Ashes & Diamonds Winery

The entrance to Ashes and Diamonds Winery is right off the main drag into Napa Valley, Rt. 29.

FYI: This is actually NOT the main tasting room, but it sure looks cool!

I can’t say I booked our tasting at Ashes & Diamonds Winery with high expectations. Despite his accolades, we’re not huge fans of winemaker Steve Matthiason or his penchant for “natural” wines. But the winery is oft-included in the “best places to drink in Napa” lists, so I decided to have an open mind and book a tasting.

A&D offers a wine variety of experiences from typical wine only for $60 to the “vintage experience” for $350. We opted for something in between: the A&D + Food. The prix fixe menu consisted of two appetizers, a salad, and entrée. No dessert - weird? Yes.

The Rosa, a blend of Cabernet Franc and Sangiovese.

Our menu and the first three pours.

Sadly, the food was better than the wine. While we found the tahini with stone fruit to be “next level” The Rosé had the anticipated zero-zero funk of freshly washed foot. While we enjoyed both the salad and try-tip, mojo is notoriously difficult to pair and needed a bigger Cabernet Sauvignon to balance it. The Cabernet Franc was perhaps the best thing poured but even that wasn’t tempting enough to purchase a bottle.

Now if you’re going wine tasting for the ‘gram, then this is a great spot! The winery is named after 1958 movie and all of the architecture and interior design has a mid-century modern vibe. Also of note: the winery can host large groups as evidenced by the bachelorette party we saw upon arrival.

There is a very bright garden off to the side with steps down into the vineyard.

A view of the Vaca Range to the east of the winery.

Although we had a cooler start to the growing, season, these grapes on the valley floor seem to be plumping up.