Wine Tasting as an Art

Wine tastings are common wine club events

Wine tasting in St. Helena, CA

If you’re a member of a Napa Valley wine club (and why not?) you may be invited to a wine tasting. If it’s outdoors, plan for the weather, especially this time of year. Dress well but comfortably.

There’s an art even to handling the glass of wine. Hold it by the stem or base, so your hand doesn’t warm it. Try to look at the wine against a white background to assess its clarity and color. White wines get darker with age, while red wines get browner. Put the glass on a flat surface and swirl it very gently to reveal the wine’s body and bring out the aroma. When you smell it, think of what the smell reminds you of — fruit, spice, even wood or leather. There are a number of aroma wheels that serve to categorize the aromas by type and origin. Then taste it, looking for the sweetness of fruit and the bitterness of tannins.

While you’re tasting it, notice the texture and how it feels in your mouth. In wine tasting, these are as much a part of the experience as smell or taste. It should be smooth and affect the whole mouth. After you’ve sipped it, take a good long moment to notice the aftertaste, or finish — this is another important part of the experience. Drink water between wines, to clear the palate. If you find something you like, you might be able to buy a bottle here at a discount.

Wine tasting at a vineyard near St. Helena

Anderson’s Conn Valley Vineyards in Napa Valley, a 10-minute drive from downtown St. Helena, holds tastings in its barrel caves, where visitors can sample current releases and library wines and learn about the process of making and storing the wine. Cave tastings are $65, but one tasting fee can be waived by joining their wine club or making a $100 purchase. Anderson’s Conn Valley Vineyards produces world-class wines at affordable prices. The vineyard is a 40-acre estate just south of Howell Mountain, and has been owned and operated by the Anderson family since 1983. Anderson’s wines are sold online and in five locations in Napa Valley, and many other locations nationwide.

One wine you might get to try at an Anderson’s Conn Valley wine tasting is the 2009 Right Bank, a ruby blend of Cabernet Franc and Merlot with purple edges. 2009 was a banner year for winemaking in Napa Valley, and the ’09 Right Bank shows it with its aroma of espresso, cedar, blackcurrant and black pepper. This is a full-bodied wine with a rich finish, tasting of ripe black fruit, mocha, chocolate and rounded sweet tannins. Join the Anderson’s Conn Valley wine club today.

Wine Clubs Are Easy to Join

Joining a California wine club

Wine club in St. Helena, CA

If you’re a big fan of California wines, you should definitely join a wine club. You join one by agreeing to buy a certain number of bottles every year, and the club delivers them to you. They may also send information on the wine and what sort of food it’s best paired with. In the most exclusive wine clubs, you get a higher level of membership by agreeing to buy more wine. Joining should be free, and you should be able to cancel at any time, but be sure to read the terms before joining a wine club.

A good wine club will try to find unknown wines that deserve a wider audience and bring them to your attention. Wine clubs are also judged on the number of different club levels and price ranges (in both cases, more is better), shipping frequency, discounts and the number and variety of events held every year.

An exclusive wine club near St. Helena

Anderson’s Conn Valley Vineyards in Napa Valley, a 10-minute drive from downtown St. Helena, has its own wine club. By agreeing to buy six bottles a year in groups of three, you can get Level I membership with discounts on their wines, tickets to parties and invitations to a complimentary tasting. Agreeing to buy 12 bottles a year, or 24, gets you higher levels of membership with even more benefits. Once you’ve chosen a membership level, buying additional bottles won’t count toward your annual allocation.

One wine you might get to try at their wine club is the dark ruby 2008 Right Bank, a classic blend. After a brief period of high wind and heavy rain, Napa Valley experienced a dry, cold spring in 2008. Summer was cool, delaying the ripening of the grapes and making some thinning necessary, so this was not the most abundant vintage. A warm spell in September ripened a lot of varieties of grapes at once — we had to hurry to harvest them all in time. The Right Bank wine from this year has an aroma of mocha, cedar, blackberries and black pepper, with a note of plums as the nose opens up. The wine has a superb texture with a silky finish, and a flavor dominated by black fruit with crushed rocks. This wine is expected to improve for twelve to fifteen years and stay at its peak for ten more.

Anderson’s Conn Valley Vineyards produces world-class wines at affordable prices. The vineyard is a 40-acre estate just south of Howell Mountain, and has been owned and operated by the Anderson family since 1983. Anderson’s wines are sold online and in five locations in Napa Valley, and many other locations nationwide. Join today.

Harvest Time at Napa Wineries and Vineyards

Wine clubs learn about the harvest

Napa wineries in St. Helena, CA

Grape harvest season in Napa Valley is upon us. Already, the winemakers have tested the first few grapes to see if they’re ripe. Sometimes the grapes are harvested mechanically, but other times they’re harvested by hand. This latter approach is obviously a lot more work, but in many cases the result is a much better wine. Mechanical harvesting involves shaking the grapes until they fall off the vine, which can rupture some of them.

However the grapes are harvested, they have to be sorted by hand. Grapes that are green, moldy or shriveled have to be removed. Then they’re taken to the winery to be crushed — a process which is much shorter if the winery is at the vineyards.

Wine clubs sometimes hold tours of vineyards and Napa wineries to give their members the opportunity to learn about this process from the people who do it. This will increase your appreciation of the interconnected arts of viticulture and winemaking. Since everyone in the winery is busy right now, this is a better time to schedule a tour for later in the year than to hold one. Tasting is a part of these tours. Tasting fees can be anywhere from $5 to $50 per person — more if you plan on including lunch or an educational experience such as a tour, class or seminar. Tipping is not necessary, but if you’re a member of a large group you may wish to do it anyway.

