Shepard Fairey for years but he has sprung into the mainstream lately. Not only has his Obama poster been a key part of the campaign but Boston's Institute of Contemporary Art hosting the first museum survey of Shepard Fairey's street art. Now Shepard Fairey has his own wine. Kenwood Vineyards has commission a piece from Shepard Fairey for the 30th Anniversary Artist Series Cabernet Sauvignon. The choice is a bit of a departure from a series that has featured artists like Van Gogh and Picasso but the 2004 vintage will showcase Fairey's "Peace Woman."

The 2004 Artist Series has a nose of black currant, Ceylon tea leaf and dark chocolate with flavors of black currant, Italian plum, cocoa and spice. it can be enjoyed now or cellared. The wine was aged in small French oak barrels for 30 months and the final Artist Series blend was assembled from the best of these barrels, with a small percentage of Malbec included for additional complexity and polish. Following bottling, it was cellared at the winery for 18 months prior to release. There were 2,146 cases were produced and it sells for $70 a bottle.

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Tags: cabernet sauvignon, CabernetSauvignon, kenwood, napa, shepard fairey, ShepardFairey

Checkmate Limited-Production Bordeaux Blend Released

by Tracy Chait (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wine

Summers Winery has announced it will release a limited-production Bordeaux-style blend this November, aptly named Checkmate (a portion of the winery's grapes are grown in Knight's Valley, and this blend is bound to be a "grandmaster" of wine). Just 75 cases were produced of this blend of Cab Sauv, Merlot, Cab Franc and Petit Verdot, all grown in northern Napa. This particular wine has been in the wings for quite some time. All grapes were harvested and sorted by hand in 2005, and a mere three barrels from the 600 produced will wear the Checkmate label.

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Tags: bordeaux, checkmate, limited production, LimitedProduction, napa, summers winery, SummersWinery

Auction Napa Valley Online Auction Begins

by Rigel Celeste (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wine, Auctions, Charity

Auction Napa Valley 2008, The American Wine Classic, is here and you can be a part of it even if you're nowhere near Napa Valley. The "granddaddy of charity wine auctions" is offering 88 lots for bidding online, including one-of-a-kind bottles and collections, various luxury items, tickets to private events, and even weekend getaways hosted by Napa Valley vitners.

And bidding online will not only indulge your wine habit but it will also support various charities local to the Napa Valley area. The auction opened May 23rd and will run through June 6th.

Via Avenue Vine

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Tags: american wine classic, AmericanWineClassic, auction, auction napa valley, auction napa valley 2008, AuctionNapaValley, AuctionNapaValley2008, charity, charity auction, CharityAuction, napa, napa valley, NapaValley, wine

Foreclosure Fears Strike Napa

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Estates

Even in one of the hottest real estate markets in the United States people are starting to feel the pinch of the foreclosure crisis. The AP has a story on the falling housing prices in one of the most beautiful and pricey areas in the country. In January, home sales fell more than 55 percent from the year before. The number of houses at any stage of foreclosure jumped by 152.9 percent. So far the very expensive wine towns of Calistoga, Yountville, St. Helena and Rutherford are still doing well but the city of Napa and the town of American Canyon have been hard hit, finding that the newer housing developments are particularly vulnerable both to lack of sales and forecloures.

Part of the worry for Napa is that its exponential growth has been fueled by wine tourism which may start to wane in the current economic climate. Currently condos, offices and retail stores are under construction, designed to appeal to the tourists and part-time residents. While the general wisdom seems to be that recessions do not cause people to stop drinking wine, it may cause them to cut back on winery tours which would impact other luxury retail businesses which have come to the area in the past couple of years.

