"Have you been to Nalle?" When describing my tastes to wineries across the Dry Creek Valley I was asked this on several occasions. My answer was consistently, "Nope! But it's on my list." It was Passport 2014. Day 1, I went all out, tasted a lot and bought a lot. Day 2, I was purposely more selective. I planned to spend a long time at my favorites, namely Family Wineries and Mazzacco. I have a lot of this wine at home and Day 2 was seeking 1) new surprises I could buy and 2) consistently delicious wine I could sip to amazing views. But again, this Nalle kept coming up so I figured, ok, I'll head over there and see what all the fuss is about. I pull up, excited as all get out. There's no parking in front of the house, so I park alongside the vineyards. And that's where everything crumbled. A man came up to my car, I role down the window to check the parking situation, and am immediately berated as disrespecting his precious vines. At first I think this is a joke, some Passport humor. But as the man answers my "are you being serious?" question by yelling at me that I'm going to take out his vine and do I know how worthy it is? I realize he's serious. And as I've been well parked--side and rear view mirrors and backup camera well utilized--for a good while at this point I'm hoping we can have a "Haha, relax! Of course I realize how valuable your wines are, I'm not at Gallo, am I?" moment. But no. When we have several more words and I realize he's serious (and discern he's the owner) and realized he's good and sized me up as a young, no taste, quantity rather than quality seeking Passporter, I know it's time to go. So I drove my vine destroying car right out of there. Next time I'm asked, "have you been to Nalle?" I'll say "well I tried..." And go into the story of the horrid owner. I get it. You're by appointment only usually. Passport brings all kinds of riff-raff to your neck of the woods. You want to weed out non potential clientele. Understandable. But word of advice, learn a different means of doing so. I was so looking forward to you, and I've never been more insulted in my life. And you likely missed out in a big sale. (I was saving my first review for an out of this world experience. I always assumed it would be positive. Nope. Although negative, I've never felt more compelled to write a review in my life). read more