It was all very last minute and unexpected, but I had the great opportunity to go to the Taste of Oakville yesterday. My GM told me I should go with my beverage manager a few days ago and arranged for me to get in the day before. I was assuming I would be doing inventory on Monday like every other Monday the past year or so up until that point, so this was a welcome change of plans to say the least. I didn't get a whole lot of answers as to when it started or what it entailed or even where it was, and I had the feeling my manager only knew that it was at the Mondavi winery and he offered to drive. We ended up staying late Sunday night doing inventory and I really pressed to get there early the next day and see what was happening. If we were going to go, I surely didn't want to miss anything. Maybe there would be a barrel tasting, I reasoned. We went back and forth a bit, but eventually decided on leaving at 9:15.

It was nice not to drive, and it is pretty rare that I spend time with any of my managers outside of the restaurant, so I definitely got to see a different side of him. I don't know what it is about being in someone else's car, but you get a good idea about who they are. I phoned in the weekly orders to our wine reps during the second half of the drive, and when we got to Mondavi I had one more to do. The place didn't look that busy with the small parking lot in front maybe half full. "Go ahead and phone that in, I will go and look around," he said. As I finished on the phone he came back in a hurry, urgently tapping on my window. "There's a class that just started, let's hurry!"

We ran through the parking lot like two little kids on their way to the carnival, me fumbling to put my phone and order guide away. We signed in and quietly took our seats. There were four panelists. I could see the middle two, Phil Coturri with Oakville Ranch and Kirk Venge with Saddleback Cellars. Someone from the winery poured me what I saw maked on my tasting menu to be the Oakville Ranch 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon. To be honest, in the excitement of unexpectedly being able to attend, running through the parking lot, registering (my name was not on the list. "Are you attending in someone else's place?" That name was not on the list either. I gave a business card and they wrote me out a pass by hand) and thensitting down suddenly in an environment where everyone was concentrating their attention, I just couldn't concentrate for the first ten minutes or so. So I all but missed what was said about the first wine. I was just getting my mental bearings when they poured the second wine. I figured out that we were doing a tasting of three wines from three different areas of Oakville. Oakville Ranch on the Eastern edge, Saddleback cellars in the center of the valley, and Bond Estates Vecina vineyard on the western edge of Oakville. Phil Coturri was the vineyard manager and viticulturist for Oakville Ranch, and Kirk Venge held the same position while also being the winemaker for Saddleback Cellars. Later Mary Maher, viticulturist for Vecina spoke. There was also a gentleman who I couldn't see at all moderating the discussion. He was sort of this disembodied voice, but from the way he put the others' comments into perspective in terms of the geological events of Oakville along with his comments on what we were tasting in the wines, I figured he must be a Master Sommelier.

There was a lot of info, and I don't think I could possibly write it all out here. It was super interesting to hear what the viticulturists had to say about their vineyard and soil and then taste the wine, though. It reminded me that it always starts with the vineyard site. Each vineyard had different soils. Mr. Coturri's site has rocky, minerally soils and a lot of heat from the afternoon sun. He plants lots of different cover crops to bring nutrients into the soil. I got lots of black cherry notes predominantly in the Oakville Ranch wine, and of the three, I would have to say his was the most "youthful" both in the color exhibited and fruit aromas and flavors. Saddleback has more of a clay based soil with gravel mixed in, and the vineyard is dry farmed with no cover crops planted. The water table is high, and Mr. Venge spends a lot of his effort controlling vigour rather than encouraging it. I found his wine (2006 Venge Family Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon) to be much more earthy by comparison, but still with that black cherry (which turned out to be a theme in all the wines). Interestingly enough, although he is on the valley floor, he gets budbreak much later and picks much later than lots of vineyards because of his soil which doesn't heat up as soon as even some of his neighbors. Generally, he is around two weeks behind them, if I am remembering correctly. For the 2006 vintage, they picked on November 1st at 24 brix. The Vecina vineyard has a much thinner soils on top of bedrock that require compost and cover crops. They irrigate frequently because the drainage is so good, and they find themselves waiting for the tannins to mature on the western side much longer and that is what drives the picking decisions for the most part. The 2006 Vecina had heady aromatics, pepper, cloves, vanilla, dark cherry and a hint of fresh pine. It was the most dense, darkest, most brooding of the three, with finer, more pronounced tannins.

