We mentioned you to Michael, and abused you for a bit!

Healdsburg is great. It will be one of the places we hang next time. Had one of the best burgers ever at Healdsburg Burgers.

Got to get the Chocolote Bouchon to you!

we're out there next week. arrive thursday, will drive to sonoma thursday afternoon just to see the town - heard high recs for the westwood tasting room. then head back for dinner at Ad Hoc.

friday - pride, keenan, schweiger, fisher family; dinner at Celedon

saturday - chappellet, david arthur, neyers or nichelini, then ZD; dinner at morimoto.

the driver has rec'd davidarthur/neyers/nichelini, so we're looking forward to a little "adventure".

super stoked!

Cecil, Mike has some good dirt on me. I'm actually surprised he still lets me show up at Envy. I think I made some of his other guests uncomfortable one time! Great guy though. Great wines too!

Ron, I've heard good things about David Arthur and the amount of wine he pours. I love Pritchard Hill wines. It's one of my favorite appellations in Napa. When on Spring Mountain, I'd recommend Behrens as well...if you have the time.

quote:

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friday - pride, keenan, schweiger, fisher family; dinner at Celedon

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Have fun! I wish I were going back already.

If you've not been to either, I'd recommend Sherwin Family over Keenan. Both on Spring Mountain. Sherwin had better wines and a 1000% better tasting experience. I'll post some pics this evening...

just asked "my guy" about swapping Sherwin for Keenan... we'll see!

Cecil: Sounds like your Keenan experience wasn't too far from what I had experienced and posted earlier.

Thanks for the full blown report. Will use it for our December trip planning.

Also, for you, BSD and others: do you guys carry purchases home with you or ship them? We've done both: shipped and bought a shipping box out there and checked it on the plane. Kind of a p/i/t/a though.

[This message has been edited by aggiemike02 (edited 8/27/2013 5:20p).]

http://thewinecheck.com/

Lots of places in Napa sell these, no need to pay more than about sixty bucks. We have two.

I have two wine checks as well. My friends laugh because I actually take wine TO Napa!

BSD, I may hit you up to borrow one of your wine checks if I end up going to Anaheim in January. Of course, it won't be wine in it when I get back.

I use my wine checks for beer more than wine! When we go to Napa, we have the wine shipped back and I carry Pliny home. NCol has one right now to bring beer down for the Bama game.

Cline ancient vine

my gourmand neighbor threw together some wicked awesome fried rice while we were cocktailing last night. i grabbed a bottle of Candor Zin Id had in the cooler for a while - don't remember the year (got it at HEB a few months ago). But it was nails w/ a pork/lamb/soy/sesame mashup. never thought about Zin w chinese, but will definitely do so in the future.

Awesome to finally meet the great BSD this weekend.

The cabernet franc was awesome but alas too quickly gone.

Last night Mrs. derm made me a grilled cheese(2 hand grated cheeses with pimento chees) with bourbon carmelized onions.

Perfect with a Carlisle syrah.

Did he wear a cape and have a big "W" on his chest?

Had you said Ironman, you'd be much, much closer! Seriously.

Dermdoc, it was a pleasure meeting you. Thanks again for your generosity and I'm glad you enjoyed the Detert. Maybe next year we can split a nice bottle at dinner once I get all this treatment stuff figured out. Let's think along the lines of Schrader/Scarecrow/etc...

Sounds great.

Did some inventory reduction at a friend that is moving soon.

2007 Tor Howell Mountain
2009 Darioush cab franc
2005 Kaesler The Bogan (corked, dammit)
2006 Chappellet cab franc.

If anyone wants my M Etain allocation, let me know. I think we are still a few weeks out but they sent out a "heads up" email today.

Would be very interested, just have a hard time opening $200 bottles...

If you don't account for tax or shipping, it's only $150!

Day 1- Westwood tasting room in Sonoma. Quite delish, a tart Pinot and a more mild Pinot, then a gsm and Syrah. They fumbled a rose then retreated it to turn it into a delish dessert wine. Aggie owned. Highly recommend.
Ad Hoc for dinner. Kind of let down, maybe too high expectations. Still good though, not a must-do by any means though. $25 cork fee is nice though.

I've been to Healdsburg. Love J Vineyards. Can't believe this is my first post here!!!

Here are the wines my wife opened for the game last night. The Leviathan was a clear winner.



Edited to include pic...

[This message has been edited by BSD (edited 9/9/2013 2:45p).]

Napa snapshots:

Sherwin Family:





Jericho Canyon:



Pride Mountain:




Far Niente:






Quintessa:




Swanson Family:
We met Ira Yager, the artist at our inn and arranged the salon tasting for us. They have a bunch of his art.





[This message has been edited by cecil77 (edited 9/9/2013 2:25p).]

Looks like you guys had fun, Cecil. I was waiting for a picture of you passed out on the floor from too many tastings.

cecil77-
Is that a Ferrari Daytona?

Can't let my wife see this page. She already wants very badly to make a return trip. (Not that I don't.)

Yes. The car of my teenage (heck, old man) dreams. The owner of Far Niente has the collection.

That's awesome, Cecil. May have to add Far Niente to our schedule in December. Thanks for sharing.

Far Niente was the most organized tasting we did, but avoided being TOO slick. I do recommend it.

Ok, wine and Napa experts, BSD and Cecil et al:

Based on this thread, Yelp, other people, etc., here's my possible list of visits in December, listed from North to South as we're staying in downtown Napa. No way we can make it to all of them in 2.5 days so I need to cull. We'll be with a couple who have never been but are up for anything, from sedate to boisterous and all in between. What are your thoughts?

Bennet Lane
Jericho Canyon
Lava
Crocker & Starr
Chappellet
Frog's Leap
Gargiulo
Far Niente
Paradigm
Hope & Grace
Trefethen (we're members and is special for us)
Hendry
William Hill
Biale
Tulocay
Domaine Carneros
Cuvaison (another with good memories)

Thanks.

Don't bother with Lava.

I'd replace it with either Chateau Montelena or Envy.

I enjoy Crocker and Starr. It's a nice tasting and I enjoy the wines. It was one of the few automatic shipment clubs to which I belonged. It's also central in the valley so you're never too far from it.

Chappellet is fun but it's way up on Pritchard Hill so if you go that way, I'd make others stops at David Arthur, Ovid, or Continuum to make the drive worthwhile. FYI, Pritchard Hill is one of my favorite wine regions up there.