Cosentino Winery & Tasting Room — Restaurant in Yountville

While researching new wineries to try on our latest Napa trip I decided to give Cosentino a try. They're right off of St. Helena highway so depending on the traffic and direction you are travelling it can be a bit of a pain getting in and out of their parking lot. We tried a few of their reds and the one that I liked and ended up buying is The Poet, a nice little blend of Cab, Merlot, Cab Franc, Malbec, and Petit Verdot. The tasting room was empty when we arrived which is always nice. The patio out front also looks like a nice place to relax and hang out.

If you join their wine club you get tastings at quite a few other affiliated wineries one of them being B.R. Cohn. Luckily I recognized the Cohn label as one of the ones that my printing company does. I mentioned this to the gentlemen who helped us and he waived our tasting fee as I am "in the industry". I always forget to mention this. I really need to remember to bring business cards with me when I go to Napa.

We also sampled their Cigar Zin which I really liked as well. But they were only selling that one by the case as they are trying to get rid of them in order to change the label. $99 for 12 bottles of wine is a hell of a deal but my wine fridge is already full and I didn't know what I would do with that much wine. We left only buying the one bottle of Poet and I had been kicking myself ever since. I mentioned this to one of my co-workers who is into wine and he recommended putting the case in the crawl space under my house. So I called Cosentino yesterday and ordered a case of the Cigar Zin! Can't wait...

We came to Cosentino based on the great reviews online, but were highly disappointed with the tasting flight experience. They briefly described 2 of the wines in the tasting when we asked questions, but otherwise barely introduced each pour. The first wine, the Novelist, seems to have writers block- it was the taste/quality I would expect from an under $10 wine from the grocery store. The Chardonnay was alright, this would have been a reasonable starting wine for the flight. Cab Sav also nothing notable. Their Poet (Meritage) was the saving grace, actually having dimension and character. Service was slow despite not that many guests- we came at noon on Saturday, this seems to be when the staff was taking breaks. Not sure if we came at a bad time or if the staff is new but it was a shock to get pours with no description when we’re paying $30 a person for a tasting- we could have purchased glasses if we just wanted wine...

Where do I begin! We flew in for the day to wine taste. Most of the wineries we typically go to were reservations only and never picked up their phones. We tried stopping in and when pulled up the parking lots were empty, but since we didn't have a reservation they wouldn't let us taste (and were extremel rude). This winery fit us in (with about an hours notice). From the moment we arrived we felt welcomed even though they knew they had two large parties coming in. They only had two servers working and they were unbelievable. We sat on their patio for over an hour and it was simply the best experience. They also recommended a few more places that would do the same kind of service and they were all great. And as for the wines.... we left...