Which of these California Wineries would you remove from your tasting visit?

Friends were going to the following wineries…

Caymus
Chimney Rock
Cliff Lede
Darioush
Failla
Frank Family
Nickel and Nickel
Peju
Silver Oak
Stag’s Leap

They added Myriad/Quivet to their list, and asked me for a choice of 3 wineries to skip, so they could pick one of the three.

Thoughts?

N.B. They tasted yesterday. I’m curious to see what Berserkers would delete from the above.

dh

if it was me, I’d skip Caymus, Silver Oak, and N&N

Certainly, I would skip Caymus and Silver Oak. Have not had a bunch of those so cannot comment on a lot of them. I would keep Stag’s Leap.

Think about going to Stony Hill.

I admit to disdaining Frank Family wines, so it’s on the list with Caymus as ‘eliminate.’

The others I would simply say, “That’s too many for a day” and go from there.

The only one I have ever visited was Caymus and it was fair at best so that’s the one I would skip (and I’m not an AFWE drinker).

My bad, I never went to Caymus. I was referring to Cakebread .

Drop Caymus and Frank Family.

Caymus, Frank, Silver Oak, by a wide margin for me

Caymus and Silver Oak.

+1

Don’t see the appeal of tasting at either.

I guess it depends on what they’re looking for in the tasting experience. Do they just want good wine? Value for money? A genuine learning experience? Hospitality? Knowing their priorities is of foremost importance. One of my most memorable tastings was in a nondescript warehouse, but that might not be “Napa” enough for some.

Frank, N&N and Peju

Caymus, Frank Family, Silver Oak and Nickel & Nickel.

Been to caymus - skip
Been to silver oak - ok to skip but not as obvious
Would also consider skipping nickle2

Dan, what did you recommend ?

Caymus, Silver Oak, Frank.

N&N- the tour is nice, and the wine is decent enough, I just wish the price point was $75 per bottle instead of the $100-125 range they are currently in. Their Tench and Dragonfly bottlings are actually pretty good, IMO.

I told them to blow off Chimney Rock, Stag’s Leap, and Silver Oak.

How come nobody mentioned Chimney Rock? I don’t recall reading about them?

Chimney rock is actually a nice tasting in a nice setting imho. Their tomahawk is real nice.

Would drop Caymus, Silver Oak, Darioush, at the very least. Would say that Stags Leap is a bit generic at this point too. A lot of these are run-of-the-mill wines. I would hang out with Mike Smith and forget all of the rest!

Caymus

Caymus, Stags Leap, Silver Oak, Darioush in that order