Somwhere on a small road north of San Francisco. A countryside town in the states pretty much how I imaged one to be. Just few houses and very few people, an old lady telling us you can get robbed if you go out there, “watch out, people get lost all the time she said”. We said good bye…

We went to Freestone as well which is vineyard Phelps built in purpose of making the best Pinot Noir and Chardonnay he think is possible. He placed the wines in the small community of Freestone which lies closer to the coast and get’s a more salty rough climate than they get in Napa or Sonoma. Just the kind of climate you need for producing these wines, tough and hard so that they have to struggle to survive.

We have been selling lots of the Pinot Noir on the restaurant this summer, dad pretty much tells the guests what they should drink since which they do since they like his choice of wines. And this pinot noir they have ordered again and again. When it comes to the chardonnay me my dad and my brother was on a tasting in gothenburg this autumn where we got to try about 40-50 wines from around the world. There where good chardonnays from everywhere and probably 7-8 really god ones from Bourgogne. The Freestone Chardonnay where better than all of them. I was super stoked to try this great wine again together with the Fogdog and the Aviation which are to more simple Chardonnay’s in two different ways. Simple and simple, anything is simple compared to the Freestone Chardonnay.

Thanks Stephen & Brad for giving us a great time and explaining the history of the land and the wines! Thanks the Phelps family for making super awesome wines!

Ed from Quality Peoples made a feature about us. I like the photos he choose, maybe not very strange because he is a professional photographer and a great one too.

Check it out here.

Driving into Napa Valley and tasting a cabarnet sauvignon from right where it´s made has been a dream of mine since I discovered the world of wines. I found my love to the reds in that grape, from this place, and from the winemaker we visited. I´ve been selling these wines at our family restaurant in Torekov for the past few years and have had the luxury opportunity to try a few sip´s then and there when checking the bottles if they´re OK..

The weekend in Napa was more than a wow expereience! WOOW.

Joseph Phelps Backus Cabernet Sauvignon. And the Insignia.. Mmmmhh.

We wanted to meet Bill & Joe Phelps themselfes and got guided to a private tasting in a room behind the kitchen. Just when we got into the reds someone opened the door and there was Bill. More about that meeting you´ll see later..

This is one of those places that only exists in dreams. It´s a hidden little village along the high way one with no signs left saying it even exists. At first we tought the locals in the town must be mad at the locals at the surf for taking the signs down all the time making business bad for all the shops and so on. But so wasn’t the case. The whole village is a secret spot. An own hippie community in nowhere with a scene as hippie as you ever could imagine. People looked at us like, what are you doing here, you’re not a hippie, people smoked weed on the streets and everywhere. Well streets and streets, there was one street with small little hippie shops lost in time and one full of all the surfers cars and camping cars. That´s it. But there was interesting wierd people in every little corner living separate life from all the surfers coming there. And the surfers where in their own world. It said locals only everywhere and it seemed to be a rough perfect tubing shoulder high wave. But in time for me to get my wetsuit on and get in the water a few sandbars lined up perfect breaks along the whole beach. I had some awesome north cali waves on my new bing board, in the sunset on my totally own peak. One of those sessions you don’t forget.

 

Ignacio “Chuk” Solis is Bing´s ambassador from Spain. Here´s his brand new 9,5 Bing Pig they just sent him over the atlantic. Doesn’t it look awesome?