Tag: wineries

A Day in the Napa Valley: Tank Garage Winery

We found the worst wines in the Calistoga.

During my years of visiting the Napa Valley, I have tasted some terrific wines and some cheap ones that only could be described as “drinkable” (hello, Sutter Home!), but never before we’ve had what I can only describe as undrinkable garbage. But I guess there is a first time for everything.

I hate writing these things down, because aside from the wines, we had a lovely experience at Tank Garage, and I love the premise of having a winery on a converted garage. But I guess that’s the problem with gimmicks, you only need one if the product yourself is not up to par.

From the outside, Tank Garage looks the part, with two sparkling clean 50-style gas pumps that match the look of the winery itself. For people still obsessed with 1950’s Americana – which I’m not but can appreciate from time to time -, this helps transport you into the area. At least, in the outside.

The inside is pretty cool as well, though I’m not sure it follows any particular theme. They have several tasting rooms, and we sat at the back one which lacks windows, and is thus pretty dark. It had more the atmosphere of a club, than a garage.

As is the case with other wineries, you do have to make reservations here – and the place was actually booked up when we arrived – someone walked in and couldn’t be seated.

Our table was ready when we got in. Obviously I’d let them know it was my husband’s birthday but now what his name was. Ooops. We did appreciate the gesture and the sense of humor, though.

We were given a menu with the wines available that day – both to taste and wine – though our server chose them for us. I wrote my notes on the menu, and then promptly forgot it, so I’m relying here on my very poor middle age memory. But in general, I can say that I felt all the wines we tasted were bad. Except for the first one, they all did get better once they were oxygenated – but that meant they reached two-buck-chuck quality.

As mentioned earlier, this is a gimmick winery. It specializes in eclectic blends, which seems more thrown together during a drug daze rather than thoughtfully thought about. It doesn’t seem like they ultimately care what they bottle. They only sell at the winery, which is not surprising.

The tasting of what I feel were about 5 wines was $30 – cheap by Napa Valley current standards – but we only had one, as Mike didn’t feel like drinking. He only tasted a couple of the wines here.

We started with Hella Fizz ($50), a  pét-nat. These are wines that instead of having a double fermentation – on the barrel and in the bottle, as in the case of the ones we tasted at Mumm -, are bottled before their first fermentation. The result is supposed to be a light, soft fermentation and an easy to drink wine. Of course, it’s also a much less balanced, mature and sophisticated wine. Apparently, some pét-nat wines can be really good, but it’s clear that Tank Garage chooses this method because it’s much cheaper – though they price these wines as if they were fine champagne.

I found Hella Fizz to be extremely empty. There was nothing to it, barely a hint of grapes. If I had to choose between this one and André champagne, I think I’d go for the André.

It only went downhill from there. The wines we tried Camera Shy ($48), Crushed Hearts ($38), Talk Dirty to Me ($75) and possibly another one I can’t recall all suffered from the same issues. They were weak and practically undrinkable when first poured, and just barely drinkable when properly aerated. For the Crushed Hearts wine, the server lay the need for aeration (though, mind you, he didn’t mention it before we tasted it) on its “carbonic maceration” process, a process that has bunches of grapes sealed into a tank and pumped with CO2. But he did tell us the other wines wouldn’t need it, which was totally untrue. They do. If you are trying them, swirl them for a while before drinking them.

Despite the lackluster wines, we did have a very good time. The tasting was relaxed, our server was solicitous and charming, and the room was nice enough to hang out for a while. I wouldn’t go back, but I’m glad we tried it.

Tank Garage winery
1020 Foothill Blvd.
Calistoga, CA
(707) 942-8265
T-Th 10 AM - 5 PM
F-M 10 AM - 6 PM

A day in the Napa Valley: Mumm

Mumm sparkling wines reminded us of what Napa is all about

Spending the day in the Napa Valley means one thing: wine tasting. And long gone are the days where you’d carelessly go from winery to winery, choosing them at a whim, without having to worry about reservations and tasting fees. Wine tasting in Napa now requires both organization and money; lots and lots of money.

I decided to go to Mumm after our lunch stop at Guidi’s Deli because I knew I’d be wanting some sparkling wine – in my old age, I’m looking for fun wherever I can get it.

I didn’t realize until we arrived for our 12:30 PM reservation that we had actually been there back in 2016, when relatives from Argentina came to visit. We had sat in the patio back then, but it’d been a lovely spring day. On what I knew would be a hot summer one, I figured seating inside would be a better choice – even with COVID being at epidemic levels once again.

It turned out that I was right, not only was it more pleasant inside in terms of temperature, but we had a lovely view of the vineyards. As no one was sitting anywhere near us, and the room was large and airy, we felt pretty safe.

Our experience at Mumm started with a complementary glass of sparkling wine, offered to everyone. That day, it was the Mumm Napa Brut Reserve ($50), an all around crowd pleaser. It’s 60% Pinot Noir and 40% Chardonnay, some of the wine is aged in oak barrels for a years before being blended and allowed to ferment in the bottle for another four years.

