The Hess Collection

This fruit-less Monday brought a much appreciated reprieve

for the crew and with it, an opportunity to travel.  We packed ourselves into cars and took the show on the road to Hess Collection in Napa.   

Something that I have found unique to the wine industry is that we take trips to visit other wineries.  Every winery I have worked at, and that my friends have worked at, make it a point to take the crew to visit other wineries and see how they do things.  And every winery that I have worked at has received visitors from other wineries.  

We all open our doors to each other and get a behind the scenes look at the competition.  Usually the winemaker takes the time to show us around and gives a very different tour than the tourists get.  We get to see their cellars, laboratories and equipment, we ask questions about their styles and decision making, pick their brains, try their wines gratis, and then take the product home at a discount.  I can't imagine another industry that invites the competition in, gives them exclusive access to the people and facilities and then offers their product at a discount. 

Oh, there is so much to love about what we do.

The winery is located up Mt. Veeder, with beautiful views of the valley and gorgeous grounds:

They have tables behind the wheel and underneath the canopy.  

I want to go to there.

Behind the wooden doors is the entrance to the cellar.

The facilities were very astutely described by Dave (director of wine making at Hess) as reminiscent of the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose.  Expansive, labyrinthine and a little spooky in parts.  Some parts of the building are from the early 1900s and others are bran new, like the art gallery.  I stole some footage of the galley (before I knew it was frowned upon), but was not able to capture my favorite piece: the typewriter on fire.

  

Fortunately a quick google search pulled it up:

Someone else stole a picture so I didn't have to.  

The story behind the typewriter is pretty neat, you can read about here.

The tour was really interesting, and a part of the cellar has several tanks with their own dedicated pump, which means automatic pumpovers!  Which is exciting to anyone who ever has to do a pumpover.  Anyway, dedicated pumps to tanks are quite a luxury.  Our winery of roughly 40 tanks shares like 5 pumps.

There is footage of RowBear next to one of these tanks with built in pumps in the video:

The tour ended like all tours, in the tasting room.  Besides their cool facilities, and kickass art gallery, we really enjoyed the wine.  T and I found the price points surprising for a Napa, Mt. Veeder winery, fancy-smancy winery.  Great values.  RoBear and I both took home a 2009 Small Block Series Viognier ($28).  I want to smell like that wine, all the time.  

T and I also really enjoyed the 2008 Allomi Vineyard Petite Sirah, only $36.  I haven't found too many Petite Sirahs that can stand alone, and this one stands alone deliciously.  Lastly, the 2007 Artezin Dry Creek Zinfandel was impressive.  I tend to like my wines on the Pinot side, but this Zin was right up my alley.

Big ups to Dave at Hess Collection for sharing his time and knowledge.  I look forward to going back and having a picnic by the lily pond.

Today's Tunes: Phoenix.  Yes still.

Up Next: Hope we have another fruit-less day.

-L