Welcome to It Starts with Grapes!
This was my first blog post, but as you can see, we’ve been busy publishing some more time sensitive posts exploring the wineries in Netflix movies, interviewing Chopped winners and celebrating National Wine Day! If you stick around, we’ll be sharing even more of our adventures at plenty of wineries, interviews with awesome peeps we meet along the way, plus much more. You can find us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or subscribe to our email newsletter below to receive our stories in your inbox.
Back to the wine adventure…
My Mom recently came to visit, and what do you do when a fellow wine lover comes into town… You take them to the Wine!!! Since we were making this a day trip, we wanted to take our doggos, which means all of the following wineries are dog friendly!
Our first stop was Gamling and McDuck, whose tasting room is located in the heart of downtown Napa. My favorite aspect of Gamling and McDuck’s tasting room is that the owner/winemaker, Adam, will host you personally!
Gamling and McDuck is super fun! When you walk in, make sure you look up! They have a fiberoptic “constellation” on their ceiling. On the wall, behind the bar, they have a unique take on the The Death of Socrates. After you grab a glass of wine, make sure you walk down past the bar to find the story of how Gamling met her McDuck and started their wine adventure.
Gamling and McDuck’s wines are delicious and off-the-beaten-path for Napa Valley. Their inspiration is the Loire Valley, and their tasting is heavy in chenin blanc and cabernet franc. Pro tip, grab a bottle or two of their rosé of cabernet franc, you’ll thank me later. You’ll hopefully see more of Gamling and McDuck featured on ISWG (It Starts With Grapes) soon :)
We then headed to Freemark Abbey, located in St. Helena. As members, we had access to their Partner’s Lounge, including a private picnic garden, which is usually quiet and a great place for a doggo nap.The Freemark Abbey Partner’s Lounge is BYOP (Bring Your Own Picnic), and we were prepared with our own spread, including charcuterie, cheese, hummus and chips!
My absolute favorite thing about being a member at Freemark Abbey, is that you get to taste off menu, and they always have really exciting wines for you to taste. They tend to have at least one year of library wine available. On this visit, we tasted a flight of three different years of Cabernet Bosché, 1996, 2006 and 2014. It’s crazy to think that I tasted a wine from the year my brother graduated high school! The wines here are very intense, what I like to call “woody,” and “normal” tasters would call “strong hints of oak.”
My favorite Freemark Abbey wine was originally described to me as a “spit bucket in a bottle,” but is actually their 130th Anniversary Wine. This wine is a blend of multiple varietals, across multiple vintages and from at least ten different vineyards.
For the next stop, we headed to the Stags Leap District and my favorite winery, Clos Du Val.
Mr. Wine Cutie and I first visited Clos Du Val in 2017, right after the Tubbs Fire and just as Clos Du Val went under renovation. We instantly fell in love with the wine and staff, enjoying each wine throughout the tasting. My favorite spot to taste is in the “barrel room,” however, for this visit, we tasted on the patio as we had our doggos!
The patio was spectacular, with an open, scenic view of the Stags Leap District. My favorite wine from Clos Du Val at the moment is their 2014 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon. It’s fruit forward, with soft tannins and not too “woody.” We actually enjoyed their estate cab more than their premium cab offerings, likely because it’s created to drink now, while their premium cabs require some age.
Our final stop this day was Ashes & Diamonds. Ashes & Diamonds is located in the Oak Knoll District, not too far north of downtown Napa.
Ashes & Diamonds has an art deco inspired tasting room and it is phenomenal! My absolute favorite thing to order–besides the wine–is their bread. Baked onsite, I don’t quite know what it is, but if they sold it, I’d drive all the way up to Napa just to buy it! On this trip we tasted outside, because doggos.
Ashes & Diamonds is open later than most wineries in Napa Valley, so this is a great place to taste at the end of your day, on your way back down Highway 29.
My favorite wine to taste here is the 2015 Cabernet Franc No. 2. This may sound weird, but you can almost taste the volcanic soils–I mean that in a good way–as it is straight up delicious!
This trip was such an exciting day for my mom and the doggos. This was our first time bringing our doggo to Napa, and it won’t be the last. Napa is a great place to not only create memories with family and friends, but also doggos.
Until next time Cuties, keep tasting!
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