It’s a very well balanced sparkling wine, quite effervescent, and not too much bitterness or acidity. It’s a brut, but it had hints of sweetness. It’s just very easy to drink and what I’d call a happy wine. And it is a mature wine, it reminded us of what Napa is all about – and that expensive wines are expensive for a reason. I totally understand why Mumm features it as their all-around wine.

Mumm offers three different tastings, each of three different sparkling wines, costing $40 to $48 per person. In addition, the server chooses a fourth wine after they get to know your preferences. You can also order cheese plates to nibble on, but as we had just come back from lunch we didn’t bother with that.

We chose to share the “club spotlight” tasting ($45). These are wines only available at the winery and for the wine club.

They served us the first two wines together with the recommendation that we drink them cold – and I, perhaps for the first time, realized the importance of an ice bucket. Even though it wasn’t particularly hot inside, the wine did get warm pretty quickly and all the wines lost their magic once they were tepid.

Our first wine flight taste was the 2018 Blanc de Blancs Reserve Extra Brut ($60) from Napa Valley. This was aged for five years in the bottle. I wasn’t as fond of it. Being an extra brut, it was more bitter than the preceding one. It also had smaller bubbles, which is neither here or there. My husband didn’t taste the bitterness but actually found it frutier and easy to drink. He liked it more than I, but we both agreed it was a very well balanced, non-acidic, adult tasting sparkling wine.

Our second wine, the Devaux Ranch Reserve Rosé ($55), wasn’t too different from the previous one. It was mostly pinot noir with a tiny bit of chardonnay, and made into a rosé (for which, if I remember correctly, they use the peels). This was aged 45 months in the bottle. I felt this wine had a bitter core, but circled by fruity flavors. I’m not the sort of person who can ever tell which fruit a wine is supposed to taste like – but then again, at a recent dinner my friends and I thought a blood orange sorbet was actually guava flavored. Mike once again didn’t taste the bitterness and instead found it very easy to drink, very smooth and just “yummy”. He did feel it had a shorter finish than the previous wines, however.

The third wine in the Club Spotlight was the Brut Reserve Extended Tirage ($60). This 60/40 combo of pinot noir and chardonnay was aged in the bottle for 7 years. It led to extremely small and effervescent bubbles, which just tickled your mouth as you drunk it. It was tasty, not too bitter but just so much fun.

Finally, our server chose for us the Eclipse Blanc de Noirs ($55). It was very similar to the one before, well balanced and extremely effervescent, with those fun little bubbles, but it had a great story behind it. It is made from the grapes harvested on August 21st, 2017, the day of the total solar eclipse we experienced in the West Coast – though it wasn’t a total eclipse here in California.

This was, indeed, the perfect wine for us. Mike and I took our girls to Oregon to see the total eclipse, and as we looked for good locations for it, we found ourselves in a beautiful stream in the forest, with only one other person there. We watched it sitting on the rocks, experienced the full sound effects of the birds going quiet, the temperature going chilly and then the magic of the eclipse itself. Earlier this year, we went to Dallas to see another total eclipse – but the 2017 one was the most special that I will always remember. Needless to say, we bought a bottle of this champagne for a special occasion.

As it was Mike’s birthday, the server very nicely brought him a little box of truffles to celebrate. Of course, we shared them. These included a salted caramel truffle and a brut rosé raspberry truffle. They are made by Anette’s Chocolates in the city of Napa, because we all know that colabs are the order of the day.

I loved the salted caramel truffle, which was rich, not overly sweet and just delicious. I didn’t like the other truffle too much, it was just too bitter and intense for my taste – Mike, of course, much preferred it. I think our tastes in chocolate reflect our tastes in romantic partners as well.

And that was our tasting experience at Mumm. Our server was very efficient, a good story teller, a pleasant conversationalist, and gave us a great experience. So much so that I was actually thinking we should join the club to repeat this. We probably won’t, it’s too much money, but it’s the first time I’d ever been tempted to actually join a club.

Mumm Napa
8445 Silverado Trail
Rutherford, CA
(800) 686-6272
Daily 10 AM - 4:30 PM

Wine tasting in Paso Robles

It’s amazing to me how many wine-growing regions there are in California, and in particular, how many I have not visited in the 25+ years I’ve lived in this state. While I know I’ll never be able to visit even a fraction of all the wineries around, I would like to hit the major wine areas, however. So, after our last trip down to the LA area, I asked Mike to take 101 on the way back north and stop at Paso Robles for some wine tasting. I decided on trying the wineries on highway 46E because several of them were free, and they were conveniently located off the Freeway. I would love to try the wineries west of Paso Robles some other time.
I wasn’t overly impressed with the area of Paso Robles we visited. It wasn’t particularly scenic, the wineries were not that pretty or interesting and the wines were mediocre at best. This was a particular disappointment after the unexpectedly good wine tasting trip I had to Amador County. I was hoping that my negative preconceptions about Paso Robles’ wine would have been similarly quashed.


