Providing a delightful one-day itinerary that leads from the plains of Carneros to the hills of Calistoga, The Heritage Wine Trail makes touring and tasting through the Napa Valley easy, with a full-day package that includes a complete itinerary of tours and tastings at four iconic wineries and a gourmet picnic lunch—all for just $99 per person. At each winery, guests are treated like VIPs, with behind-the-scenes tours, special tastings, and more.
After stops at Acacia Vineyard, Oakville Grocery, and Beaulieu Vineyard, guests continue north on Highway 29 to Provenance Vineyards. Located in a pastoral portion of the valley floor, Provenance Vineyards is dedicated to producing wines that express their place of origin. The massive red winery surrounded by vineyards stands like a beacon on the landscape. At this tour stop, guests will have a chance to sit back and enjoy their wine country picnic lunch, but first they step inside the tasting room to say “hello.” They are greeted with a glass of wine and given a brief introduction to Provenance Vineyards. As they look around the handsomely designed room, they’re bound to notice the spectacular, one-of-a-kind barrel stave floor, fashioned from 960 barrels used for the winery’s inaugural release, the 1999 Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon. This exceptional wine displayed an elegant, yet powerful, richness with intense flavors that exemplified the vineyard and vintage and set the benchmark for the winery’s style. Today’s portfolio includes a delightful range of varietals including Sauvignon Blanc, Malbec Rosé, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon. Guests select their favorite and then spread their delicious lunch out at a picnic table on the lawn or the new tasting room patio lounge.
Guests travel The Heritage Wine Trail at their own pace and, after lunch, there is more! From Provenance Vineyards, they’ll head to Sterling Vineyards for their last stop of the day. The Heritage Wine Trail itinerary is the ideal way to experience the Napa Valley in a unique and memorable way.
Along the Heritage Wine Trail, Part Three: An Interview with Provenance Vineyards Winemaker Trevor Durling
T&T: The concept of “Provenance” is French for origin. Is your goal as winemaker for Provenance Vineyards to produce wines that express their origin?
TD: My goal is to produce wines that express their origin by highlighting the various nuances that different growing regions within the Napa Valley have to offer. The majority of our vineyard sourcing comes from the Rutherford appellation. With our Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon, for example, I showcase the characteristics that make Cabernet from the Rutherford Bench unique, such as the famous “Rutherford Dust” attribute and dark-berry fruit profile. We also source grapes from many other areas, like Calistoga, Diamond Mountain, Howell Mountain, Oakville, Yountville, Oak Knoll, and Carneros. Having this variety of vineyards to work with allows me to really highlight these wonderful microclimates and ultimately produce a collection of wines that can be enjoyed by a broad range of palates.
T&T: How do you guide a wine into becoming the best representation of its terroir?
TD: I am a firm believer that a great wine begins in the vineyard, so there is quite a bit of focus placed on viticultural practices during the growing and dormant seasons. I make sure to spend a lot of time with our highly skilled vineyard team in order to remain updated on vineyard activities and also to provide input. By harvest, I will have already evaluated the grapes’ initial quality and will start implementing what needs to be done to ensure the highest quality and representation of terroir is achieved. My basic philosophy is to simply “guide” the grapes into becoming fine wines rather than to excessively handle and manipulate them. From a winemaking standpoint, I’m fortunate to have access to some of the best fruit in the Napa Valley. In addition to our estate vineyards in Rutherford, we harvest grapes from Carneros in the south all the way up to Calistoga in the north. My job is to make sure that each wine is balanced, complex, exciting and representative of its terroir.