One of the things that stood out to us when touring the facility was a wine corking machine.

It corks 80 bottles per minute. I can’t even wrap my head around that. It takes me longer than that to uncork ONE bottle! I wish we could have seen it in action, it must be crazy to watch!

We were greeted warmly in the main entry way with a glass of Sauvignon Blanc and told that Summer would be with us shortly. Speaking of which, ask for Summer! She’s awesome!  We had such a great time tasting a discussing the wines with her. She was previously in the escrow business, so her and I bonded over the real estate business (my day job), and how it helped to evolve our love of drinking wine (it’s a stressful biz).  We also share a love for cooking and pairing wines, so we discussed recipes and pairings as well. She even gave us a few of Cakebread’s recipes and pairing cookbook bookmarkers to take with us!

Speaking of cooking, Cakebread hosts a variety of events: cooking classes, hikes, golf, ski days, hockey games.....if you enjoy pairing wine with any of those events (um, I do), then I suggest checking out their website for upcoming event dates.

Cakebread is a beautiful winery. A large barn-ish type structure made of wood on luscious landscaped grounds. The path leading up to the tasting room is surrounded by vines on both sides. Something cool that we saw, which was a first for me, were bar codes tagging the vineyards. You can scan the codes with your phone and it will give you all of the information about that varietal.

Now about the wine.....we chose to visit Cakebread because we really enjoy their Chardonnays, which did NOT disappoint. However, I have to say that we thoroughly enjoyed their other varietals. A lot!  Their Syrah?!?  YUM! Cab? Pinot? Merlot? Who knew?!! All had similar structure, silky and elegant, balanced, and packed with bright fruit, long on the finish.  No overly oaky or buttery on this front! So in our opinion, if you love their Chardonnays, enjoy! But do yourself a

2014 Sauvignon Blanc, Napa Valley

2013 Chardonnay, Napa Valley

2013 Chardonnay Reserve, Carneros

2011 Merlot, Napa Valley

2012 Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley

2012 Syrah, Napa Valley

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Cakebread Cellars-

TIME VISITED: 10/28/2015, 1:00:00 PM

What we bought:

favor and next time, also try a red.

2010 Chardonnay Reserve Carneros Napa Valley

2012 Syrah Suscol Springs Vineyard Napa Valley