Napa Valley

Another thing that got me thinking about this blog is when we were pouring wine at the Twin Cities Food & Wine Experience this past Sunday, we met a couple who are engaged and planning to honeymoon in Napa Valley this coming December. We just honeymooned there in September, so we were eager to share our experience with them. And now, dear reader, I’ll share our advice with you:

First of all, if you haven’t read the book “A Moveable Thirst” by Hank Beal and Rick Kushman, DO! We based almost our entire trip to Napa off of information we got in this book. The first half is like a guy’s road trip story, giving information about the different wineries, wine and the people who work there. The second half of the book is all factual information - a listing of each winery, details about the winery, what kind of wines they serve, and a ballpark on tasting fees. (I say ballpark because the book was written a couple of years ago, so some prices have changed.) You can find current information on websites of many of the wineries, and sometimes two-for-1 or other discount coupons. Use them!

The nice thing about Napa is that really nothing is very far away. Even if you’re in Napa proper, most things are a straight shot up Hwy 29.

Food: For most of the “fancier” restaurants, I definitely suggest making reservations. Our favorite place was Bistro Don Giovanni. Relatively inexpensive and the food was amazing!! There are lots of little delis around where you can pick up a sandwich or salad for lunch, which is nice because the food is great and relatively cheap. We went to Sunshine Foods in St. Helena, Oakville Grocery, Dean & DeLuca. There is a cute town park in St. Helena where you can grab a picnic table and eat.

Restaurants: We ate at Martini House in St. Helena. Expensive. The food is good and it has a nice vibe, but for some reason neither of us much cared for this place. It’s worth having a drink in the cozy bar downstairs, though.

Bistro Jeanty. We went there for lunch and I think it is really more of a dinner place. Food was good, though.

Bouchon, a Thomas Keller restaurant (guy also owns the world-famous French Laundry. We tried to get reservations there but couldn’t). Bouchon was solid but not super amazing.

Rutherford Grill is a decent lunch place.

Bounty Hunter - a little bar/restaurant in Napa. Good food, great prices. Nothing fancy at all. We both had the pulled pork sandwiches - tasty!

Zuzu, a tapas place in Napa, was good.

Mustard’s Grill seems a little random, but the food was excellent.

Our favorite wineries, in no particular order:

Spring Mountain Vineyard. This place is called a wine “plantation” and the grounds are amazing. If you are old enough to remember the nighttime soap “Falcon Crest," they used the exterior of this place as the house in the TV show. They trellis their grapes,

which is unusual, and also hand-pick all of them. Our tour guide was Patrick and he was awesome. We did our tasting in the barrel room, which was cool. I think the tour was $25/person and you had to make reservations in advance, but it was worth it.

Frog’s Leap. I don’t think you have to pay for this tour but you DO have to make reservations. If you go to this place, know that even with Mapquesting it is hard to find. There isn’t a big sign or anything, just a white gate with the name written in small black letters. I think we drove past it 4 times. Anyway, the story behind this winery is pretty cool and they are so welcoming. Our tour guide was Mindy.

Kuleto Estate. Seriously, if you have the time and the money, you *must* go to this place! It’s a little off the beaten path and I swear 2 miles straight up a mountain. The drive scared the hell out of me and I made Josh drive us back down But the view is A-MAZ-ING!!!!! The tour is kind of expensive, $35/person, but they refund that money if you join their wine club (this is the only wine club we joined and we don’t regret it for a second!). The wines are good - especially the reds - but you really gotta go for the amazing view. You will want to move into this place. It has 13 pizza ovens on the property! It is owned by Pat Kuleto, who is a a restaurateur who designed, among other places, Martini House. Our tour guide was Dan.

Overall, we enjoyed the wineries we toured at

more than the ones where we only went and tasted the wines.

If you are into sparkling wines at all, I recommend you go to at least one of the sparkling places. We went to Domaine Carneros, Mumm and Domaine Chandon. We did the tour at Chandon and it was pretty interesting. Also, good and inexpensive wines! We didn’t go to Gloria Ferrer, but I had several glasses of their stuff while I was there so I want to check that place out next time we are there.

