Lilly and I made our normal Christmas trip to Napa. For the past two winters, it seems that the Bay area and Napa have been recieiving substantial rain fall. Given that the vines are dormant, this rain is welcomed by growers and wine makers. The rain was so heavy while we were there, that some of the roads out to the Silverado trail were closed (fairly typical during a heavy Napa This summer, Napa has experienced a longer than normal period of severe heat reaching well into the 100s during June and July. In addition, the valley floor has not had the typical morning fog. Wine makers expressed concern that if this trend continues, the excessive heat will have a very detrimental effect on the harvest. However, veraison had not yet occurred in most vineyards so we will keep our fingers crossed that the August through October period is warm and rain free.

    Our first stop was at Lewelling. Unlike previous visits, Dave Wight (co-owner and wine maker) met us at their barrel facility in Napa. As you can see from the photos below, this is a huge facility (80,000 square feet). Dave was kind enough to allow us to barrel sample the '02 and try the bottled '01 and '00. He feels that the '02 vintage will be at the same level if not a bit better than '01 (and that is saying something!). He arranged barrels by type, toast and date of filling to give us a chance to truly appreciate the impact that barrel techniques can have on the wine. In general, the wines exhibited great color, good silky tannins and wonderful black fruit. He indicated that there will be a '02 Wight bottling  that has yet to be determined (there was no Wight in '99 or '00). The fruit for the Wight and the Estate is from the same lot. The difference is that the Wight represents the best 8 or so barrels. Out of the bottle, the '01 Estate and Wight look to be on par with the '97. They still need time to come together but they have great forward fruit and good, moderate tannins. The Wight seems at this stage a bit more structured and more ready to drink with layer upon layer of flavors. The '00 to my taste was a bit different than the other estate bottlings. The nose reminded me of a right bank Bordeaux (although no Merlot is included). It had a touch of earthiness but not green or vegetal. The finish possessed the great fruit that comes from the Lewelling vineyard. It is ready for short-term consumption. Click on the photos below to enlarge.

Our next stop was at Kathryn Hall. In 1995, the Halls purchased a portion of the famed Sacrashe Vineyard in Rutherford. Lil and I have had Sacrashe grapes in other bottlings and have always been impressed. The '96 and '97 Hall vintages were destroyed at the Rombauer fire so the '98 was the first release. We tried this about 8 months ago and for a '98 it had good fruit and structure. Diane Cline met Lil and I and showed us around the Hall's home and the soon to be completed cave. Mrs. Hall is the former US Ambassador to Austria and Craig Hall has made a ton of money in real estate so their home was spectacular. We tried the '99 and the '00. Although many in the press have praised the '99 vintage (except for Robert Parker) and severely criticized '00, we found the '00 to be in much better form. The '99 is still very tight and has a lot of earthiness as well as tannin. In needs years in the bottle. Like with Lewelling's '00, the Hall '00 is ready to drink. The fruit is very developed and more in the red spectrum. To give you an idea of the fruit, Diane was kind enough to allow us to take the bottle with us. After two days opened and traveling around, we had it with dinner and found no degradation of the fruit.
 

The next day we made our normal journey to David Arthur. If you have never done a "tasting" at David's, then you just have not lived life! He is a remarkable owner, very generous with his time, his wine and his stories. We spent a nice relaxing afternoon with David and a small group of individuals (all of whom were physicians which at David Arthur is a big plus!). David is known best for Elevation 1147, but all of his wines are consistently great. We started off with a barrel tasting of the '02 Sangiovese, '02 Cab, '02 Cab Franc and '02 Merlot. Then we moved on to barrel taste the '01 Elevation which was scheduled to be bottled about two weeks after our visit. This year, David and his wine maker, Bob Egelhoff, decided to barrel portions of the Elevation bloc that are East and West facing separately. It was amazing to taste the difference. The East facing had much more structure and tannin. David indicated that it will all be blended into the '01 Elevation which looks to be his best yet.

The next day we were off to a new place for us Neal Family Vineyards located on Howell Mountain. The owner, Mark Neal, is the owner of a vineyard management company that has over 20 clients and 1,800 acres under supervision. So, Mark brings a wealth of experience and grape contacts to Neal Family. As Mark explained it, having a winery for him and the family completes a circle. He is not in this for money or ego but to fulfill his late father's dream to make wine. And what wine they make!!! Mark and his wine maker Gove Celio tasted us on various barrels of the '02. Basically, the first Neal family was the '97. For '00, Mark declassified all the juice that normally would go into his Napa bottling (did not meet his high standards) and is only releasing a tiny production of '00 from his estate vineyard. For '01, Neal Family will release the Napa as well as 3 vineyards designates. We did not try any of the '00 or '01, but the '02 was simply fantastic! We tasted through five barrels of 100% Cabernet (the Estate, another Howell Mountain, Rutherford, St. Helena and Atlas Peak). What was so impressive was that while these areas are so different, all the wines possessed great fruit, color and tannin structure. Mark and Gove achieve incredible color and uniformly ripe, black fruit. The tannins were well checked given that much of this was mountain fruit (oddly enough the St. Helena on the valley floor was the largest wine). Although barrel tasting and bottle tasting can vary, there is no doubt to the commitment to excellent wine. This is a winery to get very excited about!