The past few times, I have been in this area, I have always passed Narrow Gate which is not far from the junction of Leisure Lane and Pleasant Valley Road. It was always because either we were running out of time or our palate was too wined out. This time, we decided to stop over here. And it was a good decision. The tasting room doubles as as the winery itself..actually the other way around. Frank and Teena who owns the place, also play the tasting room staff (Frank is the winemaker). They obviously enjoy what they do. They were very passionate about their wines and it showed in the bottle. All the wines were quite intense in flavour. The 2005 Syrah is a very smooth wine, quite velvety with red fruits and some garrigue. It will be interesting to revisit this wine in a few years. They too had a CdP version called Dunamis which we all liked very much (but it was a little pricey at $32). But the wine that raised a few eyebrows was the 2006 chocolate splash port. As the name implies, this is a classical port infused with chocolate essence. It was like drinking chocolate only a little more adult. This would be interesting with creme brulee.
We stopped in Auburn for a quick bite of pizza on the way back, mostly to satiate the hungry kids in our car and then headed back home. There was some fog in the upper elevations but no hint of the snowy weather we encountered in the morning. it was a good day!