We went to Artesa, which is really sleek and modern. We didn’t do a tour but had the best wine pourer. His name is Dan May and I’d ask for him by name if you get a chance. He was so nice and friendly, gave us tons of tips, and let us try three wines that weren’t even on the list. The two wines we bought from there weren’t even on the tasting menu.

Random note: We mailed home one case of wine and packed probably another six bottles in our suitcase and we STILL wish we had bought more. So if you see something you like, buy it!

Sterling Vineyards looks cool from the road, has a great view and you get there by tram. Wines there are good. The only bummer is the patio where you do the tasting is surrounded by trees so you don’t get the view. We used a 2-for-1 coupon for this place. It was okay; not my fave.

Terra Valentine is a drive up the mountain. Okay place, not my favorite. Best part is they let you punch down the cap on wine they are making.

Darioush - It’s a pretty place and their Persian-style pistachios were awesome, but it’s spendy and we weren’t too flipped about their wines.

Hess - we got there kind of late so didn’t have time to tour their art gallery. It’s a pretty drive thru curvy roads, though - especially fun if you rent a convertible like we did Their wines are tasty and Leslie was our server. Get them to let you try their cabernet fudge sauce and the moscato.

St. Supery, Beaulieu and Peju - went to all 3 and nothing stands out to me about any of them. I know we did buy a bottle or maybe even two at St. Supery.

Silver Oak. They were just finishing building a brand new tasting room while we were there so it’s probably pretty nice (we tasted in a double-wide trailer). The wines are darn good. Kind of an expensive tasting, if I remember right, but you get to keep your wine glass.

Opus One - This is a big deal winery because it was a partnership between Robert Mondavi and the Rothschilds. You have to make a reservation and it’s $30/person AND you only try their one wine. I guess it was cool to say I’ve had Opus ($190/bottle) but this isn’t - in my opinion - a must do winery. If you do the tasting, you might as well do the tour ‘cuz it’s only $5 more and it is interesting.

Robert Mondavi - as far as I’m concerned, this is another one you can skip. Obviously it has the big name, but it’s pretty commercialized.

Franciscan has good wines and, surprisingly, I really dug their port. We weren’t able to get in on their sensory tasting, but we wanted to.

V. Sattui is popular because it has nice picnic grounds, a deli, etc. We stopped but it was far too crowded, so we bailed.

Non-wine stuff:
If you are thinking about checking out the “Old Faithful Geyser”, don’t bother. It’s $8/person and SO cheesy. We did it because we had time to kill between things, but I pretty much wish we hadn’t.

We did a mud bath at Golden Haven Spa. It totally rocked the ’70s vibe. We got a cheaper deal through their website than is available at their front desk. It’s a pretty strange experience if you’ve never done it. I can’t honestly say if I recommend it or not.

We took a hot air balloon ride, which we’d recommend if you’ve never done it. Dress warmly and in layers. We also got a cheaper deal on this making advance reservations on their website. The company we went with was Balloons Above the Valley, but there are several. I don’t mind heights but, even so, it was surprisingly un-nervewracking.

Last pieces of advice:

1) Make sure you eat throughout the day! Even if you are just tasting, you will drink a fair amount in a day. Keep something in your stomach.

2) You will get sick of wine. Have an occasional beer!

3) Don’t feel you both have to get a tasting at each place. They don’t mind if you share. They often offer several different tastings, so I would get one tasting menu and Josh would get another and then we’d share, so we would each get to try, say, 8 wines at a place.

And, advice from my husband:

You always hear about how bad the traffic is in Napa. We were there in late September, and I didn’t notice it at all. This probably varies in the spring/summer on the weekends however.

I’m not usually a big planner or scheduler of my vacations, but we did on our honeymoon. We started with a list of wineries and food spots we wanted to go to. Mapped them out, and then clustered them by day. So one day we were tasting and eating in Napa, the next in Oakville, the next in Rutherford, etc. It sure saved us a lot of time and headache driving.

If you like food, at least try to get a reservation at the French Laundry (realize this will cost you hundreds of dollars for one meal). Don’t be disappointed when you can’t get in. They start taking reservations at 10 a.m. for a day exactly 2 months in the future. They only have 27 tables and only do two servings a night, so it’s very tough to get in.

If you go while it’s warm, buy a cooler and ice to store your newly bought wine so it doesn’t get damaged while sitting in your hot car all day.