Wine Country always has something new to experience

By David Armstrong, Alaska Airlines magazine, March 2006

Vintage California

Wine Country always has something new to experience

By David Armstrong, Alaska Airlines magazine, March 2006

Before I met her, my wife, Georgina, lived in the heart of the California wine country, on a winding mountain road high above the Napa Valley.  We now live near San Francisco, about an hour’s drive from wine country, and return to that region whenever we can, guided by her knowledge of the land, the people, the food and, of course, the wine.

Even though we have been there many times, we invariably find something new in the Napa and Sonoma valleys, California’s prime wine-producing region.  Although it is mainly rural and even rustic, the place has a turbo-charged vigor always brimming with new restaurants, new hotels and even new wineries, pumping entrepreneurial energy into the beautiful landscape of mountain, valley, river and vineyards....

...Back outside, we wander thought misty gardens to our car, ready to drive to a part of the region that is as new to Georgina as it is to me: Spring Mountain, an appellation created in 1993 that is just now coming to public attention.

We motor 20 minutes to downtown St. Helena, turn left on Madrona Avenue, then make a quick right onto Spring Mountain Road and drive five miles up the twisty, tree-lined, two lane road to the top of Spring Mountain.  If Copia is a populist redoubt, Spring Mountain is an emerging magnet for wine connoisseurs.  More than 30 wineries dot the area, and their wines—notably the exceptional reds—are handcrafted and produced in small lots.  Bottles from these wineries start at $30 and top out at more than $100.  Unlike the major wineries in the Napa and Sonoma valleys, most micro-wineries up here host no large groups or motor coaches and are open only by appointment.  However, their intensely flavorful vintages are exceptionally good and the proprietors welcome visitors who book ahead for tastings and tours.  Some of the wineries on Spring Mountain, which is actually a ridgetop, have made fine wines only since the mid-1990s and are just now beginning to be discovered.

We decide to taste at three of Spring Mountain’s wineries, and begin on the tip of the ridge, at Pride Mountain Vineyards.  Pride Mountain opened in 1990 and is run by two generations of the Pride family.   The winery has 170 acres straddling the Napa and Sonoma county lines and produces wines that are sometimes a blend of grapes from both counties.  Pride Mountain is known for producing merlots that approach cabernets in complexity and structure.  We duck into the winery’s extensive network of caves, complete in 2000; peek into a beautiful dining room; and sample forthcoming vintages from barrels of French and American oak.  After leaving the caves, we sip some more wines in the main tasting room, comparing vintages from different years.  Pride Mountain is currently renovating its tasting room and adding a wraparound porch, and expects to open its expanded facilities by summer.  In addition to its merlots, the winery makes cabernets, viogniers, chardonnays, clarets and other wines.  Not far down the hill from Pride Mountain is Terra Valentine, a mountainside winery located inside what looks to be a stone castle, surrounded by steep vineyards and reached by a winding road.  This producer of reds, known for its big, inky cabernets, is nestled in a landmark building with hand-carved woodwork, stained glass windows and in intimate dining room paneled with wood originally intended for William Randolph Hearst’s San Simeon.  With its stone walls, huge front door with an old-fashioned latch, and high-ceiling main building, Terra Valentine is a smaller, winery version of Hearst’s retreat.  The present owners, Angus and Margaret Wurtele, have expanded, carving out their latest vineyards in 1999.

For a memorable introduction to wine, you can’t get any more personal than Paloma Vineyard, a 15-acre premium winemaking operation owned by Barbara and Jim Richards, who have just one full-time employee.  As we drove up Spring Mountain Road on our way to Pride Mountain, a hale-looking older couple waved to us from the vineyards, where they were doing their own pruning by hand.  This couple proves to be the Richards, as we discover when we stop by later on.  To the Richards’ great surprise, in 2003 Wine Spectator chose Paloma’s 2001 Merlot as “Wine of the Year”, sparking a demand that instantly exhausted their supply.  Two rainy winters since have further reduced Paloma’s output, but its limited stock is well worth seeking out.  We barrel-taste a toothsome unfinished 2004 merlot that puts to rest all those merlot jokes in the movie Sideways.  Standing in the kitchen of the Richard’s mountainside home, catching whiffs of smoke from wood-burning stove, we savor the lingering taste of this promising wine while watching he clouds over Napa Valley put on an ever-changing show.

I don’t know if I’ll have another moment of wine satori quite as memorable as this, but I’m ready to keep going back to the California wine county in hopes finding out,