{"id":273,"date":"2015-09-01T10:01:05","date_gmt":"2015-09-01T15:01:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thecorkscrewconcierge.com\/?p=273"},"modified":"2016-04-03T22:08:37","modified_gmt":"2016-04-04T03:08:37","slug":"craving-carneros","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecorkscrewconcierge.com\/2015\/09\/craving-carneros\/","title":{"rendered":"Craving Carneros Pinot Noir"},"content":{"rendered":"
Many years ago I was on a business trip in San Francisco and my husband had come along to join the fun after the, er um, work. I recall sitting in the wine bar at Ferry Plaza<\/a> Wine Merchant trying to decide what to try. I absolutely love the Ferry Building in San Francisco and always take a walk through whenever I’m in town. And I always, always stop by the Ferry Plaza Wine Merchant and Wine Bar to have some wine and soak in the atmosphere. It really is one of my favorite places there. It’s a fantastic place to people watch and I love seeing all of the vendors selling their meats, cheeses, etc. The selection is constantly changing and you have the option to do a flight, a two ounce “taste,” or a regular five ounce glass. My husband kept it simple and made a beeline towards the Pinot Noir and ordered himself a glass. I of course, wanting to try a wide variety of wines, tried the red wine flight. I’m sure whatever I had was good, but I was so taken with my husband’s glass of Pinot that I forgot about everything else. This was my first introduction to \u00c9tude and their wonderful Pinot Noir. I have no idea what made him hone in on the wine, but it was a great decision. We asked our server about the wine and he told us it was from the Carneros region in southern Napa and Sonoma. I did some research on my own of the Carneros region and learned that Pinot Noir and Chardonnay thrive there. Well, that did it. I was already planning a trip to Carneros the next time I headed west.<\/p>\n Fast forward some years later and my husband and I took a trip out to Carneros. I was in San Francisco again on business and was a bit short on time with meetings and such, so we decided to just hire a town car for the day and have someone drive us out to wine country. The price wasn’t too bad and we certainly weren’t forking over the bucks for a limousine. While there are several companies that will take you to some pre-selected wineries, I decided on just hiring a driver because I wanted to be able to choose the places to visit. I was all about discovering the Carneros Pinot Noir. I’d done some research and emailed our driver prior to our trip telling her all of the places we wanted to visit. Based on the information I gave her, she figured out the best route and visitation order based on location and also called ahead to all of the places to set up times for us. Less work for me (not that I really mind) and this allowed us to make a full day of tasting and no one had to be the designated driver. Well when our driver arrived to pick us up from our hotel, she showed up in a stretch limo. Hello! I knew it was going to be a great day! So while I didn’t want to spend the money on a limo, we were upgraded for free. The next time I’m in this position, it will be VERY difficult to just hire a regular car. So this is how some folk live?! I was definitely spoiled.<\/p>\n Domaine Carneros<\/i><\/p>\n After an hour of riding in the back of our comfy limo from San Francisco we arrived at our first stop in Carneros which was the aptly named Domaine Carneros<\/a>. They are all about the sparkling wine and Pinot Noir. This place was impressive and I was hoping the wine lived up to that impression. Yeah, it did.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n We got there right at opening and it was cool out so we sat in front of their beautiful fireplace and had our tasting. It made for a very relaxing experience. We were the first ones there and had the place to ourselves. It’s not always possible to get to a place in the middle of the week or very early in the day, but I always try to do so when I can to avoid the crowds. It just makes the experience so much more personal because you’re not rushed and actually get to engage in conversation with the staff. Sometimes you can’t avoid the weekend and in those instances I try to go to places that require, or at least accept reservations. And don’t think that having a reservation automatically means you’ll spend more money or be subjected to some really snobby person that will be intimidating. Quite the opposite. You will have their full attention and it’s generally been my experience that the staff want to talk to you and answer your questions when they have the time and aren’t running around trying to serve multiple people at once. I actually used to avoid making a reservation because I wanted to be anonymous and was intimidated by having to talk to the staff. But years of tasting has shown me that the personal route is the way to go.<\/p>\n OK, back to the tasting. We opted for the Chateau Sampler which allowed us to taste two of their sparkling wines as well as two types of Pinot Noir. You also have the option to pair a cheese, meat or salmon plate with your wine. We’d not to long had breakfast so we just had the wine. We were quite cozy tasting right in front of the fireplace and I was very tempted to sit and have a glass of wine. But as this was our first stop of the day it was just not a good idea. Long story short, yes you should go! It’s a wonderful experience with great wines.<\/p>\n Artesa<\/i><\/p>\n Our next stop was the architecturally modern and quite impressive Artesa<\/a> winery. This was very different from just about any winery I’d been to. Everywhere you looked, you were surrounded by art – stunning water features, beautiful landscape, exquisite buildings.<\/p>\n