Wine Tasting with Hitch

Yesterday my wife and I went up to Heart O' the Mountain Winery above Scotts Valley for a special tasting event. This is a relatively new winery that only does Pinot Noir, and has only had two publicly available releases (the '05 and the '06) but they've both been gold medal winners and very well received.

The wine is great, but the really cool thing about Heart O' the Mountain for me is that they're on the former Hitchcock estate. This was Alfred and Alma's weekend getaway from about 1940 to about 1970 or so (they sold it in '74, but hadn't been up for a few years before that due to declining health).

I'd actually gone in search of this house before, but not quite found it. Turns out, I was on the right path, and had identified the correct driveway, but that there were still two or three locked gates between me and actually seeing anything.

As a life-long Hitchcock fan it was a great thrill to finally be on the estate property and see the house and courtyard, which is still pretty much the same as when Hitch was there entertaining Grace Kelly, Ingrid Bergman, and Jimmy Stewart.

Unfortunately, none of the wine is from Hitchcock's vineyard, or the original 1881 vineyard. By the time this family bought the place in '78, those vines were all dead and buried, so they've had to replant the entire estate over the last decade.

Yesterday we had some of the '04 (unlabeled and never for sale), the '06 from the bottle ('05 is now sold out), and '07 from the barrel. All very yummy, and the progression promises that Heart O' the Mountain will be a leading contender in Pinot competitions for some time to come.

We just got back from a three-day mini-vacation in Napa. We love to go up there, but it's been too long since we've had the time to do it.

This came about because of a contest I won back in December. I'm on the mailing list of a local PR firm called "Marketing Maniacs" and in their December newsletter it said, "click onto our website and enter to win a weekend for two in Napa." I clicked, a couple of weeks later they called to tell me I won. Not too bad, eh?

The prize package included two nights at the Yountville Inn (value, over $200/night) and a hot air balloon ride for two (value, over $350). So, not only did we have a nice weekend in Napa, we did it in high style.

Wineries visited: Turnbull, Folie a Deux (one of our favorites for Zins), Dutch Henry, Wermouth (we actually don't like Wermouth's wine, but we had to go visit with Ralph Wermouth, who's the coolest, funniest, bad wine makers around), Rombauer, Prager (another favorite, for Ports), Sutter Home, and Hakusan Sake.

Restaurants: Mustard's Grill (California cuisine), Bouchon (French), Gordon's Market (lunch cafe), and (on the way home, in Vallejo) Earl's Texas BBQ.

Highlight: The balloon ride was incredible. Leslie was nervous at first, and almost chickened out of going at a couple of points, but once we were up in the air she quickly loosened up and we both loved it. The weather was perfect, and the visibility was great. We could see all the way up the Napa Valley, up past Calistoga, into Sonoma, and southward to the tip of the San Francisco bay. The flight was smooth and easy. Definitely a great experience.

Other Big Activity: Hanging out in the pool and hot tub at the hotel.

We're tired now, so I'm just going to turn on the closing of the Olympics. Just wanted to get all this down before I forgot.