During the general question and answer period, I made a few notes:

Oakville is much closer to Burgundy than Bordeaux. The terroir is varied and the vineyard land is broken up into small parcels. People confusingly think of it as Bordeaux-like, but that is because of the predominant varietal that it has in common with Bordeaux.

Cab Franc is really great in the East where the high Iron content of the soil does wonders (think of the soils for Cheval Blanc and Ausone). The sedimentary soil in the West is great for Merlot.

20 years ago, you didn't see winemakers in the vineyards, now they are there frequently. Just as frequently nowadays, you find viticulturists in the tasting room to get info back on their farming processes.

2010 was the first year that Napa was actually cooler than Bordeaux. 2005-2009 they were tied.

A big part of being successful in the vineyard is bringing around the talent of the workforce. Canopy management is much more important than it was 30 years ago (when they did very little) and keeping a crew employed year after year with the knowledge and experience carried through is vital.

Oakville has alluvial fans forming from the Mayacamas erosion, and if you look distantly down the valley, you can see the gentle upswells where perhaps the gravel is a little deeper (I guess it is like Bordeaux in that respect...).

The red wines being truly red and not black or purple results from the higher acidity which helps set color in the grapes (and wines).

They battle mites in the vineyard with other, predatory mites.

They use phermone traps to disrupt the mating cycles of vineyard pests.

At the end of the question and answer period, we were asked to relax on the lawn as they were going to change the room over for lunch, and I just could not believe my luck in how this whole thing was working out. As everyone was milling about with a glass of Mondavi Chardonnay, I made an effort to meet other people. I confess I am a "people person," and I didn't want to be by my manager's side the whole time. So I roamed around introducing myself to a few people people. I thanked the panelists for being in the spotlight. I met two gentlemen from Grape Radio, which sounded intriguing. There was an Advanced level Somm who I had heard of on this site. There were a few people from businesses in our area I said hello to as well. A lot of people had badges that had been somehow turned around so you couldn't see who they were, which probably held me back a little bit. Maybe it was for the best as I didn't want to be too intrusive. Lunch was served and the room was transformed, in an amazing period of time, to accommodate 140 people for lunch. I told my manager, "let's try to sit with people we don't know," as we entered, but soon after we sat at an empty table, the two people we knew at the event from another restaurant in our company sat down with us. Happily, Phil Coturri sat down as well two to my right and the mysterious fourth panelist sat down right next to me. I saw by his name tag he worked for Bond and his name was Paul Roberts. I said, "Oh, someone you work with is a new Master Sommelier. I believe his name is Jason Heller." He said, "Yes, you're right. I am an MS, too," and he handed me his card.

So many questions flooded my mind, and what a great opportunity to get answers. One question above all had been burning burning in my mind, so I thought I would ask it first. "Phil," I said, feeling a bit more casual after a bit of wine, "how many vintages have you been farming in Napa?" He said he had been farming since he was 14 years old, so going on 45 years. I said, "I read a lot about people who complain about the alcohol level in Napa wines. Some things I have read, especially in the Sommelier community, are very critical of this fact. Some Sommeliers won't even consider putting a wine on their list over a certain abv (I don't remember if I gave a specific number here, tbh, but I think I said 14 %). Has high alcohol always been a fact for Napa wines, or is this more of a new style of winemaking catering to current tastes?" Phil said he grew up farming Zinfandel vines and kind of chuckled, so he was always around high abv wines. But what was most important to him was balance. If the alcohol is integrated with the tannins, fruit, and acidity, the wine was sound. Paul Roberts chimed in here. He said one of the most storied Napa wines, '43 Inglenook along with the 1942 vintage (or was it '44?--I wasn't taking notes at this point) which is also legendary, both have what would today be considered very high abv, (approaching 15%?--again no notes, he might have said "over 15%). Also, Paul cited a book called "Romanee Conti" by Richard Olney where the author looks at a hundred year old log cataloging the wines. It says something to the effect that at 11% they feel they aren't really making wine, at 12%, they feel they are just beginning to make wine, at 13% they are making wine, at 14% they are making good wine, and at 15% they are making great wine. (Apparently this is in the back of the book.) The view of both of these gentlemen was that the line in the sand mentality of abv was just too simplistic. And you can't just discount a wine based on one factor, even though you do need to factor in the amount of consumption and the effects of alcohol on a person if they are driving. I thought of my own wine list. We have a recent addition btg that is listed as 14.2 abv, but burns like rocket fuel. The Venge Family Reserve we had just tasted was 14.3 and I didn't notice at all. In fact, Phil said he gets calls from viticulturists in Bordeaux and the Northern Rhone now asking him for advice on what do do in the vineyards there as those regions grow warmer and warmer. They are being confronted with this more and more with global warming. He named a few names of producers he has developed a relationship with over the years since he travels and tastes there, but I didn't write any down. Paul said that there is a difference between luminosity and heat. Both Bordeaux and Napa get a lot of luminosity, or sunlight which makes great wines. But, until recently, Napa got significantly more heat which gets higher abv in general. They had to chaptalize in France previously, but now the french have pioneered the Reverse Osmosis machinery. Even the RO machines themselves you see in California are french made.

