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| The wine cellar at Château Meursault in Burgundy |
A few years ago, my husband and I visited a small winery on the fringe of Burgundy. Though the wines were modest, the owners’ goals were grand. They had a new barn-like welcome centre, unusual in France’s famous wine-growing region, lots of tasting space and the beginnings of an art gallery. “Just like California,” boasted one of the proprietors after discovering we were Americans. Plaintively, she added: “It is like California, right?”
We didn’t know. Though we were frequent visitors to Burgundy, we had not been to Napa or Sonoma – America’s best-known wine regions – in ages. That situation was recently remedied when we spent a long weekend touring the contiguous wine valleys, about an hour’s drive north of San Francisco. We asked ourselves the French vintner’s question in reverse: does this seem like Burgundy?
As in Burgundy, the vines in Napa and Sonoma counties sweep from the sides of the road up into beautiful rolling hills. The Napa Valley is roughly 30 miles long and a few miles wide. Burgundy’s prime Côte d’Or, or gold coast, is just a bit larger, stretching from Dijon to Santenay. Sonoma, separated from Napa by the Mayacamas mountain range, is bigger than Burgundy and Napa combined. Yet like Burgundy (and unlike sprawling Bordeaux), the twin California regions are relatively compact and accessible.
While wine growing in Burgundy dates back to the Romans, it was monks in the Middle Ages who developed “the best wines in Christendom” for local dukes. California wines have their own religious roots, thanks to Spanish missionaries who planted grapes there. In the 19th century, European immigrants brought their own winemaking traditions. Towards the end of the last century, entrepreneurs piled in, covering Napa and Sonoma with vineyards.
Driving through Burgundy is simple. Route 74 parallels the spine of the coast, and signs along the way point to auxiliary roads – the “route des grands crus” – that lead to such iconic vineyards as Rommanée-Conti and Montrachet. Dotted among the hills are villages such as Vougeot and Volnay, where every garage seems to be filled with farm machinery. The main city is Beaune, a jewel with ramparts around it and miles of wine cellars cut into the rock underneath.
With more ground to cover in northern California, it’s hard to avoid zig-zagging over the hills from county to county. And while the towns of Napa and Sonoma, St Helena, Healdsburg and Calistoga are lovely and historic, their primary industry seems to be tourism, not winemaking.
A few Burgundian châteaux, such as Pommard and Meursault, offer regular, organised tours (with admission charges) followed by wine tastings. But our favourite way to sample local wines is to seek out small, family-owned wineries. We often just stop the car at homes with “dégustation” (tasting) signs in front. We have also sought out the maker of a wine in Monthélie that we had enjoyed at dinner in Beaune the night before, chased down a St Aubin winemaking family whose son we once met, and visited the Aloxe-Corton estate belonging to a colleague’s family. That’s not to say that all Burgundy wineries are open for spontaneous tastings. At many, you need a booking; others are simply closed to the public.
In California, more than 200 wineries – many with enormous tasting rooms, parking lots and tasteful gift shops – are open to the public. In fact, wineries are so numerous on some roads that houses in between put up “Private Residence” signs to deter visitors.
Our first stop was Cline Vineyards, a mere 45 minutes from San Francisco, which offers free tours and tastings. Like many California wineries, Cline has additional attractions for children and the abstemious: gardens and ponds (good for picnicking), farm animals and birds, and a museum featuring scale models of California mission churches.
In advance of the trip, my husband Don found discount coupons for tours and tastings on the web (www.napavalley.com/freestuff/freestuff.html and www.sonoma.com/freestuff/freestuff.html). Coupons, as well as maps and promotional brochures for spas, musical events, golf courses and outlet mall shopping, are also available at Napa and Sonoma tourist centres.
Even without discounts, California tastings are fun. Typically, a charming sommelier-salesperson will welcome you to the winery’s bar, explain how the tastings work – $15 for four wines at Franciscan Winery, for example – and guide you through the whites and reds. Don and I generally shared a single glass, which was not discouraged, given California’s strict drink-driving laws. We were almost always offered free additional samplings of premium wines – perhaps to reward our enthusiasm, probably to prompt a purchase. Whether in France or the US, we usually buy at least one bottle wherever we receive a warm reception.
At one Sonoma stop, we heard an enthusiast ask if he could fit 15 wineries into a single day. The sommelier counselled no more than eight; we managed barely four. At another tasting, a young Japanese man asked to sample just the (pricey) Cabernet Sauvignons, which he did at no charge.
Both Burgundy and California have plenty of charming places to stay, as well as world-class restaurants with fantastic wine lists. Thomas Keller, chef-owner of The French Laundry in Yountville, says he was inspired by Michelin three-star restaurants in the French countryside. Burgundy has three such establishments: Lameloise in Chagny, Côtes St Jacques in Joigny and Le Relais de Bernard Loiseau in Saulieu. We, however, prefer simpler bistros: P’tit Paradis and Caveau des Arches in Beaune; Bouchon in Yountville and the Fig Café in Glen Ellen, where there is no corkage fee if you want to drink your new purchases.
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| Fisher Vineyards in California |
On our last day in California, we stopped at Fisher Vineyards, a well-regarded, reservations-only winery owned by a friend’s sister and her husband, Juelle and Fred Fisher. It had no bus parking or gift shop, but it had something special. One of the Fishers’ daughters, Cameron, took us through their hilltop vineyards. Then we joined the family for lunch on a sun-flooded terrace. The wood-fire-cooked pork roast was perfectly done and the conversation flowed as easily as the wine. California seemed very much like Burgundy indeed.
Ann Morrison is a former editor of Time magazine’s European edition
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Tours with a difference
When I think of wine tours, I see my friend Paula tottering on her stilettos through the ancient cellars of Château Meursault in Burgundy. “Race you to the tasting,” she challenged. At Meursault, the self-guided tour is the price you pay (in addition to €15) in order to sample several glasses of premier cru. At other places, the tour comes with a guide (or as a video), is optional or does not exist at all.
The usual tour encompasses the entire winemaking process, from grape-growing (how old are the vines?) to harvesting (by hand or machine?) to fermentation (natural or commercial yeasts?). Then it’s on to ageing (oak or stainless steel?) and finally to bottling (who designed the label?). The answers and ambience differ from place to place, but the storyline is the same.
That’s evidently why some marketing-savvy winemakers – especially in California – like to embellish the visit with something distinctive. At Sterling Vineyards in Napa, it is an aerial tram that brings visitors to the hilltop winery. At the Benziger Family Winery in Sonoma, there is a tram, too – pulled by a tractor. Clos Pegas, a stunning example of postmodern architecture by Michael Graves, has a collection of 20th-century sculptures (Henry Moore, Mark di Suvero) and paintings (Dubuffet, principally). The Hess Collection winery has its own museum, displaying such superstars as Robert Motherwell, Francis Bacon, Anselm Kiefer and Yue Minjun. I was so engrossed in the pictures, I didn’t even try the wines. What would Paula have said?
