An immersive trip to one of the world’s largest wine producing regions saw three members of the Tanners team cover a lot of ground, discovering the diversity, energy and scale of what could quite possibly be, The Friendliest Place on Earth.
There are plenty of clichés about California wine mainly revolving around big, full-bodied Napa Cabs and candy-floss oaked Chardonnays. But are these true? To find out James, Christina and Graham jetted 5000 miles across the Atlantic to California for a whistle-stop tour of the world’s 5th largest wine-producing region. Over the course of 10 days, we covered a lot of ground, spending time in several of the main growing regions from as far north as Sonoma County, all the way down to Santa Barbara.
Sunday 25th May
We land in San Francisco at 5pm Sunday evening, the light is bright and the energy from everyone we meet is wonderful. Taxi to our hotel, Harbour Cout, a quick shower and we hit the streets for dinner at Zuni Café. Every single person we spoke to about San Francisco said we must visit Zuni – it’s a wine trade institution. We’re too late for the roast chicken but Caesar salad, string fries and fritto misto are excellent.
Monday 26th May
It's Memorial Day, so the wineries are closed, this gives us opportunity to a sightseeing day in San Francisco. There are bicycles at the hotel and we head for an early morning cycle along Embarcadero to Pier 39, the skies are clear so we can see Alcatraz directly in front of us, strikingly close to shore. We hop on a ferry to Sausalito, not to get off and explore, but for the view of the Golden Gate bridge and a close-up of Alcatraz. Back on land, we walk through Fisherman’s Wharf and hit the long queue for the Cable Car up to China Town, finding Lombard Street (the crooked street) amidst the hordes of tourists. Cheese and wine in the Ferry building hits the spot. Another 10,000 steps up and down the streets and hills hopping on and off Street Cars and it’s time for dinner at The Progress.
Tuesday 27th May
We head back down to Fisherman’s Wharf to pick up a hire car, take the road out over Golden Gate bridge, which unfortunately, although unsurprisingly, is shrouded in a cloak of morning fog. Making good time, we arrive at Rodney Strong in Healdsburg for our first tour and tasting of the week. Rodney, a former dancer, was one of the first to plant vines and set up in Sonoma back in the early 60s, these days it is a big, well-run operation with a focus on sustainability. The next visit of the day was a complete 180-degree turn at the far more discreet, tiny, black shack on a side street in town which is home to Ceritas. With just four full time employees this is winemaking on a micro scale, but my goodness the Chardonnays are electric. Wayfarer’s new cellar door in town made it possible to visit; up until last year, we would have had to take the 50-mile back lane trip all the way out to their remote and unforgiving Fort Ross-Seaview vineyard, where the Pinot Noir is pure precision. Fred Peterson is one of the wine world’s great characters, open, engaging, full of knowledge and experience, who, amongst work at many other wineries, was a consultant vineyard manager at Ridge. Fred works with a multitude of grape varieties, but it is his generous Zinfandels from Bradford Mountain that stand out alongside, what many winemakers in California seem to think will be the next big thing, Petite Sirah.
A drive through Knights Valley takes us to the Napa River Inn. We’ve had a long day, no time for lunch, so we are ravenous. Oxbow market has already closed, so we find ZuZu Tapas, which was the perfect tonic.
Wednesday 28th May
Napa Valley, as the name suggests, sits between two mountain ranges – the sun-scorched Vaca Range to the east and the greener, lusher Mayacamas Range to the west. Cabernet Sauvignon rules this region, ably demonstrated at visits to Dominus and Shafer. Dominus lies on the lusher Mayacamas side which benefits from cooler maritime breezes, prolonging the growing season and preserving acidity, bringing some of that old-world restraint one would expect from Christian Moueix. Shafer lies in the rain shadow of the Vacas and basks in strong afternoon-sun, the elevation of their site is key to mitigating the heat, their wines are richer and more opulent in profile.
Los Carneros, straddles Napa and Sonoma counties, here Cuvaison, makes use of the cooling breezes from San Pablo Bay to focus on Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.
Supper was at Scala Osteria, which was suggested by Kassidy at Dominus, who very kindly gave a bottle of Dominus 2012 to take. The wine, food and service were excellent and so convivial. We sat at the bar and chatted to other customers all night.
Thursday 29th May
We’re leaving the well-trodden path of Sonoma and Napa today, meaning less visits today and tomorrow, due to the number of miles we need to cover. We take the 680 Highway south through San Jose and Silicon Valley before taking the steep Alpine-like pass that reaches almost 1000 metres above sea level in the Santa Cruz Mountains. This altitude, coupled with Pacific Ocean breezes, creates some of the world’s most sought-after Cabernets and Zinfandels at Ridge Monte Bello. Stunning views!
Back tracking on ourselves, somewhat, due to the availability of the morning appointment, we set off in the direction of Livermore and Wente Family Vineyards. Livermore Valley lies east of San Franciso Bay and benefits from the bay’s morning fog, ideal for Chardonnay whilst Zinfandel and Cabernet Sauvignon is grown on the warmer hillsides. A tour of Wente’s historic winery is followed by a relaxed supper in the golf course brasseries and then it's time for a George Michael and Wham! tribute concert in the winery grounds. This was not in the original schedule but when Michael at Wente invited us as his guests, we couldn’t say no! Lots of dancing and joviality.
