All Aboard!

The Napa Valley Wine Train is a great way to spend a relaxing few hours with your mother. Great food, wonderful wines and plenty of fun will be had as you tour through the valley. The train offers a handful of experiences, ranging from lunch and wine packages to full tours. Visit the Wine Train website for the full Mother’s Day offering.

Hand craft your own cards

The town of Yountville features plenty of dining and shopping choices. Take mom out to brunch to start off the weekend and then stop by 55 Presidents Circle to craft your own handmade card for mom. It’ll be a once in a lifetime notion that will spark memories for years to come. Visit St. Helena’s Chamber website for more information.

Create and inspire a unique gift

Take mom to nimbus arts and create a one of a kind ceramic art piece. The team at nimbus will help you through the technique and let your inner artist speak out. You will build mom’s gift right by her side as she creates her own masterpiece. Unique gifts and unique memories are sure to please mom for years.

Dine around town

You can’t get through the weekend without a few great meals. We always love to recommend one of our favorite chefs in the valley, Cindy Pawlcyn, as she has three options for you that fit every taste and style. Mustards in Napa grows most of its own produce on their double-acre farm; the wood fired grill has become famous throughout Napa. Cindy’s Backstreet in St. Helena delivers fun supper club style fare with a speakeasy attitude. And finally, Cindy Pawlcyn’s Grill offers a fresh and tasty American menu that fits right into wine country. You can’t go wrong with any of these eateries; it’s best to call soon for reservations.

Have your CAKE and watch them to

BottleRock, the wine country’s favorite music festival, is coming to Napa Valley May 9 – 12. You can buy a day pass just for Sunday, Mother’s Day, for you and your mom. The Sunday line-up can be found here: including Train, CAKE, The Zac Brown Band & more.

Enjoy the finest wines in the valley

No trip to wine country would be complete without a stop into Whitehall Lane’s tasting room. Our portfolio of wines offers a grand selection from our valley floor vineyards that are each handcrafted into masterpieces that mom is sure to enjoy. Our exquisite tasting room is a great setting to enjoy a flight of wines and spend time with mom. We are a family owned winery and would be honored for your family to visit us on this special day. You’re more than welcome to pack a picnic basket and spend the afternoon with us. Visit our tasting room page for more info on tours and tastings.

The stresses of everyday life will melt away as you meander through the valley enjoying the country’s best wine, food and shopping. A trip to wine country never seems to last long enough, but you’re always welcome back soon.

Cheers to you and mom!

In the fast-paced and fun-loving world of wine, it’s important to step back and take a look at the bigger picture. Our Director of Retail Sales, Katie Leonardini, has done just that and pledged to help make a difference in the world of Leukemia and Lymphoma.

The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society was founded in White Plains, NY in 1949 with the goal of providing support and research to the cure of these life-threatening diseases. It is the world’s largest voluntary health organization dedicated to funding blood cancer research and providing education and patient services. They have recently helped to fund new research, such as using the HIV virus to battle Leukemia in a six year old girl.

LLS has managed to give 78 cents of every dollar donated to blood cancer research. Their total of $816 million since their founding has helped thousands of families battle the disease. LLS helps fund research for doctors that have pledged to find a cure.

LLS Woman of the Year

Katie Leonardini is running for “Woman of the Year” for the North Bay chapter of LLS in an effort to raise $30,000 to help fund research for LLS. North Bay is one of 63 chapters across the country. Each candidate has been tasked with fundraising $7,500, but Katie set her sights higher in an effort to prove that women in wine can and will make a difference. As of this post, she has raised close to $5,000 through her website at CrushCancerNapaValley.com.

Katie is the third of five children. She moved her family, including three healthy children, to Napa Valley nine years ago. She has not been directly infected by the disease, though she says, “Why wait until I have a friend or family that suffers from this disease?” She realizes that she can use her resources, connections and a little time to help so many people that suffer.

Get Involved

The fundraising Campaign started on April 18th and continues through June 27th. Visit CrushCancerNapaValley.com to learn more about Katie’s campaign and contribute where you can.

Katie also serves on the St. Helena Chamber of Commerce “Cheers!” committee that has planned an event on Friday, June 7^th, “Ready, Set, Go.” The event includes a 5k run or walk for children and adults in an effort to promote healthy living while raising money for the cause. Held right on Main Street in St. Helena, the June 7^th event starts at 5 PM. Visit her booth to hear first hand from volunteers, employees and families who have been affected by the disease and have received help from LLS.

An exclusive “after party” takes place at a local hotel with live music, cocktails and wine.  For an invitation, please contact Katie directly at Katie@whitehalllane.com.

