Napa Valley wineries

[txaggie]

My boyfriend and I are spending a few days in May in the Napa Valley. What are some of your favorite wineries and restaurants in the area? Also, I mentioned this trip to a co-worker and she said to go to Sonoma instead of Napa. Any thoughts?

[Curtis]

While this is a much asked question, I suppose it is one that most of us consider to be fairly subjective. First off, I'd recommend that you do a search of this forum for some of the prior posts/discussions. Second, I'll just give you fair warning that posing the question of whether the Napa Valley is preferable to the Sonoma Valley or vice versa, is something akin to opening Pandora's box, or at the very least, the proverbial can of worms.

So, all that being said, there are a good many people in this forum with a deep knowledge and appreciation for both wine regions, as well as each one's respective dining destinations. In order that we may offer suggestions that best meet your particular tastes, I would suggest that you give us a little more detail as to the preference of both yourself and your boyfriend.

First, as to wineries, do you favor any particular wines from either region? Specifically, are you in love with Carneros Pinot Noir or Cabernet Sauvignon from the Alexander Valley. Do you swoon at the very mention of a lush big Chardonnay from the Silverado region or does the blackberry jam on your morning toast fill your mind with thoughts of juicy spicy Zinfandel from the Russian River? I know this may seem a bit overwhelming, but really, there is no better way to select the wineries that you'd like to visit than by starting with those that offer your favorite types of wine. Once you've established what you'd like to be tasting, then your search will be greatly narrowed and we'll likely be able to make several recommendations.

Second, as to dining, here again, you would be well served by letting us know what types of food you favor. Are you looking to experience the zenith of cutting edge cuisine or the mainstay of down home local fare? Are you hoping to find a dining experience that fills all of your senses with pastoral vistas and elegant acoutrements or is the food the thing? More fundamentally, do you favor a particular type of cuisines? French, country French, California, Mediteranean, Italian, can all be found within the regions. Is price a concern? All of this will help to refine our recommendations.

Lastly, where were you planning on staying? Bear in mind that, while not impossible, it is quite impractical to stay in one valley while visiting the other.

I apologize for largely answering your inquiry with many more of my own, but, as I said, this is an oft asked questions and one that, in my experience, is best answered with serious consideration for the particular person asking. That being the case, I will be very happy to offer my own recommendations once you've had the chance to think about the aforementioned considerations, and after you've had an opportunity to peruse the prior topics that we've discussed with others visiting the area.

a sante,
Curtis

[Spade]

I'm the 'boyfriend' on this trip. Thanks for the thoughtful response. Our tastes both tend to fairly bold wines: Zinfandel, Gewürztraminer, etc... However we're pretty democratic and enjoy drinking anything that's well-made and has character, regardless of style (hmmm... this isn't helping to narrow things down). As for CA, I'm a big fan of Alexander valley Cabs (I just had a great one from Chateau Souverain and was thinking of making that one of our stops) and we've recently been enjoying some good Chardonnays from CA, including one from Frei Brothers (after drinking so many bad ones that it put us off them for awhile). To best narrow things down: I think we'd like recommendations for mainly a mix of small producers, especially ones we don't really see out here in DC (Cakebread was one recommendation I got) and maybe a couple of semi-larger ones to visit (such as Ch. Souverain). I'd enjoy hearing about any particular routes that people would recommend where we could hit a cluster of interesting wineries.

As for food, we're from the east coast and will occationally hear about 'Napa cuisine'. I've been to Napa before and I still am not sure what this means. What restaurants would you say really define this? Price: We are going to try and go to the French Laundry, if it reopens in time. So for the rest of the trip I think we'll be looking for more moderate priced restaurants-- bistros and such, not 'fine' dining (Cuisine is not a big consideration, as we enjoy them all). However, despite the fact that neither of us makes too much money (we're young), we never seem to have a problem parting with a good chunk of our disposable income on food, so 'moderate' is relative with us. We plan on taking a visit to CIA/Greystone one day and are considering having dinner there as well. A recommendation for a winery to have lunch at one day would also be great.

I think the biggest thing we need recommendations for is in trying to spend one day biking to various wineries. If anyone has recommendations for routes, rental shops, lunch stops, etc... that would be fantastic. We are staying in Napa with a friend, but we will have a rental car.

[ed]

well that helps. biking is generally better outside of napa valley proper, as the valley is flat and often very crowded.
but since you are staying on the napa side, i'd suggest saving your biking day for the silverado (east) side and it's offshoots.
if possible, a much better idea is to make a day trip out to the healdsburg/russian river area and bike around there (lovely country, quiet, rustic. low-key but good wineries).

[Ruth Lafler]

If you're looking for clusters and density (for biking purposes), then Napa Valley is probably a better bet, as the wineries are much more concentrated there.

But if you have several days, you can easily spend a couple of them in Sonoma as well. My recommendation would be to plan your itinerary so that you avoid the busiest place (Hwy 29 through the Napa Valley) on the weekend.

Napa cuisine ... I'm not sure exactly what they mean by that, but I'm guessing they mean French/Italian cuisine that's been adapted to local, seasonal ingredients, that's on the rustic and casual side, and with menus designed to be "wine friendly."