Friday 30th May
Another long day of driving, this time south to Paso Robles which took us through the Arroyo Seco and Las Salinas. The landscape is so different, vast flat valleys flanked by mountain ridges. Apparently, they grow 60% of all California’s greens here. Makes me wonder just how vast the Central Valley is; the scale of this is already huge.
After lunch of chicken and waffles at a roadside diner off the 101, we hit San Luis Obispo (SLO) County, which sits halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles, and the sub-region of Paso Robles. The landscape is so different, once again. Small pockets of vines are interspersed with olive groves all set on little hillocks. Plenty of dry farmed, bush vines and ranches. The mediterranean climate, rolling hills, oak woodlands and dry grasslands are perfectly suited to Rhône varietals pioneered by Chateau de Beaucastel’s sibling winery Tablas Creek.
We chose an unfortunate night to be in Paso Robles. There was an enormous beer Festival on at the Equestrian Centre, which meant every hotel had been booked up for the past six months, but we had managed to pre-book a motel – a first for all of us, it really did feel very American.
Dinner was at the wine trade hangout, Jeffry’s BBQ and Smokehouse in the centre of town; this was followed by a few drinks at a cowboy/western bar with a winey in the backyard. Everybody is so welcoming and friendly in California!
Dinner was at the wine trade hangout, Jeffry’s BBQ and Smokehouse in the centre of town; this was followed by a few drinks at a cowboy/western bar with a winey in the backyard. Everybody is so welcoming and friendly in California!
Saturday 31st May
Our final day of tasting and we packed the visits in, wanting to see as many producers as possible. Our first visit of the day was in Templeton a couple of miles from Paso centre. Turley specialises in saving and reinvigorating old vineyards for their many Old Vine Zinfandels. Whilst there is no legal definition of old vines in the USA, for Turley they must be a minimum of fifty years old. It is these old, deep-rooted, dry-farmed vines that give Turley wines the concentration and elegance they are so famed for.
Closer to the coast, the newly created cool climate SLO Coast AVA, is influenced by Pacific breezes perfect for planting Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, which the Talley family do ever so well. Brian Talley was a wonderful host, taking us up to Rosemary’s Vineyard, this is the one that started it all for them. Don Talley (Brian’s father) a vegetable farmer discovered his avocados had been devastated by winter frosts he knew he needed to rethink his plantings. The avocado patch now forms Rosemary’s Vineyard, named after Brian’s mother.
The final stretch of the trip was down to Santa Barbara County, where geology and geography collide to create a unique east-west valley orientation. The wind-battered, steep-slopes of the Santa Rita Hills are within touching distance of the ocean, where The Hilt are doing extraordinary things with Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. A little inland at Ballard Canyon, Jonata grows a myriad of grape varieties and makes exceptional wines. Matt Dees is the winemaker for both estates, his energy, knowledge and enthusiasm in infectious and clearly translates into the quality of wine he produces.
We were very grateful to Andrew Murray for seeing us at 6pm on a Saturday evening. After a look round the wine, we took a seat on the tasting terrace to be met with thunder and lightning. No one was more surprised by this than Andrew; it’s a very rare occurrence in the Santa Ynez Valley. Andrew’s love of wine dates back to his youth, travelling through the Rhône Valley. He now devotes himself to perfecting Rhône varieties in Santa Barbara.
As with many small towns, restaurants seem to close at 8pm, so after calling around for us, Andrew suggested we try Bar Le Cote in Los Olivos. They served us super fresh fish which is caught locally each day. A triumph.
Sunday 1st June
We took the coastal route down to Santa Barbara where we parked on the pier, wondered around town and had a spot of lunch. Then headed down to the Mecca that is Los Angeles. My goodness this place is huge. Fortunately, Graham was doing the driving and I didn’t have to content with six lane highways and endless intersections.
Staying at the Hollywood Roosevelt, thrust us into the craziness that is Hollywood. Sightings of the famous Hollywood sign, stars on Hollywood Walk of Fame, a film premier setting up at the Chinese Theatre, an excellent steak dinner at Gwen and drinks at a dive bar. Fabulous to encounter it!
Monday 2nd June
A drive through various suburbs including Beverley Hills and Sunset Strip lead us to Santa Monica Beach where we saw street dancers on the pier, the original Muscle Beach and had Mexican-style tacos. We followed this with a visit to Venice Beach to see the contrast. And my, what a contrast it is, with roller skaters, graffiti and beachside shacks. Each was fascinating in its own way, but I don’t think anywhere is as unique as Venice Beach. We even found the small namesake canals and Erewhon grocery store.
Tuesday 3rd June
The final morning and we couldn’t leave California without a visit to In-N-Out Burger. Fortunately, we’d had a chat with the hotel doorman to learn about the ‘off-menu’ items.
In summary
We covered more ground this week and more variety of styles and terroirs than we would with a whole European country. It has been wonderful to see the diversity of this place. Every day led to a new discovery – whether a new grape variety, a new region or a new landscape, and importantly the wines, at all levels, have been impressive. One of the highlights was how genuinely friendly and welcoming people are. The passion amongst everyone we met was intoxicating, be it the winemaker, the estate owner, the server in the local restaurant, the security guard on the door, the bus driver, even the passport control workers! After covering close to 700 miles, I feel we have only touched the surface of what this wonderful state has to offer. What a fabulous trip!