New in 2008

We're always trying to make our Napa Valley bed and breakfast inn even better than the year before. With 2008 now here, we thought we'd share some of what we plan on doing new this year, so please visit our web site.

(Want a partial hint? One word: waffles!)

Napa Valley Mustard Festival

All, just a quick note as you think about planning your next trip to the Napa Valley: the 15th annual Napa Valley Mustard Festival runs Feb 2 through March 29. This is a nearly two-month celebration of food, wine and art exhibitions up and down the Valley. The events are fun and, of course, the Valley has that special beautiful appearance, as the wild yellow mustard jumps out at you amid the still-stark black grapevines. Also, as I mentioned in my previous post, February, March, and April are great times to visit the Napa Valley for the simple fact that there aren't as many people here as during the "high season" of July-October.

For more information about the Napa Valley Mustard Festival, check out their web site.

Also, Studio on Main in downtown St. Helena (a few minutes from the Inn) has available for sale the poster for this year's Mustard Festival (see below), and even signed by the artist, Jesse Miller. It makes a great gift and/or decoration in your home or office. Contact Studio on Main if you're interested.

I hope to see you again soon at the Inn.

Winter Secrets

Today I'd like to share a Napa Valley insider's secret with you: Yes, it's our "winter time" right now, and that means the occasional dose of rain (which can be, sometimes, quite large). But winter is also a GREAT time to visit the Napa Valley. It's true--I kid you not!

Why is this time of year a great time to visit the Napa Valley? Well, for example:

* There are far fewer people, making it much easier to dine and taste wine.

* The wineries and restaurants are much more relaxed, meaning that it's much easier for you to make a personal connection with them.

* And at the Wine Country Inn, you can stay AND save money with our off-season rates.

And if in fact it does rain, you can always curl up with your loved one by a fire in your room with a great bottle of wine and one of our cheese and fruit plates and, well...you'll figure it out.

Happy Holidays!

Our best to you and yours this holiday season, from all of us at The Wine Country Inn.

Things I didn’t squeeze into the newsletter.

First off I want to say that our hearts go out to those in Southern California who have lost their homes or been displaced by the fires. It is hard for me to wrap my brain around the fact that Northern California is having such a sparkling Fall, while Southern California is experiencing one of the greatest disasters in its history. If it would be of any help for the next month or so, and you need a place to stay or just want to get out of the smoke, come stay with us. I will give you any room I’ve got for our cost of servicing the room, say $75 for a standard room and $125 for a suite or cottage.

Secondly I can’t stress enough how important your comments are. At the end of every month I sit down and read through the comment sheets left behind in the rooms. Not only do I get a great insight as to what you want or how we could have done something better, I also get very warm encouragement that I truly cherish, as well as pass onto my staff to encourage and motivate them. Plus we have a staff bonus program where, on a good month of comments, they can earn a bonus just as big as their normal two-week check. It is huge for them. I have struggled, however, in responding to comments that I thought deserved my response. If you were expecting a response and did not get one, I apologize. Occasionally I am lazy and don’t get around to it, but mostly I can’t tell who the comment came from. Many comments are not signed in a way I can read them and many put a date that could either be your check-out date or check-in date so I don’t know who to send the response to. In the future (I just thought of this as I was writing) I will put a little box on the Comment Sheet to check if you want a response, along with a line to print your name. In the mean time, if you still have something that you feel needs a response, please e-mail me at jim@winecountryinn.com .

Along the lines of comments, if you would really like to help The Wine Country Inn thrive (and help put my kids through college) you could go to Trip Advisor, Yahoo Travel or any of a bunch of other sites and post your comment there. That would be really cool.

The not-so-cool thing about blogs is that the older entries get buried down below. If you want to see what else I have had to say, please scroll down.

