The Cork Board

It’s no secret the Napa Valley is seen as a desirable vacation spot for many, including high-profile business people and major celebrities. Between the wine, plethora of fine dining options, luxury resorts and top-notch spas, there’s apparently a lot to be desired in our little valley.

By reading the press today related to the Napa Valley, you’d think it had become Hollywood North.

A story published by Bloomberg opens with this:

The blue-collar workers in Napa Valley’s Yountville have been knocked off their bar stools, replaced by the likes of Super Bowl quarterbacks Tom Brady and Eli Manning, Oracle Corp. founder Larry Ellison and actress Reese Witherspoon sitting in fine restaurants.

The article goes on to talk about the top-rated restaurants and outline the many celeb sightings in the town of Yountville in recent months, a list that also includes Tyra Banks and Robin Quivers from The Howard Stern Show. The story also includes the typical quotes from long-time Yountville residents who lament the changes and the seemingly sudden discovery of their little town.

A separate article published in The Mirror has details on a “multi-million-pound wedding” that will reportedly be a three-day ceremony in the Napa Valley sometime near the end of May. Apparently Simon Fuller, who is credited with creating the Spice Girls, will wed his long-term girlfriend Natalie Swanston. Here’s an excerpt:

A source said: “Simon is a very private man, but after dating Natalie for a few years he has finally popped the question. Money is no object so it’s going to be one hell of a party.”

TechTags Plugin [ Napa | Napa Valley | wine | winery | winecountry | Yountville | Tom Brady | Reese Witherspoon | Spice Girls ]

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A recent comment gave us the final kick in the pants to actually put an idea we’ve been knocking around for a while into action.

As many of you know, we’ve ‘widgetized’ The Cork Board, meaning we’ve turned this blog into a bit of code that can easily be embedded on any website or blog on the web. We even took things a couple steps further by turning The Cork Board into applications for social networks Facebook and Bebo. To our surprise (and delight), there are now some 160+ people using the widget/applications in one form or another. Pretty sweet! To us, the widget and social networking applications are just another “subscription” option for people interested in our content–just like the email subscription or RSS feed over to your right. In our mind, the more ways we can make our content available to people, the better off we’ll be.

So, in that same vein, we’ve taken the liberty to do something that some might not be OK with…we’ll see. What have we done?

Well, we’ve gone ahead and widgetized a few Napa Valley winery blogs (and one in Sonoma). We’ll see what the reaction, if any, is from the owners of these blogs, and heck, if they’re interested, we may even be willing to help them turn their blogs into Facebook/Bebo apps to further encourage the spreading of their content. Without further ado, here are links to the local blogs we’ve made into widgets, check them out and grab the widget!

Anomaly Vineyards Blog (Anomaly Vineyards)

Miner Family Vineyards Blog (Miner Family Vineyards)

Napa Valley Wine Radio (Goosecross Cellars)

Rocks, Roots and Reds (The Hess Collection)

Roshambo Winery Blog (Roshambo Winery)

Terrior…Dirty Talk on Wine With Dirk Hampson (Far Niente)

Whitehall Lane Winery Weblog (Whitehall Lane Winery)

Obviously, these widgets are totally customizable, so if we didn’t get the proper branding, colors, etc., we should be able to modify them. Enjoy!

TechTags Plugin [ Napa | Napa Valley | wine | winery | widget | wine widget | Anomaly Vineyards | Miner Family Vineyards | Goosecross Cellars | The Hess Collection | Roshambo Winery | Far Niente | Whitehall Lane Winery ]

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The team over at Palmaz Vineyards is out with it’s latest release–the 2004 Palmaz Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon.

Here’s the breakdown:

The wine is 14.4% alcohol by volume and is made up of 95% Cabernet Sauvignon and 5% Cabernet Franc. It was bottled in August 2006, following 22 months aging in 100% French Oak. Retail is $100 per 750ml bottle. In-house winemaker Tina Mitchell said of the 2004 harvest:

Despite early bud break, the vines had a long growing season with consistently warm weather, allowing the flavors and tannins to mature. The harvest was quick due to the high temperatures in the latter part of August and into September. Fruit quality was very good with the wines showing intense ripe fruit, good depth and mature tannins.

And finally, here’s what the winemakers tasting notes say:

Ripe concentrated fruit is the core of this estate grown Cabernet Sauvignon with layers of blackberry, cocoa and plum mingled with toast oak. The rich flavors are balanced with ripe supple tannins adding elegance and complexity to the persistent finish. This wine has great potential and will continue to develop thru 2014.

Read our earlier interview with Palmaz Vineyards and some of our prior coverage here.

