Saturday wine tasting

We went wine tasting on Saturday and visited several wineries in Napa. The Stags Leap District Winegrowers were hosting their annual Vineyard to Vintner (V2V) event and we hit most of them!

1. Nickel & Nickel - (not part of the event, but we had free access to their Spring Barrel Tasting.) Our favorites (out of the 13 tasted!) were the 2006 C. C. Ranch and Rock Cairn cabernets). The barrel room was absolutely beautiful!
   
2. Baldacci Family Vineyards - Tom Baldacci was cooking some nice sausage and steak on the grill in front of the cave. We learned his "secret" for tenderizing his steak and will be trying it out soon
   
3. Shafer Vineyards - Was pretty busy here. They have a great name, so not surprised.
   
4. Ilsley Vineyards - The tasting was out on the porch. Too bad the porch was small. We left shortly after arriving.
   
5. Silverado Vineyards - This place was BIG! Probably the most corporate on the Silverado Trail.
   
6. Taylor Family Vineyards - We met Jerry, Pat and Sandy. Bought a Reserve bottle here.
   
7. Pine Ridge Winery - Only offering two wines (a red and a white). The skewers off of the grill were quite tasty (serving both lamb and shrimp).
   
8. Steltzner Vineyards - They had the tasting in their cave and sampled a 1985 Cabernet...one of their oldest. Near the entrace, they keep many of their library wines...look for all the dust in the cabinets to the left.
   
9. Griffin Vineyards - Due to a trademark dispute, they are changing their name.
   
10. Hartwell Vineyards - Bob Hartwell was signing bottles and his Shih Tzu was leashed next to him. She was had quite a reserved temperament compared to another puppy I know...
    
11. Regusci Winery - Awesome tasting room...surrounded by boxes upon boxes of ancient vintages from around the Napa neighborhood

We've been to Chimney Rock Winery, Cliff Lede Vineyards and Robert Sinskey Vineyards before, so the only one that we really missed was Clos Du Val.