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Chad Melville visited me in St. Helena today to pour new releases of Melville and Samsara. We tasted:

2005 Melville Chardonnay Estate VF 89

2006 Melville Chardonnay Estate Inox VF 88

2005 Melville Pinot Noir Estate VF 92

2005 Melville Pinot Noir Estate Terraces VF 91

2005 Melville Pinot Noir Estate Carrie's VF 93

2004 Melville Syrah Estate Verna's VF 92

2005 Samsara Syrah Verna's Vineyard VF 93

I have always enjoyed the Estate Pinot Noir and the 2005 is a solid value. The Melville wines should be appearing in a Wilder Side of California offer soon.

After getting shut out of the lots I had been interested in at Premiere Napa Valley, I attended the Hospices of Sonoma auction last weekend intent on bringing in some exceptional lots. I'm here to let you know there will soon be offers for five of the top lots from the auction (including the high bid of the event). Vinfolio was the auction's highest bidder.

I don't want to spoil the surprise but you will recognize the quality of these extremely limited lots as the top names in Pinot Noir. I will be bringing you field reports of these wines as I visit the wineries. Needless to say, these wines will be allocated.

Where we live at the top of the Napa Valley in Calistoga, you find the best in farming right around the corner from the video store, but only for a limited time. The video store is there year round (thank goodness because the streets roll up at 5 PM in the winter), but Forni-Brown-Welsh, provider of what I like to call the "caviar of greens" to the top restaurants in the region are only open to the public once a year, on the weekends throughout April. Locals consider it a rite of spring to  get in early. We hit them on opening day this year and ran into lots of friends who were also doing spring vegetable and herb planting. Their five acre farm is at the end of a little lane behind an apartment building on the southern outskirts of town. The sign is easy to miss and is not visible off the main street. But if you live within the bay area and love the best in organically grown green for your garden. It is worth getting in the car this month and coming north.

Forni-Brown-Welsh is located at the corner of Cedar and Pine in Calistoga and is open Thursday through Sunday in April only.  Contact number is 707. 942. 6123

We ended up with several varieties of tomato, basil, parsley, cilantro and tomatilla destined for our 4th of July Fireworks party salsa. The way the rest of the garden is already growing, it should be an amazing year for tomatoes!

As Pinot Noir goes, the recent releases from Oregon have been at least solid and many of them extraordinary. This week I had the chance to taste the newest release from a producer that is as good as any of the best; Domaine Serene. Many of you may recall the very popular 2004 Yamhill Cuvee that was available at Vinfolio in the fall. Their recently released 2004 Pinot Noir Evenstad Reserve is further evidence of the excellence found here. The winery has an informative tech sheet.

I think this will be one of the most popular wines of the week. My notes appear in tomorrow's issue of the Wilder Side of California. For a sneak peek, click here