Miner (4.13)



Open: 11:00am-5:00pm

Appt required? No, although some private tasting options available by appointment

Last barlinwine.com visit: 2012

Directions:

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Tasting:
Where's Waldo?
Back in the day, Miner was one of my favorite places to taste. The wines were excellent, tastings were free (or at least I was never charged), and it was rarely crowded. These days, the small tasting bar is normally stacked 3 people deep while others wait outside on the patio for associates to bring them wine and much like another old favorite Frank Family, the days of free tastings are long gone.

While it used to be a regular stop, I had not revisited since it became so popular. I decided a slow Monday afternoon in May as good a time as ever to try it again. We walked in to a mostly empty tasting room, a good first step. I was presented with a tasting sheet announcing that tastings are now a whopping $25 for 5 pours, but there were several good wines on a list of around a dozen to choose from.

I elected to start with the 2008 Wild Yeast Chardonnay. For much of my early years in Napa, this wine and the Frank Family Chardonnay were my two favorite whites. Frank always won given it’s about half the price of the $50 Miner wine, but that doesn’t change my appreciation for it. It’s a big buttery Chardonnay, but well-crafted and it was still as good as I remembered it.

One white was one more than I would usually have, but I made a worthwhile special exception. Now it was time for reds. To get things started with reds, I selected the 2009 Odyssey blend. This mix of Grenache and Syrah was good and a solid value at $40 for the quality of the wine. I chose the 2008 Cabernet Franc next, having never had Miner’s Cab Franc before. It was decent, but not something I would be purchasing. For my last two selections I chose the 2006 and 2008 Oracle red blend, side-by-side of course. The 2006 was my favorite of the two and also my favorite red of the visit.

Whether it was because it was slow, late in the day, or because Meredith was chatting up the guys pouring, they gave us a couple of bonus pours to our list of 5. Wine #6 was the 2009 Malbec, a wine club-only wine that they happened to have open. It was good, good enough for a bottle to come home with me. In our other glass from the side-by-side Oracle tasting, they poured a taste of the 2009 Gibson Ranch Sangiovese, a so-so wine.

The $25 tasting fee was refundable with an $80 purchase, and so a couple of bottles of Malbec (one for dinner that night at Mustard’s and one for the cellar) left with me. Overall, the guys pouring were friendly, the bonus pours were consistent with how Miner used to run, and the timing on a Monday afternoon let us avoid the crowds. The overall experience was good, not great, but I think it was as good as Miner would get. Avoid this place Thursday-Sunday, but give it a try if you find yourself with a free 30 minutes mid-week.

Recommended wine: The Wild Yeast Chardonnay is always great.

Ratings (out of 5):


WINE
4.25
TASTING ROOM
4.25

ATMOSPHERE
4.00
VALUE
4.00

OVERALL
4.13

Robert Keenan (4.00)



Open: 10:00am-5:00pm

Appt required? Yes

Last barlinwine.com visit: 2012

Directions:

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Tasting:
After a stellar tasting at Fisher, I made my way over Spring Mountain to the Napa side of things and a scheduled tasting at Robert Keenan Winery. They had a tough act to follow, but things started off well. A friendly black lab, tail wagging, escorted me into the tasting room from the moment I stepped out of my car.

Unfortunately, that was the highlight of the visit. I was the only person tasting, but the woman I tasted with was distracted and just not very friendly at all. This surprised Annette at Relic (my next stop), and so I assume she was just having a bad day, but she seemed anxious to get me in and out even though it was midday on a Tuesday in May. We started the tasting with the 2010 Spring Mountain Chardonnay, a decent wine but nothing special. We quickly moved on to the 2008 Napa Valley Zinfandel, a varietal you don’t see produced much on Spring Mountain. It was just okay.

Next I tried the 2008 Merlot, a wine I thought was pretty good and very fairly priced at $36/bottle. The 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon came next, and my “friendly” hostess took a step in the right direction by offering to pour me a taste of the 2008 Cabernet side-by-side with the 2007. Well, I’d like that very much! I slightly preferred the 2008, and while neither wine knocked my socks off, both were pretty good offerings for $47/bottle.

