Day 5 - August 2nd

Ok so first day in Napa. We're really excited to start trying the big boys!

First stop - Hendry. Phil and Traci are wine club members and set us up here. As soon as we got there, they asked about any appointments we had afterwards because they wanted to invite us for lunch. They moved our appointment with Jessup back a 1/2 hour. Who knew that the original 2 1/2 hours wasn't enough time. We ended up spending over 3 hours here and it was time well spent. George Hendry (owner and winemaker) took us on a tour of the vineyards explaining anything and everything about how grapes are grown and wine is made. His family has been here since 1939 where it started as an orchard. Since 1992, he's been making wine. He has 11 varietals planted on 114 acres of the 200 acres he owns. The varietals help with diversification and he has a full time staff (rather than seasonal migrant workers) with an average of 25 years growing grapes and making wine.

The barrel fermented chardonnay was our favorite and we split a case with the other 2 couples. It was a tremendous experience and the catered lunch with discussion at length with George Hendry was unbelievable.

We moved on to Jessup. Jessup was nice with a platter of nuts, cheeses, olives and chocolates to share and taste with the wine. The cabs here were very good, but I think the fav were the 2 ports.

Then we moved to Sequoia Grove. Travis and I had the reserve tasting and the cab, which was amazing was a steal at 50% off. So of course we had to have one of those.

Finally we went to Elizabeth Spencer. Travis and I used to be wine club members here and they were nice enough to comp our tastings. It was the end of the day, so I'm not sure we gave Spencer's wines enough justice. My favorite was the Wente Chardonnay clones. We had a pinot that tasted amazingly like a Syrah - weird. Traci's favorite was the Syrah.

The house we rented has a hot tub and a very nice area to relax in the back yard. We ended our day with a bottle of wine while soaking in the hot tub. Then the boys cooked up some steaks/salmon. By this point, we were pretty tired and we hit the bed.

Current Total wineries 23, tastings 175