Wine Tasting Napa/Sonoma

Fellow poster david12sfa and I are going with our wives and we decided on the latter option, but that's mainly because my wife isn't a big wine drinker, so she'll be able to drive us around once we get too tipsy.

He may have some recommendations on wineries as well. He's a much more cultured human being than I am, so I'm letting him and his wife pick the places.

 

I'm not drinking any !@#$ing Merlot! If anybody orders Merlot I'm leaving!!!

 

I've made 3-4 trips to Napa, and have some very good recommendations, particularly if you're looking at smaller, off the beaten path places.

last trip my brother and I tasted 45 wines in days- definitely recommend getting a driver if you can!

btw, Napa River Inn in the town of Napa is a great place to stay.

sometimes Jetsetter has Napa/Sonoma deals.

 

I get the reference, but your loss, there's some tremendous Merlot in Napa, including Paloma, which is probably the greatest ****ing merlot on the planet. made by an 80 y/o woman from Texas, who kills snakes with her hoe in rows between the vines.

 

Look into renting a car and hiring a driver. Locate smaller, family-owned wineries. You'll be glad you did. The experience will be one to remember. Wine "tours" are...lame.
Just my opinion...

 

Personally more fond of the Sonoma side of the two -- still much more mellow and low-cost, in general.

I would not pay for a tour. Point your car at the little town of Healdsburg, stop in a wine shop there on the square, pick up a "Dry Creek Valley" winery map, and have at it.

You can even stay in Healdsburg or nearby as well -- just a gorgeous area.

But all this just shows my bias for Zinfandel and, in the southern part of that area, Pinot Noir.

http://www.wineroad.com/maps/dry_creek/

 

We're headed out to the Bay Area Memorial Day week and hitting Sonoma on that Sunday.

B-Bob, the Rockets should be in the WCF then, so we'll need to make sure we catch a game.

 

some specific recommendations, each of which I've visited, and can offer more extensive notes if you're interested.

Howell Mtn:
Ladera: http://www.laderavineyards.com/
Viader: http://www.viader.com/
Cade: http://www.cadewinery.com/
O'Shaughnessy: http://oshaughnessywinery.com/

Spring Mtn:
Pride: http://www.pridewines.com/content/default1421.html
Paloma: http://www.palomavineyard.com/
Relic: http://relicwines.com/

Rt. 29:
Elyse: http://elysewinery.com/
Grgich Hills: http://www.grgich.com/
Salvestrin: http://www.salvestrinwinery.com/
Revana: http://www.revanawine.com/
St. Clement: http://www.stclement.com/

Silverado Trail:
Conn Creek: http://www.conncreek.com/
Dutch Henry: http://www.dutchhenry.com/
Darioush: http://www.darioush.com/
Baldacci: http://www.baldaccivineyards.com/

Off the Beaten Path, near town of Napa:
Neyers: http://www.neyersvineyards.com/
Matthiasson: http://www.matthiasson.com/
Palmaz: http://www.palmazvineyards.com/

 

Repped, basso.

david12sfa has heard good things about the Semi winery from folks at a wine bar in Katy.

 

This is a cool place to stay and they will cart you around to places that you want to go within reason.

http://www.winecountryinn.com

These are two of our favorite estate wineries in Napa:

http://www.kuletoestate.com <-- One of my very favorite Cabs ever.
http://www.reveriewine.com

 

If you are like a lot of visitors to wine country, the cost of getting there and back from SF is just the tip of the iceberg. You'll spend more on tastings, bottles, reserve tastings, and wine clubs, eating at fancy restaurants than you think. If you are spending money at the tastings, you tend to get extra tastes, reserve tastes, or higher end wines that aren't on the list of what they are pouring that day. Do it up right at a couple places instead of tasting the cheap stuff at a bunch of places and you'll probably have a better experience. You might also consider staying in wine country one night. There are a bunch of great restaurants up there. FYI, the wine clubs are a rip off, even though they sound like bargains after you've had a few.

Also, if you decide to rent a car, you might look into what the hotel in SF is going to charge you to park it there, it can be pretty spendy.

 

Yep. We paid $60 at the Westin St. Francis back in April 2011. Ri. Dic.

 

Iron Horse. Relaxed outdoor tasting room with fantastic views. Small, family owned and off the beaten path. Most importantly, great bubbly. Served at the Reagan-Gorbachev Summit Meetings, leading to the end of the Cold War and served in the past five consecutive presidential administrations.

