Silver Rose

The tasting room at the old Silver Rose Resort is now closed – Silver Rose no longer has a tasting room in the Napa Valley. Many of Silver Rose’s wines have won Gold or best of class at prestigious tasting events around the nation. The owner J Paul Dumont used to vacation in the Napa Valley quite often and during one stay at “Silver Rose” learned the owners wanted to sell their B&B and he wanted a location to build a winery. Along with his wife Sally he purchased the property, kept the original name and opened the new winery in 2000.

This was a one of a kind resort for the Napa Valley – combining a winery with lodging but with the opening of the much newer Solage down the street, Silver Rose finally had to close its doors – first the resort, then the winery and tasting room. This resort was quite desirable during its heyday because of all the ammenities on one property (rare for Napa). In the spirit of Napa Valley’s thriving wine industry – their swimming pool is shaped like a wine bottle!

Here are a few tasting notes from the last and most recent time we were in the tasting room (before being taken over by B Cellars). We tried the 2007 Sauvignon Blanc – reasonably priced this wine offers nice notes of citrus and grapefruit on the nose followed by tropical fruit flavors on the palate including pineapple and kiwi. Their Rose is a very interesting wine; it is a blend of Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. This wine was created using the Saignee method in which the juice is “bled” out of the red wine during an early stage in fermentation (rather than merely letting the juice sit on the skins for a set amount of time). This is a delicate wine with a soft mouth feel – watermelon and strawberry aromas lead to cherry and other red fruits on the palate.

The next two wines we sampled are by far their most produced. The grapes for the 2006 Chardonnay do not come from Carneros as you so often find from Napa wineries, rather they are grown at 1200 feet above Calistoga in the far northern reaches of the Napa Valley. Calistoga is a significantly warmer area than Carneros, so the elevation is key here to moderating the growing season. This wine has a nice smooth rounded mouth feel with pineapple and pear on the palate with mineral notes.

The grapes for their 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon were grown on site; it is blended with Cabernet Franc. For the quality this wine is reasonably priced; it shows nice fruit and notes of cedar in the bouquet – plum, cherry with rich spices touch the smooth long finish. Private barrel tasting tours are also given but advance notice is required although sometimes you can try a barrel sample after your regular tasting. The estate vineyards on site are farmed organically and they have already applied for CCOF certification. In addition, Silver Rose runs one of the more unique wine clubs in the valley called J-Paul’s Wine Selection. Each quarter the owner J Paul selects quality wines that are decently priced. These are typically Napa area wines but in the future may expand to included other wine regions of the world. Visit: www.silverrose.com

NOTE: This review has been archived.
REASON: Stopped producing wine commercially, the physical winery and tasting room no longer exists. It has been demolished