My boyfriend and I are going to explore Sonoma and Napa for 5 wonderful days. Neither one of us have spent time there in years. We want to eat wonderful food, try amazing wines, go shopping, hiking ... just explore, relax and enjoy. If anyone has any advice on restaurants, wineries that are a MUST try, etc... it would be greatly appreciated.
PammyP
Sep 27, 2006 01:02AM
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In Napa our "must try" wineries are Cliff Lede, Robert Sinskey, Miner Family, August Briggs, Artesa, Bremer Family, Frank Family, Vincent Arroyo, Bennet Lane and Arger-Martucci. There are acturally hundreds of others, these just happen to be our favorites. They are all fairly small (unlike a Mondovi or Beringer), produce well crafted wines, have nice tasting rooms manned by very nice people and are just plain fun.
Food wise, Bistro Jeanty and Bouchon in Yountville, Taylor's Refresher (old style drive-in) just south of St. Helena, Rutherford Grill. More upscale, Redd, Terra, Martini House, . That's just a few, again, many more.
Have a great time and report back.
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If you do a search for Napa or Sonoma, you'll find tons of recent reports.
I had a WONDERFUL dinner at Mustard's in Yountville a few months ago. Classic Napa wine country food with a mind boggling wine list.
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Girl and the Fig - amazing food (and very cool use of figs)
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My wife and I just did the same thing - 5 days in wine country. We were more Sonoma-focused though. We thoroughly enjoyed dinners at Cafe Le Haye, The Girl and the Fig, and Cyrus. Here's the link to my post on our experiences:
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/show/...
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If you have five days you can also hit the areas centering on Healdsburg (north of Napa Valley) - Alexander Valley, Dry Creek Valley, and the Russian River Valley. There are lots of posts here about the area. It's a great area with lots of smaller friendly wineries and great reds. A scenic way to get there is to continue north from Napa Valley/Calistoga into Alexander Valley.
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Dry Creek is a great area.
http://www.sfbg.com/38/40/x_bottle_ro...
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