{"id":610,"date":"2007-02-03T19:57:50","date_gmt":"2007-02-03T19:57:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/walking-ixus.net\/blog\/?p=610"},"modified":"2022-08-23T10:52:09","modified_gmt":"2022-08-23T18:52:09","slug":"silver_oak_2007_release_party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/walking-ixus.net\/blog\/silver_oak_2007_release_party\/","title":{"rendered":"Silver Oak 2007 Release Party"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the advantages of living in San Francisco (The City) is that the Napa Valley is close by. VERY close by. 45 minutes (with no traffic) close by. That means that Wine Country events are within striking range from home. Which means, I wind up going to a lot of release parties…<\/p>\n

Silver Oak had its 2002 Cabernet release party today. This will be the last release party at the current facility<\/a> in Oakville as it was damaged just before last year’s release party and it was decided to build a new facility instead of rebuilding the old one.\u00a0 So my frens and I headed out at 0830 to Oakville.<\/p>\n

\"IMG<\/a>
…was supposed to be here at 0800, it’s now 0830! Latelatelate<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A Silver Oak release party is when the winery releases a vintage for sale to the general public. Its also an excuse for food, autographs and US$20 bottomless glasses of the vintage being offered from 0900 to 1500.<\/p>\n

\"IMG<\/a>
Here’s the deets on the Silver Oak 2002 Napa Cabernet release<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"IMG<\/a>
Bottomless glasses waiting for refills<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"IMG<\/a>
I bought two bottles this year, it was THAT good!<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Since the event runs from 0900 to 1500, there’s a small window of time to actually get here and enjoy yourself before the unkempt hordes arrive around 1200. You can also get free, close by parking if you get here early. We got here around 1000 and immediately began sampling the wine and provided snacks.
\nPrior to last year’s winery fire, the main building used to be open for viewing with food vendors inside, in addition to the ones outside. This year, there was just a handful of food vendors outside hawking chili, mini roast beef sandwiches and fruit cocktail along with the usual gift vendors.<\/p>\n

\"IMG<\/a>
It was crowded this year but not as bad as it was last year…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A very interesting crowd gets here before 1100.<\/p>\n

\"IMG<\/a>
IMG 3360<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"IMG<\/a>
IMG 3367<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"IMG<\/a>
Some people brought their doggies. This was a big golden retriever. He looks happy.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After the event, most people who are already here continue their Napa day by visiting other wineries. We visited Plumpjack, Heitz and ended the day at V. Sattui for a late lunch.<\/p>\n

Plumpjack is down the street from Silver Oak and they were offering tastings of two wines and you keep the glass for US$10.00. The red was a 2004 cab that seemed pleasant enough for an everyday wine but had a strange aftertaste. It was a nice place for camwhoring tho.<\/p>\n

\"IMG<\/a>
People who are food enthusiasts are “foodies”. So people who like wine are “wineys”?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

New this year was a visit to the Heitz Winery. It has a swish tasting room that was recently built and they had a full FREE tasting of two cabs, a chardonnay and a kick ass port.<\/p>\n

\"IMG<\/a>
IMG 3378<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"IMG<\/a>
One of my frens bought a bottle here. Now all we have to do is get him to open it…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The nice thing about small wineries like Heitz is that you can discover some neat wines that you normally wouldn’t be able to try because they aren’t widely distributed. Also, the vineyard is usually behind the visitor’s center. Like so.<\/p>\n

\"IMG<\/a>
IMG 3386<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"IMG<\/a>
IMG 3380<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The end of the tasting day came at V. Sattui which is our traditional pit stop for food and still more wine.<\/p>\n

\"IMG<\/a>
IMG 3387<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"IMG<\/a>
IMG 3394<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

You go inside and buy picnic sets and then you buy cheese and bread and wine and desserts. Then you go outside to the picnic area. Mind the signs and don’t stay that late because…<\/p>\n

\"IMG<\/a>
IMG 3389<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"IMG<\/a>
The V. Sattui picnic area, right in front of the winery<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"IMG<\/a>
This was lunch. Gorgonzola and brie cheeses, some pate and a baguette. Also some off dry Riesling. Mmmm.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Then we went back in and bought more wine. I got two bottles of the Gamay Rouge and one of the Muscat. One of my frens bought a cases’ worth so we got the 10% discount! Cool!<\/p>\n

\"IMG<\/a>
Who is that!? That’s OK, he drove today.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As the day ended and the sun went down, it was a painful slog to get back to the City. Traffic. It took so long that I passed out when we left and sobered up by the time we hit Berkeley. Still 40 minutes away! It took a while to get home, but I wasn’t driving!<\/p>\n

\"IMG<\/a>
Not the road home; just a road..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Silver Oak<\/a><\/em>
\n915 Oakville Cross Rd<\/em>
\nOakville, CA 94562<\/em><\/p>\n

Plumpjack Winery<\/a><\/em>
\n620 Oakville Cross Rd<\/em>
\nNapa, CA 94558<\/em><\/p>\n

Heitz Cellar Tasting Salon<\/em><\/a>
\n436 St. Helena Hwy<\/em>
\nSt. Helena, CA 94574<\/em><\/p>\n

V. Sattui Winery<\/a><\/em>
\n1111 White Lane (@ CA-29)<\/em>
\nSt. Helena, CA 94574<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the advantages of living in San Francisco (The City) is that the Napa Valley is close by. VERY close by. 45 minutes (with no traffic) close by. That means that Wine Country events are within striking range from home. Which means, I wind up going to a lot of release parties… Silver Oak … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Silver Oak 2007 Release Party”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[14],"tags":[68],"class_list":["post-610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-food","tag-napa"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2mgIi-9Q","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/walking-ixus.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/walking-ixus.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/walking-ixus.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/walking-ixus.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/walking-ixus.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=610"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/walking-ixus.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2324,"href":"https:\/\/walking-ixus.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610\/revisions\/2324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/walking-ixus.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/walking-ixus.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/walking-ixus.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}