There was one wine on the tasting sheet left, but now came the strangest part of the visit. The woman offered to pour me the 2008 Mernet Reserve, their Merlot-Cab blend. Great! She made a huge deal about how they never pour this wine in the tasting room, and I thanked her. Then she poured it and went on again about how they never pour it. And then harped on it again. Look, I get it – you don’t typically pour the wine, and at $96/bottle it’s costly to pour it. But she went so far past making her point that it just made me uncomfortable. On top of it, the wine wasn’t that amazing. It was good, and probably the best wine that I tried at Keenan, but it didn’t stand up to any of the wines I had just had at Fisher and certainly wasn’t worth $96 to me.

We finished the tasting with the 2008 Syrah, a fruit-forward wine that was decent but also a bit strange to have at the end after the big Cabs. I thought about possibly carrying something, but I didn’t love the experience or the wine and decided to pass. I’m sure the woman was annoyed she poured me the Mernet (or that I even stopped in), but frankly, I was a bit as well. With all of the good options on Spring Mountain, Robert Keenan is a notch below the rest for me.


Recommended wine: None.

Ratings (out of 5):


WINE
4.00
TASTING ROOM
4.00

ATMOSPHERE
3.75
VALUE
4.25

OVERALL
4.00

VML Winery (4.50)




Open: 11am-5pm

Appt required? No

Last barlinwine.com visit: 2012

Directions:

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Tasting:
After the hospitality fail at Arista, we wrapped up our tasting quickly and decided we didn’t want to end the day on such a down note. With downtown Healdsburg targeted eventually, the crew made one more stop on the way at VML.

On the surface, the VML winery property seemed like that spot in your town that’s a revolving door for businesses that just can’t seem to make it. Just in the last five years, VML was previously C. Donatiello, and prior to that it was Belvedere, a winery I liked quite a bit. The property is beautiful, it’s in a good spot, but for some reason it hasn’t worked out. It seemed strange to have 3 wineries move through the same location within five years, so I did a little research. What I found is pretty interesting.

Everything originates with Bill Hambrecht. Hambrecht is a California financier and a made his name (and money) as an investment banker helping companies such as Apple, Adobe, and Amazon go public. He was also a major influencing voice in Google’s decision to use an internet-based auction for their IPO. Hambrecht was the original owner of Belvedere Winery. It turns out that the winery didn’t really change hands; it just rebranded. Why rebrand a winery that had been open since 1979? Belvedere Vodka came calling. I don’t know if it was simply for marketing reasons or if there was a legal distribution conflict for the vodka company, but Hambrecht had the upper hand and the vodka conglomerate came with an open checkbook. Hambrecht sold the naming rights for an undisclosed sum, but one article suggested it was an 8-figure deal.

I’d happily change my name for $10M+, and that’s what Hambrecht did. He brought in Chris Donatiello to redefine the winery and create wines under the “C. Donatiello” label. They invested $4.5M in remodeling the tasting room and property, and the winery reopened in the Spring of 2008. That lasted until January of 2011, when Hambrecht and Donatiello had a falling out. Donatiello left Hambrecht Wine Group, stating ““directional differences. Bill [Hambrecht] wants to focus on the brands that express his vineyard holdings.”

Since Hambrecht still owned the winery property, Donatiello had to find a new home to make his wines, and the winery remained for yet another rebranding. In February of 2011, Hambrecht purchased a 25% stake in Truett Hurst Winery, which had a young winemaker and partner named Virginia Marie Lambrix. By April 2011, Virginia had her own wine label and a facility in which to produce and sell it.

But enough about history – what about the tasting experience? We walked in to the tasting room and were warmly invited to step up to the spacious 3-sided tasting bar. Our hostess handed us a tasting sheet announcing they were pouring a flight of *eight* wines for $10 (refundable with purchase). A dude with an acoustic guitar strummed away and sang unobtrusively in the corner. We were off to a good start.

The tasting started with a good, crisp 2011 Sauvignon Blanc, followed by their 2010 Russian River Chardonnay. The Chardonnay was a solid wine and one I preferred to the Sauv Blanc. We moved to pink before jumping to reds with the 2011 Rose of Pinot Noir, a decent and refreshing offering.

Like many wineries in Russian River Valley, VML focuses mostly on Pinot Noir, Zinfandel, and Syrah. We started with the 2010 Russian River Pinot Noir, a silky wine that was mild on fruit and not bad. Against that we tried a single vineyard offering, the 2010 Ivywood Vineyard Pinot Noir. This was a much fuller bodied wine. Both Pinots were good, but neither knocked my socks off.