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It was another early one for us this morning–maybe sometime in the next 12-15 years we’ll be able to sleep until AFTER the sun rises, but we’re not holding our breath.

Here’s a shot of the sunrise we watched near Galleron Road just on the outskirts of St. Helena on Saturday. It’s hard to make out, but in the foreground are the growing grapevines–you can see a few of the buds poking up toward the top of the picture where the sun is just beginning to light things up.

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It’s Friday in wine country and there’s no shortage of Napa Valley news items out there. Here’s a quick round-up.

Chronicle rates Folio Winemakers’ Studio ‘Excellent’
The SF Chronicle has another winetasting review up and this time it’s Folio Winemakers’ Studio out in the Carneros AVA that got the attention. As you’ll recall, Folio is a venture of the Michael Mondavi family. Here’s a short excerpt:

The scope of the operation might be a bit confusing to anybody who is not a wine industry professional, but it need not concern the ordinary wine lover. For such a wine enthusiast, the Folio Winemakers’ Studio tasting and sales facility in Napa’s Carneros district is a delightful destination.

Full review here.

Another Solage Calistoga review
Late last year we pointed you to a couple reviews of the up-scale Solage Calistoga resort. Well, we’re gonna point you to another review now. This one, published on TheStreet.com, is actually written by a fellow named Michael Martin, who is the managing editor of JetSetReport.com. It’s a pretty comprehensive review and includes some nice photos.

Check it out here.

Flora Springs Winery goes solar
St. Helena’s Flora Springs Winery has just completed a custom-designed solar project. According to a press release issued today, the system “…provides 100,000kWh of power annually, covering all the energy needs of the winery’s red wine production…”

All told, the project encompasses some 435 solar panels, which are located on the hillside behind the stone winery. Full press release here.

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You can certainly tell the summer (and in our neck of the woods, the tourist) season is upon us. Not only is the weather beautiful these days, but the number of local events is really starting to pick up. Here are a couple options for this coming weekend.

Saturday, May 3rd

• Black Stallion Winery, which is located at 4089 Silverado Trail in Napa, will host ‘Derby Day 2008′ from 1pm - 4pm. In case you didn’t know, the 134th Kentucky Derby takes place on Saturday. $65 per person (or $50 per person for members) will get you an afternoon of food (including ribs and all the fixings from Barber’s Q Restaurant), wine and horse racing. Attendees will be able to win prizes by picking the winning horse, and ladies are encouraged to wear their best Derby Hat for a hat competition. Prior reservations are required and can be made by calling 707-253-1400 x113 or sending email to wineclub [at] blackstallionwinery.com.

• Downtown Napa’s Stave Wine Lounge, which is located at 1149 First Street, will host a double winery event featuring Grant Street Vineyards and PB Hein Vineyards from 6pm - 8pm. Both wineries will be pouring their latest releases as well as providing barrel samples. For a $10 tasting fee per person (which includes food pairings), you’ll be able to meet the owners of the wineries and try their premier releases

Sunday, May 4th

• Ceja Vineyards will host two events at its new downtown Napa wine salon, lounge and art gallery, which is located at 1248 First Street in Napa. First, from 3pm - 5pm, author Deborah Brenner will be hosted by Amelia Ceja for a book signing. Brenner’s book, Women of the Vine, is a book “about women in wine that talks about the women themselves and not merely about their wine and the wine industry. It enters into their homes and their cellars.”

• In addition, Ceja will host a world debut photography exhibition by Lianne Milton from 4pm - 7pm. This will be the second series “Aqui Somos Puro Rojo” by Milton, who is an international photojournalist that resides in Napa.

Enjoy!

TechTags Plugin [ Napa | Napa Valley | wine | winery | napa weekend | Ceja Vineyards | Stave Wine Lounge | Black Stallion Winery | Kentucky Derby | Women of the Vine | Grant Street Vineyards | PB Hein Vineyards ]

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We’ve been meaning to share a couple random updates on things we’ve seen happening with regards to the Napa Valley winetasting scene and now is as good a time as any.

Girard Winery to open Yountville tasting room
The folks at Girard Winery, which is located up on Pritchard Hill on Sage Canyon Road in St. Helena, are hard at work on a new tasting room situated at the northern end of the town of Yountville. If you’re traveling north through Yountville, you’ll pass The French Laundry on your right, Volakis Gallery (also on the right) and eventually over on the left hand side you’ll see Washington Square and a brown building, which will soon be home to Girard’s new tasting room. The winery currently does tastings at the winery (prior appointment required) and its wines are also featured at Wineries of Napa Valley in downtown Napa.

