First time in Napa; don't want a DUI
My boyfriend and I will be in San Francisco in July and are planning on heading to Napa for the greater part of a day and a night. Since our time there is limited, I'm trying to figure out the best itinerary for us that will allow us to freely sample wines and get from place to place safely.
I've hear about services that run wine trips- taking you from vineyard to vineyard over the course of a day, usually with a lunch. Are these worthwhile or are we better off focusing on one or two vineyards? Since we haven't been before, I would like to take a tour but I also don't want to feel as though I have had a generic- cookie cutter experience if there are more exciting possibilities available. From what I have read on this board, Mondavi is a good place for novices.
And of course, always open to recommendations of restaurants in the area.
Thanks so much!
Meils
Jun 28, 2005 03:50PM
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Try the 4 S's: swirl, sniff, sip then spit. You will remain sober and better able to assess the wines as the day goes on.
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several things
1 - if you're staying in the city, and it's cold and foggy, dress for heat anyway and layer a sweater on. napa/sonoma is almost always hot in july.
2 - sonoma is more picturesque, laid back, less crowded, cheaper. the wine tends to be more locally focused, and in many cases, just as good.
3 - split your tastings. go to the bar, and just get one glass for the two of you. this will keep you twice as sober, and you can always ask for a second splash of something you liked. i can't make myself spit out good wine, and i have no desire to learn how.
4 - relax! take your time, snack, lunch, nap, sing, hydrate. you'll find you can try half a dozen wineries at a leisurely pace without getting more than a pleasant buzz.
5 - stay away from port. several wineries make fortified wines. delicious, heady stuff at home, but this can put you over the dui line. i suppose you could spit it out somehow, if it sucks that is.
6 - i agree, no tour. much of the pleasure of a day in wine country is the freedom to drive around, and the serendipitous stops at cute unknown wineries. towards that end, i recommend not spending much time at mondavi or the big wineries on the main drag, but explore the side roads, foothills, and silverado (or just get out of napa altogether and go to alexander valley or sonoma).
enjoy!
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Do Sonoma, the town and the local wineries. You will have much more fun. I admit I live here and love it. Rent a bike and go tasting around town. Hire Hans the rickshaw guy and he'll take you. Good food and good wine with no hassle.
Link: http://www.sonomavalley.com/
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Just a note........ "the town" should really be Healdsburg, I think. Sonoma itself is really not that wine-centric or as close to a lot of wineries for tasting.
If you are concerned about driving, I would contact limo services (should be a ton in a Google search). If you can handle the cost, I'm sure there are experienced drivers who will take you wherever you want to go, recommend places, or whatever you want. While I'm sure there are pre-determined 'tours', I would recommend coming up with your own itinerary.
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napa has a world class reputation for a reason. don't be disuaded.
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It depends what you're looking for. My friend and I have settled on Sonoma as our favorite after many trips to both. So when a friend of his visited, we managed to convince him that as a young person (read: limited money) Sonoma would give him more bang for his buck.
Long story short: we should have taken him to Napa. He was a total city person, and Sonoma was just to rural for him. He wanted to know what the big deal was with "Wine Country," capital W and capital C. He wanted to see the flashy tasting rooms, the expensive wines, the snobby staff, fancy food, manicured lawns, and acres of hillside grape vines. Yes, Sonoma has all these things, but overall it's much less ostentatious. To me, Sonoma is about taking things slow, enjoying the fact that plants are allowed to get overgrown here and there, and enjoying small and mid-sized wineries. If you want the WOW factor (big names to match big money), Napa might be better.
Final illustration: at one point our visitor asked "So how's Napa different from this?" And I said, "Well, a lot of the wineries feel more corporate, like they're too perfect." And he said "What's wrong with that? Don't we have technology so we can make everything really perfect? That's progress." I'm sure some of his bravado (is that the right word?) was an act, but hey, to each his own.
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actually i would assert that you were on the right track, and your friend's friend didn't get it.
the corporate approach to wine is to treat it as a product, with a manufactured marketing profile and a quantifiable quality and price. they try to define a fixed target, and keep shooting and reaiming (by applying money) until they hit it. yet even if they do so, they find the resonance hollow, winning nothing but a paper target with a hole in the middle.
this may be too metaphysical, but i consider wine a process, a way of life. for a wine to find itself, the terroir, the fruit, and the vintner must interact on annual and generational cycles, each affecting the other, and being affected in turn. when they find their harmonious mutual orbit, they will express a unique organic quality and character.
and in the moment when we sip their product, we dance along with them.
this is the nature (the tao) of art, craft, life.
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I agree completely. At the risk of getting on the anti-corporate soap-box, I will only say that I'm a fan of artisanal 'anything'. Never underestimate the power of TLC. It isn't so much that larger wineries don't make great wine, it's more that the small ones tend to be crafting more for love and fun.
There's nothing like institutional stockholders and Wall Street analysts to cast a shadow on creativity.
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I went to Sonoma and Napa a couple years back 7 chose to go from vinyard to vinyard without the aid of a set tour...I wound up enjoying Sonoma a lot more. It was more picturesque and there were a few more goodies to be had there. I actually only went to two wineries in Sonoma and only remember one. The one I remember the most was Sebastiani mainly becuse the tour within held a great treasure. For years one man carved beautiful reliefs onto the faces all of the different casks/barrels. They were incredible pieces of art. I guess i'm biased as a graphic artist but that made my day at the vinyards. They also had a delicious dessert wine that i believe was called the Silver Swan. Te other great thing about Sonoma was that they have an old cheese factory there where you can watch them make cheeses and has an attached deli/store where you can sample cheeses and have really good & hearty sandwiches made for a nice lunch.
Hope you have a great trip wherever you decide to go.
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If you're concerned about driving, hire a car service. The prices aren't too high during the week and you'll be able to enjoy the day without worries.
But if you want to tour yourselves, pack a picnic basket & cooler with cheese, salami, bread, water and some fruit. After each tasting, have a little snack before venturing to the next stop. We share tastings and limit our tastings to the wines we know we enjoy.
The Napa valley is beautiful and there are many, many places to visit. Pick up a wine map and choose some places you've never heard of before. Don't forget your camera.
Enjoy!
karan
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If you can't bring yourself to spit (I can't), just take very small sips and don't overdo the tasting at each place. And don't forget to EAT - crackers, cheese, etc. - and drink water in between. Try this website for good recommendations of wineries, restaurants and lodging.
Link: http://www.winecountry.com
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