Planning to spend a few days with the family in Napa and Sonoma.

Recommendations? We would like to make some advanced reservations.

Del Dotto is a must. There's actually a charge per person (40 bucks I think), but the tour is like 2 hours long. You go underground into an old whiskey cave (a prohibition holdover) with a tour guide just for your group. He goes through with a barrel stealer and lets you try everything they've got. I learned more about wint in 2 hours than I had in 5 years previously. It doesn't hurt that their cab and pinot are just about the best in napa also.

Others you could do: Cakebread, V. sattui (has a deli so it's great for lunch), Peju, Markham, Sterling (gondola ride up the mountain)

Lake Sonoma is pretty cool as far as scenery, and they have a good chardonnay. And at Clos Du Bois you can get some reserve wines that you can't get around here. Good stuff.

Be sure to spend some time in Healdsburg. If you like beer, Bear Republic has a micro-brewery on the town square.

Do a search on here. Are you going to do Napa and Somoma?

Reverie in Calistoga. Free tasting. Our tour and tasting lasted about 2 hours. The wines were great and the pours generous.

Ferrari Carano near Healdsburg was good as well.

Heard good things about Frank Family (near Napa) but have not made it there yet.

Chandon was a good tour/tasting for sparkling wines.

I liked Frank Family. I also liked Peju, Frog's Leap, Flora Springs and Spottswoode.

Mumm is a fun place to just relax. Rutherford Hill is a good place to picnic.

I have heard Twomey is good if you like a pinot noir or merlot.

There are tons of places to just pick some that interest you.

Any around Santa Rosa area?

I'm heading out to Sonoma for a day next month and have booked appointments at Lancaster Estate and Chalk Hill. We will then head up to the Dry Creek area and hit Ridge, Zicicchi (sp?), Mauritson, Bella, and the Papapietro Perry tasting room. We'll grab a sandwich at Oakville Grocery in Healdsburg for lunch and probably do dinner in Healdsburg as well. After dinner, I plan on heading down to Santa Rosa to visit Russian River Brewing Company for some damn good beers.

Our napa portion of the trip is a lot of very small wineries that aren't open to the public but we do plan on walking in to Cliff Lede, Juicebox (they might require appt, not sure), BV, Chapellett, and we have appointments all up and down Spring Mountain where every winery is pretty good and the views are spectacular. As others have mentioned, Frank Family is good, and Larkmead, which is across the street, is just as good. Chandon is fun as well and they may be open later than the others for a night cap. Others we've enjoyed in the past are Grigch Hill, Del Dotto (appt required), Flora Springs, Spotswoode, Girard (might be open til 8:00pm still), Groth, ZD, Rombauer, Round Pound, and Tamber Bay...just to name a few.

Dinners in napa will be at Press, Bouchon, Ad Hoc, and either Brix or Mustards. Lunches include Cindy's Backstreet Kitchen, Cook, Rutherford Grill and maybe some In and Out.

Like Rex Racer mentioned, Bear Republic in healdsburg has some damn good drafts. I like the Racer 5 on tap.

Great info, any more suggestions?

We are going in about a month. We are looking to stay in St. Helena. Is that a good idea? Reasons are it is close to napa but not inside the city, and by the looks of the maps most wineries are between Napa and St. Helena. Also pictures online make St. Helena look nice with the mountains and such. Anyone out there think it is a bad idea to stay in St. Helena over napa? Also please provide any opinions on hotels. We aren't looking to spend a ton on the room. Just somewhere clean and quiet (mid range). Thanks for any input! We have 1 half day and 1 full day to do as much as possible and this is our 1st trip.

My wife loves V Sattui in St Helena

they only sell their wine there. it tends to get a little crowded they have picnic area and a little deli for cheesees and meats.

Good times!

BosAG06,

I always stay in St Helena. Look into Hotel 1424 but I think it's closed til May for renovations. If so, El Bonita Motel is very inexpensive. Old, but clean.

Skip cakebread. I think it's overrated.

Our favorites:
Sullivan (make a reservation and plan to have a great time. Ask for Asa if he's still there.)
Silver Oak - Our favorite wine.
Merryvale is fun to see their cask room. I like their wine too.
Vine Cliff is fun for the caves and they have a good chardonnay.

We like to pick up lunch at the Oakville Grocery and find a little park to eat at.

Cole's Chophouse is a great meal (get the hashbrown) as is Mustard's.

All of those sound great - no one's mentioned Kulettos.

If anyone's been, you know what Im talmbout. You punch the secret code in at the gate. Drive a mile or so on a one lane canyon switchback then get to a tuscan villa on top of a mountain. You get a glass of rose' to tour the site with, then the tasting.

There were four of us - and 5 empty bottles by the time we were done with the tasting. Somehow, we didnt pay anything - Im not sure how that worked...

Far Niente, Nickel & Nickel
Sister Wineries, They are my favorite

Silver Oak, they are up there too

Has anyone done the Boswell Winery tour? I have heard wonderful things so I emailed them and they said we can come in for a tasting/tour. I'm kind of worried it is a little "upscale" for us after I researched the prices of their wines. We don't want to show up and feel obligated to buy 6 bottles of $175 wine.

Don't feel obligated. Act like a wine snob and tell them that you don't think their wine is very good.

I think Boswell has some wines that aren't quite $175, but still not cheap. Personally, I would feel bad going into a smaller winery and doing a tour knowing from the onset that I wouldn't be buying any just because of the price. If I can't afford it, I wouldn't want to waste thier time or juice.

