My sincere hope is that my relatives in North Dakota don’t read this until their snow stops and the ice dams flooding Bismarck and Mandan wash away before their home does.
It’s just too cruel for them, and the rest of the U.S., to be taunted by our California Spring. If our Napa Valley weather were a woman she would be arrested for indecent exposure.
Today was such a day. The temperature was a balmy 75 degrees, in the shade. Bathed in bright sunshine it seemed even warmer. Long sleeves were out of the question. Shoes and socks were grudgingly borne only because sandals in March are just wrong.
It was too fine a day to waste on mere work. A compromise had to be struck. We would visit “Up Valley” wineries to prove we actually were still alive. We would call it work: PUBLIC RELATIONS.
Weeks ago an Angel from Turnbull Wine Cellars delivered unto us a wonderful bottle of 2005 Syrah. It was a little bit of heaven in a bottle and lured us back to its home as salmon to spawn. Unlike the disappearing salmon, we faced no obstacles on our journey to the source of this magic elixir.
Turnbull is easily found on Highway 29 just north of the Oakville Crossroad and in marvelous March there is no traffic. We were there before our Calvinist instincts even knew we left work in Napa.
Warmly greeted by Dennis Fagundes and our neighbor’s son-in-law, we were soon washing away our guilt with luscious wines, full bodied and with great legs. Honest, those ARE wine terms. And they TASTE good.
The winery was dressed in Spring color: pansies, crabapple blossoms, even fragrant wisteria. If heaven has wineries, this is what they look and smell like. A quick tour of the standing fine photography exhibit, “Father and Son – The Photography of Edward and Brett Weston” and we were on our way.
It had literally been YEARS since we had been to Charles Krug, Napa Valley’s FIRST winery.
Established in 1861 by a Prussian immigrant, Charles Krug is owned and operated by the Peter Mondavi Family. Mr. Mondavi had paid us a visit a few years ago and we felt like we had been in the company of legend.
We just missed him, we were told. Even though he is now over 94 years old he goes to the winery every day and is said to drive his assistants crazy with his work load.
The moment we walked into the tasting room we were welcomed by Gary Kozel who remarked that he had just posted the article from the Wall Street Journal in which we were just quoted. Our heads nearly exploding, we were quickly led to the tasting bar. There we tasted wine like liquid sunshine, refined and bottled in vintage years.
Long gone are the days when “Charles Krug” was synonymous with cheap jug wine. Maybe it was because Peter had finally recovered from the infamous family feud with his older, perhaps more famous brother Robert. Probably it is because fine wine runs deep in his three generations of Mondavi family. It is certainly because millions of dollars have been invested in the landmark winery to produce some of the finest wines in the Napa Valley.
Over our final glass of Krug’s Zinfandel Port we vowed: every Friday from now on we will go out into this Paradise which is our Napa Valley and report back to you what we have found.
It is a dirty, nasty job, but you, dear guests are worth it.