See ya soon Jim

Nooks and Crannies

It's Tim, the Inn's Marketing Manager, subbing for Jim who's on vacation. (Only a Napa Valley resident LEAVES the Napa Valley for a week in October, right!) Anyway, I just wanted to share some photos that I find of interest regarding the Inn's grounds. We try to make every part of your stay as quiet and relaxing---and romantic---as possible, and that includes strategically placing "out of the way" tables and chairs around the Inn's grounds for quiet reflection or, even better often (!) sipping a glass of Napa Valley wine while nibbling on some cheese and crackers. Here's one example of what I call on the Inn's grounds the "nooks and crannies" that allow you to enjoy the wonderful Napa Valley weather, yet still feel secluded and private with your special partner:

And while the Northeast and Midwest get most of the press for their amazing fall colors, ours aren't too bad either (in places):

We hope to see you at The Wine Country Inn and Gardens soon.

Farmers and Alchemists

Man, it must have been 20º this morning! OK, maybe 30º… or 40-something. I don’t know, but it was cold. Then it will heat up to a lovely 80º by this afternoon. That’s Napa Valley at harvest time. The most glorious weather you can imagine (at least that’s what the grapes think). And they are thinking life is pretty good this year. They got to come out early in the spring, hang around through a mild summer (what global warming?), then slowly start storing up for winter by tucking away all that wonderful sugar.

I haven’t talked to a winemaker yet that isn’t excited about this harvest. They like a medium-sized crop, with lots of ‘hang time’ and almost, but not quite, bursting with sugars. Well, they got it this year. As of today, September 19^th, the white grapes are mostly in and the red grapes are mostly still hanging around, waiting for that last little blast of heat we always seem to get in October.

The thing about wine is that you can always learn something new if you keep your ears peeled. To be honest, even though I live here, I spend most of my time running the Inn or writing on my next novel. I don’t peruse The Wine Spectator or hang on Robert Parker’s latest words, so sometimes I am a bit behind the times. But a couple years ago I started hearing about brown seeds as an indicator of when red grapes should be harvested. I have lived in the Napa Valley for forty three years and the only real determining factor I ever heard about was Brix, the percentage of sugar in the juice of the grape. Brix was king.

Well, for some winemakers, brix is nowhere as important as the ripeness of the fruit. And this is determined by the color of the seeds and flesh of the grape. Try this; buy some seeded red grapes at the store. Bust one open. Chances are you are going to see a flesh that is slightly reddish close to the skin, then turns quickly to a light green closer to the seeds. The seeds will almost certainly be green. Now, this is ok for eating grapes, but the word is that for world-class, full, layered red wines, the green has got to go.

My brother makes a Cabernet called Hourglass with a winemaker by the name of Bob Foley. My mother grows the grapes for this cultish wine. Bob is a very sharp guy and one of the best winemakers in the Valley. That doesn’t mean he is the most popular guy around. We can look out over my mother’s vineyard in September and marvel at the beautiful crop. But we worry about the rain, an early frost, mildew, not enough heat and a bunch of other things that can still go wrong. Then Bob comes out and says, “Let’m hang”. October comes, with mild days and cold nights, dark clouds looming in the forecast and Bob says, “Let’m hang.” Late October arrives and other vineyardists are scurrying to pull their fruit, having lost the gamble of letting their crop fully ripen before the first big rain, and Bob says, “Let’m hang.” My mother is imagining no income for the year and my brother is fretting about an entire vintage missing from his sales chain, and Bob says, oh, you know what he says.

Now half the fruit is shriveled and ugly, the rest is near falling from its stems and Bob comes out to check the fruit. He breaks open eight or ten berries from different parts of this incredibly small vineyard and says, “OK, you can pick the grapes on the flat, but the hillside plants need a little more time. MORE TIME!!! It is early November and every other grape in the Valley has been picked! In 2005 they picked the last of the grapes around the 15^th of November. There is still no way of knowing what this year will bring. The fruit looks beautiful right now.

Such is the life of a few people trying to make the best wine they possibly can (and trying not to go broke in the process).