Napa recs

[mommyatty]

DH and I are overdue for a trip, just the two of us. We went to New York last year. If DH had his way, we would go back there since it’s now familiar. I would rather have an adventure, so I’m thinking maybe a weekend in Napa in December for my birthday. 

Anyone have any recommendations? Hotels, wineries not to miss, any non-wine stuff to do? I’ve never been there. DH hasn’t been there since he was a child. We know nothing!

[k3am]

I have not stayed there, but a friend from college is the marketing director at the Meritage. Everything he's every posted about it is amazing and they have great reviews.

Pre-kids, we used to go pretty regularly and stay at a B&B. I much prefer Healdsberg or St Helena to Napa, so my disclaimer is most of my recommendations are not Napa specific. (The B&B we always stayed at liked to quote that Napa is where you buy auto parts.)

I used to have a whole list, but I lost it.

I like to start off with bubbles. There's only a few wineries in the region that focus on bubbles, Mumm is my favorite. Domaine Chandon is also good, but a lot more trendy. They do a great tour of the facilities, and you can do whatever level tasting you like (casual in the bar area, seated elsewhere)

Other favorites in the area: Duckhorn or Paraduxx (sister wineries we're members of) are great sit down tastings. They give you a new glass for each wine, so you can do side-by-side comparisons. Rutherford is good. Others in the area that we like are Peju, St Supery, Moshin and V Sattui. 

If you want to visit a castle while winetasting, Domaine Carneros is "okay" but you'll be blown away by Castillo de Amoroso, where they literally imported a castle from Italy.  It's a little bit out of the way, but really, really cool. (They have an iron maiden!) The wine there is surprisingly affordable for the region. 

YH won't be as amused, but there's a tasting room in downtown Healdsberg called Williamson Wines. They pair every wine with a small bite, which is fun. And (at least for the 4-5 years we went pretty often), the tasting room was staffed exclusively by the owner's sons.. who all happened to be ridiculously good looking guys with Aussie accents. 

Now I want a wine tasting trip. A lot. 

Also be aware that Napa and surrounding areas somewhat set up requirements for most places (other than large wineries) to require reservations for tastings, which is a PITA. I want to say they also changed the threshold for what's considered a DUI - regardless of that, I highly recommend a driver or limo service (depending on how fancy you want to get). 

[2chatter]

k3am - Small world!! I ALMOST bought a bottle that was not Meritage last night because I don’t like their rebrand. Then I decided that I was being ridiculous, but I did compare an old bottle to the new bottle when I got home. I don’t like the new one. Tastes the same though. Yum.

[waverly]

We went to Sonoma for our honeymoon which was a long time ago. The word on the street is that it was quieter and less touristy than Napa.

[mrspez07]

Most of the other CA and WA wine regions require less reservations and are less expensive, if you are interested in that possibility, if you aren’t married to a specific winery in Napa. We really like the Paso Robles area and cant wait to go back (central coast), as well as the Amador area (east of Sacramento). DH is from the Livermore area (east bay) and we love tasting every time we visit.
We went to Walla Walla Washington last fall and really liked it. Alaska Air has some deals to some of the smaller regions in CA and WA as well where you can fly your wine home for free.

DH loves to geek out on wine, I just like to drink it, we plan many vacations around wine regions ;-)

[shakinros]

+1 to Mumm, Peju, V Sattui, and Castillo de Amoroso. I have dreams sometimes about the latter’s Dolcetto and Montepulciano. Yum. Have a picnic at V Sattui and take some Madeira home with you.

We like to have dinner at The Girl & the Fig on the Sonoma Square.

[sdlaura]

We really enjoyed brunch at the restaurant Ad Hoc in Yountville - it's owned by the French Laundry chef (Thomas Keller) but less expensive/less difficult to get into. I went to Healdsburg and the Russian River Valley a couple years ago and liked that area a lot, but I know they were impacted quite a bit by the fires. I also like Paso, Solvang (near Santa Barbara), and the Willamette Valley in Oregon (but of course weather isn't as good).

[sandandsea]

Oct 18, 2018 20:19:59 GMT -5 shakinros said:

+1 to Mumm, Peju, V Sattui, and Castillo de Amoroso. I have dreams sometimes about the latter’s Dolcetto and Montepulciano. Yum. Have a picnic at V Sattui and take some Madeira home with you.

We like to have dinner at The Girl & the Fig on the Sonoma Square.

This. also if your budget allows the Lodge at Sonoma is quite nice.