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Northern California
Our Story and Mission- Ever since we were old enough to drink wine, we have been frequenting winery tasting rooms throughout California. Our trips in the late 70’s involved stops at 6-8 wineries (or maybe more) in a day. My first date with my wife was a day of wine tasting in Sonoma 31 years ago. So we are experienced with this stuff. I think there are several ingredients to a satisfying Tasting Room experience. The wine has to be good for starters and generally the known wineries all put out pretty decent wine. But there are other key factors in making the experience memorable. Sometimes a classy tasting room works for us, but sometimes standing around a barrel outside does the trick. At other times it is just good service that pleases us. Certainly one of the keys is the person serving the wine. So there are a whole bunch of things that make visiting a Tasting Room a positive experience. The point of this blog is to talk about and recommend Winery Tasting Rooms where we have had good experiences.The blog was conceived after spending a weekend with my sisters who normally do not frequent wineries and running into a couple of disappointing stops.

Friday, September 28, 2012


Tres Sabores
Rutherford (Napa), CA
 
 

A while back I was googling ‘Picnic Spots’ in the Napa Valley.  I had previously seen an article about how many wineries were starting to charge for you to picnic on their grounds and wanted to gather some more information.  We usually picnic at Hall Winery in St. Helena but because we are wine club members and have been there many times it is a good spot for us.  This may not be the case for just anyone.  Anyhow, we had a day in Napa planned and we wanted to try something new so we chose to taste and picnic at Tres Sabores which had been mentioned in the article.  I was familiar with one of their wines, the one called ‘Por Que No?’ so we thought we would try it. 


Tres Sabores is a very small winery a mile or so off the main highway in the Whitehall Lane area.  It is set against the mountains where there is a small cave and a fairly simple facility.  This is the kind of place where you really need to taste outside as you really are smack in the middle of the ranch and there would be no reason to want to be inside in this beautiful setting.  We tasted under some big old oak trees where they have 3 or 4 picnic tables. 
Tres Sabores means Three Flavors.  The goal is the perfect balance of Terroir (the Rutherford Bench location), Vines (the distinctive character of the grape varietal) and Artisan (the winemaker’s contribution).  You can’t fault the goal here.  Our host was Holden who provided us an informative but relaxed tasting.  As we were eating, Holden would pop out with a new taste from time to time, give us a little description of the wine and the leave us be for a bit.  
 

It was a warm day and we started with a splash of a splash of Sauvignon Blanc.  While the bulk of the wines are labeled ‘Napa Valley’, this Sauv Blanc and a Chardonnay they produce are from the Sonoma Mountain region.  We also had the Ingrid and Julia (garden roses) Rose.  I think Rose’s are really meant to go with food and this with our lunch was great.  This Rose was made from Zinfandel and Petite Sirah.  But like most Napa Valley wineries the red wines are the treat.  
 
Tres Sabores produces Estate Zinfandel and Estate Cabernet from this property.  In my opinion the Zinfandel is the better deal of the two at $35.00.  The SF Chronicle gave this a great review earlier this year. The Cabernet was excellent also but I’m not sure I would have been comfortable at the $85.00 price.  Tres Sabores does not produce a standard Napa Valley Cab so this was our only Cabernet option.
 
But we were really impressed with their blends.  Por Que No? is a blend of Zinfandel, Cabernet, Petite Sirah and a bit of Petit Verdot .  I think this wine is one-half of the production at Tres Sabores and you are really tasting a quality Napa Valley wine here for the nice price of $25.00.  We also tasted a second blend containing Mouvedre, Petite Sirah and Syrah.  We liked this one also.
 


The tasting fee at Tres Sabores is a little steep at $25.00 but it is not your normal Napa Valley tasting experience.  Reservations are required and on this Saturday afternoon we were the only ones tasting.  It almost has the feel of being in someone’s back yard.  There are a couple of big dogs, and on the property there are sheep and guinea hens as well.  My take is that if you were a wine club member at this winery you might feel like part of the family pretty quickly

What we liked: Funky, ranchy, rustic yet classy experience

What we bought: We came home with the two blends courtesy our friends Jon and Maronee

 
Vitals:     

Tres Sabores

1620 S. Whitehall Lane

St. Helena, CA  94574

(707) 967-8027

www.tressabores.com
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