{"id":580,"date":"2013-01-14T22:50:24","date_gmt":"2013-01-15T02:50:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fantastetic4.com\/Wordpress\/?p=580"},"modified":"2013-01-22T07:00:42","modified_gmt":"2013-01-22T11:00:42","slug":"napa-valley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/fantastetic4.com\/Wordpress\/2013\/01\/napa-valley\/","title":{"rendered":"Napa Valley"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Fantastic 4 embarked on our first tour of the New Year. For this tour we brought along two good friends, who are also wine enthusiast. Our first stop was Patz\u00a0and Hall where\u00a0Tony and Al are members. \u00a0Amanda, at Patz\u00a0and Hall, had set up a wine and cheese pairing for us. She poured their 2010 Hyde Vineyard-\u00a0Carneros\u00a0Chardonnay, 2010 Zio\u00a0Tony Ranch-\u00a0Russian River Valley Chardonnay, 2010 Hyde Vineyard-Carneros\u00a0Pinot Noir, 2010 Chenoweth Ranch-\u00a0Russian River Valley Pinot Noir, 2010 Burnside Vineyard- Russian River Valley Pinot Noir.<\/p>\n

The wines were paired with cheeses from Oxbow Cheese and Wine Merchants. Miller Farms provided Truffle Salt Nut (insane), and Napa Cookie Company made the White Wine Snaps.<\/p>\n

My favorite Chardonnay was the 2010 Hyde Vineyard. I thought it was well balanced, floral, a little buttery, a little oaky. My over all favorite was the 2010 Chenoweth Ranch. That seemed to be the consensus. When you put your nose in that glass, your mouth starts to water. That was just a glimpse of what was to come. It was a mouth full of Pinot goodness. Once we paired it with cheese, a whole new level of flavors and complexity was revealed. The Chenoweth\u00a0retails for $58, $46 for club members. Same as the Hyde Chardonnay. If you see any Patz\u00a0and Hall Pinots\u00a0on a wine list, you can’t go wrong selecting one. We said good-bye\u00a0to our host and headed to our next tasting. Artesa.<\/p>\n

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The wines we tasted were the\u00a02011 Sauvignon Blanc, Napa Valley, 2010 Estate Reserve Chardonnnay, Carneros, 2009 Estate Reserve Pinot Noir, Carneros, 2010 Artisan Series Tempranillo, Alexander Valley and the Rive\u00a0Gauch. All the wines were as<\/p>\n

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Fountain at Artesa<\/p><\/div>\n

advertised by the tasting notes. I thought the 2010 Tempranillo\u00a0was the most interesting\u00a0of the tasting. It is a complicated wine that you can spend hours talking about the different notes that cross at different points on the palate. Most of Artesa’s\u00a0wines are reasonablely\u00a0priced but, I thought the Tempranillo\u00a0priced at $40 was a little expensive. Next stop Caymus.<\/p>\n

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Tasting at Caymus<\/p><\/div>\n

We were treated to another wine and cheese pairing. Jim, our host, was knowledgeable and engaging. This was my first visit to Caymus\u00a0but it won’t be my last. Caymus\u00a0had the best value wine of our trip. Their 2009 Napa Valley Zinfandel\u00a0is priced at $32. This was one of the best Zins\u00a0that I have ever tasted and I would have easily spent twice that much for a bottle. Their 2010 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon is great out of the bottle on its own. The best deal of the trip was also a Caymus\u00a0wine. Their 2011 Meiomi Pinot Noir sells for $22.00. Buy a case and thank me later. Next Stop, Turnbull.<\/p>\n

Turnbull was fun. Samantha, Abby and Monica were great. They were friendly and knowledgeable and they poured some nice wines. My favorite was the viognier. Final stop. Opus One.<\/p>\n

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Opus One<\/p><\/div>\n

Opus One produces one vintage per year. They sell for $225 a bottle. Opus One offers a tasting of that vintage at $40 per glass. Tastings are done by appointments. Hey, I’m just a simple country boy. I don’t want to spend $40 on a bottle let alone just for one glass. The wine was good but I wasn’t motivated to drop 225 bucks. It was a Napa Valley experience that I got to share with good friends.<\/p>\n

Let us know what your favorite wineries are and tell us what you think of the wineries we have visited.\u00a0Until next time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Fantastic 4 embarked on our first tour of the New Year. For this tour we brought along two good friends, who are also wine enthusiast. Our first stop was Patz\u00a0and Hall where\u00a0Tony and Al are members. \u00a0Amanda, at Patz\u00a0and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,13,21],"tags":[52,46,51,53,47,48],"class_list":["post-580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogs","category-braxs-blogs","category-napa-valley","tag-artesa","tag-caymus","tag-napa-valley-wineries","tag-opus-one","tag-patz-and-hall","tag-turnbull"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/fantastetic4.com\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/fantastetic4.com\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/fantastetic4.com\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fantastetic4.com\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fantastetic4.com\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=580"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/fantastetic4.com\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":612,"href":"http:\/\/fantastetic4.com\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580\/revisions\/612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/fantastetic4.com\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fantastetic4.com\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fantastetic4.com\/Wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}