Last year I randomly entered a contest on one of my favorite Napa blog inspirations Bacchus and Beery - and (to my surprise) I won two tickets to the ZAP (Zinfandel Advocates & Producers) Grand Tasting! The event is hosted annually in the city and it was incredible, there were many amazing producers and it was very interesting to see how this one grape could change so much depending on the region, winemaker, vintage...the whole experience completely left me intrigued with Zinfandel. The standout wines of the day were Ridge, Tres Sabores, and what - Brown Estate? Where have you been all my life?!? Yes, the line was long, and yes, it was totally worth the wait! After tasting several of their single vineyard Zins, I noted that this was a place I needed to visit.
The winery is open for tastings Monday thru Friday, which made it not an option for most of my weekend jaunts to Napa. Instead, over the next year I experienced Brown Estate wines whenever I had the chance. First, at our Family Reunion Birthday Dinner at Bin 38. It was the wine of the night and our entire party was in love. Then, with our new friends from school during our first dinner party at our house. Next, I had it one more time prior to visiting the winery. I attended the Annual Brown Estate Extravaganza at the Ferry Plaza Wine Merchant with two of my closest friends from work. Then, after our first round of finals, Alex and I took a day off work and planned to spend our time in Napa and make that trip to Brown Estate.
That crisp Monday morning, we finally made it to the winery for our 11am appointment. We were greeted by Jona with a delicious taste of Chardonnay. We began by walking around the vineyard and learning the backstory behind the Brown's move to Napa and the establishment of their vineyard. This winery is a family affair - and their core values of hard work and perfection shine through in every aspect of the wines and the vineyard. After touring the property we entered the cave and landed a gorgeous private tasting room. We were seated in front of delicious bites and several glasses to taste through their amazing zinfandels. It was interesting to try each of the pairings and also to compare the differences between the single vineyard wines. Coral Brown even stopped by, and we chatted about our experiences and celebrations that her family's wines complimented throughout the year.
I appreciated how intimate our tasting was and how natural the entire experience flowed. Jona and Coral were so hospitable and just happy to be part of such an amazing place. We left beaming and feeling like taking that Monday off was one of our best uses of a vacation day in a very long time. The experience was the whole package for us...intimate, gorgeous property, amazing cave, and great wines from a varietal that we don't find everywhere. This is a perfect place to go if you are looking to try something new in Cab country and be completely won over by these beautifully crafted single vineyard zinfandels!
Tips - Brown Estate:
- Tours and Tastings are offered Monday thru Friday by Appointment Only and the Tasting Fee is $50/person.
- To book a Tour, fill out the form here.
- GPS can be deceiving in this area, it took us an hour to travel to Brown Estate from Downtown Napa, leave yourself about 20-30 extra minutes even without any traffic.
- Plan to spend approximately 1.5 hours at the winery and make this one of your first stops!
