Wine Cuties, on a recent trip to Napa, Mr. Wine Cutie worked his magic and scored us a highly sought after tasting at O'Shaughnessy Estate Winery.
Our story of how we discovered O'Shaughnessy wine begins a while ago. Our friend, JW, introduced us to O'Shaughnessy one night at dinner, and we instantly fell in love with their wine. So naturally, we do what any wine lover does, we start looking for their wines in store and quickly found out they are hard to find anywhere. Next, we tried to get into the actual winery a couple of times during previous visits to Napa Valley. However, they were always booked. That all changed when we officially scored a tasting! [Ed. note: weekdays are easier to book than weekends.]
Let's start off by saying that driving to O'Shaughnessy was a bit more interesting than other Napa Valley wineries. We've explored wineries in the mountains before, however, this one takes the cake on being the most difficult so far.
O'Shaughnessy recommended against using Google Maps or GPS as the signal can be flaky and leave you lost if you lose it. Instead, they emailed written step-by-step directions with landmarks to help ease our mind and keep us on track. Even though the directions were phenomenal, Mr. Wine Cutie and his trusty co-pilot... (me!) missed the turn (I'm not good at directions). Thankfully, our friend JW was there to ask, “is that the black gate?”
It was! Mr. Wine Cutie "found" a place to turn around, accidentally placing the car in park instead of reverse... and we lost it. Laughing so hard as we were in the middle of the road in a blind spot. Also, Mr. Wine Cutie is simply not the best of drivers :P (Love you, babe!)
After we got back on track and made it through the black gate, we had no problem getting to the winery. Finally after the most lengthy driveway ever, we park and walk up to the winery. This place is sensational! The views are spectacular. The winery is modern. As we walked in, we meet our winery hostess, Vie.
Vie starts off our wine tasting with a sauvignon blanc. I didn't even know O'Shaughnessy even produced white wine! We were so excited to taste the sauvignon blanc since we love their reds. Let me tell you, it definitely didn't disappoint. The taste was even more delightful. So light and refreshing. It’s even aged in a concrete egg...
Cutie note: I’m definitely seeing a pattern in my favorite white wines, all of which seem to be aged at least for a portion of time in concrete eggs. My favorite up to now is Quintessa’s Illumination. It’s why I’m so excited for Artessa’s new concrete egg-aged albariño, to be released at the end of June.
As we are finishing the sauvignon blanc, we are unexpectedly surprised by two adorable doggos who came into the tasting room, Blue and Lykka. They belong to the winemaker, Shawn Capiuax, who follows right behind. No biggie, the winemaker is here, and we meet his doggos!!! AHH!
Our tour begins in their actual wine lab. We learn that they grow eight Bordeaux varietals, including gros verdot, which doesn’t even grow in Bordeaux, France anymore due to phylloxera. All the varietals are aged separately. As we move into the winery, we learn that Shawn Capiuax actually created a sort-of-like colander for the wine tanks. This colander helps protect the equipment of the stainless steel tanks from the debris of the grapes.
As we walk out of the winery, Vie tells us that the winemaker actually makes his own brandy and port. He doesn't sell it, and I don't generally like either, but I definitely would at least love to taste them both, if I ever got the opportunity!
Vie opens the doors to the wine cave. That's right, a wine cave! We walk in and surprisingly the wine cave is light and inviting. The colors on the wall is off-white, Vie points out the color is humorously referred to as “Betty White.” We all laugh. We hear music play and learn that the music choice changes depending on who’s in the cave working. We head to the right, walk a little further and come across a room off to the right. We walk in, and Vie explains this is where club members can have private tastings. We walk a little further into the room through another set of doors and brr, it gets cold!
We just walked into a wine cellar. O'Shaughnessy is incredible, and it keeps getting better and better. Vie explains that they only hold onto a couple of bottles of each vintage in the cellar. We walk a little further down in the wine cellar, and end up in Shawn Capiaux's private wine label, Capiaux.
Past Capiaux’s private label, taking up most of the cellar, is the private wine collection of Betty and Paul, the owners of O'Shaughnessy. We are blown away by this collection! The centerpiece is a magnum of 2004 O'Shaughnessy Howell Mountain cabernet sauvignon autographed by everyone who helped out in that year's vintage. We walk further down the wine cellar and end up at a shelf with a thirty-five year “vertical” of original label California wineries, from 1966 through 2001. The OG's of California wine, which included a few bottles from our favorite wineries, a 1967 Ridge Vineyards, a 1974 Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars and a 1978 Duckhorn Vineyards. #Mindblown
After we wrap our heads around this marvelous wine cellar, it’s time to go back into the tasting room to finish up our tasting. To the wine!
We are tasting four wines, the first is Wilson Vineyard pinot noir. This is from Capiaux, Shawn's private wine label. He made this wine with his son. They call this wine, “the college fund.” The wine is delightful, it's spicy and definitely has darker fruit notes.
The next wine is a merlot from O'Shaughnessy. Vie explains that the merlot is not commonly served for tasting. Lucky us! Again it was spicy, but this time tannic. The final two wines were cabernet sauvignon, one from Mount Veeder and one from the Howell Mountain vineyard we were at. The Howell Mountain tasted fruit forward, with hints of green pepper. The Mount Veeder smelled like green pepper, but tasted even spicier, with black pepper!
We all enjoyed O'Shaughnessy so much that we are all officially wine members! We love their wine so much we couldn't imagine leaving without becoming members. So stay tuned for more O'Shaughnessy on ISWG.
Until next time Cuties, keep tasting!
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