Joseph Phelps Vineyards

Our final winery visit in Napa Valley was to Joseph Phelps Vineyards, which makes some of the best wines in the world.  The winery, however, does not offer tours and tastings are by appointment only.  The entrance and reception was the most businesslike and least friendly of the wineries we visited (see Mondavi and Montelena) as if they are doing you a favour by letting you visit.  Of the two tasting packages available, we chose to sample 6 wines for $30 dollars each.  Although that may seem very expensive, you would have to spend $450 to buy those 6 bottles so it wasn't unreasonable to pay $30 to taste these wines.

Reception gave us each a glass, then escorted us out to the patio, surrounded by beautiful vistas of vineyards.  The serving staff were much friendlier and clearly very proud of their winery and its wines.  The servers had a very standard pour, though, of about 1.25 oz; no amount of schmoozing would get you extra wine here.  Actually, since any purchases are made back at reception on the way out, the servers aren't that connected to the sales function.  I suppose they expect (rightfully so) that the wine will sell itself.

Below are the highlights of our flight of 6 wines.  Each wine was far more complex than these notes indicate.

2012 Sauvignon Blanc, St. Helena, $35 - chemical nose, flowery palate, fuller bodied than most I've tried.

2011 Chardonnay, Freestone Vineyards, $55 - loved it, better than Montelena, brought 1 bottle home.  

2011 Pinot Noir, Freestone Vineyards, $55 - bright red colour, nose of sweet red cherry / pie filling and orange peel,  fantastic balance of acidity and tannin, spicy and juicy with a strong finish.

2010 Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley, $65 - rated 94 by Robert Parker's Wine Advocate, but needs another 10 years to soften the tannins.  Beautiful mid-palate flavour.  Brad loved it, Chris didn't, Brad drank Chris' glass!

2009 Insignia, $200 - Phelps' signature wine, this vintage rated 95 by Robert Parker's Wine Advocate.  Tar, spice, sweet red apples.  Better than the cabernet sauvignon, but $135 better?

2011 Eisrebe, $50 - California's answer to icewine is to put the late harvest Scheurebe grapes in a freezer.  Honey, apricot, peach, orange blossom, a  hint of caramel and brilliant acidity.  

At checkout, we needed to purchase some extra wine-skins (wine bottle fitted bubble wrap for travelling) to keep the bottles we'd bought safe in our luggage on the plane.  Much to our delight, Joseph Phelps sells resealable wine-skins, which we'd never seen before.  The ones we usually buy are single use, but can usually be pushed to 2 or 3 uses.  We stocked up on these, knowing we'll never have to buy them again, and comforted by the fact that YOU CAN PUT NEW WINE INTO OLD WINE-SKINS AFTER-ALL!  

Chateau Montelena

The iconic castle, (je m'excuse, "chateau,") is a modern
production facility inside.  It appears on all Montelena
labels.

Have you seen the movie Bottle Shock?  It's about Chateau Montelena when, in 1976, its chardonnay beat the world's best French white wines in a blind taste test now referred to as 'The Judgment of Paris."  Because of both the story and the movie, (starring Alan Rickman, Chris Pine and Bill Pullman,) I expected this winery to be both very touristy and very crowded; fortunately it was neither.

The inscription reads, "The Judgement of Paris 1976."

The grounds have been extensively landscaped, including a small network of bridges and pagoda-like gazebos over a lake housing two black swans.  The gazebos are for hosting private picnic lunches, which must be booked well in advance.  Tastings, however, are available without an appointment.  For $20 per person, you can taste 4 of its 5 current release wines.  However, there's a two-for-one coupon available HERE and the winery waives one fee for every $100 spent on wine, so the four of us didn't end up paying any tasting fees at all.  When we arrived at the tasting room there were four servers behind the bar each assisting other groups, but we only had maybe a 10 minute wait before trying the following four wines.

2012 Riesling - I was prepared to not like this wine, being quite stuck on Beamsville Bench riesling for the time being.  Earlier in the trip, I had actually told Kim not to bother buying any rieslings in California.  It seems though, that Montelena makes this wine with grapes it purchases from Potter Valley, further North than Napa, with better growing conditions for riesling.  Brilliantly bright with acidity, this wine really tickles your tongue.  The dominant smell and taste we noted was honey, but the winemaker's notes list peach, apple, lichee (agree), rose, apricot, wet stone (agree) and pear.  Since this wine is not available outside of California, Kim did buy a bottle after all.

2010 Chardonnay - Montelena chardonnay is too light for me.  There.  I said it.  Interestingly though, when I compare my notes to the winemaker's, it's like we're talking about two different wines.  The only thing we agree on is that there's a subtle green apple flavour.  What I call thin, he calls creamy.  What I call vanilla, he calls marzipan.  Given that this was the wine that literally won the west, it's fair to say that the problem is probably with me.  I'm assuming that my palate is just not refined enough to taste the complexity, so I'd rather spend $20 for an Ontario chard than $60 for one I don't appreciate.  (Chris really likes this wine, but I suspect it's because he thinks he's supposed to!)

Despite its fame and wealth, Montelena's tasting bar is
humble, approachable and enjoyable.

2010 Cabernet Sauvignon - According to the winemaker's notes, "the beauty of our style is that you get all the wonderful ripe flavors that California is known for, but with much more expression of place, and without all the noise and distraction of high alcohols and overwhelming new oak flavors."  I completely agree, as I've had issues with more typical California Cabs tasting like chewing tobacco, but this one is very drinkable even in its youth while still maintaining a complexity of taste.  It's probably partially due to the 9% merlot + cab franc that are taking off its edge.

When searching for Montelena wines at the LCBO, I always
spell it wrong: Montalina, Montaleena, etc.  When we arrived
I saw it underneath Mount Helena.  It all makes sense now!

2009 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon - I can't believe I spent this much on one bottle, but it is the single best California cab I've ever tried.  Antonio Galloni from the Wine Advocate rated it 93, as did Stephen Tanzer from the International Wine Cellar.  Like its non-estate cab cousin, this wine can be drunk now or aged, but its approachability seems to come from superior wine-making techniques instead of blending.  Both the nose and the taste come in layers of fruit, smoke and spice.  Perhaps its best feature though is its structure; the wine just flows back away from the tongue like silk.  I'm not sure how long it will last in the cellar.