Here are a couple of sites that can help you with your planning:

http://www.wineroad.com/ (Sonoma county
)
Once you've taken a look at these and come up with some possible itineraries, you can come back with some more specific questions about individual wineries.

Link: http://www.napavintners.com/wineries/...

[rcc]

You mentioned your fondness for Alexander Valley Cab which is not in Napa. You also planned to do some cycling. Well, I've always found the more serene and less touristy area of Sonoma to be the perfect place. You can take the Alexander Valley Road towards Hwy 128. Along 128 there are a number of customer-friendly wineries including White Oak, Alexander Valley, Hanna, Sausal, Field Stone and a ton of others. All these are right on H128 and are within 5 minute cycling time from one another. The main roads are very flat, but some wineries have their tasting rooms on crests of the hills. I'm not sure where you can rent bikes around here - in the town of Geyserville, perhaps?

Good luck and enjoy whatever it is you end up doing.

[Spade]

Thanks-- sounds like a great suggestion. We're not really bound to Napa (which we didn't make clear from the original post). Staying there, but we will have a car.

[Poot]

I enjoyed the Joseph Phelps winery in Napa. Do call ahead to make an appointment for the educational seminar. The wines, from a chardonnay called Ovation to an intense and tannic cabernet sauvignon, were beautifully made, and the setting is far from the madding crowd. Lots of lizards too.

Avoid Grgich. A zoo.

[Melanie Wong]

I had the chance to try the 2001 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon from Joseph Phelps at the vintners road show yesterday, and it's a beauty. I always love the lead pencil note in this wine. The winery does a great job, better than many of the other NV brethren with its basic cab bottling for the money. Better than a lot of the ego-cuvees of the boutiques too.

Link: http://www.jpvfreestone.com/jpvwines/2001_cabernet_sauvignon.html

Image: http://www.jpvfreestone.com/jpvwines/...

[DavidT]

The website for the SF Chronicle (www.sfgate.com) has an excellent section on visiting Northern California wineries. It would be worth your while to check it out.

Also do a search on this site for Napa, Yountville, St. Helena, Calistoga, etc. You will find many, many helpful prior posts and recommendations.

[Sharuf]

My family and most out-of-town friends are not wine-istas. So we go for atmosphere and "gee-whiz" ambience. My tour-guide Winery winners are:
--Buena Vista in Sonoma;
--Benziger in Glen Ellen (nice tour);
--Viansa in whatever-they-call that area;
--Sterling, north of St Helena,(for the spectacular aerial tram ride);
--Niebaum~Coppola Winery, Rutherford, CA 94573;
--and Greystone in St. Helena for the magnificent architecture.

[dk2463]

I always recommend Iron Horse in the Russian River area. They make a wide variety of wines including sparkling, Rose, Cab blends and Pinots. To be honest, they're all great and you end up spending about 2 hours there if you go through and taste everything.

In addition, Chimney Rock on the Silverado Trail makes some amazing blends and for pure fun, Gundlach Bunschu makes great, affordable wines and the winery is a kick.

[Hannah]

Here are a few of my favorites.
Napa
Vine Cliff--appt only great chardonnay
Chateau Montelena in Calistoga--One of my favorite Reislings
Shramsberg (sp) calistoga wonderful tour and tasting
Smith-Madrone--small vineyard, very nice owner
Burgess--has wonderful views

Russian River Area
Russian Hill Estate Winery--Great Pinots
Gary Farrell--I'm a big fan of most of their wines
Rochioli
J Winery--I think it's nice that they pair bites of food with their wine.

[rich]

silver oak and miner are real close to one another---and the silverado trail looks bike friendly midweek (bike lane anyway). miners chard, pinot and cab are getting a lot of attention. tell them you are locals and the tasting fee goes down. and don't avoid grgich because it's a zoo---they are great people with a terrific product. rich

[Melanie Wong]

I had the 2001 Grgich Hills Chardonnay yesterday as well and it showed beautifully. They weren't afraid to pour it room temperature without the chill to cover up potential flaws. Non-MLF with better acid balance than most Napa Valley Chards, it's a classic.

Link: http://http://www.grgich.com/shop/jsp/item.jsp?itemid=2&catid=20

Image: http://www.grgich.com/shop/resources/...

[Geoff]

Hello from a DC hound. I want to throw in a suggestion to visit Frog's Leap. Wife and I visited them (without a reservation - call for one if you decide to do this) a couple of summers ago, and hit the lucky jackpot of our stay in the area. It was August, and we showed up about an hour before the first crush was scheduled to start! They invited us to stick around for the fun, which we did, and it was GREAT! Folks there were fantastic, undoubtedly moreso even than usual since first crush is such a festive, big deal. They invited us to stay and eat the lunch they had catered in for all of the staff and family - including the entire picking crew, who were all on first name basis with all of the staff. This was so notable that I'll never forget it. FL is clearly a family affair and I now always try to steer folks their way. Oh yeah - I love their wines, esp. pinots and sauvignon blanc - I hope my taste isn't just sentimentality talking! Have a great trip!