Napa Sonoma suggestions requested?

Going to Napa Sonoma for a week next month for the first time...wanted to know what are must do's for newbie...thanks in advance for all your help!

R&M in San Diego

Reply to
R&M
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in article snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com, R&M at snipped-for-privacy@cwnet.com wrote on 7/21/04 8:49 PM:

"Must do's" have a lot to do with your level of wine experience. If you are newbies to visiting the area, but experienced with wine, your list will be different, I would think. If you're new to wine, in general, start with an area guide: The AAA has a pretty good guide book that's free to members; otherwise, the best we've found is "Wine Country - California's Napa and Sonoma Valleys", by John Doerper for Fodor's. The latest edition was written in 2000, so some of the newer wineries won't be included, but the book is otherwise very thorough and useful.

Assuming, again, that you're new to wine and wineries..... we've found the best public tour to be at Robert Mondavi, in Oakville (Napa). I have to say, though, that the best experiences we've had have been at the smaller wineries, usually those that are by appointment only. There's something very magical about meeting, touring and tasting with the people who actually run the operation on a daily basis - something you don't generally get to do at the larger wineries.

Our "must do" list would include: Napa - Mondavi, Sinskey, Caymus, Chateau Montelena, Nickel & Nickel, Phelps, Shafer, Stony Hill, Schramsberg, Jarvis; Sonoma - Gary Farrell, Davis Bynum, Ravenswood, Gundlach-Bundschu, Rochioli, Arrowood, Jordan, Acorn, A. Rafanelli. I'm sure I'm leaving out some good ones, and that other posters will add or subtract....... but this list is a pretty good start.

Enjoy!

Reply to
Midlife

Second the recommendation for Gundlach-Bundschu.

Reply to
Furious Shepherd

Reply to
D. Brown

Interesting comment about Grgich Hills. We had exactly the same unfriendly experience. Very unusual.

Another good book on the area is "Access - California Wine Country". There is a recent edition out. It is very well organized, and we've found the guides to be accurate in many places we've visited. They have a knack for finding little known restaurants.

In Sonoma, we found the people at Valley of the Moon to be very helpful and friendly, and the wines are pretty good. We also really liked visiting Chateau St. Jean.

If you enjoy sparkling wine, the tour at Domaine Chandon is educational. Opus One is quite beautiful, and you have the opportunity to buy their second label wine - Overture - which is (or was on our last visit) a very good value.

Though our topic here is typically wine, "food" is in the title, so here are a few more suggestions:

  1. Assemble a nice picnic lunch at V. Sattui, Oakville Grocery, or Dean & DeLuca, and take a drive to Joseph Phelps for nice views and a good area to enjoy your meal. They have picinc tables. Better yet, make an appointment ahead of time for a tour and tasting while you're there, too.

  1. Absolutely visit Bistro Jeanty in Yountville. Great food, good atmosphere, very friendly. The one place we always go whenever we visit the area.

Reply to
bijoudog

I had the same experience at Grgich. I think Mike Grgich sets the tone there and I'm not sure that he's the most "user friendly" winemaker in Napa.

I would also go agree with your suggestions for lunch and visiting Bistro Jeanty. Tra Vigna is also a place to mingle with cellar rats and wine makers. I owuld also suggest that Nickel and Nickel is a must especially if you're visitng Mondavi (right across the road) or Opus One (right next door). Bi!!

Reply to
RV WRLee

Off the wine tour subject there is a Jelly Belly factory tour about 20 minutes from Napa. The city is fairfield or fairmont...something like that.

After doing many a winery a few years back my wife and I did a Saki tour and then the jelly belly jelly bean tour.

Jelly Belly tour was amazing! More complicated process than I ever thought.

Reply to
Richard Neidich

My favourite wine at the moment from Sonoma is Seghesio Zinfandel... I met Camille Seghesio at a wine event last year and fell in love (with the wine). They do increasingly good zins, depending on how much you want to spend...

Lloyd (scotland)

Reply to
lloyd

The sake tour is at Hakusan, where CA-12 meets CA-29. The Jelly Belly factory is on CA-12 just east of I-80 in Fairfield. Very near Jelly Belly is a chocolate factory and an olive oil factory. A short drive from Jelly Belly takes you to a few local wineries - Volkhardt, Ledgewood Creek and Wooden Valley Winery. Sunset Magazine recently ran a feature on the Suisun Valley wineries.

One year ago, there was a crop circle incident, too:

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Cheers, Dana

Reply to
Dana Myers

I agree with you, lloyd. I recently sent some friends on a "Zin tour" of Sonoma. The stops were Ravenswood, Ridge Lytton, Rosenblum, Seghesio and Cline. They came back very impressed with Seghesio, though Ridge was their favorite stop of the day.

Mark Lipton

Reply to
Mark Lipton

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