Hendry Winery — Attraction in Napa Valley AVA

This was the first winery of the last day of 2017, our 7th visited overall. The reason why I selected this one was because of the impressive (almost perfect) Yelp reviews.

I had never heard about this wine before, when we call to make the appointment they said that it should last around 3 hours. So we arrived at 10AM sharp, Mr. Hendry was entering too. The great thing about this place is how relaxing it’s and the personal touch by the owner himself.

The wines are quite good, I didn’t liked the un-oak Chardonnay, and not so much the Zinfandel because it’s too sweet for my palate. But the oak Chardonnay, the RED (blend) and the Cabernet were above average to very good. Mr. Hendry takes an enormous time explaining the winemaking process as well as answering questions. If you are planning to do the private tasting/tour I suggest you to write down a few questions you may have so you don’t forget when you get immersed into this storyteller vintner!

My downsides are;

1 – It would have been really nice to be greeted with a glass of chardonnay or any other white wine to cover the first hour of the visit while walking through the fermentation room, barrel room, etc. 2 – A little cheeses will be nice, they can even charge something extra for it.

Here are my rating to all visited wineries by alphabetical order, for details on each one look for my reviews:

Services – Quality of Wine – Overall Alpha Omega 5 5 5 Darioush 5 5 5 Duckhorn 1 3 2 Hendry Vineyard 5 4 4 Joseph Phelps 5 5 5+ Merryvale 5 4 5 Merus 5 5 5+ Ovid 5 5 5 Paraduxx 4 3 4 Rombauer 5 4 5+ Silver Oak 5 4 5

I do recommend coming here to learn the basics of winemaking and ask many questions, but be ready because Mr. Hendry is a neurology and he likes to study you while the tasting is going, so he direct everything from when to drink, the order to when to eat some crackers...

The best value experience in all of Napa-Sonoma has to be their Wine Seminar! The owner, George Hendry, gives a personal guided tour of the wine-making process where he explains everything from the soil to the last sip of a bottle. An incredibly intelligent man with several advanced degrees and research into how people actually taste food, he was able to explain complex concepts in an easy-to-understand manner.

I consider myself moderately educated on wine, but I was still able to learn a considerable amount during the 3 hour tour! The seminar includes tasting of 8 or so fabulous wines that rival all the other great wine producers in the region. During the tasting he presents an in-depth experience to show how the wines differ and to explain what is happening biochemically when you taste the wine. It's exact and scientific without being too over the top if you don't have a strong science background (and if you do, he can certainly talk at that level as well!).

The seminar was $75 a person, but the fee is waived with an equivalent purchase of wine. I thought the tour was well worth it on its own, but I was more than happy to bring some wine back to give my friends at home the 2 cent version of his tasting experience!

It was the most enjoyable thing we did while we were in Napa-Sonoma, and I'd easily recommend it to anyone...

I absolutely love this winery. We read about it in a guide and it happened to be near where we were staying, so we thought we'd give it a try. We turned up early without an appointment in the morning and luckily they happened to have two spaces for their 11am tasting event.

We were warmly greeted by Tamara and she was an amazing hostess throughout - happy, funny, and light hearted. She made everyone in the group (3 pairs of strangers) feel comfortable together. The tasting was one of the best I've ever had across Sonoma, Napa and Hunter Valley (Australia). Very informative, fun, interesting and approachably scientific. Tamara really knows her stuff (about wines and the winery history), even though this was only the second tasting event for the winery. It is a great way to learn more about wine and wine tasting - especially those new to it. Even as someone who has done a fair few tastings, I left having learnt more!

Their wines were impressive too - I love their oaked Chardonnay, the pinot noir, and the zinfandel and primitivo were decent too. The rose and albariño weren't for me though.

The $30/person fee includes 8 different wines and is waived if you buy an equivalent amount in wine (as of June 2019)

I highly recommend a visit...