Visited lots of wineries last week. One that stood out was Cliff Lede (pronounced “lay-dee”). Had already tasted and loved the wine, but the place is cool too for a bunch of reasons.

the double hearts

When you walk through the entry room, you enter this great garden with these double hearts by Jim Dine. There’s tons of other cool art all over the property, in the winery and outside on the grounds.

rock song vineyards

Anything anything that incorporates Led Zeppelin and wine I am IN. They’ve named all of their vineyards after rock songs – see if you know all of them on the map – and they also give you these awesome Spinal Tappy guitar picks:

rock song blends

Then out of all of those vineyards, they blend two together and make different wines every year: this year’s is Cinnamon Rhapsody (from Neil Young’s “Cinnamon Girl” and Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody”), which was actually my favorite out of all the ones we tried.

you taste “backstage”

In keeping with the rock theme, instead of just a “tasting room” you go backstage where there are funky chairs and awesome art exhibits.

this guy

When we were walking through the barrel caves, we bumped into winemaker Chris Tynan who was topping off the Sauvignon Blanc barrels. (Lesson: never walk around Napa without a glass in your hand, since we had nothing to try the wine with when he offered). Chris was awesome. As we were walking out, my cousin said to me, “Have you noticed that everyone here is happy?” Yes I did, and pretty much everywhere else in wine country too.

all of the other wine

They make a great Sauvignon Blanc, and a ton of other Cabs and Cab blends. Obsessed.