One of the best Napa wineries near St. Helena

Some of the best California wines come from Anderson’s Conn Valley Vineyards in Napa Valley. Just a 10-minute drive from downtown St. Helena, these vineyards produce world-class wines at affordable prices. The vineyard is a 40-acre estate just south of Howell Mountain. Instead of a busy tasting room, the vineyard offers you the chance to meet the owners and wine-makers and taste excellent wine stored in a cave. Wine Merchants Gourmet includes them in one of its Middle Valley tours.

An example of what this winery has to offer is the Signature Cabernet Sauvignon, a wine that comes only from the best of the vintage. The 2011 Signature Cab is an intensely dark purple and red wine with an intense aroma of dark berries, smoke, blue flowers, anise and other spices, tar and minerals. It tastes as good as it smells, with a fruity palate of blackberries and blueberries with hints of violets, licorice and smoke. This is a rare vintage, produced in a cool year when yields were low.

Anderson’s Conn Valley Vineyards has been owned and operated by the Anderson family since 1983. Anderson’s wines are sold online and in five locations in Napa Valley, and many other locations nationwide. By ordering six bottles or more per year, you can join their wine club, giving you discounts on many of their finest wines.

Cabernet Sauvignon Ages Well and Goes with Everything

Cabernet Sauvignon a famous California wine

Cabernet Sauvignon in St. Helena, CA

It’s that time of year again. Throughout Napa Valley, the grapes are being harvested for Cabernet Sauvignons that won’t be sold for a few years yet. It’s been a dry year in California, but the Cab grape is famous for enduring the elements while retaining its quality. Its tannins mean that it lasts a long time in the barrel, and interacts with the oak to bring out new flavors as it ages. This results in the famous nose and palate of the California Cab, which includes such elements as cassis (blackcurrant), black cherry and blackberry, and often hints of black pepper, tobacco, licorice, vanilla and violets.

With a California Cabernet Sauvignon, the better the meal, the better the wine suits it. This wine is most often paired with foods that have rich and hearty flavors of their own. Roast or grilled red meats — especially venison, lamb or rich beef — are favored dishes to pair it with. Try serving the wine at 14 to 16 degrees centigrade (57 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit) to get the full flavor.

Wine clubs offer Cabernet collections

Once it’s been harvested, Cabernet Sauvignon usually matures nine to eighteen months in French, American or Hungarian oak. Some of the most famous Cabs come from many different rootstocks and vineyards, combining in vats of French oak to achieve just the right balance. Many wine clubs in the Napa Valley area offer collections of Cabernets from various wineries.

Some very good Cabs near St. Helena, CA

Anderson’s Conn Valley Vineyards in Napa Valley, a short drive from downtown St. Helena, produces world-class wines at affordable prices, including a famous Cabernet Sauvignon. The Conn Valley Cabernet has been rated one of the top Cabernets in the world since the inaugural vintage of 1987. The fruit is more similar to mountain fruit, and the style is more Bordeaux than the average Napa Cabernet, with more dark fruit. Its finish has a bright and refreshing acidity that makes it perfect for food pairing, which is why people call it a “chef-style” wine. Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate praises the 2012 vintage for its “crème de cassis, graphite and spice box notes” and its “terrific purity, plenty of depth and ripeness, and a full-bodied mouthfeel” and describes the 2010 Cab as “an elegant, finesse-styled effort to enjoy over the next decade.”

The 2013 Estate Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon is rich and silky, with hints of white pepper and orange peel. The finish is very powerful, with notes of lavender, black cherries, cloves, menthol, orange peel and dark spices. Wine club members save $10 buying the ‘13 Estate Reserve Cab. If you’re looking for a good wine to serve at a special occasion, order a bottle today.

Going on a Wine Tour

Wine tours of Napa Valley

Wine tours in St. Helena, CA

In Napa Valley, the grape harvest season is upon us. If you want to see the wineries at their busiest, this is the time. If you’d rather have the chance to actually talk with the winemakers and not be underfoot while they’re trying to get things done, this is the time to schedule a visit for somewhat later in the year.

A number of travel companies have set up wine tours of the Napa Valley area in which you can visit a series of vineyards accompanied by other wine lovers. You can learn all about winemaking from the people who have devoted their lives to it. This will take several days, so you’ll want to be sure of finding a room in a hotel in the area — another good reason to plan and schedule ahead.

Let a wine club bring the wines to you

There is another way to tour the best wineries of Napa Valley. If you join a wine club, you can stay at home and let them bring the wine to you. When you agree to buy a certain number of bottles every year, you get a discount on those bottles — and sometimes those bottles are sent as a series that acts as a tour of the vineyards of Napa Valley, complete with all the information you could want on where and how the grapes were grown, what to expect from the wine and what foods to pair it with.

Touring a winery near St. Helena

Anderson’s Conn Valley Vineyards in Napa Valley, a 10-minute drive from downtown St. Helena, is one of the best vineyards in the Napa Valley area. Their Cabernet Sauvignon and Bordeaux blends are widely regarded as among the best wines in Napa. It holds tastings in its barrel caves, where current releases and library wines may be sampled and visitors can learn all about the process of making and storing the wine. Cave tastings are $65, but one tasting fee can be waived by joining their wine club or making a $100 purchase.

On a wine tours, you might get a chance to sample the 2012 Right Bank. 2012 was a perfect winemaking year in Napa Valley in both yield and quality, and the ’12 Right Bank reflects this. The strongest element of the aroma and palate is blackberry, but it is combined with notes of plum, red berries, dark cocoa, leather, roses, blue violets, clove, anise and allspice. Like the 2011 vintage, its grape and oak tannins blend smoothly together to accompany the bright acidity and fruit, and it is expected to age well for up to 30 years.

Anderson’s Conn Valley Vineyards can be visited as part of a tour, or you can join their wine club today and find out what they have to offer.