Folie a Deux and Napa Cellars offering complimentary tasting
Not too far from the new Girard tasting room, over on Highway 29, the folks at Folie a Deux/Napa Cellars have joined the long list of local wineries who are in the midst of, or nearly finished with sizable construction projects.

As we cruised past the tasting room today, we noticed a large sign noting the tasting room is open during construction and if you don’t mind parking in a gravel lot out front, the sign said the wineries were offering “complimentary tastings”.

TechTags Plugin [ Napa | Napa Valley | wine | winery | winetasting | Napa winetasting | Girard Winery | Napa Cellars | Folie a Deux | Volakis Gallery | Yountville | St. Helena ]

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Reading Tom Wark’s blog post (err, rant) today over at Fermentation about comments from author James Conaway gave us a bit of a chuckle. Tom decided to call into question several quotes from Conaway that appeared in the Napa Valley Register from a recent talk he gave at the California Preservation Foundation Conference.

So why did the post give us a little laugh?

First off, let us say we tend to agree with Tom’s assessment of the remarks–they’re totally bizarre–but we also weren’t at the conference to get the proper context (and we’re certainly not going to take it on faith that the Napa Register is providing it).

That being said, it’s always funny to us when people who have never lived in a place, or never lived there for any extended period of time, seem to be quite vocal about pointing out what’s wrong and what’s best for it.

Sure, Conaway spent some time in Napa Valley, interviewed a bunch of, to use his term, “elite” folks and wrote a couple entertaining books on its history. So, does that make him an authority on the Napa Valley? Does he know better than people who’ve lived in the valley their entire lives what makes the place tick, what the citizens think about its evolution, what the hot button issues are, etc.? Hardly.

Does Napa cater to tourists? Of course. Like it or not, the wine industry and tourism are what keeps the valley financially afloat. Finding a balance between catering to tourists and providing a good quality of life and opportunity for locals is the constant struggle. This is not a new issue. Is the valley changing as time goes on? You betcha, and please name a single place in America that is not. Do big corporations or big money own many of the local wineries? Sure, and again, name a relatively established industry where they don’t. The comments from Conaway aren’t anything new, we’ve heard it all before, over and over again. It’s getting a bit tired.

We’ll leave it at this. Is it just us, or does anyone else find it a bit ironic that Conaway is making a living writing books about the trouble with tourism in Napa Valley when the bulk of the very people who buy his books are likely themselves tourists who have–or will–visit Napa at some point?

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The past couple days have seen overnight temperatures dip dangerously low as dawn approached in the Napa Valley. We say dangerous as we look through the the eyes of the young, budding shoots in the vineyards. The frost, if it sets in, can destroy the young crop and put a winery’s annual harvest (and potential profit) in jeopardy. That’s why you see (and we constantly hear) the large vineyard fans buzzing in the early morning hours this time of year. This isn’t something that’s unique to Napa either.

Aside from the fans, we’ve noticed the overhead vineyard sprinkler systems working some major overtime in the past week or so. These systems aren’t used in the way you might think. Here’s a good explanation from the St. Supery Winery website:

When the water comes in contact with the vine, it begins to freeze, which gives off energy, known as latent heat of fusion. As ice forms around the bud, it acts as an insulator while this energy keeps the cells of the young vine tissue from freezing, slightly above 32 degrees.

The other typical method is the burning of smudge pots, which we don’t see too much of in the valley. Here’s a glimpse of what things looked like at sunrise on Sunday morning in Napa:

TechTags Plugin [ Napa | Napa Valley | wine | winery | vineyard | vineyard sprinklers | frost | 2008 vintage | St. Supery ]

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Well, well, well. Perhaps some of our local wineries ARE indeed listening.

Randomly, we happened to be on Robert Mondavi Winery’s website this afternoon and we moused over the “Winemaking” category at the top of the site. A drop down menu appeared with links for “Our Vineyards”, “Winegrowing”, “Winemakers” and….wait for it…. “Grape to Glass blog”.

Unfortunately, when clicked, the Grape to Glass blog link currently only brings up a pop-up that says “Coming Soon!” Now we could be wrong, but we sure didn’t see this menu option when we visited the site last weekend as we put together our post on the 2008 Summer Festival lineup.

Regardless, we’re watching and waiting Robert Mondavi Winery…

TechTags Plugin [ Napa | Napa Valley | wine | winery | winery blog | napa blog | Robert Mondavi | Robert Mondavi Winery | Robert Mondavi Winery blog | Grape to Glass | Grape to Glass blog | Robert Mondavi Summer Festival 2008 ]

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