Winery Tour - Hendry Ranch Wines

Last week I was fortunate enough to take a trip out to California and got to tour some of the wine country in the Napa and Sonoma Valleys. While I was there, I also got to tour the Hendry vineyards just outside of the city of Napa. The grounds themselves were lovely, but unfortunately we just barely missed getting a chance to see their harvests. They had finished harvesting the last of their Cabs just 10 days before we got there. That would have been a real treat.

The Hendry property was actually fairly unique in topography and growing conditions. They had several blocks at the lowest point of their little valley which frequently had cool air pooled in it, which makes a substantial difference on the quality of their Pinot Noir that they grow there. In the picture on the right, the ridge in the distance is actually one of their Zinf blocks, while everything lower than that are their Pinots. You can also see their second crop grapes still left on the vines.

While we were walking through the fields, our guide also told us about how the recent wild fires in California had affected growing in the recent years. Apparently, vines themselves aren't all that susceptible to fires because they're not particularly dense and don't lend well to spreading the fire. However, the ash from the fires would frequently settle on the grapes and taint the wine afterwards, leaving large amounts of harvest unusable.

After our time out in the fields, we went in to see their processing facilities. The first picture of the inside of their winery is the first stage of their processing facilities. At the moment, though, it was actually decorated for a reception they were going to be holding in the next few days, so its not the normal set up it would have. This room provides access to the tops of their primary fermentation tanks and is also where they rack and re-rack (?) their wines (I don't know if re-racking is the right term for each rack after the first time, but I'm going to roll with it).

The next picture is the room directly below the first. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a picture of it, but the tank on the right is actually one of their experimental set ups for disrupting the cap. They have a apparatus set up with pipes along the bottom of the tank that occasionally release carbon dioxide bubbles to agitate the must inside. They only started implementing that in the past few years, but they were very impressed with the techniques effectiveness so they were in the process of retrofitting their tanks to use it on all of them.

Next is their storage cellar, where they let their wines age. Once again, I foolishly forgot to photograph their vessels immediately behind me, which were their neutral vessels that they use for comparison with the effect of their oak barrels on the final flavor of the wine. Our tour guide was actually the chief engineer for the winery, so we got a lot of good insight on the technical aspects of their production process. It was nice to see a very practical approach to such a romanticized industry.

Finally, we capped of the tour with a wine tasting. The last picture is of the place setting for the tasting. It had a map of the property to show which blocks the wines were harvested from and just give a better idea of the areas we weren't able to visit. We were supposed to have 7 wines, but our guide also slipped us an extra one under the table. We had one of their 2017 Albariño, followed by a comparison of their 2015 Oaked and 2016 Unoaked Chardonnay. Then for the reds, we had their 2014 Pinot Noir, 2015 Primitivo, 2015 Zinf, 2014 Cab, and the extra wine was one of their blends of the 5 Bordeaux red grapes.

Honestly, thats way too much to do a detailed review of each of them, so I'll just shout out my favorites. The Albariño was very acidic and refreshing and the Oaked Chardonnay was pleasantly creamy. Exactly what you'd expect from each of them, I suppose, but they were the first that I had of either grape, so I suppose they left a lasting impression on me from that. Our wonderful guide also showcased an excellent party trick where, if you pour the right amount of wine into a tulip shaped glass, you can lay it on its side and roll it around without spilling any. Theoretically, this also coats the sides of the glass more effectively than just swirling, but for the most part it is just a cool trick.


I suppose that's about it. If you are ever near Napa, I highly recommend visiting Hendry's. Their tour was almost like a little class in and of itself. They were very informative and charismatic and gave a wonderfully detailed look into the process of producing wine.