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TIME VISITED: 10/27/2015, 10:00:00 AM

Back to the main event, the wine. Silver Oak only makes two cabs: the Alexander Valley and the Napa Valley. The Alexander has always been 100% Cab, but for the first time, the current 2011 release is a blend, like the Napa Valley (mostly Cab Sauvignon, Merlot, Cab Franc, and Petit Verdo; sometimes some Malbec too). Our tasting consisted of the then current vintage of each, as well as concluding in a library tasting of their 2007 Napa Valley Cab. This presented a big wine problem- we had planned from the get-go to purchase a bottle of their 2008 Napa Cab, which had drawn us to Silver Oak in the first place, but we were now nearly being swayed by this tasting of the 2007.....hmmm, what to do? What to do?!

Needless to say, all of the wines were incredible. Daniel Baron is the winemaker for both Silver Oak and sister company, Twomey Cellars, and has been there since 2001. We didn’t get a chance to check out Twomey on this trip, but it’s on our short list for our next trip.

All in all, we had a really great visit; an excellent wine hostess, Kolea Marquez; and it was a perfect way to spend a rainy day.

They even have a time capsule, which contains some of their wines and other artifacts; I believe they intend to open it in about 50 years. We also received a tour of the whole facility, and one thing that really stood out to both of us, was their cleanliness! Everything was spotless and pristine.

We started out our tour learning a lot about Silver Oak's history. We were brought into a fantastic room that has a timeline that is so worth checking out.  It’s a great visual starting at their beginning concept back in 1972, when a bottle cost only $6! It also consists of possible wine names, bottle labels (hint: water tower), there was a fire somewhere along there, and I believe   a flood as well! Like I said, it’s well worth checking out if you get the opportunity.

What we bought:

2008 Napa Valley Cab (well of course we did).

What we tasted:

2010 Napa Valley Cab

2011 Alexander Valley Cab

2007 Napa Valley Cab

make any advocate drool with envy.

Silver Oak-

After recently trying the 2008 Napa Cab at a restaurant, and being extremely impressed, we knew we had to add Silver Oak to our list of wineries to visit on this trip. It was a rainy and cloudy day when we went for our tasting visit. We had an appointment for the full tour and tasting, which took a little over an hour. There was a lot of ground to cover. Literally. It’s a large beautiful facility with views of the vineyards for miles and a charming water tower out front. (See pic- look familiar?)  The facility hosts on-site equipment, barrel rooms, the tasting room, and a wine cellar that would