de Lorimier Winery (4.44)





Open 10:30am-5:00pm

Appt required? No

Last barlinwine.com visit: 2011

Directions


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Tasting:
de Lorimier Winery has a sprawling facility surrounded by their vineyards at the northern end of Alexander Valley. We stopped at the winery with the intention of tasting and hopefully having our picnic lunch. Initial signs were positive -- the de Lorimier tasting room sits on beautifully manicured grounds, with a fountains and shaded outdoor sofas flanking the entrance to the tasting room. With an eye on those sofas, we went in to begin our tasting.

The folks at de Lorimier were welcoming from the start. We began to work our way down the tasting page when we asked about lunch. "Well, do you want to eat now?" we were asked. "You're welcome to have lunch outside with the wines you're trying and just come back in when you're ready to try something new." Great idea! Accommodating, flexible, and friendly, our hostess really made the experience great.

We tried two Sauvignon Blancs, a Chardonnay, a Malbec, and a Reserve Malbec. We were ready to settle up, when our hostess asked, "Are you interested in any Cabernet or Bordeaux blends?" as she flipped over the tasting sheet. There was another side to the tasting sheet! Well, of course we were interested! We moved on to try 3 Cabernets (the Preston Ranch, Warm Springs Ranch, and Crazy Creek) and two meritage blends (the Mosaic and the Artisan). The front page wines we tried were okay, but the cabs and blends were significantly better.

On a different day, I probably would have walked away with at least a few bottles, but I knew we had some excellent cab stops coming up (Robert Young and Hawkes) and so I ended up passing on wine. My sister did purchase, though, and was given 10% off her purchase. We weren't charged any tasting fees either and tried a lot of wines, all of which adds up to a pretty great value for your trip. The overall experience was enjoyable, and the wines are affordable enough to be an option for wine enthusiasts of all levels.

Recommended wine:I preferred the "back side of the page", particularly the Crazy Creek single vineyard Cabernet and the two blends (Mosaic and Artisan).


Ratings (out of 5):


WINE
4.00
TASTING ROOM
4.25

ATMOSPHERE
4.50
VALUE
5.00

OVERALL
4.44

Mustard's Grill (4.63)







Open: Open 7 days per week for lunch and dinner.

Reservation required? No, but recommended


Last barlinwine.com visit: 2011

Directions:


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The Meal:

After driving past Mustard's for years every time we visited Napa and always hearing great reviews on the place, we finally decided to book a table. Mustard's is know for serving "honest American fare with worldly sophistication." Chef Cyndi Pawlcyn opened Mustard's Grill in 1983, naming it for the mustard flowers that bloom in the vineyards in springtime. Apparently, mustard seeds help to nourish the soil to help the grapes grow. Chef Pawlcyn was an early advocate of using organic and locally grown ingredients and has an organic garden adjacent to Mustard's that provides the restaurant with 20% of its produce year round. Guests often enjoy strolling through the gardens prior to sitting down for dinner.

The restaurant itself is a small gray building with a peaked roof. Inside the place is brimming with natural light, complemented by the black and white checkered marble floor with yellow accents all around. They boast an extensive wine list of local favorites and many wines by the glass for those who, like us, drank too much during the day to layer another bottle of wine on top. The menu is full of fresh salads and comfort food. They make a daily seafood tostada and a daily fish and multiple other items from their wood burning grill and oven.

We arrived and were greeted by our server, a round and loud spoken man -- think Cam from Modern Family -- who knew the menu inside and out having worked at the restaurant for 19 years. When we asked for a description of an entree he would describe it from the bottom up, gesturing frequently with his hands. First, there is a layer of this and on top of that a layer of this and drizzled on top (with gesture of drizzling) with such and such sauce. With his help we each started out with a glass of white wine and an order of the ahi tuna crackers. Our waiter let us know the order included only 3 crackers and offered to add a 4th. Knowing we would have had Doodlegeddon over that 3rd cracker, we took him up on his suggestion and were glad we did. The thin triangular sesame crackers are made in house and were layered with raw ahi tuna and wasabi and soy glaze. Yum.

