Hendry Vineyard and Winery provides the most interesting and informative winery tour and tasting in Napa Valley. Hendry should be at the top of the list for many people to visit when they visit. They provide a great introduction to wine and wine appreciation and also offer outstanding quality wines with many different varietals. If you want to learn more about wine, this is the place to visit! The three-hour tour and tasting is well worth the $20 but can be free if you purchase wine.
The ranch has been a vineyard since the 1859 when it was planted by the Sigrist family and was one of the most extensive vineyards in the valley. It has been owned by the Hendry family since 1939 when George W. Hendry, an agronomy professor at UCB and UCD, purchased the property which was taken over by his wife and two sons when he died in 1944. A growing appreciation of premium wines in the 1960s and 1970s led to their move away from plum orchards and dairy farming to focus in vineyard planting. In the 1970s they sold their grapes to Mondavi and in the 1980s they sold to Mondavi, Opus one and Kent Rosenblum. The first Hendry vintage was in 1992. During the tour, you will learn the history of the vineyard and how they decided to diversify by matching different wine varietals to the many microclimates on the property.
After the vineyard tour and history, the tour continues inside the winery where you will learn everything you always wanted to know about making wine. George encourages questions and no question is too simple or too technical for him to manage in a way that is geared specifically to the person asking the questions. He makes everything so clear that you will wonder if he also has an advanced degree in communication.
After two hours or more in the vineyard and winery, the tour continues up in the tasting room where an hour is spent tasting ten different wines. This is not your usual pour and taste experience. George describes what to look for in each wine, what foods it would pare with and helps you to understand wine appreciation. You will taste a wine, proceed to another and then return to the former wine to see how the taste changed. You will taste a wine and then some crackers with olive oil, returning to the wine to see how the wine is now completely different in taste. This is carefully conducted wine appreciation class, not just a hurried tasting. The entire tour and tasting will last at least three hours. (Reservations are required, of course.) Other wineries have good tours, but this is the most comprehensive tour and tasting I know of in Napa Valley. It is no surprise to see that Hendry is the highest rated tourist attraction in Napa Valley with Trip Advisor and why there are hundreds of highest rating reviews on Yelp. Hendry is probably the best place for many people to begin their Napa Valley wine tasting.
All wines are grown on the property so are Napa Valley wines. Many Napa Valley wineries purchase some grapes from outside Napa Valley so they can sell less expensive wines. Usually any wine sold for less than around $20 is not from Napa Valley because of the price of Napa Valley grapes. Wine prices at Hendry begin at $18 for their Pinot Gris, although they also have two other wines for $20 or less. The highest price current release is their 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon at $55, which is the only wine sold for over $38. Varietals include: Pinot Gris, Albarino, Unoaked Chardonnay, Barrel Fermented Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, various blocks of Zinfandel, two levels of Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot, Italian Primitivo and Cabernet Franc. The Albarino and Primitivo are rarely found at any Napa Valley wineries, and you will not find much Pinot Gris or 100% Petit Verdot. So Hendry also offers you an opportunity to taste some varietals that you won’t find at most other Napa Valley wineries.
Our tasting notes of the ten wines would continue for many pages, so a summary seems more appropriate. We did not taste the Petit Verdot or Cabernet Franc. Of the red wines we really liked the 2007 Cab, the 2008 Pinot Noir, the 2007 Red Wine and the 2007 Block 28 Zinfandel. The Primitivo was okay but I must confess I find Primitivos to be less interesting than Zins to which they are closely related. Primitivos seem to me to be Zins without tannin or spice. The HRW Cabernet Sauvignon was also just okay. But then it is only $23 which makes it a decent Napa Valley Cab for the price. With the white wines, I liked both of the Chardonnays. It was very interesting to compare the oaked and unoaked ones side by side. Neither one has had malolactic conversion, so you really taste the Chardonnay varietal on the unoaked one and can easily identify the effects of French oak on the other. The Pinot Gris and the Albarino were both good. I don’t drink Pinot Gris very often but love good Albarinos. Most Albarinos in the $20 or less range are not that good, but this one was.
If I had to pick my two favorites, they would be the 2007 Cab and the 2007 Red Wine. The red wine blend at $38 is darned good and very interesting. This wine is a blend of 36% Petit Verdot, 21% Malbec, 21% Cabernet Sauvignon, 11% Merlot and 11% Cabernet Franc and was aged for 18 months in French oak barrels, with 70% of them new barrels. The 2007 Cab is a free run Cab that was in new French oak for 21 months. It is drinkable now but will cellar well. With cherry on the nose, well-integrated tannins and oak and very good balance, this is a very high quality Napa Cab. The 2008 Pinot Noir was also very good, a lighter style Pinot but bursting with red fruit flavors. We really liked every one of the wines we tasted. The overall tour and tasting is a fantastic experience!
