Our last vacation before pregnancy was to Northern California. I was in heaven. We spent time in Napa Valley and Sonoma sampling wines. If you have never been to wine country. Make a trip. Book it. Plan it. Now. It is by far one of my all time favorite vacations. My husband, Brian, was looking forward to some time away from work and traveling to a new location...but the wine, was not at the top of his list, even with going to "wine country." He is a beer guy and the thought of swirling, sniffing and "chewing" wine made him think he needed to have his pinkie raised and his nose in the air. I must say, after our first vineyard, he was hooked. When we returned home, he began telling our family and all of our friends that he now only will drink the finest wines from Napa and learned that he liked wine "aged in a medium toasted, American Oak barrel." Well alrighty then. He also learned that the vineyards and tasting rooms are NOT stuffy and filled with stuffy people. To the contrary. We even found a vineyard with a large, wrap around porch, lawn games galore, and a dog running around named Abbey. I could talk or write for a week straight in detail about all of our favorites. FOR NOW....here are the highlights. I know, I know, it is pretty detailed for "highlights," but.....I was in love.
Where we stayed: Napa Valley Lodge- http://www.napavalleylodge.com/
Why we loved it?
It was a small, quaint hotel, located in Yountville....near great restaurants and close to all the fabulous vineyards. We also love a good game of bocce ball in the evening before dinner, and this hotel had a bocce ball pit. Not to mention it was nice to have a cup of coffee by the fire in the morning before our day of wine tasting.
Vineyards we visited.....on our own
Traveling around Napa Valley is not easy. Our first day, we did drive ourselves. How did we do this? We split tastings almost everywhere we went....and broke up the tastings with trips to eat. The second day, we had a tour with a driver....which is by far the best way to go, but economically speaking, you can only do this one day....stay tuned for day 2.
Day 1:
1) Robert Mondavi- A GREAT beginner place to start. I recommend the http://www.robertmondavi.com/rmw/at_the_winery/tour/2 (signature tour and tasting.) It was 75 minutes and gave you a detailed overview of what the grapes go through. A perfect way to start your trip. They even give you little snacks....how about that for a food and wine pairing!
2) Prager Winery and Port Wines- Not my favorite, but go here if you like Port wines. We learned after one sip. We do not. Like. Port. Wines. Enough said.
3) Beringer- VERY commercialized, but a gorgeous house to see....we took pictures of the front. That was the extent of our trip to Beringer.
4) Peju Winery- http://peju.com/ A smaller vineyard and winery...we did not do a tour...just a small on our own tour. They had some very tasty wines though! We bought two bottles here ...a 2008 Merlot and their 2008 Provence Wine. The Provence wine was served chilled and would be perfect for sitting by the pool on a warm summer day in Florida! I think I will pop this one open for my 30th birthday in June.
5) And I saved the best that day, for last....Del Dotto Caves. In our driving that day we passed Del Dotto and knew right where to go for our last tasting of the day. As soon as we walked in, it didn't seem like a place I wanted to go. It was the stuffy. Nose in the air. Pinkie raised kind of place that I didn't want to be at. We walked up to the table....nope, they didn't have our reservation. BUT. They quickly called the "other" vineyard of Del Dotto and bam there was our reservation. We had gone to the wrong location...The other, correct location was off the beaten path and we were very glad to make the trek out there. The best place to go, in my opinion, is the older,original caves in Napa on Atlas Peak Road. http://www.deldottovineyards.com/Del-Dotto-Caves.aspx It is the historic, location built in 1885. We tasted roughly 15 wines here.....if you didn't like it....you just threw the rest of your glass on the wall of the cave. Come on now. Who wants to do that.
We heard from many people, tours are the way to go. It gives you a day where you don't have to split tastings and drive. Did we still split tastings? Well, yes, because we quickly found how easily the fees add up...and if you split tastings, well then you have more money to buy a bottle and take it home. More about taking wine home later. There are tons of tours out there, on buses, with 20-30 of your "closest" friends....but we found one for just about the same price....and a little bit more private. We booked the group tour with Holme Grown Tours. http://www.holmegrownbrand.com/ It was supposed to be up to 6 people riding in a mercedes, but somehow we lucked out and all of the other couples cancelled....we had a nice private tour for the price of a group tour!
