The wife and I are heading back to Napa, and are looking for winery tour suggestions?

Thx

Del Dotto is quite an experience.

Did Napa three weeks ago and Del Dotto was our first stop. It was awesome. Make a reservation

Quintessa is also really cool and has some fantastic wine if you like Cabs.

I'm sure plenty of folks here will have other recommendations.

Peju,round pond were 2 of my favorite's based on bang for buck wine clubs

Go to Patland, Luna and lunch at Visatui (sic). Thank me later.

Schramsberg has an interesting and educational tour describing the process of making sparkling wine/champagne. Plus, a good portion of the tour is underground in their caves.

Caymus is one I always hit when I go to Napa.

Cade is fantastic. Great view up on Howell Mountain and good wines.

http://www.cadewinery.com/

Kelham makes really good Oakville Cabs - worth a visit. Family owned.

http://www.kelhamvineyards.com/

Far Niente is also a fantastic place to visit

http://farniente.com/

We enjoyed Sequoia Grove and many of the surrounding wineries. We had 10 cousins get a free tasting because 1 decided to join their club. Super nice people that work there.

http://www.sequoiagrove.com/visitus

8338 ST. HELENA HIGHWAY, RUTHERFORD, CA 94573

Do something different: http://www.pragerport.com/visit/

Head over to Sonoma and hit up Cline and Jacuzzi. Great folks, good wines, no glass charge.

If you have a Visa Signature card, you can get free tastings at over 60 wineries.

Sonoma County wineries

Edit: It used to be free, now it looks like it is buy one get one free at most.

Look at O'Brien Estate - small and charming, very close in town of Napa. The others are up north.

Sonoma - Gundlach Bundschu has the most amazing large property on a mountainside.

Also liked visiting Hall Wines, heard visiting Sterling was fun.

Eat at Boon Fly Cafe outside Napa.

I will second Sequoia Grove. My wife and I ran into the owner in the courtyard outside the tasting room and had a good conversation with him about how the Napa Valley has grown.

Thanks for the ideas! We have been to Del Dotto and done the cave tour there. Both the others would be new.

We are renting a house on Storybook Mountain, just outside of Calistoga. Any ideas around there to end the day? Also, how easy would it be to get to Sonoma?

Thx again

Just got back on Monday:

O'Brien was far and away everyone's favorite. Someone in our group called in a favor for a private tasting in the middle of the vineyard. Ordered 2 cases as well. Call and see if you can get in here, it was an amazing experience.

Del Dotto was interesting, enjoyed the cave

Mondavi was a good stop, educational, got to see behind the curtain a little more.

Hall was good

Walk-ins at Beau Vinge and Duckhorn were okay, Duckhorn had an awesome patio/porch.

Dinners at Bottega and Redd, with lunches at Mustards and Gott's.

Great trip, can't wait to go back.

Platypus Tours. Takes you to 4-5 small to midsize wineries. And they drive about 10-12 folks in their van and provide lunch. Awesome!

2nd the Platypus. Wife and I did one on our honeymoon in Napa and it was great. The best stop on our tour was a Tamber Bey tasting at their estate in Oakville.

Other than the usual staples and those mentioned above some of our favorites were Silverado, Rutherford Ranch, and V Sattui (food & wine). RR wasn't the best wine, but they got an A++ on customer service for upgrading pairings and tastings. Another of my favorites was Arger Martucci for their Syrahs, but they have since closed.

any suggestions on a 100% sparkling wine stops

http://www.californiachampagnes.com/napa-valley/
Domaine Carneros is pretty spectacular.

also if you like Chardonnay then visit Alpha Omega. The wife's favorite.

quote:

---

http://www.californiachampagnes.com/napa-valley/
Domaine Carneros is pretty spectacular.

---

We enjoyed that one too. It's huge, you'll need a reservation, and the view from the patio is spectacular.

We had a few bottles of bubbly (highly recommend the LD) and they brought us a tasting of their Pinot noir (not nearly as good as the sparking and roe)

Schramsberg by far

I've heard good things about Platypus Tours as well.

And definitely make sure to eat brunch at Boon Fly Cafe. The chicken and waffles are legit, as is the rest of the menu.

Del Detto and Caymus

there are so many options but they do fill up - Beringers was neat - they take you in their cave - it's also cool because you can buy their wine at the local HEB, Randalls, etc.

http://www.beringer.com/visit

HIGHLY RECOMMEND this restaurant - Glen Ellen Star http://glenellenstar.com/

We just got back a couple of weeks ago and already want to go back!

Since you are staying in Calistoga, head towards Healdsburg/Alexander Valley one day to visit Jordan (Estate Tour - it's worth the money) and Hawkes.

