Napa Valley, Wine Travel, and Your Personal Goals for Winery Visits

There’s a thought-provoking article in today’s New York Times Food Section on the nature of tasting wine in Napa, as well as of the juice itself. Jay McInerney reports that, although “it's the most familiar, most visited wine region in this country, it's also a place where much remains hidden—shrouded, if not in mystery, then by thousands of acres of Cabernet vines.”

The range of experience that visitors can have in any wine region that’s also a popular tourist destination, Napa included, poses a number of fundamental questions about what you want to accomplish with the visit. As with anywhere, it’s possible to bounce from winery to winery, swallowing the pours of each wine you’re offered, and learning little beyond how well your liver can handle the onslaught of juice.

The other experience--and the one that Napa does so well if you make the effort to take advantage of it--is both educational and emotional: Tasting on location, with the people responsible for the various bottlings, can be one of the most illuminating wine experiences you’ll have. The trick is to make sure you avoid the pitfalls of the former and take full advantage of the latter.

With springtime finally here, and vineyard visits looking more appealing than ever after the winter so many of us have slogged through, it’s an important distinction to keep in mind.

Note: Next week, we’ll return with Wine Review Wednesday, and focus on a number of high-end Napa bottlings.

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Wine in a Keg? Absolutely!

In another fantastic example of how the wine world is finally shedding the pretension that defined it for too long in the eyes of so many people, the San Francisco Chronicle reported earlier this week that, “[d]riven by demand from forward-thinking sommeliers and restaurateurs, more and more wineries are ditching the bottle” in favor of kegs.

That’s right: Wine kegs. At good restaurants.

To which I say: Finally!

“Not only do reusable kegs cut down on waste and supply costs, lowering prices all around by as much as 30 percent,” the article continues, “but they also deliver what many believe to be a more reliable glass of wine.”

This is a big step. After all, for many consumers, the label on the bottle of wine decorating their table is part of the point of having ordered it in the first place. And though passionate wine lovers have always known that the connotation conveyed by the brand really doesn’t matter at all, that concept has traditionally been a tough sell.

But with wine from a keg, that’s no longer an issue, forcing consumers to focus on what really matters most: The juice in the glass.

And while “wineries lose...some sense of branding because you don't have the label on the bottle," the Chronicle adds, "...you allow them to build a brand with what's inside the bottle, [and] it opens up a whole new type of consumer loyalty and appreciation.”

This has to be a good thing--and it’s yet another example of how far America’s wine culture has come.

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