You will thank me later.

http://www.ironhorsevineyards.com/about-us/

 

For smaller scale guys, I liked:

1) Lancaster
2) Trefethen

for a good time, and actually good wines, despite their "deep pour" rep, go to:

3) Del Dotto

and I personally didn't like

4) Castello di Amarosa.


If you're looking into other activities, I highly suggest the hot air balloon ride out of Domaine Chandon. Just so pretty. For food, Harvest Moon Cafe is a good casual dinner.

 

a couple of other thoughts about Napa. it's a long narrow Valley, with two primary north/south thoroughfares. Rt. 29 is definitely busier than the silverado trail, particularly as you get up into St. Helena around lunch time. plan accordingly.

no matter who does the driving, you should plan on 3-4 wineries per day, assuming you start around 10am. any more, you'll be too tired, and buzzed, to really enjoy it.

learn to spit.

many wineries have caves you can visit. this can be a lot of fun, but you probably only need to do it in one place. If this is your first trip, you might think about visiting different types of places, just to get a sense of everything the valley has to offer, with a mix of tours, caves, and just standard tastings. usually (not always), if you buy wine (everyone ships) the tasting is free.

Here's one idea for a day's tastings:

Lower Napa, Silverado Trail and East

• 
  Start your day at Palmaz. It's owned by a texas doctor that invented a vascular stent, that he then sold to J&J. he's rumored to have spent $20M to build the winery, and frankly, it looks like more. for all that, and because it's relatively remote, it still has an intimate feel, particularly if you go early in the day and there is no one else there.
  
  Definitely worth visiting the caves, so you see where the money went. they include the "largest underground dome in the world built in soft soil..." The winery is built into the side of a hill, 5 stories high, with a couple more underground, and the wines are pressed using nothing but gravity.
  
  For all the obvious effort and expense, I found the wines a little austere, very good, but not my favorites. they're not particularly expensive by Napa standards, and a little math shows that he will never be able to sell enough wine to recoup the investment. this was a labor of love, or vanity, maybe both.
  
  also, the property includes a Ferrari museum, which you can see if you plan ahead.

• Next head to Neyers, tucked back in a canyon near lake hennessey. small, understated, no caves, just a tasting room or a patio, and a lovely young tasting guide (napa is full of them). They make a broader selection of wines than Palmaz, including several Rhone varietals, and the wines are simply smashing- it's become one of my favorites in the Valley, and we served magnums of their Pinot at my wife's birthday a few weeks back. Highly recommended.

• Darioush is right on the Silverado Trail, and looks like a persian temple. it's kitschy, garish, filled with tour buses...and the wines are superb, particularly if you like big, lush wines from bordeaux grapes. I have some of the Cab, Merlot, and Cab Franc in my own collection. I woud not do tour here, although they're offered. but drink the wine, and take in the scene.

• End the day at Matthiasson, which is not so much a winery as somebody's house at the end of a subdivision just west of rt. 29. you drive down a block that looks like it could be in any suburb, then turn into a driveway between two houses. at the back of the houses there's an alley, which ends at an unassuming two story victorian. park in the driveway, the dog will come say hello, and Steve and Jill with come out with a could of bottles you can taste on their picnic tables. there are chickens running around, an old dilapidated barn, and about 3 acres of vines, mostly planted with obscure italian varieties.
  
  despite the lack of pretention, Steve Matthiasson is one of the more in-demand wine makes in Napa, and consults for a variety of other folks, all dedicated to organic techniques- he doesn't irrigate for instance. his wines tend to be higher in acidity that some others, which makes them great with food. I like the whites in particular, and the Rosé especially (just bought a case), and the atmosphere is the antithesis of Darioush or Palmaz. also, pick up a (half) bottle of the Flora, a dessert wine made from an usual hybrid of Semillon and Gewurtztraminer.

for dinner, try the roast kid at Oenotri, in Napa:

http://www.bonappetit.com/blogsandforums/blogs/badaily/2011/11/best-restaurants-in-napa.html

 

Reps to Master and basso, many thanks! This is something the wife and I have been talking about doing for a while. Thanks for the info!!!

 

For the more sonoma-y experience:

http://www.ridgewine.com/
(pheNOMemal Zins and blends)

https://www.prestonvineyards.com/
(gorgeous drive, and take a picnic lunch; they've got benches and of course great wine.)

And here's where you buy that picnic lunch, with great sandwiches:
http://www.drycreekgeneralstore1881.com/Home.html

Also fun:
http://www.quivirawine.com/

phenomenal pinot noirs:
http://www.fritzwinery.com/

http://www.jwine.com/

http://www.schugwinery.com/
(drool -- love their wine.)