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Tags: expire-images:2009-3-5, foreclosure, napa, real estate

Westin Versara

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Estates, Luxury Travel & Hotels

Sales are well underway at the Westin Verasa in Napa. This project is the fifth project between Starwood hotel group and Intrawest. The Westin Verasa Napa Residences are 160 whole ownership units ranging from studios to two-bedroom suites and owners are each entitled to stay at the hotel up to 29 days a year. The hotel amenities include a pool and spa that overlook the Napa river, a Reebok gym, bocce ball courts, a bar, and a signature restaurant. The suites range in price from approximately $500,000 to over $1.3 million per room. Vacationers can book nightly accommodations when the resort opens next year, no word on the rates yet. The resort is ideally located for wine country exploration, it is adjacent to Copia, the center for food and wine and the Oxbow Public Market, a large market featuring local vendors and organic farm stands will be right next door.

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Tags: california, condo hotel, napa, versara, westin

Rutherford Appellation Wine Passport Weekend

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wine, Events

The Rutherford appellation in Napa Valley is looking for a little respect. In an effort to help educate consumers about the region the Rutherford Appellation Wineries have created their first Passport weekend on December 1-2. A $50 passport gets you access to 13 participating wineries which will offer special pourings, tastings and entertainment. The list of destinations includes the Swanson Salon, Peju, Beaulieu and Grgich Hills. Each winery is organizing unique offerings such as Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon from the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s at Beaulieu Vineyard, exclusive access to Alpha Omega's state-of-the-art tank room and artisan cheese and antipasto with your wine at Honig Vineyard & Winery. Profits from the event got to the Rutherford Dust Restoration Team, a group of vintners and growers working to improve the health of the Napa River as it passes through the Rutherford AVA.

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Tags: california wine, napa, napa valley, napa valley wine, rutherford appellation, RutherfordAppellation, wine events

Cleavage Creek Wine for Breast Cancer Research

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wine, Charity

Cleavage Creek is a pretty clever name for wines that raise money for breast cancer research. Owner Budge Brown lost his wife of 48 years to breast cancer in 2005 and is donating 10 percent of the gross profits to fund research to find an end to the disease. The line consists of eight wines to start with: 2005 Reserve Napa Cabernet Sauvignon, a 2005 Reserve Napa Petite Sirah, a 2005 Cabernet-Syrah, a 2004 Merlot, a 2004 Merlot-Syrah, a 2006 Reserve Chardonnay, a 2003 Secret Red and a 2006 Secret White. There are 2000 cases for sale the first year. Each bottle features a breast cancer survivor whose story is told on the bottle. Budge Brown plans to also create a tasting room and wine shop in the Cleavage Creek vineyards in Napa. The wines are in the $18 to $50 range. Information on each wine is below in the gallery.

Gallery: The Lovely Ladies Of Cleavage Creek

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Tags: breast cancer, budge brown, cleavage creek, CleavageCreek, napa, wine

The Rock, Estate of the Day

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Estates

This four-bedroom home in St. Helena, California is really named the Rock. In fact it will be a hard name to shake considering that it is displayed as part of the fireplace surround in the living room. The Rock is a truly dramatic home that gets a lot of its kick from a black, white and red decor scheme in many rooms. The home has a wine cellar, a theater, a bar area, dining room and great views of the surrounding countryside including a vineyard planted in Cabernet grapes. The decor stretches to the wacky at times, the flower-covered bathroom with the granite bathtub and the Murano glass chandelier defies description. And the red piano against a zebra print rug, against a black and white floor? My my. It is listed at $7.995 million.

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Tags: california, estate of the day, luxury real estate, napa, st helena, StHelena

Frank Gehry's Plans For Napa

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels, Wine

We swooned over Frank Gehry's designs for the Marques de Riscal winery/resort in Spain, now the legendary starchitect has something a bit more modest planned for a Napa winery. The above is Gehry's design for Hall Wines which is creating a new complex of six buildings on Highway 29, south of St. Helena. The facility had its groundbreaking on Friday and will be built around a historic winery built in 1885 that was once home to Napa's wine co-op. The new design includes undulating wood trellises similar to Gehry's usual metal flourishes. The wood gives the winery a slightly more traditional look. The new winery should be open in 2009 and will be open to the public for tours and tastings.

[via SF Gate]

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Tags: ahll wines, frank gehry, hall winery, HallWinery, napa

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