It’s ten o’clock in the morning and we are sitting down to taste wine. We’ve returned to the Spire Collection just outside of Callistoga. I wrote about our first visit in the blog entry – Tasting in Napa. It will give you a gracious plenty on the background of the Spire Collection so I won’t repeat myself.

It is a modern, tastefully appointed tasting room. You take in a fantastic view of the Palisades and Mount St. Helena while you listen to a selection of music of your choosing and to a well versed host offering up an entertaining guide through the wine tasting.

Spire’s estate representative, Michael Tapia chose a selection of wines for us based on our preference to try all reds. You might think that white wine would be a more suitable choice for the morning hour, and my choice is usually a sparkling wine, but the 2019 Anakota Montana Cabernet Sauvignon was a perfect fit for the morning with a fantastic coffee nose.

Another standout – the Australian 2021 Hickinbotham Mr. Grant Malbec was the first bottling from the grapes planted in 2013. Incredibly deep in color with the most aromatic nose – which I loved. It was a surprise to find it at only 14% alcohol.

The blind wine was a 100% Cabernet Franc 2016 Arcanum – Super Tuscan. In addition to it and the other tasting selections, we tried a 2021 Anakota. Both the Montana and Dakota vineyard grapes were used in this blend producing a very, very smooth wine.

Needless to say, we did not leave without a few bottles which included the 2021 Hickinbotham Mr. Grant Malbec and the 2017 La Jota Cabernet Franc Howell Mountain.

We caught lunch at the Rutherford Grill feeling the need to have a few carbs before our next tasting. It’s a busy place especially when its raining and seating is restricted to indoors. The food was excellent. If you plan to go, a reservation is advised.

In the afternoon we had a tasting lined up for the critically acclaimed wines of Mike & Leah Smith. Mike Smith is a rock star winemaker responsible for creating Myriad Cellars, Quivet Cellars, PerChance Estates, Becklyn Cellars, Scarlett Wines, Kindred Cellars and Flora Springs wines.

Leah and sometimes Mike host tasting at the winery in Callistoga. They were out of town the day we tasted so Augie Kersting stepped in to host us at a facility he uses, a former Champagne winery, in the town of Rutherford.

He started us off with Myraid’s 2022 Wente Clone Chardonnay while giving us a tour of the old facility. The Chardonnay was excellent by the way. The place, now a storage and tasting facility, is filled with wine paraphernalia of all kinds and would interest any collector.

Augie complimented the tasting with a stunning charcuterie that gave us the opportunity to marry foods with our wines – especially great to have with the Myriad cabs.

There wasn’t a wine we didn’t all enjoy and want to take with us – Absolutely exceptional, elegant wines!

For fun, Augie pulled out a bottle of Keplinger Sumo for us to try. It’s a yummy blend of Sierra Foothills, Amador County grapes made by Helen Keplinger an equally outstanding winemaker.

Plan ahead if you are coming to Napa and make an appointment at Myriad to taste. Not only are the wines incredible, the tasting charge is a bargain by Napa’s standards and best of all, you might even have the winemaker pouring for you! But ….If you aren’t able to come to Napa to taste and purchase, signing up to their mailing list is your best bet for obtaining their wines.

Many, many thanks to our hosts – Michael at the Spire Collection and Augie for the Myriad, Quivet, Perchance tasting.

Salud!

* Just a note – Our host, Augie has an interesting service business called Vinstral you might wish to look into.