We moved on to dinner. Greg selected the famous Mongolian Pork Chop with sweet & sour red cabbage and housemade mustard (the most ordered dish at Mustard's). With some guidance from our server I ordered the house special fish - a pacific salmon over a creamed corn base. We chose well! The pork was moist with a delicious mustard sauce. The salmon with the corn was fresh and delicious. I never order restaurant salmon as it is never as good as my dad's grilled salmon with lemon caper butter sauce but this was a treat! With our main course we shared a Pinot flight and enjoyed choosing our favorite.

In addition to their every day menu, Mustard's does have a Thursday Pour-Off Pair-Off Dinner Series which features special dishes paired with local wines by the glass that you typically only see by the bottle. You can do one dish or many, each set at a fixed price for the entree and for the wine. We were there on a Thursday and after many nights of heavy eating decided not to do this but might need to come back on another Thursday. Mustard's will definitely become a regular stop on our Napa restaurant circuit. We left there for around $150 with two glasses of wine and a wine flight, one shared appetizer and two entrees. Nothing in Napa is cheap so compared to other places, this is quite fairly priced for the quality. For the price, it was our favorite meal of the trip.

Recommended food:All of the things mentioned were really delicious. The Mongolian Pork Chop was among the best dishes Greg had the entire trip, and the salmon special was also great. We heard dessert is also amazing but were too full to try it.

Ratings (out of 5):


FOOD
4.75
SERVICE
4.50

ATMOSPHERE
4.75
VALUE
4.50

OVERALL
4.63






Chalk Hill (4.13)



Open 11:00am-4:00pm

Appt required? No

Last barlinwine.com visit: 2011

Directions:


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Tasting:
In 2000, I was out at a work dinner. Still a young pup and wet behind the ears when it came to wine, I had my first sip of Chalk Hill Chardonnay. And it was delicious. It opened my eyes to the difference between what I'll call "supermarket wine" (although, ironically, you can get Chalk Hill at my local Dominick's) and something that could be better, and in some ways it started my current affinity for fine wine. Considering all of that, it's surprising that it took me 11 years before I finally made it to the winery to taste.

Chalk Hill is not the type of winery I typically frequent these days. It's big, commercial, widely distributed, and fairly well known, all things that usually add up to tour buses, limos, and a lot of first-timers in wine country -- basically the equivalent of the $5 blackjack table in Vegas, and mostly what I look to avoid these days. The winery is located on Chalk Hill Road, and their estate spans something in the neighborhood of 1300 acres. They grow most of the major grape varietals you would expect to find in California and produce wines featuring most of them. The tasting room is a beautiful stone structure mounted on a hilltop overlooking their property. But despite all of that, the tasting room is relatively small, and we had a personal, intimate tasting at the winery.

We started our tasting with their Sauvignon Blanc. Crisp and clean, but nothing to write home about. We moved to their Pinot Gris, a wine that they produce only for restaurants and club members. This was a better, more complex version of the Sauv. Blanc, but still not amazing. We finished our tour of white wine with the aforementioned Chardonnay. Buttery and multi-layered, I still do enjoy this wine. But with the ability to pick it up locally, I was more interested in what else they had to offer.

We moved to reds, starting with the 2006 Estate Cabernet. This is another wine that is widely distributed, and while good, not better than its Alexander Valley counterparts. We then tried the 2007 Estate Red, Chalk Hill's Bordeaux Blend. At last -- just what I was waiting for! This was a well-made wine from a great year, and it was my favorite of the visit. We followed this with the Clara's Vineyard Cabernet, another Bordeaux style wine heavier on Cabernet. This was similar and softer than the 2007 Estate Red, but a wine that was missing just a little something for me. Our tasting finished with a sample of their Botrytised Semillon dessert wine, which was quite good.

