About Me

My photo
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, March 29, 2013


Hunnicutt Wines
Saint Helena, CA



Following our great tasting at Titus Vineyards we visited Hunnicutt Wines.  As I mentioned last week our friend Wally gave these two tastings ratings of 10.5 on a scale of 10.  Hunnicutt definitely has a different look and feel than Titus but like I have mentioned before all kinds of tasting experiences can be good.  Whereas Titus had its roots more in the grape growing business, Hunnicutt probably took a different route.  Although the label was established in 2001, everything at the winery is new and beautiful.  The winery and caves were just completed in 2011.  The facility is just up the road from Titus on the mountain side of the Silverado Trail.  Just a short drive up the hill and it is like you are in the mountains. 

Mountain feel at Hunnicutt

The winery is owned by Justin Stephens and family.  Justin’s father had started a winery several years earlier on Howell Mountain under the DR Stephens label and although they continue to retain separate brands I believe most of the winemaking will be happening at the newly complete Hunnicutt facility.  Justin jumped into winemaking in 2001 after graduating from Cal in 1998 and a short business career with his first wine job as a cellar rat working at Miner Family.  He went on to work at Saddleback and Venge Winery and formed a relationship with Kirk Venge, son of legendary winemaker Nils Venge.  Kirk Venge is the winemaker today at Hunnicutt. 
 
Kirk and Justin
Appointments are required to visit Hunnicutt.  We were unaware of the brand until this year when Hunnicutt became members of the GEMS group, a group of privately owned wineries in the Napa Valley.  We have never been to a GEM winery we did not enjoy so they must have pretty high standards.  Although the entryway is marked on the Trail, driving up the short road is almost like driving up a private road .  The road opens up and a small but beautiful facility is right in front of you.  Surrounded by pine trees sits a good sized open garden area surrounded by just a couple of buildings and the large façade of the cave structure.  The design really was well done.  There is a small inside area for tasting but I’m thinking on a lot of days you really want to be outside.  The tasting room has large doors that were open the whole way which almost gives you the sense of being outdoors.  Our tasting had been set up for us prior to our arrival.  Our group of 4 were the only ones there initially until a wine club member arrived and took seats on some outdoor rocking chairs.

Mo (or Maux) was our host and although I am guessing Mo had not been with the winery too long, he certainly had excellent knowledge about the wines and everything Hunnicutt.  Hunnicutt’s wines are divided into a three groups.  The Hunnicutt Brand is Chardonnay, Zinfandel, Merlot and Cabernet, the second label is called Cutt and these are wines that are not one of the above varietals, and then the Reserve label which is devoted to premium Cabernets.  As usual my notes are thin, or almost nonexistent here but we liked everything.  We tasted the Chardonnay, the Napa Cab, the Fearless, a Petite Sirah/Zin/Cab blend as well at two of the Reserve Cabernets.  Again, not being Chard drinkers, we found this one very drinkable and the Napa Cab was very good and in what is pretty much now the standard Napa Cab price range of $45-50.  This one was $50.00.  The Reserve’s were both $85.00 and both the Rutherford AVA and Spring Mountain AVA were excellent.  We did not taste the super premium 9-3-5 Cabernet priced at $125.00.

But what we ended up buying was the blend.  The story goes was that they were offered the Petite Sirah grapes from a grower in the Coombsville AVA and thought they were so good they could not refuse.  The Fearless was the first wine under the Cutt label.  The Fearless was really my wife’s purchase and she has an idea of doctoring the label to read Cutting after a college friend she will be seeing this summer.

 

As we were finishing our tasting we got to make a quick tour of the property and caves.  The facility is also being used as somewhat of a custom crush facility and the newly constructed caves are already filling up fast with Hunnicutt, DR Stephens and other winery barrels.  My thoughts are that Hunnicutt is really going to become a sought after wine experience and no doubt a maker of premium wines. 

 
What we liked- Mo was sharp and not pretentious.  He knows they have a pretty good thing going on there.  Every aspect of the experience was top notch.  A must stop and at $25.00 to taste it is worth it.

What we bought- Three bottles of the blend.  Hopefully I’ll get to taste it.

 
Vitals
Hunnicutt Wines
3524 Silverado Trail North
Saint Helena, CA  94574
(707) 963-2911
www.hunnicuttwines.com

 
Posted by at
Labels:

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)