Sonoma and Napa

Looking at doing the Sonoma and Napa early January for 6 nights. Where should we base ourselves? Who should we visit? Where should we eat?

Thank you in advance.

Cheers
Jeremy

I would base in St Helena for three days and either Healdsburg, Santa Rosa or Kenwood for the other three days. Saves drive time especially after dinner. On the Sonoma side of the hills I like Walter Hansel Bistro, Dry Creek Kitchen, Chalkboard, Barn Diva, Farmhouse Inn, Madrona Manor.
Over the hill try Brasswood, Meadowood, Solage, Cook, Press, Cindy’s Backstreet Kitchen, The French Laundry, Redd Wood

Wineries are dependent on what style you are after.

Moving this to the travel forum. Would also suggest searching, as there are many threads on this topic. I recently traveled to Napa and got a ton of information from older threads.

Here are a couple of the threads:

What is searching?

Agree with Brian about splitting it up, though I would recommend Yountville on the Napa side, and my preference is for Healdsburg on the Sonoma side. Yountville is a quaint smaller town, right off the main road (29, but then everything is along 29). Lots of good eating, and if you decide you want to go somewhere else it’s not that far and easy enough to get a cab or uber if you don’t want to drive.

On the Napa side I would recommend getting in touch with Aaron Pott, who has his own “Pott” label, and consults or makes wine for several other well known producers. An off-the-beaten track visit is up the hill (way up the hill) to see Carole Meredith and Steve Lagier of Lagier Meredith.

On the Sonoma side my two recommendations would be Copain and Ceritas. Ceritas is just a block or so off the square in Healdsburg, Copain is a short drive out of Healdsburg down the Russian River. Those two are probably closest in the area to the style of wines you drink.

Thanks for the Reco’s guys. I think we may have found a house to rent in St Helena as a base. A friend has contacts with Littorai, DuMOL and Domum, so we will try and arrange visits to these guys and look at adding a few Napa wineries as per your suggestions.

Lemme know if you get into the French Laundry.

Getting from Napa Valley to Sonoma Valley takes time (1/2 hour to 45 minutes), so think about two hotels. Napa Valley is pretty straight forward, one main road North and South with a couple of side roads, kind of like driving through Burgundy, except the big city (Napa) is where Santenay is rather than more centrally located like Beaune. I would stay around St. Helena, probably more centrally located to tour Napa. Wineries to visit include Chateau Montelena, Mayacamas and Stony Hill. Maybe add Heitz. I would recommend Forman for the wine quality, but have never been able to get them to call me back to schedule a time.

The Sonoma Valley is much, much bigger than the Napa Valley and distances between wineries are much greater. You also have a wider variety of wine regions. Go to the Northern part and see Ridge. This is not their main winery, which is south of San Francisco, but a second winery at Lytton Springs (one of their top Zins). You can taste everything there, however, and this is the best winery in California, IMHO.

Outside Ridge, I would probably concentrate on Pinot and Chardonnay on your Sonoma days. I am not a fan of California Pinot or Chardonnay in general, so others my have better views on what to visit than I do. One really interesting California Chardonnay is Stony Hill, which has been making ageworthy Chardonnay since before I was born, as I understand it. They also now make a small amount of Cabernet, and what I have tasted is really good. They also make a good Riesling.

In Napa I would recommend getting off the main road, 29/128 and use The Silverado Trail for a change of pace. It runs parallel to the main highway, but it does not have nearly the amount of traffic, prettier IMHO and it just has a different feel. Yountville has some great restaurants, Bouchon, Hurley’s and Redd’s.

I have to second Alan’s recommendation of Lagier Meredith and add a suggestion to go see Merrill at EMH Vineyards a bit south of Calistoga. Both are amazing wine makers, exceedingly knowledgeable and very welcoming. We spent a lovely afternoon beginning at Merrill’s place and finishing with with Carole and Steve into the evening. These are both small producers with no tasting room, so do contact them in advance to arrange for a time to visit, you will be exceeding glad you did!!

In Napa we like to stay in Yountville. Good location, many hotel options, very good walkable restaurants. In Sonoma we love Healdsburg for the same reasons. I agree with Brian T.'s restaurant refs and would add Scopa in Healdsburg.

JD