I agree with Del Dotto in St. Helena, but I strongly recommend you do the Delicacies Tasting and this be your last stop of the trip. You won't want to go anywhere else afterwards.

Hendry (owner's tour) - This is a good tour for casual wine drinkers up to medium level wine connoisseurs. A history of the winery, a walk through production, and then a scientific style tasting. George will kill your palate and bring it back to life. Your tour fee goes 100% towards purchases.

Biale - We all know Black Chicken is great, but we enjoyed The Founding Farmers just as much for $10/bottle less. Appt only.

Provenance - excellent and unique Malbec Ros, but the other wines fell flat. Worth a stop, but not a special trip just for this place. I know - I'm in the minority regarding this winery.

Alpha Omega - nice setting, but the wines are way overpriced and fall short compared to others we tried on the trip. I know- I'm in the minority here again.

Domaine Carneros - Decent and iconic, but I would skip this one and try Chandon or Mumm.

Chandon - very relaxing to sit on the lawn while tasting. Better quality sparkling wines than Domaine Carneros, too.

Food: check out La Luna one day in Rutherford for a quick lunch. A Mexican grocery store with a taco stand in the back.

Platypus Tours

We used them based off numerous recommendations from Texags. Believe they're also #1 on trip advisor. As said before they go to a lot of the smaller unique wineries and it was a blast. The interactions were very personable because of the small group and nothing we drank was available anywhere here in Texas. It was all small batch stuff. Pretty cool tour that we did.

Kuleto - Fantastic wines with an amazing view of the valley. Need reservations. Very intimate tour and tasting.

Chappelet - Similar to Kuleto with amazing view and a reservation needed.Very intimate tour and tasting.

Buehler - Off the beaten path in St. Helena, but we had an amazing tour with the son of the owner. He was super welcoming and even let us stay and eat some lunch at the winery overlooking some amazing vineyards. Best value wine here as well.

Ravenswood - Interesting Sonoma winery that was much better than expected. They have way nicer wines at the vineyard than the mass produced stuff you see in stores. A very affordable tasting of excellent Zins here on a nice patio.

Looking to visit next Spring, have no idea where to even begin looking at lodging. 4 of us going. Any suggestions for 1st timers?

Yountville. all the restaurants are stumbling distance, which is nice after tasting all day.

We did an AirBnB in Glen Ellen, which is right in the middle of Sonoma County. It's very close to any Sonoma winery and about a 30-45 minute drive to just about any Napa County winery. It's a really nice, quiet town.

We also have done an AirBnB in Santa Rosa, which is anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour depending on what wineries you're looking to hit, but it is a much cooler city than anything else in Napa or Sonoma if you want to do anything at night. Plus, Russian River Brewery is in Santa Rosa, which if you like beer at all, it is one of the most fun and delicious brewpubs you will ever come across.

AirBnB was awesome in both occasions for 2 and for 10. You can get a ton for your money that way, and the options range from small minimal houses to mansions or lavish houses on winery properties depending on how much you want to spend. We cooked in for quite a few breakfasts and dinners throughout the trip to save a little money for wineries and hang out at night since there is not much night life in the valley.

I'm staying at a B&B called Casa Lana in Calistoga right now. The place is amazing and it abuts the Napa River. It's like a little oasis set back from the Main Street. The owner is a chef and the breakfasts have been amazing. It's also walking distance to down town Calistoga which has plenty of good restaurants. What I like about Calistoga is you are away from the hustle and bustle of the lower valley but you are still basically a 20/25 minute drive from everything, even upper Sonoma valley. The room we are staying in is basically like a master suite with a huge bathroom with private entrance. It's been great. She has two rooms so it's great for two couples. If you want a relaxing trip and a low key stay, I can't recommend it enough. It rained yesterday and we spent half the day wine tasting in Sonoma and the other half in the hot tub drinking wine.

Was in Napa in the past month and wanted to share my recommendations:

We flew into Oakland and rented a car and drove and stayed at an Airbnb in Napa. We hired a driver from Sonoma Wine Tasting Driver and would highly recommend it. They drove our own rental car, and he was with us for the entire day. Hard to beat his knowledge of the area and the wineries for $30/hour plus tip. We went to the following wineries in the trip

Hagafen
Silver Oak
V Sattui
Heitz
Sequoia Grove
Andretti
Regusci

Our favorites were by far Hagafen and Regusci. Hagafen is a small family affair and was really cool to hang out with the owner and wine maker, we actually went there twice on the trip and joined their wine club. V Sattui had a great market and good wine but was very busy. Heitz was a free tasting and was very small. Sequioa Grove was also a great experience. Didn't love Andretti. Regusci was the best wine we tasted on the whole trip, we ended up spending the most money there.

Can't recommend Model Bakery enough for breakfast and coffee.