Sharon Becomes a Wine Maker...Well, Almost

I spent a lovely weekend in Napa Valley. Along with 4 other couples, we bought a barrel of wine at a fundraiser for Anita Oaks School. The package: take a trip to Napa, where you will blend your very own barrel of 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon from the Stag's Leap District, bottle the wine, party at the winery, and go wine tasting the next morning. We hauled our way up to Napa Valley from So Cal on Friday morning, just in time to hop in the jacuzzi for a few moments before our dinner reservation at Bottega (http://www.botteganapavalley.com/index.html), Chef Michael Chiarello's fabulous restaurant in Yountville. I feasted on golden beets with pistachio dressing and fresh seafood with risotto between sips of Stag's Leap Fay Cabernet.

The next morning, we were up early to bottle our wine, dressed appropriately in spill-resistant clothing. We weren't sure what to expect when we pulled up at Van der Heyden Winery (http://www.vanderheydenvineyards.com/); I had images of cold, cement-encased walls where we would be allowed to do little more than watch as a machine syphoned out wine and dispensed it into bottles. Boy, was I wrong. We were instantly greeted by the youngest member of this three generation wine family, whizzing by on his bike. Then Andrew, the wine maker apprentice at the ripe age of 12, appeared on the scene to direct us. His father, Mike soon joined in to introduce us to the wine homestead, which is all outdoors--no walls, roof, enclosures--steps away from the vineyard. Mike is graced with a sense of humor, and he kept it light and fun as we shook off our apprehensions. One thing was for sure, this was not going to be a stuffy, "Napa Valley" experience. Mike even had dirt on all of the prestigious wineries of the valley, and dispensed it throughout the day. He and Andrew filled us in on the art of making wine.

First off, he filled a carafe from our Cabernet Sauvignon 2006 barrell, which was sitting out before us. Then he filled another carafe with Syrah and another with cuvee. Then the fun part came, we sipped various recipes using differing amounts of syrah and cuvee until we came upon our perfect blend: 88% cabernet, 7% syrah, and 5% cuvee. We were completely delighted over how downright delicious the wine was, and hoped it would be as good at home, when we weren't sipping it in the middle of a vineyard in Napa.

Next step? Bottling it. Mike explained that today we were going to bottle it the old-fashioned way. We used a device that gathered up the wine into a sort of trench, allowing it to pour into four tubes you could place in the throat of a wine bottle. This was my job! I got to hold a bottle of wine under that tube and remove it at the precise moment when the wine reached the neck of the bottle. Did I mention any overages were poured into a convenient glass located by the bottling station? Oh, and that all of this was happening open air style a matter of steps from the vineyards? There was a moment when I burst out in a laugh over the sheer coolness of it all. I got good enough to do two bottles at a time, and was sad when the last dregs of our wine disappeared into the final bottle. After each bottle was full, it was passed off to Gayle, who was our inspector, ensuring that the wine was at the correct level. Then Jen corked the bottle, and our team (Peter, Todd, Will and Lori) foiled the bottle and packed it up. The last step was when we all labeled the bottles and packed them up again. The net result: 16 1/2cases of wine to split among us (we donated 1 1/2 cases back to our hosts). The night ended with a BBQ at the winery, with delicious fresh corn, chicken, potato salad, and watermelon.

The next day, we were out bright and early to explore vineyards like Stag's Leap and Plump Jack, before we made lunch at the Culinary Institute of America, which is housed in Christian Brother's old stone winery looking out over Napa Valley. We proudly brought some of our recently bottled wine, laughing over how crooked our labels were. Lunch was an amazing feast of fresh, summer vegetables and herbs with fromage blanc and polenta. Our split of the wine booty is 5 cases--as our wine buddy Gayle says, that's only a little more than one bottle a week. Maybe we'll be back next year for another wine making adventure. This time I hope I can crush the grapes!