Silverado Vineyards: Disney's Little Piece of Napa

It only makes sense that a property owned by a member of the Disney family would be beautiful and have some of the most magical views of the Valley. Owned by Diane (Disney) Miller, Walt's eldest daughter, and her husband Ron (a former Disney CEO), Silverado Vineyards is located in the Stags Leap District of the Napa Valley, approximately six miles north of the city of Napa on the Silverado Trail.

Located at the top of a small hill, the Italian-style tasting room has a spectacular, elevated view up the Valley. Although few of Silverado's wines are spectacular, a visit is always a pleasant experience. The tasting room employees have always been kind and knowledgeable, and the wines tasty and enjoyable.

Generally, there are two wines that I look forward to at Silverado. First, I really enjoy Italian wines and Silverado makes a sangiovese (the grape that comprises most Tuscan red wines), which is not very expensive and pretty tasty. During this visit, they were also pouring a zinfandel that had 20% sangiovese blended into the wine. It was a fun mix of the zinfandel's spicy fruit with the smooth, candied fruit of California sangiovese. I bought a bottle to have at home for the next time that I order pizza.

The second wine that I always enjoy tasting at Silverado is called Solo and is their premier cabernet sauvignon. The fruit for the wine comes from the estate property around the winery in the Stags Leap District.

So what?

This is perhaps the best place to introduce how the Napa Valley is divided up. According to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives ("BATFE"), which regulates this type of thing, the Napa Valley is comprises a number of distinct American Viticultural Areas ("AVAs") (see map). The technicalities are not important here, but for our purposes an AVA is a federally recognized, distinct wine growing area. So, even though the "Stags Leap District" AVA and the "Rutherford" AVA are both within the Napa Valley and only a few miles apart, the BATF has recognized that grapes grown in these areas have distinctive flavor characteristics due to certain climatic and geographical features. One final note, in order to put "Rutherford" or "Stags Leap District" on a wine label, at least 85% of the grapes used to make the wine must have come from that AVA (and the Napa Valley itself is an AVA, so wines that use grapes from several different smaller AVAs within the valley will simply be labeled "Napa Valley").

Again, you ask...so what?

The Stags Leap District has a very good reputation for producing delicious and long-lasting cabernet sauvignons, the best of which is probably Shafer Vineyards's Hillside Select (retail ~ $215). The typical flavor profile of a Stags Leap District cabernet is rich cherry, blackberry, and spice with a smooth, elegant finish.

Well-made wines from this area also have a reputation for aging well over a long period of time. This was demonstrated afresh on my visit to Silverado, because they had a bottle of their 1985 cabernet open to share with guests. I have had many Napa cabernets from the 1990s, but few from the 1980s and this one was pretty impressive. The wine still had a nice red color (red wines tend to turn a brickish/brownish color as they age) and good fruitiness (they also tend to lose their fruit flavors over time). All in all, a pleasant treat during this visit.

I recommend Silverado as a good and friendly place to visit. Its wines might not blow you away and give you one of those epiphanies that the main characters in Sideways described, but the hospitality, wines, and spectacular views are well worth a stop.

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Silverado Vineyards, www.silveradovineyards.com, 707.257.1770, click here for directions