Day-30: Balloon Flight, Tastings & Great Dinner

Friday, October 25, 2013

Everyone was up at 5:30 this morning for our balloon flight over the Napa Valley. We departed the hotel around 6:30 and arrived at the Domain Chandon Vineyard for our flight. As we drove over, we could see that parts of the valley were clear but the low level fog could be seen in the distance.

In the vineyard lounge drinks and pastries were being served and we took the time to fill out the disclaimers and hold-harmless documents shielding the balloon company from responsibility for anything and everything other than collecting our money.

During this gathering period, Ken (clearly not of Ken & Barbie fame) made some general announcements and indicated that should fog preclude flying in the Napa Valley the alternate plan would be to fly in the adjacent “no-fog” valley somewhere to the east. Given the option of flying over cornfields and fruit trees versus vineyards and the fact that most of us had ballooned before, we opted out of the flight for the day. To some it was an unfortunate turn of events to others it was a savings of $500.

On recommendation of the balloon folks, we went to Gillwoods Cafe in St. Helena for breakfast. The food was good with big bowls of oatmeal, real maple syrup, home made corned beef hash along with a variety of omelets on the menu.

One of the vineyards that had been recommended by Steve at the 1313 Main Restaurant was the Keever Vineyard. Knowing that they had tastings by appointment only we found their location and stopped by to see if we could make such arrangements. Upon entering the gated vineyard and the tasting room we were greeted by Ashley Keever, the daughter of John & Olga Keever. They all appeared to be surprised by our entrance but were very polite and enthusiastic. Turned out that they thought we were early for a 9 AM wine tasting and as it was only 8:30 they weren’t quite ready. Unfortunately they were booked for the day and we wouldn’t be able to taste their wine. In checking the Keever web site, this is a “club” vintner with prices slightly to the high side. Now if we only knew of the quality.

En-route back to the hotel, we stopped at the local Dean & Delucca Market, the store where even the bologna costs $40/lb. I think we stopped for the coffee and ambience of the D&D store. While waiting Denny remembered that he wanted wooden wine bottle boxes for his home cellar. As we entered the store, such boxes for Opus One were stacked at the door. In discussion with the wine manager, Denny was able to acquire several of the desired boxes. Fortunately we escaped D&D with minimal out of pocket expenses.

We returned to the hotel by ten for rest and showers before getting down to some serious wine tasting.

By 11:30 we were lined up and ready for the tasting tour. To prep our palates several of us consumed another piece of Halloween candy offered by the hotel.

Our first stop for the afternoon was at the PeJu Vineyard. We wandered through the entryway and found our way to the second floor tasting room. The wine was good, not necessarily great. The most memorable part of this visit was the opportunity to experience "Vintertainment” by Alan Arnopole the “Yodelmeister” (YouTube link: “Alan PeJu”).To take an excerpt from the Peju website regarding Alan, “It's hard to say where else one can be yodeled to, rapped at, made to laugh, educated and served great wine - all at once.”

Our second stop goes down as the best atmosphere and setting for a tasting. The Alpha Omega Vineyard was just a short distance away minimizing our time on the road. At Alpha Omega we were shown to an outdoor table with couchy seats all around. Before us was a series of fountains with the vineyards spread all around. Our host at Alpha Omega was barely old enough to drink but had grown up in the Napa area and did a good job describing the various wines tasted.

Third in line was the Raymond Vineyards, a touted “green vineyard”. The winery has an interesting garden but the most interesting thing turned out to be the glitziest wine tasting room we would see bar none, decorated with gaudy mirrors and scantily attired mannequins hanging from the railings and a trapeze over the tasting tables. We didn’t actually do a tasting at Raymond as Sheila had called the Del Dotto Vineyards and was able to get us an appointment tasting; as such we were soon on our way across the street.

The Del Dotto Vineyard  markets itself at the “upper end” of the wine spectrum. The building follows an Italian Villa design scheme.  Here we tried a number of wines as the tasting selection was by choice to some degree as opposed to others where the tasting is more prescribed. In addition to the wines sampled, several of us tried a port; it was sweet as expected but when coupled with the offered chocolate, a pretty good drink. As at Trefethen yesterday, we made wine purchases at Del Dotto. 

As we were finishing our tasting at Del Dotto, Sheila advised that Opus One was available if we could arrive before 4 PM. With a 15-minute cushion, no way we wouldn’t make the Opus One opportunity.

I think it’s fair to say that none of us had ever paid for a glass of Opus One. If you need to ask why, then you don’t know your Opus. Whereas at the previous wineries the tastings usually consisted of five wines for a tasting charge of about $25/person. At Opus there were two options, the 2007 Opus One or the 2010 Opus One. We ordered up two tastings of each year, a total of four 3 oz. glasses. $180 later we had all tasted Opus One and though it was agreed it was a fine wine we doubted that it would be on our tables any time soon. Just to calibrate, for the value of the Opus tasting Greg could have bought 24 bottles of Cupcake SV or we could have bought 45 gallons of gas, or 225 gallons of bottled water, or 40 pints of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream, etc. Bottom line, we didn’t buy any bottles of wine; however, Denny was able to score a few more wood boxes.

Our MART close-out dinner had originally been planned for The French Laundry in Yountville. As it turned out we were unable to secure those reservations thus our standby became our primary site for dinner, the Auberge du Soleil in Rutherford. The Auberge offers a great menu at a great location, high above the Napa Valley. Some of the selected entrees included bacon wrapped veal, salmon, steak, scallops, etc. The dessert offerings were interesting with the tarragon ice cream with olive oil to compliment filo wrapped chocolates as perhaps the strangest. The cheesecake with huckleberries and fir tree something, pumpkin pie and apple cider donuts were also ordered around our table. In any case, it was a great meal on a beautiful night in the valley; a fitting closure to our latest 8-person MART.

The disappointment of this morning’s canceled balloon flight was long forgotten by day’s end, our memories centered on the wines, the dinner and the friendships.

We returned to hotel by about 8:30 and everyone began preparations for Saturday’s departure.