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This is by far the most humorous tour that we've been on in the Napa Valley. You will be laughing. If its busy there may be several tours circulating through the caves at once - the tour guides all seemed to be extremely happy with big smiles across their faces (our guide was enjoying each barrel sample along with our group). One side cave we entered was completely covered with slimy moss and our guide told us that if you lick it with your tongue, you would probably end up naked in a desert somewhere. Try their "mofo" barrel blends - which in this case is not a derogatory term, rather it stands for "Missouri Oak, French Oak" aged. Red stoppers in a barrel means that barrel is already sold out. One of their barrels is a Colbert, which at press time runs about $1600 each. Its French Oak and only 200 of these are made each year. The tour starts with a very interesting explanation and display about oak barrels. This winery does a lot of experimentation with various oaks. Oak trees in France have to be at least 80 years old by law before they can be cut down. One of their French Oak barrels has staves (wood) from 9 different coopers (suppliers). Their wines consistently receive high awards. The highlights of the wines we tasted are their Cabernet Sauvignons and various blends. Also their Cabernet Franc was excellent - you cannot always find a balanced Cab Franc in Napa. In addition they offer 6 different ports (only one is included for tasting on the tour). Del Dotto understands the importance of having top brandy fortified in their ports. One of Napa's best Port houses is "behind" the brandy which contributes to the high quality of these ports - and its not Prager. The winery boasts a great collection of International wines as well as small harder to find wines from other Napa Valley wineries. They are probably the only winery in the valley to have such a large collection of wine from around the world for sale. We mentioned above that this winery is "going places" - right now they are still "boutique" in size as far as having a small production however their tour feel certainly isn't representative of a small boutique winery - and in late Fall 07' they opened an elegant new Italian style winery & caves just south of St. Helena along the "wine strip". (See above) The owner of this winery is Dave Del Dotto who traces his family back to Venice in the 1100's. He was famous for a nationally syndicated program about get-rich investment strategies. Del Dotto also owns the old Girard Winery (which we have already visited) on Pritchard Hill and signs there indicate a visit is by appointment only. Looking for another amazing Napa Del Dotto winery and tour, visit our review of their estate winery located just south of the town of St. Helena. Visit: www.deldottovineyards.com Note that to pull into their streetside parking area in front of the winery - there is a very steep drop off next to part of this parking area, and we've waited out here several times to see cars totally bottom out as they drive off the road into the small parking strip. Move further down this parking strip and the steep drop off becomes much less pronounced. |
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