Today we wanted to share one of favorite Downtown Napa tasting rooms with you - Mia Carta. With its collective tasting room, complete with eight different wineries to experience, it's a must visit, whether you are here locally or visiting from out of town, state or country!
Check out the video for all the details, along with a transcript, below. Cheers!
Ted: Hello and welcome to the amazing Napa Valley and welcome to American Dream TV. We're your hosts today - I'm Ted Stumpf.
Dean: And, I'm Dean Castelli and today we're walking in Downtown Napa, home of world-class restaurants, tasting rooms, entertainment venues, and even some fantastic neighborhoods.
Ted: There's always something to do in Napa regardless of the time of year, with music festivals throughout including Bottle Rock Napa Valley. Today, though, we're going to focus on what we consider the lifeblood of Napa; small family-owned wineries. Out of 500 wineries in the Napa Valley, 90% of them are small. Let's go check in on one today with our friends at Mia Carta.
Today we're here with Alejandro Tovar, the general manager of Mia Carta in Napa and he's going to share with us some of the insights about this wonderful location. But before you do I wanted to ask about this wall. It seems unique. What's it all about?
Alejandro: Absolutely! So, this wall is kind of what greets you when people come into Mia Carta and it's actually a map of Downtown Napa. Right behind me here is going to be the Napa River and then of course, if you take a full measure of it, you'll see the whole Downtown Napa kind of greeting you as you come into Mia Carta.
Ted: Awesome. Tell us about Mia Carta.
Alejandro: Mia Carta is a collective tasting room of eight different small production wineries. We like to offer our guests a true Napa Valley authentic experience and what that means for us is on any given day people can come into the tasting room here and have a glass or do a tasting with one of our local vitners. They're here on a daily basis and they really love to share their wines. This is something that not just tourists, but locals also love to enjoy.
Ted: Absolutely! Sounds like we can taste through the whole valley in one sitting.
Alejandro: Yes, and then go have a Michelin Star dinner!
Ted: There you go. I love downtown. On that note we're going to delve a little further into one of the eight wineries - Art House Wines. Thank you for having us here to taste. John, what brought you to Mia Carta in particular?
John: Well, you know what's interesting about Mia Carta is in Italian it means "my map". What our map was to get here, to follow our passion, was I got a job back in the day as a wine writer, working for a wine magazine in San Francisco, got an introduction to wine that way. We eventually moved to Napa and totally fell in love with wines as you do when you move to Napa.
Ted: Absolutely and what makes Carneros special?
John: So, Carneros is the southern region of Napa; it actually extends into Sonama a bit too, but on the Napa side it's near the river. It's near the bay, so it has cool breezes, foggy mornings, and it's great for cooler weather grapes such as Pinot Noir and Chardonay. We have we have Pinot Noir - that's our lead brand. We also make Pinot Gris, a cousin of the Pinot Noir, and we make a Rosé. f
Ted: Fantastic. So the name Art House. Where did that come from? Does it have anything to do with the artwork on the bottles by chance?
John: Actually, all of us and our family have been involved in the Arts we have our art on the label. We alternate between one of Donna's images and one of my paintings on the Pinot Noir bottles each year like this behind us which is one of my paintings but we're going to be pouring a little bit of the 2016 Pinot Noir today and it is a beautiful wine, deep flavors, richness; you sip it, it stays in your mouth for 10 minutes. You can just taste the flavors for a long time so we're really proud of it and happy to share it with everybody.
Ted: Well thank you! We appreciate the opportunity. Cheers!
Dean: Well, thank you John, thank you Donna. While we finish up our tasting here at Mia Carta, let's take you on a tour of some of the neighborhoods in Downtown Napa.
Ted: Well Dean, how fun to walk through the neighborhoods of Downtown Napa. Don't you just love the history, the restoration that's happening? The beauty that's going on, the connection to this thriving commercial area? We are so lucky to live and work in Napa don't you think?
Dean: I'll cheers that!
Ted: Absolutely! We want to thank our friends, Alejandro and Pedro, today at Mia Carta for all of their help, their generosity and their amazing hospitality. And finally, until we see you all again, as we explore more parts of this beautiful Napa Valley... I'm Ted stump.
Dean: And I'm Dean Castelli. We're with the Lesti Team at Windermere Napa Valley Properties.
Dean and Ted: Cheers to you!
Ted draws energy and joy from building synergetic relationships with his Clients. Ted's nature is graciously gregarious and persevering; he's honest; and he's been dedicated to a substantial list of clientele throughout his 25 years in the hospitality business and almost two years as a REALTOR. His passion is creating a sincere, successful relationship with people.
Ted grew up in a family of Realtors in central Indiana, earned a degree in economics and philosophy from the University of Notre Dame, and jumped into all aspects of the restaurant business. His ensuing hospitality career path eventually led him into the Event Management Sales & Service role in hotels and quickly guided him to Los Angeles, San Francisco, and finally to a luxury resort in the Napa Valley, where he, his husband, and their dog have resided for almost a decade now.
The irony is not lost on Ted that his ‘growth’ journey has culminated in“living happily ever after” in an agricultural area with a small-town feel and sense of community strikingly reminiscent of his youth…and as a REALTOR nonetheless!