Friday Wine Tasting... Destination Napa, Provenance and Hewitt Vineyards

Every night this the view on our drive back to the hotel.

As I still continue to recap our trip out to wine country, Napa and Sonoma Valleys, I am excited to share with you Provenance Vineyards and Hewitt Vineyards. We really enjoyed our tasting experience and the wealth of knowledge provided by the sales associates in the tasting room. And thanks to our friend Scott (who works for Diageo), we were able to taste through their entire collection of wines as well as some spectacular wines produced by Hewitt Vineyard, who shares the tasting room at Provenance currently. The tasting room was simple yet striking with wood floors made of old barrels. They don't require an appointment but in busier months it is recommended.

As we were leaving the tasting room at Provenance the most spectacular rainbow stretched across the sky in what was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. A full rainbow arching across the acres of vines as the sun reemerged through it. Truly breathtaking! Being out in California reminded me to enjoy the simple things, which just happen to be all around us.

About the wines:

Provenance Vineyards

Philosophy: Our goal is to showcase the distinctiveness of Napa Valley's best growing areas. Great wines start in the vineyard, so we've selected top vineyards and intervene as little as possible during the winemaking process. We gently guide the grapes into wine, striving to bring out the personality, complexity and uniqueness of each vineyard and vintage. Provenance wines offer a balance of elegance and substance with deep, intense flavors that reflect the vineyards where the grapes were grown. We craft these age-worthy wines to be approachable upon release to the public.

My favorite and one that came back with us in our case was the 2005 Beckstoffer Las Amigas Merlot. It is a fantastic wine! And what we loved is that we can drink it now and don't have to wait for it to age another 5 years.

Hewitt Vineyards

Philosophy: Hewitt Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon is a single-vineyard, limited-edition wine that highlights the character of our estate without overwhelming it. We harvest the grapes at peak maturity, ferment them for optimal extraction, age them slowly in new French oak and bottle without filtration. The resulting wine has deep black cherry and currant fruit complemented by classic Rutherford expression of cocoa, cedar and black olive. Impressive and elegant, Hewitt Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon may be enjoyed in its youth or savored after years in the cellar.

Their current vintage is the 2006 Rutherford, Napa Valley Estate Grown Cabernet Sauvignon. This is a really special bottle of wine.

92 Points
Intense and full-blown, rich and concentrated, with a rustic, earthy edge to the dried currant, sage and underbrush notes. The depth and dimension of the flavors are cloaked in chewy tannins, requiring time to unfold. Best from 2010 through 2016.
Wine Spectator - August 5, 2009