They also had 3 wines on the menu from Bradford Mountain, a winery founded by Bill Hambrecht’s son George in the mid-90’s following George’s graduation from college (I wonder where he got the financing for that venture?). The 2007 Grist Vineyard Syrah was sold out, but we were able to try the 2010 Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel. This was my favorite wine of the stop, with a bright burst of cherries on my palate. To enhance the experience, our hostess brought us out tri-tip with a garlic lemon aioli as a food pairing. After some steak, who doesn’t want dessert? We finished the tasting with Bradford Mountain’s “El Grandote” Dessert Wine, paired with chocolate covered raisins.

Overall, I thought the wines were about average, but the experience was top-notch. I’m sure this was partially helped by the negative reception we got at Arista, but on this particular day VML was doing things absolutely the right way. Wines were very reasonably priced, with the Ivywood Vineyard Pinot ($45) the only bottle over $30. Hospitality and atmosphere was fantastic, and this is a casual, friendly stop that I would recommend.



Recommended wine: Nothing to recommend here wine-wise, but the experience was very good.

Ratings (out of 5):


WINE
3.75
TASTING ROOM
4.75

ATMOSPHERE
5.00
VALUE
4.50

OVERALL
4.50

Arista (3.88)



Open: 11:00am-5:00pm

Appt required? No

Last barlinwine.com visit: 2012

Directions:


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Tasting:
I tasted at Arista for the first time this past May with wine club member (and BarlineWIne.com guest blogger) Bob Thomas, his wife Krysten, and the infamous Meredith Barlin. We showed up after a stop at Williams Selyem, and I was still riding the high of Chelsea’s improbable equalizer and eventual victory in the Champions League finale. In short, we were in a good mood.

The mood was dampened quickly thanks to the amateurs at Arista. The tasting room was busy on a Saturday – no great surprise – but there was some room at the bar and Bob and I found space for us. The 20-something guy behind the counter gave us a once-over.

“Hey guys, there’s a tasting bar outside, and they’re pouring all the same wines…”

He trailed off, letting us take the hint that we should explore out there. No problem, it was a nice day, and the guy inside seemed douchey anyway. We got outside, and the girl at the outdoor back bar told us to head back in. “Sorry, we’re shutting down out here.” Great. This was an interesting choice, given their tasting hours are 11:00am-5:00pm, it was still busy, and it was only around 3:30. It felt like when you're waiting at the DMV behind 25 people and one of the workers closes up her station to go on a lunch break.

Back inside, we clued in the fella behind the bar that he was stuck with us and he reluctantly got us two glasses for our shared tastings. Bob let him know he was a wine club member…which got us nothing. “That guy just wants to bang bachelorettes,” said Meredith. I think she was right.

I don’t have detailed notes on the wines we tried (getting a tasting sheet was completely out of the question), but I’ll do my best to remember. Most of Arista’s wines are small production, with typically only 6 or 7 barrels produced. None of the limited release wines was available for us to taste (despite Bob’s wine club membership), but we were able to have a couple of single vineyard Pinots, and the wines we did try were actually REALLY good. We started with the 2010 Bacigalupi Vineyard Pinot Noir sourced from our friends at John Tyler, followed by the 2009 Hawks View Vineyard Pinot from, oddly, Willamette Valley, Oregon. We then had the 2010 Mendocino Ridge / Anderson Valley Pinot, which Arista acknowledges is the leftovers after they're done making their Perli Vineyard and Ferrington Vineyard Pinots, before finally closing with the 2009 Mononi Vineyard Pinot from Russian River down near Olivet Lane. All of the wines were good, with the Bacigalupi and Mononi standing out for me.

Given the quality of the wine, I’d be willing to give Arista one more chance, preferably on a slow mid-week day as opposed to the Saturday we were there. With as good as the larger production Pinots were that we tried, I can only imagine that some of the more limited production single vineyards are outstanding (Bob assures me they are), and I think given the right tasting environment this could be a great stop. We definitely struck out on atmosphere and customer service, but the wines and nice property make me willing to give it another shot.



Recommended wine: All of the appellation Pinots we tried here were actually quite good. I suspect the single vineyard Pinots are excellent.

Ratings (out of 5):


WINE
4.50
TASTING ROOM
4.50

ATMOSPHERE
2.50
VALUE
4.00

OVERALL
3.88