Throughout the tasting, our host was cordial and attentive. The atmosphere was far more laid-back than I expected coming in, capped by a visit from Bonnie, a black German Shepherd at the end of our taste. I stayed just long enough to get her riled up and crazy for her owner before hitting the road. We left with a positive impression of the vineyard and a sense that this is a place I would recommend people head to for a solid tasting experience. This was a good one-time visit, and while I suspect I'll visit again some day, ultimately neither the wine nor the experience was unique enough to keep me coming back every time I'm in the area.

Recommended wine: The 2007 Estate Red was very good. I have a soft spot for their Chardonnay, and given its distribution it's a solid mid-range Chardonnay that you can likely find at any wine store.

Ratings (out of 5):


WINE
4.00
TASTING ROOM
4.50

ATMOSPHERE
4.50
VALUE
3.50

OVERALL
4.13

CADE (4.44)




Open 10:00am-4:00pm

Appt required? Yes

Last barlinwine.com visit: 2011

Directions:


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Tasting:
CADE! No, I’m not yelling. For reasons I don’t know, CADE winery always capitalizes its entire name. Then I looked at its label, and it’s 100% lowercase. Maybe it’s a marketing thing? Maybe they have a computer with a really sticky CAPS LOCK key? Maybe CADE stands for something (Captivating And Desirable Enoteca?)…ultimately, it makes no difference to me. I will continue to call it CADE (and think "KAHNNNN!" every time I read it).

CADE sits well off the beaten path, 5 miles east of the Silverado Trail off of Deer Park Rd. The tasting room and winery is a beautiful modern structure built on a cliff side, with possibly the best views of any winery I've ever been to. Richard was extra-chatty at our prior stop at Bremer, and so we arrived regrettably late to our 2pm tasting appointment. We were ushered in and told it would have to be a speedy tasting, since the winery was closing early that day at 3pm. Not a problem for us, and our hostess Jenny quickly got us caught up with the other more punctual tasters. We sat on couches in their tasting room, with massive picture windows overlooking the valley beyond.

Having just left Bremer and Richard’s heavy pours, our group was in a chatty mood. Jenny was a quite a handful, too. Born in Pittsburgh, she quickly established her love of the Steelers. We congratulated her on finishing second this season to the Packers, at which point she immediately pointed out how they had more total championships. We debated how many Super Bowls the Steelers had been in, and suggested it was 8, six of which they won. “Oh, no, it’s way more than that,” Jenny argued. Way more? Really? “I’m going to check the internet,” she said.

Now, most people fall victim to taking as truth too much of what exists on the internet, but not our Jenny! She looked up Wikipedia which confirmed our 8 and 6 statement, but she was having none of that. “I’m going to text my friend who’s a huge Steelers fan. She’ll totally know.” She fired off a text while we waited for her to pour another wine in our “quick tasting”, and then when on to explain how you’d never guess her friend was a big football fan. “She’s hot and blond and has some…fake parts, but she’s always the one that is screaming loudest at the bar during Steelers games. No offense.” Well, that sounds to me like a source I’d trust over Wikipedia. And while we’re on the topic, who was she offending with that comment? All of the plastic surgery in the room? Unfortunately her friend never texted her back (or did and she never mentioned it since we were right), but we did have enough time left to discuss Jenny's dislike for people who leave negative restaurant reviews and one group that Jenny despises even more.

We were talking about restaurants (since our Jenny used to wait tables at one in Napa), and discussing the one star reviews people post on Yelp about a restaurant based on a single isolated event. Then she went on a rant that made yours truly almost choke on his tasty wine: “You know what’s even worse? Wine bloggers. And these people have like 70,000 followers. No offense, but those people are idiots.” Oh boy. Little did she know there was an idiot in the room! She’d already firmly established that filtering wasn’t her strong suit, so I shouldn’t have been surprised. And there’s that “no offense” comment again! Jenny loved to say that…I guess if you go through life constantly making offensive comments, it just becomes second nature to throw a “no offense” in after most things you say. No offense.