EOS wineryThe first winery I visited was EOS. The tasting room was located in a small Mediterranean style villa, with a very Southern California look, and included a very large shopping area. They offer a flight of 4 regular wines for free, or estate tastings for $10. I decided to go for the free wines.
eos2.jpgI had their 2005 Novella Uno da Tavola ($20), their 2004 EOS Zinfandel ($18), their 2005 EOS Cabernet Sauvignong ($18 or $108 for a case), their 2005 Petite Sirah ($18) and their 2007 EOS Late Harvest Moscato ($22). In general I found the wines to be table quality. They appeared young and unsophisticated, lacking subtleties. None of them had even hints of oak (and I’m definitely an oak person). The Moscato was one of the lightest wines I’ve had. In all, I wasn’t happy with the wines and wouldn’t buy them even at half their price.
EOS sells their wines through supermarkets and BevMo – some are also available at Costco and CostPlus.


chumeia wineryOur second winery was Chumeia Vineyards – a relatively new and small family winery (you can see the owners’ home up in the hill) offering tastes from their steel-barrel room. Even so, it was pretty crowded and the lone attendant had to deal with 9 wine tasters on her own (and did an amazing job of keeping everybody content). Tastings are complimentary.
The owner is a winemaker but has a sister winery in Argentina (which made me eager to like them). Indeed, their not-quite dessertish Silver Nectar wine ($10) is made in Argentina (thus the cheap price). Steel, we found the wine too sweet for a regular white wine and not sweet enough for dessert, and saw little reason to like it.
That, unfortunately, was the case with the other wines as well. We almost spat out their 2006 Barbera ($35). It smelled and tasted like a fortified wine (and I’m not fond of spirits myself) and was somewhat piquant. I truly, truly disliked it – but the people next to me loved it and bought a bottle. According to the attendant, it goes well with tomato dishes.
I also tasted their 2006 Zinfandel ($14), the 2005 Estate Cab ($30), their 2006 Viognier ($16) and 2006 Chardonnay ($12). Once again I found the wines to have young, bold flavors, but not much in the way of finishes. They weren’t for me. One of the big problems may have been, however, that all the wines were served much warmer than they should have. It was a warm day, so it’s understandable, but I think I would have enjoyed them more a few degrees colder.


lauras.jpgAs of today Laura’s Vinyard is no more. We visited it in its last day of existence, tomorrow the tasting room will re-open as Derby’s. The wines will be different and you won’t be able to taste any of what we had. That may not be a bad thing, as while we found most of the wines satisfying and easy enough to drink, none of them was particularly interesting or delicious. We’d drink them, but not seek them out.
We tasted their 2005 Chardonnay ($18), their 2006 Rosado de Syrah ($14), their 2002 Merlot ($18), their 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon ($20), Their 2005 Laura’s Vineyard Cabernet ($26), their 2005 Petit Sirah ($22) and their 2003 Cabernet Franc ($24). Their white and rose could have used more fruit and more sweetness, their cabs, more oak (of course). None justified their high price. We wouldn’t buy them.
lauras2.jpgThe small tasting room is located in a double-wide mobile home and lacks charm. They do sell a few products, mostly t-shirts and oils, which seem to be popular with women named Laura and their friends and relatives :-). The attendant was quite knowledgeable and charismatic, and she will continue working there under their new name. Tasting was $5, you get to keep the glass.


eberle wineryWe moved on to Eberle Winery, which has a nice picnic area with a view of rolling vineyards. They also feature a bronze statue of a boar (eberle means small wild boar) spouting water, which kids may enjoy. Inside, there is a large tasting room with a large shopping area – which Mike browsed as I wine tasted yet again. Tasting here is complementary.
I was happier all in all with the wines here – I’m not sure if this is because they seemed more balanced, more commercial or because I was tipsier by then. I’ve noticed that the more I drink, the more I buy.
I found a couple of their wines – the 2005 Cotes du Robles ($20) and their 2005 Zinfandel – too blunt for my taste, but the 2007 Estate Chardonnay ($18) was refreshing and would go well with chocolate. I almost bought a bottle for their NV Full Board Red ($15), available only a the winery, which was a nice, balanced, quiet table wine. Instead we went with the 2007 Muscat ($14), which we found fresh, not overly sweet and light. I think it’d be a good dessert wine for a summer day, and could even go well with appetizers. Let’s see if we actually drink it (we’re very bad about drinking sweet wines).


firestone wineryI was determined to visit five wineries on this trip – after all, taking 101 made our trip much longer and I wanted to make it be worth it – and I still had one to go to. Firestone has some vague (or not so vague) relationship with the tire maker and apparently with one of the “stars” of the TV series “The Bachelor“. It also has a pretty nice tasting room. Tastings are $5 for 6 wines and you get to keep the glass.
Once again, I thought the wines here were nice. Not nice enough to buy, but perfectly adequate for drinking.


So that was it for my brief sojourn to Paso Robles. After all that wine I fell asleep in the car 🙂

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