Napa Wine Tour

I enjoy fine libations whether wine, beer, or port. An appertif or two can also be a pleasure. (Grand Marnier anyone?) Sake is something I savor immensely. Maisel Hefe Weisse is my favorite beer of all time — the Classic, not the Krissy Kris. Wheat beers with sediment seem to add a richness in color and flavor that I can’t seem to find elsewhere. Sake with sediment is quite interesting as well.

But wine was on the agenda this particular weekend.

We chose to hire a tour company called Magnum tours to shuffle us around from vineyard to vineyard of our choosing. Besides avoiding any risk of getting pulled over, Magnum also has access to vintners that otherwise don’t do public tours and they make suggestions based upon your tastes.

I happen to know precisely what I like in wines, but I wanted to get access to wines that otherwise wouldn’t make the East Coast radar that I tend to live in. I also wanted to get a first hand look at a particular vineyard that carries great prestige the world over.

Prestige can surprisingly last a long time, even when the product has run its course in terms of quality. Such is the case with Opus One (vineyard pictured above and below), the product of a collaboration between Robert Mondavi and Baron Phillipe de Rothschild.

We sampled the 2002 vintage wine from Opus One that runs about $160 a bottle. It might be the most expensive, over priced wine that I have ever had. I’ve had my share of Marguax Marguax and Lafite along with $3 bottles of the tastiest port, but never have I spent so much for such utter dissapointment.

Enter Jeffrey Shifflett to save the day. Former San Francisco tax attorney turned vintner, Jeffrey Shifflett is an undiscovered gem amongst Napa’s better known vineyards. As a matter of fact, he sells fruit to Duckhorn and Stag’s Leap if that’s any indicator.

We were fortunate to be invited into Jeffrey’s house to sample his latest bottling with his mother and some great gouda cheese, fresh persimmon, and olive oil that he’ll also be selling in the near future. It couldn’t have been a cooler experience. There was no pretense regarding any of this. He was very hospitable, gave us some great history of the vineyard, education on his process, and of course it wouldn’t be complete without hearing his story.

[stop reading here if you don't care to read the technology slash art slash music rambling]

I mentioned to a friend recently that visiting Jeffrey made me start thinking more and more about the concept of decentralized user content creation on the internet. Many blogs and their writers are better sources of news than the established media journalists.

Centralized creation of things in general seems to follow a trend. The further the fringe, the more interesting the product. This is likely complete conjecture on my part considering it’s all personal opinion at some relative position, but the fact that things created at the fringe (and their imitators) are sought after by massive numbers of people should be indicator enough that my statement might be worthy.

It’s probably been said before, so I’m not claiming to have just said something new. I’m just sayin’ — Applebees, Creed, and boxed wine will only ever be so interesting.