OK, first off, I'll appologize for the length of my posts. I get wordy sometimes. Second, bare with my TN's, My wife and I are still new to the wine game, and in all honesty we went more for the escape (first reall weekend without the 10 month old daughter) than for detailed notes.

So here's our day one from Napa. Last weekend of Feb 05.

First stop of the weekend, a little out of the way winery, Barlow Family
Vineyards. http://www.barlowvineyards.com We met with Barr Smith, and tasted in the lovely kitchen of his
parents house. Man what a view from their deck. Simply stunning view
looking over the valley. Onto the wines...

We tasted the 01 and 02 merlots, both of which are phenomenal examples of
the wine, especially when you consider they are priced at about 30 dollars.
I'm really not sure how they give the wine so much power without blending in
other grapes (it's 100% merlot). Really impressive dark garnet color, lush
fruit, and the tannis are almost cabernet franc smooth.

They make a zin in really small amount and were almost sold out, so we
didn't taste it, but we did buy a few bottles to try later on. It will be
interesting to compare this with the 02 Neal Zin we had with dinner the
other night.

The 00 and 01 Cab's were very similar in style, and this is a complement to
the 00, as the 01 is another bargain for 100% estate grown napa fruit in my
book. Very similar in style to the merlot, with bolder tannin's and more
dark fruit, and the oak doesn't get in the way of the fruit, it's a subtle
complement. We bought some of the 01, not that the 00 was bad, but side by
side the Wife liked the 01 better.

And then we tasted Barlow's newest wine, in fact it wasn't even being
announced for sale for another week. The Barrouge (2002). This is a blend
of 80% cab and 20% merlot. The first pour and we were stunned, the power,
the grace, the elegance of this wine. Very much like an elegant woman in an
evening gown, oh so sexy, but you know there is more than you're seeing.
Barr confessed he had double decanted this one for a few hours before we
arrived. So straight out of the bottle I think the tannins will get in the
way of the wine. But forget about this one for a couple of years and be
rewarded.

Another great thing about Barlow, you can get their Merlot in splits. For
those times when you don't want a whole bottle, or more likely a whole
second bottle.

I highly recommend making an appointment with Barlow the next time you're in
the area and let them know you heard about them from Paul and Stacey.

Next we headed over to Lewelling and met with Dave Wight. http://www.lewellingvineyards.com Dave's one of the
nicest guys you could ever hope to meet, and very real. Salt of the Earth
comes to mind. His family has had the land in Napa since just after the
Civil War, which is pretty mind blowing when you think about just how long
that is. We got to taste the 2002 and the 2000 Cab's and bother were really
enjoyable. If you liked the 2001 Cab, you're going to love the 2002 when
it's released in October. The 2000 was a slightly different beast than the
other too, not as fruit forward, and more tannin, but still a really well
made wine from a tough vintage. We bought a couple of the 00's to go, and
about half a case of the 02 regular and Wight Cab's for shipment in October.
They could easily charge nearly double for their wines, (as some people who
buy their grapes do) but I wasn't going to tell Dave that.

Our next scheduled stop was at Phelps, but we had some time to kill so made
a quick stop at Miner. http://www.minerwines.com/index.html We simple love their Viognier so we always get a few
bottles of that. Tasted through whatever else they were pouring that day.
Their Cab and the Oracle were both very well made wines, but after Barlow
and Lewelling, I just couldn't see the same value in the Miner reds. The
surprise find of the day had to be there Sangiovesse. A great little food
wine, nice bright fruits, good acidity, a great dark cherry color etc. And
at 20 bucks a pretty good value, we took a few bottles of that home too.

We finally made it Phelps, but I'll put that up in another post since I think it deserves it's own thread sadly.

Thanks for reading,

Paul

Great notes, Paul.
We also went to Barlow and Lewelling last fall.
One small correction - the Barlow red blend is called Barrouge, not Baroque.

I enjoyed your notes on the merlot. In fact, about 20 minutes ago, I poured a bottle of 02 into a decanter to prep for dinner at our favorite BYOB tonite. After reading your notes, I'm drooling.

Finally, I got a Barlow mailer today. If you're in their 'Reds Only' club, you get a 15% discount on a case.
Others get 10%. I hope this merlot isn't TOO good, or I may be buying!!!

Budman...too bad you're on the other side of country, sounds like our tastes are very similar. Thanks for the catch on the name of the Barlow blend, I've edited my post.

What did you think of the Merlot? My wife I loved it, we ended up buying a mixed case of their wine during our visit.

Great notes,
I enjoyed meeting Dave and drinking the ‘00 Lewelling back in November. And I’m looking forward to my ‘02's.

S2K... we liked the merlot so much that I bought a case - half 750s, and half 375s to split with my oldest daughter. A couple of them have already bitten the dust!