Fwiw, I know Josh at Boswell as well as another vintner that makes his wine at the same facility, and will actually be visiting them next week. If you like Napa cabs, you'll like almost every wine they make there. (FYI, I think they'll sell you single bottles if you really like it enough to splurge a little)

BSD:

My wife and I have talked and as you said, if we aren't willing to buy a bottle we aren't going to waste their time as we don't want it to be awkward. I think we are going to go ahead and do it and purchase a bottle from them. I know we will love the wine. We are not the type of people who like to "free-load" and just try to get a sip of high priced wines. I just hope buying only 1 bottle doesn't make us look cheap! (if they have anything around $100 we might buy a few).

[This message has been edited by BosAG06 (edited 3/11/2011 11:37p).]

In the Dry Creek area of Sonoma try Amista. Small winery but fantastic, they make you feel like family.

I would also recommend making the trek up to Mendocino County for a different experience going down Hwy 128 and checking out some of the wineries up there. Maple Creek is our favorite, absolutely beautiful place tucked in the mountain. If you take the road all the way out to Mendocino you drive through a tremendous Redwood forest as well. Just love that area. None of the wineries charge for the most part, you can sample half a dozen wines, and odds are 50/50 it will be the owner or someone in their family serving you.

Chateau Potelle on Mt.Veeder in Napa County. Beautiful view, best wines we had the whole time in Napa. Not easily found but it's there and the wines are some of the best from that region.

Frank Family is excellent as well!

And Racer 5 at Bear Republic in Healdsburg, yummmy!

Just got back from a week in wine country...which at my age, is too long! Most of the wineries I visit are very small production boutique operations but I did get a chance to check out a few nice ones that are easy to visit.

In sonoma, I did dry creek valley and found the zins from Bella and Ziccichi to be true to form and bought more from each of them. In Napa, I did a day on Spring Mountain and visited Barnett (Jackie is an Ag and is a wonderful host), Pride, and Erna Schein. Each of the Spring Mountain wineries had pretty good to excellent cabernets. On the valley floor, I like Alpha Omega, especially the barrel samples from the vineyard designates.

Lunch at Cook in St Helena was excellent as always and dinner at Farmstead was delicious. Press was good but I was disappointed in the bacon sampler appetizer (I mean, it is afterall, just bacon). I like the fact that most restaurants allow you to bring your own bottle in with little or no corkage fees.

I'll try to write more later but my liver is killing me...

[This message has been edited by BSD (edited 3/21/2011 9:15p).]

So does anyone actually recommed staying in Napa?

Pine Ridge (eot)

We decided to stay at The Inn on First in Napa. #1 B&B on trip advisor in napa. I will report back in a few weeks whether it is worth it once we get back if anyone is interested. We are going the 1st week in April.

So we finalized our vacation with this. Anyone think this will not be doable or anything we might be missing for our 1st visit? We tried to map it out where we drive up towards St. Helena and work our way back to the hotel in Napa.

1st Day (we will not get there until about 12:30-1:00pm)

1. Del Dotto - $40/person for wine tour and taste (3:00)

2. Explore Downtown Napa or Visit nearby wineries before our tour of del dotto at 3:00. Open to suggestions.

2nd Day

1. Schramsberg - $45/person - tour (10:00am)

2. Sterling - $25/person - includes tram ride and tasting of five wines and a wine glass, taste only

3. Beringer - $25/person for limited production, taste only

4. V Sattui - $5 - $10/person plus good stop for lunch, taste only

5. BV - $15/person or $20/person for cab tasting, taste only

6. Frogs Leap - $20/person, taste only

Provenance is a nice stop on the way to Del Dotto, as is Alpha Omega directly across the street. I buy lots of wine every year but only have 3 "club" memberships where they send automatic shipments...Alpha Omega is one. both are walk in type tastings. Whitehall Lane is also in that area. Check the tasting room times and maybe you can hit up one after Del Dotto. I think AO is open til 6:00.

To each his own, but I honestly think Sterling and V Sattui are tourist traps. They are the wineries that make people say Napa is too commercialized. I would call Crocker & Starr Winery in St Helena for an appt for a more intimate tasting. That is one of my other "clubs."

Also, I highly suggest lunch at Cook in St Helena if you need a bite to eat to soak up the wine. I also highly recommend the English muffins at Model bakery for breakfast. We were there 6 days and had model bakery muffins 5 times!

Thanks for the info this is all wonderful feedback! We were planning on going to the Del Dotto in Napa not St. Helena. Are there advantages to the St. Helena Location? We are staying in Napa so we were trying to hit up a winery or two close to the hotel (on 1st St.) the day we get there. (Luna? Andretti?)

Peju and Elyse were two of my favorites

quote:

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So does anyone actually recommed staying in Napa?

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I wouldn't. The city of Napa has less charm than any of the cities to the north in Napa Valley.

In fact, I'd recommend Sonoma Valley over Napa Valley in general for being more charming and less crowded/touristy, or at least split your time between the two if you can.

I'd stay to the north end of Napa Valley.

Did not read everyone's replies, but also recommend V.Sattui & Domaine Carneros (gorgeous views)!

I'm going on a couples trip next wknd to Napa and we are short on time in terms of planning where to go (we're pretty much in it for the booze/pretty scenery). Do y'all have a top 3 wineries of Napa and Sonoma recommendation? How many can we get to realistically in a day?