“I always feel it is important to count your blessings,” Leonardini said. “I am thankful every day I have three healthy children. Why wait until something goes wrong before you get involved? Be thankful for what you have and help others who are having difficulties.”

We humbly ask that as you enjoy a sip of Whitehall Lane wine, you help our family help so many others in the fight against Leukemia and Lymphoma.

Please visit www.crushcancernapavalley.com to learn more about this effort.

It’s a pleasant coincidence that olives grow in the same microclimates as many Mediterranean grape varietals. The temperature and humidity demands are very similar, as is harvest season. And speaking of harvest, we are extremely excited about our second harvest from 2012, especially since we weren’t blessed with much in 2011 and skipped the season.

Why Olives?

Biodiversity is the name of the game in modern agriculture. Using our fertile land to grow multiple crops makes sense on many levels. The mix of crops helps keep our soil rich and healthy, while the trees provide a great windbreak for the vines. Olives add a wonderful aesthetic touch to our property, and of course, give us the amazing olive oil to offer our customers.

Our French and Spanish olive trees were sourced from McEvoy Ranch in Marin which is highly praised for its organic olive oils. They are pruned every February to encourage new growth and are then maintained and supplemented with a healthy nutrition regimen throughout the year. We always strive for quality over quantity in our olive grove.

The Reward

After harvest, the olives are cold pressed and allowed to rest for six weeks before hand bottling the whole batch. This allows the oils to “relax” from the pressing and the flavor to develop. We store the oil in dark barrels inside our cellar to keep it away from light and heat, very similar to our winemaking practices.

The bottling process is a family affair, with all hands on deck to get the luscious oil into bottles and ready to sell. You can pick up a bottle in our tasting room or enjoy it during our food and wine pairing experiences. Our in-house chef, Larry, uses the oil in his cooking demonstrations. His olive oil polenta cake is absolutely divine!

The next time you stop by the winery, make sure to grab a bottle of our family’s olive oil. We’re sure that you will enjoy the dedication to an old-world art as much as we do.

This month, Whitehall Lane Winery celebrates its 20th anniversary. In March 1993, Tom Leonardini Sr. bought the 25-acre Whitehall Lane estate in Rutherford, Calif. Wine grapes had been grown on the site since the late 19th century. Today, Whitehall Lane owns and farms seven vineyards on prime patches of the Napa Valley floor encompassing about 140 acres.

We can’t think of a better way to celebrate our birthday than by welcoming you to a tasting here in St. Helena, Calif. (if you can’t make it the valley, by all means please raise a glass at home, and we’ll return the toast in spirit).

Spring is lovely in the valley, with warm days and crisp nights and fewer crowds than in the summer. If you hit the winery in the later afternoon, as the sun descends, the Mayacamas foothills just to the west glow a hazy purple that’s the same color as part of the winery’s façade.

The easiest way to celebrate is simply to walk into the winery’s renovated tasting room at 1563 Saint Helena Highway South (also known as Highway 29), just south of the main part of the village of St. Helena. A tasting of four current releases is $15. For folks who are new to Whitehall Lane, the current-release tasting is a great introduction; for longtime friends, it’s a chance to drink old favorites.

The tasting room atmosphere is lively and friendly and without pretension. Feel free to ask questions of the staff. There are no stupid questions because the more you know about wine, the more you enjoy it. If you need a recommendation for lunch or dinner, ask us about that, too. We’re Napa Valley locals, so we’ve got the inside track on dining.

Club Room

The $25 reserve tasting in the tasting room focuses on wines that are available only at the winery. Such as: our late harvest Belmuscato dessert wine crated from 100 percent estate-grown orange muscat grapes. The wine is botrytised, meaning that botrytis mold shriveled the grapes, concentrating their sugars and acids to produce a lush, rich (but never cloying) wine with a golden halo of honeysuckle.

If you’ve got a larger group or want something special to toast Whitehall’s 20th, consider booking our Club Room for a private version of the reserve tasting, or for a private wine and food pairing, each led by one of our senior wine professionals. The room affords gorgeous views of the estate, the Rutherford appellation and Whitehall Lane’s barrel cellar.

The food pairings are prepared in the winery’s brand new event kitchen lying just off the Club Room. If you’re lucky, perhaps Chef Larry will be there, testing a dish and in the mood to hand out samples. The wine and food pairing is $37.50. To reserve the Club room, call (800) 963-9454 ext. 29 or email greatwine@whitehalllane.com.

However you feel like celebrating our anniversary, we look forward to welcoming you at Whitehall Lane — and to our next 20 years!