Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I hope you’re enjoying a wonderful holiday with some great wines to go with it!

I’d love to hear what everyone’s drinking with their turkey… please drop me a comment/note and let me know, so we can post your preferences. At our place, we’re having a very nice Ste. Michelle Reisling, a David Bruce Pinot Noir from Oregon, and a surprisingly wonderful huckleberry wine called “Huck.” For dessert, we’re having a Cabernet Sauvignon Ice wine (!) from Icicle Ridge winery in Washington. What are your Turkey Day favorites? Drop us a line, and I’ll post your choices next week!

Okay… let’s get back to ”The valley…”

Heading west down the tranquil Oakville Crossroad toward highway 29 and Opus One (www.opusonewinery.com) an almost mystical place to a new “winey…” I mean, this was OPUS, for goodness sake!

Opus is a joint venture between the now-late Robert Mondavi, and Baron Phillipe de Rothschild to produce a “proprietary Bordeaux blend,” of mostly Cab, and a few other varietals, such as Merlot, Cab Franc, Petite Verdot, etc…

This winery is amazing. It is an architectural wonder, that almost defies description. It is also expensive.

We had missed the 10:30 a.m. guided daily tour, so we were forced to enjoy the grounds on our own with our $25 tasting of the famous Opus One, which lived up to its  billing. I bought one, even at the “exorbitant” price of $85/bottle… funny how things change in a couple of years. $85 for a ’94 Opus now? Gimme a case!

From there, across the street to Mondavi! (www.robertmondaviwinery.com). The famous roof line silhouette greeted us, and we headed in for a tasting of an impressive line of wines. A few samples and a little conversation with the wine room manager later, and we were in a small private room with a couple of delightful library wines; older vintages of special character, kept back by the wine maker as something special.

I bought a couple of bottles of their best, the Mondavi Reserve Cabernet, and we continued our trek. Francis Ford Coppola’s fine establishment (www.rubiconestate.com) where I purchased several vintages of the iconic “Rubicon.”

Across to St. Supery (www.stsupery.com) where I joined the “Divine Wine Club,” and remain a thankful member to this date. St. Superyhas a fairly wide variety of wines, but are best known for their estate grown Rutherford Vineyard Cabs.

How many wineries had we been to so far? Nine? Ten? Eleven, I think. I had truly lost count, but I was determined to make an even dozen–one for each bottle in a case?

Our final stop was V. Sattui, one of the most interesting wineries in the valley, and where we’ll pick up tomorrow, as we hop along the dusty wine roads on our way for some good post-Thanksgiving shopping!

Cheers!

WCI