1) Cliff Family Wines- Yes, you have had Cliff bars or at least heard of them...the energy bars you eat for working out....well they also make wines...and they are pretty good!!! We sampled a few here to start our day.
3) Silverado- Wines were just OK....but the view was pretty cool....We did not purchase any wine here....just did a quick tasting and took a picture of the view.
4) Frog's Leap- http://www.frogsleap.com/flash/intro.html Our Favorite! This is that wrap around porch, lawn game, dog running around vineyard I originally eluded to. My favorite in all of Napa Valley. They do require a reservation for a tasting...but if you are riding around with Dorsey from Holme Grown...he calls and gets you in. Loved it. We bought the 2008 Petite Sirah here. Like the others....its still waiting in my wine fridge to be savored...again. I am counting down the days till I can pop the cork. I recommend if you are going to go here....plan to spend some time. Sit on the porch, do the tasting, then hang out with your favorite glass by the fireplace, on the porch, exploring the vineyard(complete with a chicken coop and fish pond...) HEAVEN.
5) Judd's Hill- http://www.juddshill.com/A very small winery, but again, very tasty wine. Apparently they do a lot of events here during peak times. Events that the food network attends....big BBQ and music festivals where people sit outside in the grass by the vineyard and sip wine! We did not make it out there in peak time...so we had a private tasting on their back patio. We found another Petite Sirah here....another varietal that we had not had much of pre-Napa Valley.
In case you didn't realize....I included the links to the sites for the wineries that I really, REALLY, liked. <grins>
Getting a "food baby" ...the places to eat
Sometime after we got back from Napa...Brian also decided, not only that he was a wine-o....but now also a "foodie." We had some delicious dinners(and lunches) while in wine country....here were a few of our favorites...I am not going to spend time "bashing" some of the other finer establishments ...one of which he proclaims his food tasted like canned spam. For now, here were our top 3.
A word to the wise. Reservations. Reservations. Reservations. For many restaurants you will need a reservation. We booked our dinners about 3 months in advance. Most are done through Open Table's website, or App.
Brix- http://www.brix.com/We enjoyed dinner the first night in Napa here....it was a quick 3 minute drive from our hotel in Yountville...love that!!! You have the choice to dine here outside viewing the vineyard, in a couples love seat(wine barrel) or a large table, fireside...for the larger groups. We sat side by side in wine barrel booth, looking out over the vineyard. Ahhhhhhh!
Mustard's Grill- http://www.mustardsgrill.com/ This was probably the busiest restaurant we went to. People were turned away at the door without a reservation, so please. MAKE ONE. Brian enjoyed the salmon...and me...well I had to opt for a salad....and it was a mighty good salad. This was our last night in Napa...and the food...well we had self proclaimed "food babies" in our belly....or in other words...we were SO DARN full we couldn't eat one more bite. They grow all of their own herbs, veggies, etc right outside....how cool is that? You can explore the garden on your own before dinner. Small, but pretty neat!
and FINALLY SHIPPING WINE.....getting those treasures home
We worked hard tasting all that wine and figuring out our favorites that we wanted to make sure we had lots of memories and bottles of wines to savor at home in FL. You CAN go to wineries, enjoy wines, and have them ship home your favorite bottle. AND it will COST YOU. For example, if you buy a $40 bottle of wine at Del Dotto...the shipping is almost $20 a bottle. Well for that...you could be well on your way to another bottle of wine! We bought a large, Styrofoam enclosed box at Robert Mondavi(or first stop on day one)....the box was a mere $10 and held 12 bottles. Check with your airline, but ours let us check it as luggage for $25 for the WHOLE BOX. MUCH better than those hefty fees at the wineries!!!! Now. THEY ARE NOT responsible if it breaks, so wrap it well, label it well and make sure it gets to your home destination. We wrote our flight number, home address, "fragile," and breakable...on every side and every direction. AND added a little newspaper stuffing in between the Styrofoam encasing.
NOW..... Get out there. Book your flight, book your hotel, book your tours and dinner reservations....and let me know your favorites. At some point post baby....I will be back in Napa Valley!!!
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