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Day 1: A Castle in the Sky
It was my first trip to the Napa Valley and I could not wait to get there!
Unfortunately we got into Napa after dark so the unveiling would have to wait. The weather report did NOT look good for our first day there: cool, windy and possibly raining. All I could think was “Oh no, I’m going to miss it.” But instead Mother Nature put on a bit of a show.
As we began to roll into THE Napa Valley I couldn’t help but notice how flat much of the vineyards were. I had always thought all the great vineyards were hillside vineyards. But there was Cakebread just off the road. Next up was Sequoia Grove and down the road a bit is Grgich Hills, Bella Union and Alpha Omega. All RIGHT THERE! I was stunned at the sheer volume of legendary estates all just by the roadside. I took a minute to reorient myself.
But our first appointment of the trip was, in fact, up in the hills at Ovid. As we made our steep, windy trip up the weather still was not cooperating. It was pretty much completely overcast.
I have an endlessly optimistic co-worker and he was on the trip with me. As we pulled into Ovid which is “…nestled at an elevation of 1,349 feet on a secluded mountaintop in the western reaches of Pritchard Hill” he was sure that the skies would clear.
We were greeted by the hospitality manager, Ellis, with a glass of their Ovid White Blend Experiment. The Experiment wines are just that — every wine is a unique blend of multiple varietals that changes with every wine. Here is the wine we had:
And it was fantastic!
After a tour of the tank room we went into the cellar to try one of the red Experiment wines, this one:
Also fantastic!
Then after that it was back up to the room with the view. Our trip back into the tasting room led us back outside for a moment and as my optimistic coworker predicted the sun did start to break through and the view was spectacular. At one point reminding me of one of my favorite paintings — El Greco’s “View of Toledo”:
And our view:
We were fortunate to try a few vintages of the Ovid wines and they are just amazing, young but showing great fruit and finesse already. Get whatever you can of the Experiments and the OVIDs.
The wines are just as memorable as that view. It was my first day in the hillsides of Napa and I will never forget it!
Cheers!
