David Arthur

..........................David Arthur Vineyards.................................................................. Barrel Room .......................

....................Sam Sundeleaf & Tyson Ducker.............................................. Conception Oak Tree .......................
I was in the Napa Valley last week for 5 days. Myself and 5 other serious food/wine friends flew down and we rented a house together. Keep in mind this isn't just a casual group of wine drinkers who would be happy hop scotching up and down Hwy 29. This group is either in the wine trade, has a wine collection or both. We are all on some exclusive mailing lists and we called in every favor we could.
The first "big" stop of the week was at David Arthur. This was my first real foray east of the Silverado Trail into an area known as Pritchard Hill. The valley floor in Napa is somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 feet in elevation. David Arthur is at about 1200 feet. The winery produces about 3000 cases of wine which makes this basically a "cult" winery (re: expensive and hard to get). The winery is open to visitors with an appointment and if you are on the mailing list (like my buddy Sam) you can get a grand VIP tour (like we did). We had a chance to taste through the entire lineup of wines that David Arthur produces which for the 2008 vintage includes:

Chardonnay
Sauvignon Blanc
Meritaggio (California take on a Super Tuscan)
Cabernet Franc
Cabernet Sauvignon (actually a Bordeaux blend)
Elevation 1147 (100% Cabernet)

View from above the winery looking West

David Arthur Vineyard

Thinking that things couldn't get any better (trust me, they did)

We had a fantastic afternoon tasting the wines and talking about vineyard practice, barrel management and philosophy of making wine from these hillside vineyards.
This was to be the 1st of a series of great winery visits we had on our trip. Great day, great friends, great wine-cheers to David Arthur Vineyards!