It had been more than a decade since I’d spent any time with former Silver Oak head winemaker Daniel Baron, with whom I’d felt an easy rapport and a deep appreciation of the man’s impressive intellect. So I immediately accepted an invite to catch up with him and taste samples of his new project, Complant,…
Tag: Napa Valley
Wine In the Time of Coronavirus, Part 44: Feedin’ Time (Dining In with Napa Valley’s Black Stallion)
One thing that the Covid pandemic has done to us wine media types is essentially shut down the whole “visit a producer in person and break bread over wine and dinner” thing that the wine business loves to do. That’s especially true of the Napa Valley wine business. And they must be jonesin’ for media…
Working At Too Perfect? (Michael Mondavi Recent – And Not So Recent – Releases)
“See, this pisses me off…” Rob Mondavi, Jr. is upset. Moderately. It’s almost difficult to imagine why, given the sunny day, and the subsequently stunning Napa Valley view from his family’s Animo vineyard on Atlas Peak. But moderately upset he is. The trigger for Mondavi’s small bit of angst? The spacing of the pruning cuts…
Yesterday’s Wines, Tomorrow (Stony Hill Recent Releases)
Peabody’s Wayback Machine has got nothing on the steep, two mile drive from Napa Valley’s Bale Grist Mill State Park up to Stony Hill Vineyard. Brave that vertical, moss-covered tree-lined climb between St. Helena and Calistoga, and in many ways you’re transported at least forty years back in Napa time, and to what seems an…