Raymond Vineyards
New Year's Eve in St. Helena
With New Year's Eve on a Monday this year I saw it as an
opportunity to head to St. Helena/Napa without having to pay a weekend (or a
two night minimum) rate at a lodging establishment so we made an afternoon and
evening out of it. Surprisingly it was
pretty quiet in the valley. Although
there were folks out it just seemed to not have that crazy vibe that sometimes
you get on a Saturday on Highway 29 at least once you got up valley.
We started by wanting to split a sandwich so we headed to
Genova Delicatessen on Trancas in Napa.
Trancas was apparently where the crowds were. After pulling the ticket and waiting 10
minutes we noticed there were still 15 people ahead of us. My family had a tradition of Genova raviolis
on New Year’s Day so I thought we could get our fix here but apparently not. We fought to get out of the parking lot and
thought maybe something from Whole Foods.
There was no parking available in that lot. Maybe the new Habit Hamburger spot but again
the lot was full. So we headed
north. The first spot was Bistro Don
Giovanni, but I had not budgeted that nor did I want to spend the time as wine
waited. We headed into Yountville and
the line outside of Bouchon was 30 deep.
So we stopped at the Ranch Market and remembered a little Deli on the
side of the store that we had stopped at before. A great stop; you order your sandwich and
then pay for it in the store so pretty much anything in the store can accompany
your sandwich. This is a great stop also if you are looking
for basic picnic supplies for a wine trip to the area. With our hunger situation taken care of we
headed further north.
Our first stop was Beaulieu (BV) which we talked about last
week. The parking lot was full but we
walked right in and tasted. An easy stop! We continued on without any specific plans
other than to make one more stop and to a vinery we had not visited in quite
some time or something new. We had heard
good things about Raymond Vineyards so stopped there.
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| The Crystal Room |
We arrived at the winery and checked in at the front desk
where three tasting options were described.
Armed with our 2 for 1 App we chose the Crystal Tasting which takes
place in a space carved out in the winery but outfitted with loads of with
mirrors and crystal. It is apparent that
Jean-Claude has some real flair because this was a tasting room like no other
we had seen before. A huge crystal
chandelier is in the center of the room and Baccarat crystals are throughout
the room. There are a couple of scantily
clad mannequins on trapezes above you.
But the wine- In this room you taste a higher level of wine,
mostly the ‘District’ wines. We tasted a
Chardonnay, a Rutherford Merlot, an Oakville Cab, a St. Helena Cab and their
high end Cab Blend called Generations. The
wines were not inexpensive with the Cabs in the $60.00 range and I think the
Cab blend close to $100.00 (this was a high end room). I was very happy with either of the district
Cabs.
We did briefly check out the regular tasting room and it was
your more basic tasting room bar.
Raymond makes wines starting at $15.00 and up so I am assuming that you
might find wines closer to everyday pricing in here. Our tasting ran $25.00 (but 2 for 1) and I
think the Tasting Room tasting is $15.00.
There was also a third option. At Raymond you will find a really
interesting garden which includes farm animals and inside the tasting room a
sensory area where you can sniff and feel various stuff. You have to see it to understand it. We were pretty happy with our stop and you
get the feeling that Raymond will be making some very good wines into the
future.
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| Anna's- A nice looking Dive Bar |
We were still pretty early for checking into our motel so we
made a stop in St. Helena at Anna’s, a great dive-ish bar. Anna’s, in the heart of wine country, serves
Sutter Home wine in the small bottles.
We had a great conversation with someone in Napa for a New Year's wedding
and watched a bit of sports. There are a
couple of other Napa area dive bars so hopefully we’ll review them in the
future.
We checked into the El Bonita, a classic 1940’s Motor Inn
with an excellent hot tub. The El Bonita
is within walking distance of most of St. Helena. For our New Year's evening we first walked to
Tra Vigne which was too crowded, then over to Farmstead at Long Meadow Ranch,
one of our favorite spots, and then over to Cindy Palcyn’s Wood Fire
Grill.
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| Farmstead (an old nursery building) |
What we liked- A non weekend day in Napa is great. Raymond was a lot of fun. I will definitely keep my eye out for any bargains
on the wines we tasted. I’d like to
spend next year’s New Year's doing the
same thing.
What we bought- Nothing but not because the wine was not
good.
Vitals:
Raymond Vineyards
849 Zinfandel Lane
St. Helena, CA
94574
(707) 963-3141
www.raymondvineyards.com
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