Caves. They are dark and mysterious. They are chilly, but never too cold. Despite not having been built for comfort, they were some of humanity’s first shelters, and the location of some of our first attempts at art. For centuries, they’ve been used to store wine barrels — the air in them is always at just the right temperature, so there is very little evaporation of the wine despite the hairline gaps that let air into the wine barrel and make it possible to tap the barrel. So it was that when winemaking came to California, the winemakers decided that if these hills didn’t have enough caves to go around, they would simply make their own, using the same equipment and hiring the same workers as the railroads that were driving tunnels through the Rocky Mountains.
Today, you can arrange cave tours of these wine caves. There you can taste the newest wines to be judged ready for drinking, and library wines from earlier years which have had a chance to age properly.
Wine clubs
Napa wine clubs like Anderson’s Conn Valley Vineyards Wine Club often hold tours of the vineyard’s caves. Many Napa Valley wine caves have been artistically carved, lighted and furnished, and can cater elegant dinners. However well-appointed they are, these caves retain the chilliness and humidity that lets them fulfill their function, so dress the way you would for a cool spring or fall day.
Vineyard near St. Helena offers cave tours
Anderson’s Conn Valley Vineyards in Napa Valley, a 10-minute drive from downtown St. Helena, holds tastings in its barrel caves, where current releases and library wines may be sampled and visitors can learn all about the winemaking process. Cave tastings are $65, but one tasting fee can be waived for two by joining Anderson’s Conn Valley Vineyards Wine Club at the 6-bottle level or making a $100 purchase. In addition, at the 12-bottle level you get a complimentary cave tasting for four, and at the 24-plus bottle level you get a cave tasting/food pairing for six.
Anderson’s Conn Valley Vineyards produces world-class wines at affordable prices. These wines are sold online and in five locations in Napa Valley, and many other locations nationwide. One Bordeaux blend from the library that you might be introduced to on a cave tour of Anderson’s Conn Valley is the 2010 Signature Cabernet Sauvignon, an intense dark purple wine with a slight edge of red, has an aroma dominated by cassis with streaks of blackberry, red berries, plum and blueberry, elements of smoke and tar from the oak, and highlights of crushed roses, blue flowers and anise. Born from a year with a cool spring and fall and an intensely hot summer, this wine’s flavor has a massive structure of black, blue and red fruits with licorice, anise, tobacco, smoke, rosehips and violets. This is a wine that deserves to be allowed to age.
St. Helena, “Napa Valley’s main street,” is one of the centers of the wine industry or St. Helena wineries. Winery tours are devoted to this town and its more than 80 wineries and numerous wine clubs. If you’re planning to go there, be prepared to spend several days. Look for hotels and St. Helena wineries with at least 20 Yelp reviews and at least four stars. Get out into the Napa Valley countryside and explore the complex topography that creates the many terroirs of Napa vineyards.
In 1981, the Napa Valley was named California’s first American Viticulture Area. These days 16 different AVAs are recognized within the valley. The St. Helena AVA, at the northern end of the valley floor, is a little warmer and drier than the southern parts of the valley. Its soil ranges from gravel-clay soils on its southern and western borders to rich volcanic soils in the north and east. Deep, ripe Cabernet Sauvignons, Cabernet Francs and Merlots all come from St. Helena wineries.
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, 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 than the grapes in the St. Helena American Viticulture Area proper. At the vineyard, you will have the chance to meet the owners and wine-makers and taste excellent wine stored in the vineyard’s 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 across the nation. By ordering six bottles or more per year, you can join the Anderson’s Conn Valley Vineyards Wine Club. Club membership will get you a discount on many of their finest wines, such as their Estate Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon. The 2012 Estate Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon is possibly the best Estate Reserve Anderson’s Conn Valley has ever created, arising from a perfect year of moderate growing weather and a cool late September. It is dark purple and red, with an aroma of super-ripe red raspberries, cloves, mocha and licorice. The wine has a silky mouthfeel, with a flavor layered with expressive dark red fruit, spices, licorice and new leather and hints of white pepper and orange peel. Its complexity comes from the different Cab clones and rootstocks used to make it. Try a bottle of ACVV wine today.
We think of wine as something that needs to age. This is because while it’s estimated that 90 percent of wine is made to be drunk within a year, the most famous and highly regarded wines (with a few exceptions, such as Nouveau wines) need at least a few years in the barrel. The wine itself changes with age, and the oak from which the barrels are made secretes tannins and vanillin into it, making it more mellow and complex. Red wines rich in acidity and tannins, and white wines with high acidity, are the most likely to benefit from this process.
Wine club barrel tasting
For those who like the older wines and also like to plan ahead, barrel tastings are an opportunity for wine connoisseurs to try the most recent vintages and make a guess as to how good the wine will be in years to come. If you’re not a connoisseur, they’re also an opportunity to meet connoisseurs and get their opinions. You may also be able to buy wine futures at a discount, if you find something that’s likely to be particularly good in a few years.
Sometimes, many wineries in a wine-growing area schedule their barrel tastings to create a single weekend-long regional event. Many wine clubs also hold barrel tasting events.
Good rules to follow at any wine tasting are to wear nothing strong-smelling like perfume or cologne, and to limit the number of wine tastings. If in doubt, pick something you’ve never had before, because the whole point of going to a barrel tasting is to discover new wines.
Barrel tastings 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 current releases and library wines may be sampled. Tastings are $65, but one tasting fee can be waived by joining their wine club or making a $100 purchase.
Try a recent Estate Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, a complex wine grown from numerous clonal varieties of the Cabernet Sauvignon grape. An older Estate Reserve Cab, 2007, was formed by a cold and dry early and middle year, with a sudden burst of heat around Labor Day that helped the grapes produce more sugars. The result was a dark ruby red wine with an aroma of dark fruit, dark chocolate, Bing cherries, roses, licorice and cigar box. Its flavor is balanced between fruit, oak and acid, with sweet tannins and hints of cedar, coffee and chocolate cake.
Anderson’s Conn Valley Vineyards 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.
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.
How the best vineyards in Napa Valley become the best
There are about 400 wineries in Napa valley, and many different microclimates and regions of soil that add up to 16 American Viticultural areas. No one of them produces the perfect grape — instead, the best vineyards of Napa Valley match the right variety of grape to their particular terroir, tend the vines lovingly and harvest the grapes at just the right moment. They grow Pinot Noir and Merlot grapes in the coolest parts of the valley, Zinfandel grapes in the mildest and the hardy but exquisite Cabernet Sauvignon grapes anywhere they want. (Premium Cab grapes from Napa sell for about $20,000 a ton.)
Wine clubs and wine tastings
The best vineyards in Napa have tasting rooms where old library wines and the vintages of the past few years can be tried for a reasonable fee. Joining a wine club is a great way to get invited to these tastings.
Bigger vineyards have scheduled tours, and smaller ones can usually be toured by appointment. When you visit a smaller vineyard, you have a much better chance of talking to someone involved in making the wine — or even the owner.
One of the best vineyards in Napa 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.
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. An example of what this vineyard can produce is the 2012 Right Bank. This comes from one of those perfect years for grape growing, when sun and rain seem to conspire to produce high yield and high quality. The wine features a strong blackberry aroma with hints of red berries, plums, dark cocoa, leather, blue violets, roses, cloves, anise and allspice. The flavor is similar, and perfectly balanced with seamless oak and grape tannins and bright acidity. This wine is expected to be good for 30 years. Order a bottle of the 2013 vintage today to see if it’s equally good.
