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It is easy to mistake this winery as a business office as from the front it does not look like a winery. In addition, their retail room is only open by walk-in on Friday and Saturday. The tasting counter is in the back through the hallway past the offices. A visit here is very low key and relaxed. Wine club members often stop by on the weekends in the summer for tasting - its a welcoming atmosphere. A porch is located right behind the tasting area and this overlooks their vineyard. Their wines are priced very reasonably. All tastings are paired with a variety of cheeses and chocolates. If available, try the delicious Camelback Vineyard Chardonnay (from the Carneros region). This is a popular wine and at the time of one of our visits it was already sold out. Our tasting started with a 2005 Yamhill County Pinot Noir - Big Horn Cellars had this wine made in Oregon and then brought to the actual winery in Napa. This is the best of both worlds - a Napa Winery being able to offer a high end Oregon Pinot Noir (not many Napa wineries do!) while ensuring this wine is produced carefully on site rather than trucking it down to Napa to be produced. This Pinot has a lot of nice fruit both in the bouquet and on the palate. The entry is juicy with nice notes of tangy berry, white pepper and other baking spices. The nose on the 2004 Merlot has some notes of tea leaves, black fig and herbs but its core is in the fruit. Slightly spicy on the palate we picked up notes of plum and red cherry. If there ever was a food wine, the 2005 Coombsville Cabernet Sauvignon is it. As of press time this is their most produced wine (around 1000 cases). It is an elegant wine both in aroma and flavor. A core of plum and cherry shows on the palate with a finish that is slightly dusty. Age has treated their special reserve Cabernet Sauvignon well (sourced from the best blocks of their Coombsville vineyard). We tried the 2001 - lots of spices and nuances of pepper intermingled in with nice cherry flavors. It is quite smooth. Lastly their 2005 Syrah is a dark inky wine. The aromas are decidedly fruit and floral driven with little spice. However, the spice is picked up on the palate along with blackberry and blueberry notes. Future plans include a major project on site to be called the Silverado Trail Wine Studio. This would be a step beyond the normal "winery collective" which the wineries represented typically have no ownership of the actual winery and whose wines may or may not be present in the collective tasting room. In this case Silverado Trail Wine Studio plans to build a "condominium" style complex in which the ownership comes from small wineries who are investors. This allows each winery to use the shared services including the winemaking & production facilities, tasting room, and make use of the brand marketing. We've seen the preliminary designs for this; it is a state of the art winery with a nice kitchen, lab, and private tasting facilities. It is an ingenious idea and once completed will be the only one of its kind in Napa Valley. Also inquire about their "Case for a Cause" where if you purchase a case of specific wines they will donate a certain amount to a charity of your choice. Note that several other labels are also tasted here including Expression (north coast and Oregon wines) and Tetra (blend of four varietals). Crushpad, the winery that was founded and based in San Francisco announced in early 2009 that they would move their operations to this winery. Plans call for some of their wines to be tasted in the main tasting room. We will update over time. Visit: www.bighorncellars.com |
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