Did they pour wine at this place or just talk about Steelers football and idiot wine bloggers? Yes, they poured wines, and good ones at that! For the tasting, we tried five wines: the CADE Sauvignon Blanc (good, not amazing), the 2008 CADE Cuvée, the 2007 CADE Howell Mountain Cabernet, the 2009 Plumpjack Cabernet…wait a second…Plumpjack? I thought we were at CADE? CADE is a sister winery to Plumpjack, much like Freestone is to Joseph Phelps earlier on our trip. But where Freestone paled in comparison to its big sister, CADE wines stood up to the well-regarded Plumpjack. That being said, the 2009 Plumpjack was a delicious wine and the star of the tasting, even at this young age. With 5-7 years of cellaring, I think it will be amazing. We finished with CADE’s flagship wine, the 2008 CADE Estate Howell Mountain Cabernet. At $270/2-pack, this was pricey, but not the wine that the 2009 Plumpjack was for me, and certainly not $50+ better.

I’d love to return to CADE when we have more time to enjoy the tasting and the scenery. It’s a beautiful spot with solid wines and I would recommend a visit. I had scheduled the tasting for outside on their patio, but with our late arrival and the 100 degree temps that day, we stayed inside. But the view from outside is even more amazing than the view from inside, and so I'd like to return to taste there. Despite Jenny’s hatred of wine bloggers, I still enjoyed my visit and I’m mature enough not to take her comments out on CADE. Like hell I am! Minus a half point for atmosphere for offending the secret wine blogger in the room! Brewhahahahaha!


Recommended wine:The 2009 Plumpjack Cabernet was one the best wines we had over the course of our week-long trip. The CADE Cabernets were quite good as well.

Ratings (out of 5):


WINE
4.75
TASTING ROOM
5.00

ATMOSPHERE
4.25
VALUE
3.75

OVERALL
4.44

Quintessa (NR)



Open: 10:00am-4:00pm

Appt required? Yes

Last barlinwine.com visit: Never

Directions:


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Del Dotto Estate (4.88)




Open By Appointment

Appt required? Yes

Last barlinwine.com visit: 2013

Directions:


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Tasting:
It feels a bit bizarre to be writing a second, separate review for the same winery, but after attending Del Dotto's New Estate Winery off of Hwy 29, the experience was unique enough that I think it warrants its own review. Having been through the great Cave Tour experience at the original Del Dotto, I wasn't as eager to shell out an extra $10 for what I assumed would be the same experience at the new location, plus some extra commercialism and more tourists. But after Za Nakhooda insisted this was the greatest tour and tasting experience in Napa Valley (and I ran out of Del Dotto wine at home), it was time to make my first visit to the new estate winery and caves.

For the uninitiated, Del Dotto is affectionately referred to as "Del Blotto" by Napa locals, a name attributable to the massive quantities of wine they pour during one of their tastings. On some level, I'm surprised more wineries don't do this. Las Vegas recognized decades ago that inebriated people make poor decisions with their money and Del Dotto has worked this theory to perfection. Not that I regret any of my purchases, but I bet there are people out there who end up buying a lot more than they planned (see: Barlin, Meredith and chocolate-covered port!).

The new Del Dotto Estate caves opened in 2007 and is the beneficiary of more than a decade of premium wine sales through their original location. The easiest way to describe the new facility is that it's over-the-top in every way. Frescoes on the walls and ceilings, marble columns and flooring -- Del Dotto built the facility to match the class of the cave tour they designed at their original location. We started our Del Dotto tasting with a quick check-in at the bar and a taste of their Sauvignon Blanc. We were greeted by our host Branden Miguelgorry and the two other people we would be tasting with: a dot-com exec from the South Bay and his significantly younger girlfriend. To our benefit, he was a VIP, so we got to tag along as he got the VIP treatment!