I had a second question for Phil (I confess I am a little awestruck by the Master Sommeliers). I asked him what it was like working in the field for so many different winemakers. Oakville Ranch has about 75 acres, how many winemakers do you work with and what kind of challenges does that take on. Phil said they try and work with between 6 and 8 wine makers, and they try and keep their lots separate because they have different requirements. In fact, they were reorganizing the vines into 2.5 acre lots to make this easier to do. Paul said that if ever I get a chance to go to a larger vineyard where they work with several different winemakers, I should try and walk the vineyard with the viticulturist/vineyard manager and see all the different techniques. (I think I will definitely do that, I think I have an inroad at Krupp Brothers' Stagecoach vineyards). What is interesting, Phil said, was to see how the personality of the wines matches the personality of the winemakers. One guy was very quiet and conservative and tightly wound, and it took his wines ten years before they were showing their best. One winemaker was big and bold and open with the type of laugh that could boom and quiet an entire restaurant, and his wines were the same way.

By this time, we had finished our salads and the entrees arrived, and I figured I should just let everyone eat and stop talking shop. Kudos to the Mondavi kitchen for serving 140 moist, perfectly prepared Pan Roasted New York Strip Loins. The food was delicious and paired with Mondavi wines. I didn't take notes, but I was very impressed by the 2008 Mondavi Oakville Cabernet (much more cassis and dark berry rather than the dark cherry in the wines we had just tasted) along with the 2009 Mondavi Moscato d'Oro. I think this was the most enjoyable half of the day by far, and again, I couldn't believe my good fortune. The general tasting was approaching and someone at my table had mentioned we had to go taste Screaming Eagle and we should go there first before they run out. This, I had heard about. The Taste of Oakville was the place you could taste Screaming Eagle, the cult wine of all cult wines. Was it just my imagination, or could I feel the frenzy starting to take root in the room and grow? When they announced the tasting was about to start and gave directions to the To Kalon cellar, people immediately began to get up. Personally, I was waiting for the coffee to come around, but everyone wanted to go, so I did, too. We walked, very fast, imo, to the entrance and saw loads of cars in a larger back parking lot. There was a valet, there was a line to register (we skipped it because we were already registered...) and I was getting a bit jostled. My GM called to make sure I got the order in. We made our way past enormous casks, and up a huge ramp grabbing a glass with a small pour of what I am sure was the Mondavi Fume Blanc that was paired with the salad from lunch. Up the ramp, the majority of people broke off to the left. I can only describe it as a very subdued kind of frenzy to get to the Screaming Eagle. It really made me want to just bypass it altogether the more I got bumped and the more people "cut" in line with varying amounts of shame or apologetic looks on their faces, or sometimes no compunction whatsoever. Could it really be that important? It seemed like totally not the point of the tasting, and I valued the first part of my day more and more with each passing minute. The hall was loud and I couldn't hear much of anything anyone was saying. With such crowds and lines, it was inconvenient to spit in the ceramic spitoons at the tables. I decided I might as well brave it out for the Screaming Eagle, but my hopes for really tasting and taking notes were all but gone. So I kind of went on a trophy run of all the big names, and then I spent a lot of time schmoozing. There were a lot of people I knew or had met. Some of my regulars at the bar were there. I thanked Paul Roberts for his time on the panel and his answers to my questions at lunch. I was separated from and found my manager several times, and we left around 3:30 to beat the traffic back to the Bay Area.

I felt lucky to have been able to attend, and I feel like I learned an awful lot. I have to say, the hospitality was first class, and I was deeply impressed by the Mondavi operation. Everyone should be thanking them for their leadership in hosting this event. It was surely worth staying up late into the night Sunday night and counting bottles, bleary-eyed and slouching. And I hope to attend many, many more of these types of events in my career.