Perry P.
Yelp
It's safe to say that there is no shortage of wineries when visiting Napa Valley, so when I took a trip to visit Napa, I was overwhelmed with which winery to visit. Lost on which to visit, my friend recommended that we check out the Caymus winery. I'm a fan of reds specifically Cabernet Sauvignon so it was an easy choice to add this to our list of places to check out. After some quick look up on Yelp, I saw that Caymus has two wineries, one is in Napa Valley while the other is located in the neighboring Suisun Valley.
Like everything after covid, prior reservation is a must, and while Suisun is closer to where we were staying in Fairfield there just wasn't reservations available for the day we wanted to visit. We did get lucky with securing a reservation for Caymus Napa Valley. Reservations were easy to make through the tock website with each tasting costing $50. All participants must be 21 years and over, and no outside food/picnicking is permitted. Groups 13 or larger is requested to email Caymus directly.
Caymus is known for their Cabernet and the winery is in Rutherford off the highway 29. Our reservation was for 9:30 and we arrived at 9 to make sure we were not late. Parking was easy to find, and they even have 4 chargers on site which was great for us because my friend drives an EV. We checked in at the reception and was given a wine glass that will be used for our tasting. We were also told that 2024 is the fiftieth vintage of Caymus so everything was designed to commemorate this event. We were directed to the barrel room where we sat down and was presented with the wines for the day.
Now for the good stuff, the tasting consisting of a flight of 5 wines. We got to try a Mer Slieil Chardonnay, The Walking Fool Red Blend, Transit 3 Red Blend, Caymus Cabernet Sauvignon, and a 2019 Caymus Special Selection Cabernet. Our sommelier was Jen, and she was both friendly and knowledgeable. She explained not only the wine making process but educated us on the tasting profile as well as the history of Caymus. She told us that she's being with the company for over ten years and prior to that she worked with a different winery in Napa.
My palette is not refined enough to decern the faint notes accompanied in wines. I've only started drinking wine five years ago, but I do know what I like to drink. Of the five wines sampled, I loved the Caymus Cabernet Sauvignon, which wasn't a surprise since it is their most popular. I also enjoyed the Transit 3 Red which Jen informed us are made with grapes grown in Australia and shipped to Napa for aging. A big surprised though was that I was not a fan of the Caymus Special Selection even though it was the one I was looking forward to. I heard that it's an even split between the drinkers that prefer the Caymus Special Selection vs the standard Caymus Cabernet Sauvignon. Thanks Jen for being such a great sommelier.
After we wrapped up our tasting and ready to leave, we were informed that if we prefer to buy any wines the gift shop is in the next room and if we were to purchase wine, the cost of the tasting would be applied to the purchased wine. This was great since we were looking to grab some wine to celebrate the 50th vintage. We ended up getting a set of the Transit series which includes Transit 1, 2, and 3 as well as the Caymus Cabernet Sauvignon. Lastly for our Pokémon Go players, no gym in the area but there is a Pokéstop, so spin away as you try out the different blends.