Branden gave us a quick overview of where Del Dotto while illustrating the vineyards locations on a valley map, and then he escorted us behind a curtained off area into the "Sacred Caves". That's right, the new Del Dotto is obnoxious enough to post a sign requesting quiet while in the "Sacred Caves". Setting the pretension aside, though, the tour was fantastic. All tastings are done from the barrel. We started with the '09 Del Dotto Sangiovese, and followed that with their '09 Cave Blend. Both were good but not amazing. We then tried an excellent Cabernet Franc, the '09 Cabernet Franc 7 Rows, and our first barrel Cab, the '09 Lot O Cabernet Sauvignon.


All of that was an appetizer, though. We moved back into the "sacred area of the sacred caves", a section cordoned off by an iron gate. Within the inner sanctum, we started with a taste of Giovanni's Tuscan Reserve, Del Dotto's take on a Super Tuscan that was quite good. We then sampled two versions of Del Dotto's "The David" Bordeaux blend: one from Rutherford grapes, and one from Howell Mountain. The Howell Mountain David was pretty amazing, but also pretty shockingly priced at $175/bottle. We then hit what was the signature moment of the tour the first time: the side-by-side taste of the same grapes, one from Sylvain French oak barrels and one from Missouri oak. When I first did the barrel tour, I preferred the American oak. But as Branden put it, this barrel gave the wine a Sweet Baby Ray's barbeque sauce nose, and I preferred the better balance of the French oak.

Oh, but there was more. I think for many, this would have marked the end of the tour. But with our VIPs along, we tried 2 additional reserve wines. The first was the '09 Block 3 Cabernet -- this came from the same harvest as our side-by-side oak comparison (which was Block 2), but came from Block 3 which was higher on St. Helena Mountain. We followed that with a taste of a featured VIP Catalog wine, the 2009 Vineyard 887 9 Oaks French Barrel Blend. This was 100% Cabernet -- the blend refers to a proprietary blend of French oak that Dave Del Dotto created. Sourcing from 9 different spots in France, Del Dotto hired an American cooper to build custom barrels using all 9 woods. The wine was aged for 24 months in these barrels and was delicious.

We exited the Sacred Caves and headed out to the atrium for the conclusion of our tour. Waiting for us was a plate of prosciutto and Italian meats and cheese to pair with yet more tastes. We had mentioned we enjoyed the Cingale Pinot Noir, and so Branden got us ataste of that. He also arranged for us to try a sample of their Syrah, a wine they typically only sell to VIPs. We finished with their port paired with dark chocolate.






Does the Del Blotto name make sense now? The tasting was the most expensive of our trip (at $60), but considering we tried 15 wines, most of which retailed for $85-$125, enjoyed a plate of fine meats and cheeses, and had a personal tour guide for 2 hours, I think the cost is justified. One other question you probably have: after trying 15 wines, how the heck did I remember everything we tasted? Del Dotto has moved to a barcode system. As we tried each wine in the caves, Branden scanned the barcode on the barrel with a handheld device. At the end of the tour, we got a print out of everything Branden had scanned within the caves.

In short, I think Del Dotto has perfected the art of the tasting experience. The only thing prohibitive is the price, but as I previously mentioned I think the tasting cost is actually fairly justified, and while the wines are expensive by typical Napa standards, they are also among some of the better wines I tasted on my most recent trip. I'll be back.

Who's the kid with the ridiculous purple teeth?

Recommended wine: The Vineyard 887 9 Oaks Cab and The David were the standouts for me, but I legitimately enjoyed every wine we tried.

Ratings (out of 5):


WINE
5.00
TASTING ROOM
5.00

ATMOSPHERE
5.00
VALUE
4.50

OVERALL
4.88