Went to Napa this weekend and stopped off by the (relatively) new Oxbow Public Market and adjoining Oxbow Wine Store/Cheese Shop.
Some nice selections. Bit high on the markups; on the other hand there were plenty of $20 and Under bargain selections too.
Cheese shop was lovely. Could easily spend a solid portion of my paycheck in there. Case in point: they had SooYoung Scanlon's cheeses (all three!) in stock. You almost never see that. Plus they had stuff like the Bayley Hazen Blue from New England! (If you haven't, you should.) Goooood cheese shop.
Settled in at the tasting bar for a light lunch that didn't turn out so light. Had a remarkably fine "elite" grilled cheese sandwich, with Shelburne Cheddar and a gouda melted betwixt buttered and grilled sourdough. Oh, yum. Also had an Italian style tomato with vegetable soup, made from San Marzano tomatoes, with lightly blanched, crisp veggies julienned in, and topped with a little dollop of olive oil and pesto. Again, yum. Also had a nice pate of smoked trout with pickled onions and sourdough on one side, garlicky toast on the other.
Nice wide ranging by the taste/by the glass/by the bottle selection too. Several pages. Well informed, perky, and helpful staff.
Wife had a Friuli Pinot Grigio. But as soon as I spotted it, I knew I had to have a glass of Fiano On Tap!!! Turns out when they set the place up, they played with the idea of having a wine or two on the dispenser system. The owner of Chimney Rock had been playing around with three rows of Fiano on a slope site....soooo, one thing led to another, and Oxbow got a small kegger of Fiano.
And the stuff was great! It really was. Little whiff of Marcona almonds in the nose, nice lean citrusy middle, and a hit of lime, at the end. With a whisper of something...oh, let's just say green. But almost like a lemongrass kind of green. Anyway, that's as close as I can get. Pretty damned impressive though, and yet another smoking gun for those who have been yammering at growers that the North Coast wine regions should play around more with Central and Southern italy varieties. (Um, and that would be ME.)
So go to Oxbow. Try a little Fiano on tap. Chill. Then say something appropriate, like, "Is this a great country, or what?"
(Beter not wait too long though. With only three rows, there's not a lot to be had. And it can only be had there.)
Still, decently priced in that I thought it was a reasonable price for the experience. Still favor a Campanian, sure---but then I'm a sucker for Fiano, Falanghina and Greco anyway. Also still a fan of David Noyes' faux-Italian Friulano, with his 2007 out now. You should try it.