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Wine wasteland no more
Napa has growing taste for boutique
wineries Wednesday, November 13,
2002
Kevin Courtney
Register Staff
Writer
Most likely, no one would confuse the subdued
wine tasting scene in downtown Napa with the mobbed tasting
rooms at Sattui or Merryvale wineries on a Saturday afternoon
during harvest.
Not yet.
But things are
changing. Once a wine wasteland, downtown Napa is suddenly
dotted with powerhouse tasting venues with more on the
way.
A greater number of premium boutique wineries are
now operating tasting rooms in humble downtown Napa than in
any of the Upvalley cities, the traditional centers of the
wine universe.
From a certain statistical point of
view, Napa's downtown can now claim to be the Napa Valley's
wine tasting capital.
At the Vintner's Collective at
Main and Clinton streets, 10 winemakers, many with reputations
for making pricey cult wines for others are selling high-end
wines under their own labels.
At Napa Wine Merchants at
Coombs and First streets, 11 small-production wineries have
teamed up to run a tasting/sales room for wines that will
never be found at Safeway or Trader Joe's.
Throw in
Robert Craig Winery on Vallejo Street and Bayview Cellars in
Napa Valley Traditions on Main Street and there are now 23
small wineries clustered downtown.
That's a
concentration to be found nowhere else in the Napa Valley,
said Thrace Bromberger, who turned Napa Wine Merchants into a
tasting collective three months ago.
These tasting
rooms, geared to the serious wine buyer, are part of
downtown's transformation into a shopping and dining
destination able to snare tourists who formerly would have
made a beeline Upvalley.
The Upvalley is still tourist
central. Downtown Napa can't compete with the bucolic charm of
rolling vineyards and working wineries, especially for
first-time visitors, said Daniel Dawson, owner of a new wine
shop, Back Room Wines on Franklin Street.
But for wine
enthusiasts who have "been there and done that," Napa can
become the place to be, he said.
The new winery tasting
rooms and wine bars have their marketing work cut out for
them.
On Monday, Veterans Day, the Vintner's Collective
had a smattering of customers, while Napa Wine Merchants stuck
to its schedule and was closed.
At Back Room Wines,
Dawson tended his personal selection of world wines with
little walk-in trade. The wine bar at Napa General Store on
Main Street had a smattering of customers, mostly guests at
the Napa River Inn who get a free wine tasting with the price
of their room.
This is only the beginning, said
Bromberger, who believes it is Napa's destiny to become a
place where people come to enjoy and buy hard-to-fine
wines.
During the Chefs Market summer run, as many as
200 people have come into Napa Wine Merchants for tastings and
wine purchases from such winemakers as Liparito, Astrale e
Terra, Hendry and her own operation, Gustavo Thrace, she
said.
Garret Murphy, owner of the Vintner's Collective,
said the opening of Copia, the Napa Valley Opera Café Theatre
and numerous good restaurants were omens that downtown can
draw upscale tourists.
"You have a bunch of world-class
restaurants and world-class wineries trusting in the future of
downtown Napa and its growth," Murphy said. The more wine
operations in downtown, the better it will be for everyone, he
said.
Betting on downtown's tourism future, Mark Pope
is moving his Bounty Hunter wine catalog operation from
Tannery Row on Coombs Street to 975 First Street, behind Napa
Valley Coffee Roasting.
Come spring, Bounty Hunter will
debut a stylish wine bar and charcuterie that he promises will
be "the place to taste wine in the Napa Valley."
"The
wow factor will be substantial when you walk in," said Pope,
who believes attracting customers will not be a
problem.
"When you're mailing two million catalogs a
year to the top wine consumers in the world, when they come to
Napa they'll want to see it," he said.
The explosion of
wine tasting in downtown has the managers at Uva Trattoria on
Clinton Street thinking about organizing a wine version of a
"pub crawl."
"We thought it would be fun for people to
walk around and have fun together," with stops for wine and
food samples, said Sean Pramuk, a co-owner of Uva. Until
recently, such a tour would have been impossible downtown, he
said.
Some of the new wine venues might intimidate a
wine novice or someone wanting a bottle for $5.99. These are
mostly high-end establishments where most wines are priced $25
and up.
But the tasting price is cheap -- generally $5
for three samples. A visitor can sit and learn about wine or
merely kill time with a pleasing merlot.
At the
Vintner's Collective, tastings occur in a National Register
landmark structure with stone walls two and a half feet thick.
Inside, art from the di Rosa Preserve hangs on the wall.
Represented wineries, whose wines sell from $15 to
$90, include Cafaro Cellars, Judd's Hill, Mi Sueño Cellars and
Strata Vineyards.
"I don't care if you're somebody
who's never had a glass of wine in your life or a millionaire
collector. I give you the same attention, but I give you
different information," said tasting room employee John
Green.
Dawson, who was once the sommelier at The French
Laundry, said he uses his expertise to sell wine. "I choose to
carry wines that people haven't heard of all that often, which
means the wines don't sell themselves," he said.
"But
each has a story behind it that explains why it is so darn
good," he said. "That's the way of a wine merchant. It's
selling myself, my expertise, more than any one bottle of
wine."
"This guy has taken all the work out of
tasting," said Nina Cutler of Napa, who was buying a $26 Orin
Swift wine called The Prisoner. She trusted Dawson to stock
only good value wines, she said.
At Napa General Store,
Jamie Skelly poured wine for guests at Napa River Inn, while
dispensing advice on wineries that her customers might like to
visit. Her business card calls her a "wine princess."
Lacey Lancaster and Seth Thurman of Walnut Creek said
this was their first visit to downtown Napa. They chose the
Napa River Inn after seeing a segment on the Travel Channel
about hotels with haunted rooms.
They had "power wine
tasted" the day before in Sonoma and Napa counties. Now they
were going to spend part of Veterans Day at Napa Premium
Outlets.
Most of the tasting rooms and wine shops offer
evening classes that feature winemakers and wine
instruction.
Downtown Napa wine
tasting
* Back Room Wines, 974 Franklin St., premium
wines of California and the world, Monday-Thursday, 10 a.m. to
6 p.m.; Fridays and Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; $6 to $7 per
glass.
* Bayview Cellars, inside Napa Valley
Traditions, 980 Pearl St., Bayview wines, Monday through
Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sunday, 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.;
$5 for three tastes.
* Corks, Dwight Murray Sr. Plaza,
First Street, eclectic premium wines, irregular hours; $2
tastes, $5 to $8 per glass.
* Napa General Store, 540
Main St., Hatt Market, mostly California wines, 11 a.m. to 7
p.m. daily; $5 for four tastings.
* Napa Wine
Merchants, 1146 First St., 11 boutique Napa Valley wineries,
Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturday, 11 a.m.
to 5 p.m.; Sunday, noon to 4 p.m.; closed Mondays; $5 for
three tastes.
* Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Bob, 1148
First St., assorted wines, Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to
5:30 p.m.; $5.50 for three tastes.
* Robert Craig
Winery, 880 Vallejo St., Craig wines from Howell Mountain,
noon to 5 p.m., Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays and
Saturdays.
* Vintner's Collective, 1245 Main St., 10
premium Napa Valley wineries, daily from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.;
closed Tuesdays; $5 for three tastes, $15 for four tastes and
a glass.
Kevin Courtney can be reached at 256-2217
or at
kcourtney@napanews.com
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