For whatever reason, my company had the day off recognizing Columbus Day. Without questions, I immediatly planned a trip up to Napa to enjoy the afternoon like a good California. To keep things simple the plan was to capitalize on our Chandon Club Membership and visit one new winery; this time around V. Sattui was the hot spot of choice. I love the fact that I can easily pack a simple lunch, hop in the car and enjoy an afternoon in wine country-- California wine country no less! Why I ever missed living on the East Coast is beyond me.
During our last visit to Napa, Jen and I joined Domaine Chandon's Wine Club which offers a complimentary flute of sparkling wine during our visit. We opted to stop in on our drive into Napa to score that free glass. Hey, its 10am but somewhere in the world its happy-hour...
Domaine Chandon
We arrived when they opened and proceeded to the tasting where we flashed out membership card and scored a flute of their '96 Reserve Brut which is quite tasty stuff I might add. The late morning weather was perfect, pleasant with a slight fall-crispness in the air. We strolled outside where they have gobs of tables and chairs, plopped our butts down and took our grand 'ol time polishing off that flute.
Jen, typically never displays excitement to go wine tasting (in comparison to me, I guess), but is a sucker for the bubbles and will jump at the chance to savior them. She finally found a place offering wines she gets excited about visiting-- thank God too. I like to joke that she enjoys things that are hooded and caged. She doesn't find it humorous and reiterates that I'm not that funny... I suppose she's right.
With bubbles in our bellies and smiles on our faces, we were about to leave when we noticed it was almost 11am, the time when Chandon offers complimentary tours. The meeting place for these tours was in their retail room, downstairs from their tasting room. There was probably 20 or so people total...
The tour began with a brief history of Chandon and where the process of making sparkling wine began. In 1690 the French monk, Dom P�rignon, discovered that during his winemaking process bottles were exploding for no reason. He dubbed it "devil's wine" because he couldn't explain what was happening. Eventually, through time, he noticed that after cold winters when thing would warm up, that is when corks would pop off due to the carbon dioxide build up. When glass bottles became stronger he realize he could contain these volatile bottles and would drink wine with bubbles. He showed his buddy Moet and said "look, I'm drink stars" because he didn't know better... and thus where Chandon's logo comes from.
We proceeded into their "tank room" named after well... all the tanks that fill it. The aromas, as soon as you walked in, were explosive with notions of fermentation- grapes and yeasts. The tanks lined the walls and contained I don't know how many tons of juice. These things were huge. Towards the back of the room was an informative chart explaining the process of making sparkling wine. Most interesting was the art of assemblage. Sparkling wine is rarely showcased in a single vintage. Rather, before the wine goes into the bottle, it is blended not just with various grapes from various region but also various vintages. The complexity of this process takes much longer than a traditional blend.
Next we headed into their cellar where our guide showed us their method of riddling. To understand why they do this, first you should know why. You see, sparkling wine doesn't age in a barrel or steel vat like most wine. Instead, the juice goes straight into the bottle and stores upside down on their cork-end. In the bottle, the active yeast cells eventually die off and float to the bottom or neck of the bottle. Riddling is the process by which the bottom is rotating and moved slowly into a vertical position where all the yeast cells collect for removal. At Chandon, the produce obscene amounts of wine so they have specially designed machines called "gyropallete" that perform this task to 500 bottles at once.
From here, the next step is "disgorging" or extracting this sediment without losing the pressure. SO how the hell do you open a bottle of sparkling wine without losing pressure? Freeze it! Well, at least the neck of the bottle. Think of it as a wine popsicle. Once, frozen, the bottle moves to a machine that slaps the back end releasing the sediment. While its open, it quickly moves to a machine where it tops off the bottle with more wine and a dosage of sugar. Without the sugar, the sparkling wine would taste ultra-dry and boring.
Then Wham-O! the cork goes on then the wire cage, slap a label on the side and plunk in a box. The bottles rest for 90-days before they're shipped around the world, open at our table and enjoyed by lushes of all stages.
Seeing the actual bottling process was very cool. The noise of the disgorging machine was a loud, repetitious popping sound and the constant humming from all the conveyor belts. I was mesmerized how fast everything moves... I felt like when I was a kid at the Ben & Jerry's factory just watching every move by with tongue hanging out drooling over the product in front of me. Fun stuff...
The tour ended and everyone was escorted into their tasting room. Since we just came from there, we ducked out the side and jumped in our car to head out. The tour was very interesting and I highly recommend it for those interested in sparkling wines. One, could make a very enjoyable day, touring and tasting at Domaine Chandon and I couldn't hype the idea more.
V. Sattui
At my last company, I was introduced to the Sattui name. For the holidays, everyone received a bottle of their wine with our company name and a small message printed on them. It was a nice touch and everyone enjoyed it.
When I realized V. Sattui was a hop and skip from where we were, we opted to cruise over and see their winery ourselves. As we approached, we noticed gobs of cars heading right for them... It seemed like the world was one step ahead of us. Tour buses where dumping people off in front as cars circled to find parking. It was around the lunch hour which surprised me... I figured people would be filling up the restaurants- not the wineries.
We walked towards the winery after finding a spot and saw the gorgeous picnic area just outside the winery. People lapped in the shade from massive trees with packed lunches, mouth watering spreads, breads, cheeses and of course bottles upon bottles of wine.
We opened the doors to the winery and realized why there were so many people here for lunch. They have an INCREDIBLE market inside with artisan foods. Our jaws dropped and tongues rolled across the floor gazing at the blocks of cheese and meats hanging. Everything looked amazing.
We managed to control our urges to start gorging on foods and made our way to the (quite busy) tasting bar. A sign hung above with the wines listed they you could taste - complimentary I might add - I rare and appreciated sight in Napa Valley.
The folks behind the counter were very friendly. I managed to converse with a Philadelphia Eagles fan-- another rarity in California. I was quite pleased to see the amount of young couples at the tasting bar. To our sides were young couples and groups tasting their way around Napa trying to learn about wine and which wines they prefer. It was such a refreshing sight to see. Finally, a place where the "young'ins" out-count the "dinosaurs"...
My patience began wearing a bit thin though as more people began piling in the tasting room. The bar was packed and the pour man behind the counter couldn't keep up with all the empty glasses awaiting another sample. People began standing behind us waiting for our spot at the bar... We were nearing the end of the tasting list but because the crowds were getting a bit unbearable for my liking, we skipped the last few wines and slipped away from the bar.
We enjoyed a number of their wines and found a few great values among the list. When things were slower, I asked to taste a few wines that were not listed and they happily obliged. A nice treat indeed.
After walking around their market and drooling over the cheeses, we walked back to our car where we had our lunch waiting for us. We had packed some munchies before we left -- a tip passed on by veterans wine travelers. We saved a great deal of money by doing so too. We found a low-key spot on a bench under chardonnay grape vines where ate our sandwiches and nibbled on some fruit and crackers. It was a perfect ending to our simple day in wine country.
