Napa Valley Wines go Back a Long Time

Napa Valley wines and wine clubs

Napa Valley wines in St. Helena, CA

About this time, a tradition well over a century old is being continued, as vineyard workers harvest the grapes that Napa Valley wines are made from. The first wine grapes in Napa Valley were Mission grapes, descended from Spanish grapes and brought to California by missionaries. They were tough grapes  that could adapt to almost anywhere, but didn’t necessarily make the best wines. Better varieties of wine grape were brought to California in the nineteenth century, including the Cabernet Sauvignon grape which is as resilient as the Mission grape and has the quality of the finest French wine cultivars.

Napa Valley wines come in many sorts — red, white, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay — depending on where they were planted and from what stock. Every part of the valley has a subtly different terroir, a different combination of sunshine, rain, mist, soil moisture and soil composition. To make a great Napa Valley wine, the vineyard tries to find the right variety of grape for each terroir.

If you’re planning to visit a small winery in Napa Valley, you should find out if it has a wine club. Joining this club will get you savings on tasting fees and the wines you buy from the club. Many wine clubs offer different selections of wines, as well as collections of wine — the highest-rated wines, or all Napa Valley wines, or all one particular kind of wine.

Napa Valley wines from a winery 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 Éloge, an exclusive blend. The 2008 Éloge comes from a year notable for its extremes — storms followed by a prolonged frost in spring, a cool spring and early summer followed by sweltering heat later. All this led to a vintage of low yield but high quality — a dark ruby red wine with extraordinary aroms of black cherries, chocolate, cedar, cassis, leather, mocha and crushed rocks with a distant hint of smoked meats. It tastes of chocolate-dipped black cherries, currants and plums with toffee, mocha and spices.

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.

Napa Valley History and Wine

A short history of Napa Valley wine

Napa Valley history in St. Helena, CA

Wine grapes have been grown in California since the late 17th century. The first grapes in Napa Valley were Mission grapes, descended from Spanish grapes and better known for their hardiness and adaptability than for the quality of their wine. In the 19th century, seeing that the climate and soil of Napa Valley were perfect for winemaking, immigrants to California brought seeds and cuttings of other vines to improve the quality and variety. Today, Napa Valley wines are famous throughout the world.

Wine clubs of Napa Valley

If you’re planning to visit a small winery in Napa Valley, find out if it has a wine club. Joining will offer you savings on tasting fees and any wines you buy. You can cancel any time, but it would be decent to stay in and buy a few bottles, and they surely have something else you’ll want. 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 isn’t necessary, but if you have a large group you may wish to do it anyway. If you want to visit during the tourist season, schedule your appointments weeks in advance to be sure of seeing the Napa wineries you want to visit.

Napa Valley wines from a winery 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 Éloge, an exclusive blend. The 2008 Éloge comes from a year notable for its extremes — storms followed by a prolonged frost in spring, a cool spring and early summer followed by sweltering heat later. All this led to a vintage of low yield but high quality — a dark ruby red wine with extraordinary aroms of black cherries, chocolate, cedar, cassis, leather, mocha and crushed rocks with a distant hint of smoked meats. It tastes of chocolate-dipped black cherries, currants and plums with toffee, mocha and spices.

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 and other Napa Valley wines

Two of the many types of Napa Valley wines

Napa Valley wines- St. Helena, CA

The Napa Valley is well known throughout the world for its intricate topography that offers many different places to grow different wine grapes. Varieties of wine grown here include Cabernet Sauvignon and Right Bank.

Cabernet Sauvignon was grown from Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc grapes. Hardy and resilient, producing grapes of consistent quality, the “Cab” is one of the most popular wines in the world, and was the most widely planted premium red wine grape in the world for most of the 20th century. First introduced to California in the 1870s, this grape reached its full potential with American oak and the gentle climate of Napa Valley. The California Cabernet truly came into its own when an American Cab beat out French Bordeaux wines in the famous “Judgment of Paris,” a blind taste test in France.

“Right Bank” actually refers to a location in France — northern Bordeaux, on the right bank of the Dordogne. This is a region of clay soil that gets less wind from the sea than other parts of Bordeaux. The wines grown in this region are red wines that tend to be Merlot-based or Cabernet Franc. This style of wine is also called “Red Libourne.” Right Bank red wines in America are grown in place with analogous terroir, from similar stock. Many vineyards also have their own distinct blends, such as Anderson Conn Valley Vineyard’s “Eloge.”

Wine club

Joining a wine club is a great way to try Napa Valley wines, especially those that offer wines you haven’t heard of before. Discover something new and impress your friends the next time they visit. (Note: this won’t work if they’re in the club too.)

