I have a thing for mountainside vineyards. Growing vines on the side of a mountain is definitely not the easiest place to grow them, but some of the most interesting and complex wines I’ve tasted are grown there. Smith-Madrone wines are both. They are also elegant, unexpected and affordable. Affordable and Napa Valley are sometimes mutually exclusive with regard to […]
When planning a meal do you start with the food or the wine? I may have just given away my approach by listing food before wine, but honestly sometimes we begin with the food and sometimes the wine. And, some food is more challenging to pair with wine, and some wine is more challenging to pair with food. But one […]
One of the many lessons I learned during weekly wine tastings at a local wine shop is that there are many very expensive bottles of wine that taste really good, especially from Napa Valley. It isn’t particularly difficult to find those wines, but what takes a bit more effort is to find those really good wines for less money. What […]
Brothers Stu and Charles Smith have been making wine on Spring Mountain above Napa Valley since the early 1970s. The mountainside location sets Smith-Madrone apart from the valley and so does the brothers’ winemaking style. They make Cabernet Sauvignon in an elegant, old-world style along with lively, oaked Chardonnay and Riesling — yes, Riesling, because they both really love Riesling. […]
Today we are sipping Riesling from Napa Valley’s Spring Mountain District. I know Riesling isn’t the first variety you associate with Napa Valley, but the last thing Stu and Charles Smith seek to do is conform to the expected; if they did, Smith-Madrone Vineyards & Winery would be located on Napa’s valley floor. Once you taste Smith-Madrone’s Riesling, you too […]
Stuart Smith knew he needed to look to the mountains of Napa Valley, not the valley floor, to find a site that would allow him to make the elegant, balanced, acid-driven wines he enjoyed drinking. He found what he was looking for in a 200-acre property on Spring Mountain. The property had been home to a small vineyard in the […]
Today’s Cellar Note brings you a taste of Chardonnay grown and made in the mountain appellation of Spring Mountain District. Spring Mountain District AVA sits above the Napa Valley on the eastern slopes of the Mayacamas Mountains that separate Napa Valley from Sonoma Valley. The Stony Hill Vineyard Chardonnay was provided as a tasting sample. 2015 Stony Hill Vineyard Chardonnay […]
We enjoy wine, food and travel. Pull That Cork is a chronicle of our wine adventures, the food and wine pairings we create and our travels which are increasingly organized around wine.