A Few Photos From California

Posted on April 3, 2023 by the drunken cyclist

This week, I have been out in Napa and Sonoma catching up with some old friends and tasting some fabulous (and a few less than fabulous) wines. I am about to head back down to San Francisco and Berkeley for the day, but here are a few photos from the trip thus far.

The trip started by picking up my buddy Christophe Bristiel of Château la Nerthe in Sausalito. We then headed straight to Domaine Carneros where we met up with CEO Remi Cohen…
…and Kimberly Charles for some pre-lunch bubbles.
After a quick lunch, we then headed north, to Napa’s Spring Mountain District…
…for a wonderful visit with the legendary Charlie Smith of Smith-Madrone.
The first day ended with another epic dinner party at the home of Chris and Alexandra O’Gorman of Rodney Strong and the Foley Wine Group, respectively.
Day Two started with a lengthy drive back to Napa and an exquisite tasting at Kenzo.
We stopped for an epic lunch at Thomas Keller’s Bouchon…
…where Christophe introduced me to the wonders of Chartreuse. Then it was back to the Dry Creek Valley and we popped in at Kokomo and Unti.
The day ended with a fabulous dinner and conversation at the home of James and Kerry MacPhail, the dynamic duo behind Tongue Dancer wines.

Day Three started with a short drive to look at some of Dry Creek’s incredible old Zinfandel vines.

Which resulted in a fantastic tasting at Comstock.
We had a quick sandwich in Healdsburg paired with a “decent“ bottle of bubbles.
We then popped into ACORN…
…to say hello to Bill and Betsy Nachbaur and have Bill explain to Christophe that the 13 varieties found at La Nerthe is a nice starting point (ACORN has at least 111 varieties!).
Then a quick (and I do mean quick) stop at Jordan…
…a few more old vines…
…a lovely dinner at the Matheson rooftop…

…and a late stop at Willi’s for some Pedroncelli rosé.

More to come from my trip soon!

Posted in Wine | 3 Comments