Elevating The Artesa Experience: Pairing Fine Wines with Gourmet Cheese & Chocolates

As summer slips away, the kids are back in school and harvest season approaches in the wine country. Artesa’s Assistant Winemaker Nori Nakamura told us in the last Artesa blog entry that harvest this year will be late and fast. What better time than to see for yourself how the grapes are ripening with a “Vines and Wines” tour and tasting, one of several specialty programs available to visitors looking for an intimate experience away from the crowds and with your own assigned guide and wine educator.




While “Vines and Wines” is offered seasonally (for another few weeks or so) until workers descend into our vineyards practically around the clock, a number of additional tour options await groups looking for specialized attention leading to a truly memorable experience at Artesa Winery. Thanks to Vino Visit, a new online booking service available on Artesa’s website, you can reserve an educational tour and program, day or night, from the comfort of your home.

One of the newest specialty programs is “Chocolate Indulgence,” a daily-offered journey through five of Artesa’s finest reserve wines paired with five hand-produced chocolate truffles from local Napa chocolatier, Anette’s Chocolates. “It was extremely hard finding the right pairing between chocolate and wine,” said Tasting Room Manager Michael McKinley. Staff went through literally hundreds of chocolates finding just the right match with Artesa’s handcrafted ultra-premium wines, an endeavor anyone with a sweet tooth would envy.

“Vino con Queso” is Artesa’s intimate wine and cheese tasting which starts off with a glass of Codorniu Napa Grand Reserve sparkling wine. Artisan cheeses are purchased daily at Napa’s Oxbow Market to ensure maximum freshness, to be presented with Artesa’s small production Limited Release and Reserve wines.

Assistant Tasting Room Manager Rick Dudley pointed out that the staff selected to lead these educational tours and programs attended seminars and classes dedicated to this type of specialized pairings. Come see for yourself how locally produced gourmet chocolate can elevate one’s wine tasting experience. Or maybe fine cheese is more your style. Visit www.artesawinery.com/tours anytime to book your reservation for this or any other specialty program. You won’t forget the experience anytime soon.

An Artesa Winery Pet: Bodie

Welcome to a new feature of Artesa's blog, a feature on one of our winery pets.

First, some background on Bodie’s wine-loving owner: A local product hailing from St. Helena, Artesa’s Vice President of Finance, Tim O’Leary, is one of the longest employed people at the winery, even when it was known as Codorniu Napa. For twelve and a half years, Tim has been in charge of finance either as controller or in his current position. That places his starting date shortly after Artesa’s first crush in 1997. (The winery was reborn as Artesa at a black-tie dinner celebration on July 24, 1999.)

On August 23, 2001, a Yellow Labrador Retriever named Bodie was born and became a member of the O’Leary family, as well as the Artesa family. As the first “winery pet” featured in our blog, Bodie brings with him a brother, a Black Labrador Retriever named Jake, born last year on the Fourth of July. Jake, incidentally, has been described as Bodie’s favorite toy. When not carousing with Jake, Bodie loves typical dog things such as swimming. Less common is that when Bodie knows he did something wrong, he smiles (which is rare, for the record). Think about that next time you run into a smiling Yellow Lab with a Black Lab trailing not too far behind him.