Chateau Montelena

Thanks to a meeting at work my schedule was moved around and I magically got the weekend off. Not wanting to waste it plans were made to go out of town.  But when you live in Northern California the options are limitless, so we made a few requirements for the trip; short drive (less then 2 hours), cheap hotel (Priceline + Hyatt) and some fun actives.  The winner was Calistoga, CA and Santa Rosa, CA.  Now we have traveled to both these places but only on day trips and we planed on stopping at new places we had not been to on previous trips.  In fact soon to find out this would be a trip of getting outside our comfort zone.  The only plans we made were a prepaid hotel room and a stop at Chateau Montelena.  The only prep we did for the trip was a quick look and the map and watched Bottle Shock for fifth time.  

Bright and early Saturday morning after dropping off the dogs at Puppy Love Dogs we headed to Napa Valley.  With no real plans we arrived in Napa before most wineries were even open for tastings.  We drove by a few and no luck, we even made the mistake of driving by Silver Oak and it was the release day and a total madhouse so we turned the car around and kept driving.  It was just a short drive from there to Chateau Montelena and were greeted by a Japanese garden, a swan and some ducks.  It was a beautiful view with just a short walk up the step and there was the chateau.  Noah took out the camera and got some great shots.  

Just around the corner is the tasting room which is a little deceiving, already full at the bar we stood back for a moment and looked at the merchandise when some one pointed us towards the back and where there was a second tasting room.  The walk down the hall was filled with old photos of the winery and cased in glass the bottle representing the famous blind paris tasting of 1976.  The second room was not only bigger, it was just us and one other couple tasting.  The tasting fee is a bit high but thanks to social networking we were able to get that cut in half.  The tasting included the Montelena Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley Chardonnay, Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon and Montelena Estate Zinfandel.  Each wine was enjoyable and we even liked the Chardonnay as non-white wine drinkers, but hey it is what put it on the map.  The shocker of the day is I left with a bottle of the 2007 Zinfandel.  Anyone who knows me can tell you I stay away from the Zins, too peppery for me, this one was smooth and jammy, just perfect.

During the tasting we talked with sommelier who gave information about the soil types and the map of the ground, which hall a bee hill with no bees.  When they saw the Nikon they told us about the Mustard Seed photo contest (later to find out it had been canceled) and suggested we take some photos around the grounds.  As we left we were thankful for how early we had arrived.  The limos started to pull up and the groups of people headed towards the winery as we walked out.  Before we left we did ask from some suggestions on where else to go and they supplied us with a map but said their favorite was August Briggs, which was located just a few minutes down the road and would be our next stop.