Great Napa Valley wines from a St. Helena winery

Some of the best California wines come from Anderson’s Conn Valley Vineyards in Napa Valley, just south of Howell Mountain. A 10-minute drive from downtown St. Helena, Anderson’s Conn Valley Vineyards produces world-class wines at affordable prices. The microclimate of Conn Valley is cooler than many other parts of the valley, although warmer than Howell Mountain itself, so the grapes grown here are closest to mountain grapes. At the vineyard, you’ll have the chance to meet the owners and wine-makers and taste excellent wine stored in a cave, and to sample such wines as the 2009 Right Bank. Ruby red with purple at the edge, this wine has a cassis aroma with notes of espresso, cedar and black pepper. With its full-bodied mouthfeel, rounded tannins and taste of black fruit and chocolate, this is a wine to cherish.

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. This will get you a discount on many of their finest wines.

Napa Valley’s Variety of Soils & Climates

Napa Valley and its winery’s different soils and climates.

The Napa Valley is famous throughout the world for the quality of its wines. The valley proper is a long, smooth, saberlike curve, two to four miles wide, that runs from the foot of Mount St. Helena (not to be confused with the notorious volcano in Washington State) to San Pablo Bay. At the northern end of the valley is the town of Calistoga, 348 feet above sea level, and the geyser called “Old Faithful of California.” Here the soil is rich and volcanic. At the southern end is the port city of Vallejo and the marshy tidal estuary where the river meets the bay at sea level. Here the soil is more sedimentary. In the center of the valley is the Rutherford Bench, also sedimentary but better drained than the lower parts of the valley. Some of the tributaries to the Napa River, like the Conn River, have their own little valleys.

Napa Valley’s Microclimates

All this variety means that Napa Valley wineries benefit from a broad range of soil and microclimates, lending each one a different terroir that shows up in the taste of the wine. Wine from grapes grown on the valley floor has a heavier feel on the palate. Mountain grapes grow in less fertile soil, which stresses the vines and produces less numerous but more flavorful grapes. The wine from them has more acidity and tannins, because marine layer fog from San Francisco Bay often covers the Napa Valley at night and during the morning in late summer and early fall. This means nights on the mountains are warmer than in the valleys — warm enough for grapes to continue ripening after dark. Ripening without photosynthesis leads to less sugar and more tannins within the fruit.

Excellent Napa Valley wines from a St. Helena winery

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, Anderson’s Conn Valley Vineyards produces world-class wines at affordable prices. The vineyard is a 40-acre estate just south of Howell Mountain. The microclimate of Conn Valley is cooler than many other parts of the valley, although warmer than Howell Mountain itself, so the grapes they grow are closer to mountain grapes. At the vineyard, you have the chance to meet the owners and wine-makers and taste excellent wine stored in a cave.

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. This will get you a discount on many of their finest wines.

Napa Valley Wines Feature Diversity & Quality

Napa Valley wines are the best

It seems that there’s hardly a state in the nation that doesn’t boast of having its own vineyards and wineries these days. While it’s true that the grape will grow in all sorts of places, some places still produce better wine grapes than others, and it’s hard to beat Napa Valley wines in terms of quality. The Napa Valley’s intricate topography offers a wide range of potential growing areas to choose between, from fields of rich volcanic soil to rugged mountainsides, each imparting a different set of qualities to the terroir of the grapes.

Valley Floor vs Mountain Grapes

Discerning tasters can detect these differences. The grapes grown on the valley floor are brighter and more ripe, with a heavier feel on the palate. Mountain grapes are darker, with more acidity and tannins. This is because marine layer fog from San Francisco Bay often covers the Napa Valley at night and during the morning in late summer and early fall. This means that nights on the mountains are warmer than in the valleys. The grapes continue to ripen in the dark, without photosynthesis, resulting in less sugar and more tannins within the fruit. In addition, the soil on the mountain slopes tends to be less fertile. The stress this places on the vines also favors quality over quantity.

You may be wondering what effect the infamous multi-year drought in California has had on the wine industry in Napa Valley. Fortunately, Napa Valley wineries don’t need that much rain, and many switch to dry farming as soon as the buds break in the vineyards. Once the fruit starts to grow, in fact, too much rain can result in the growth of mold. The only time the wineries really need water is after harvest and during the winter.

Superb Napa Valley wines from a St. Helena winery

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, Anderson’s Conn Valley Vineyards produces world-class wines at affordable prices. The vineyard is a 40-acre estate just south of Howell Mountain. The microclimate of Conn Valley is cooler than many other parts of the valley, although warmer than Howell Mountain itself, so the grapes they grow are closer to mountain grapes. At the vineyard, you have the chance to meet the owners and wine-makers and taste excellent wine stored in a cave.

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. This will get you a discount on many of their finest wines.