Winery Tour – Domaine Carneros

Quote of the Day

Don’t cling to a mistake just because you spent a lot of time making it.

— Author unknown. I have many quotes that discuss the problems with making decisions based on sunk costs.

Introduction

Figure 1: Photo of the Domaine Carneros Winery from Parking Lot A.

I attended a management meeting at the Domaine Carneros winery in Napa, CA this week. I must say I was impressed with this facility – this is as beautiful as I have seen. Our meeting lasted until 4:00PM and then we went on a 90 minute winery tour.

I like to collect vineyard trivia while on these tours and this trip was no exception. Since I do not drink, my interests tend to focus on the farming aspects of the operations. I have discussed winery trivia before in this post. All photos in this post were taken by me.

Trivia

• The Domaine Carneros winery focuses on producing sparkling wines.
• Their wine club is the largest (11,000+ members) in the Napa Valley.
• The wine blend for restaurants is different than sold at the winery. For example:
  • They want a more aromatic grape blend when combined with food. The mixture is 58 % Pinot and 42% Chardonnay.
  • The winery blend is 42% Pinot and 58 % Chardonnay.
• The vine life is normally ~19 years, but the vineyards in the valley have been fighting  a disease that has reduced the vine life to ~8 years.
• There are ~1150 vines per acre.
• The vine yield is quite variable and is usually in the 1 to 3 ton per acre range.
• This means a single vine produces 2 to 3 pounds of grapes.
• The vines are watered using a very sophisticated watering system. They work to stress the vines so they produce the best grapes for wine, which means the vines are watered infrequently. For example, so far this year the vines were watered once in April and twice in June – 2 gallons each time.
• Our winery guide mentioned that winds flowing through the Petaluma Gap keep the vineyards cool.

More Photos

Figure 2: Vineyard Courtyard Area.

Figure 3: Photograph of the Grape Fields.

Figure 4: Another Picture of Vines.

Figure 5: Outdoor Dining Area.

Figure 6: Map of the Vineyard Area.