4 weeks in Napa

Headed to Napa for 4 weeks in June and I’m looking for recommendations. We’ll be staying between St. Helena and Calistoga.

I’ve got friends coming in for part of 2 of the weeks and my wife and I will have 2 weeks to ourselves.

We intend to hit peacock, casa piena, DR stephens and will also try to get a summit tasting at Pride sometime in there.

When our friends are there, we were thinking of doing 2 days of tasting with 3 wineries per day (we’ll have a limo bus).

When it’s just the wife and I, our thought is if we went to a tasting it would be like 1 a day unless we drove over to Sonoma.

Certainly open to suggestions on places to hit. We generally like cab, rhones, cab franc, zins, SB and WB styled whites. I HATE buttery chardonnay.

We buy DR Stephens, Ridge, Carlisle, Bedrock. In the past we’ve also enjoyed Xtant, Pride, La Jota, Scarecrow, etc.

I really like visiting Chappellet - nice views from the mountains, also not too expensive or stuffy.

In no particular order, I would look at Outpost, Myriad/Quivet, EMH Black Cat, Anderson’s Conn Valley, Herb Lamb, Kapcsandy, David Arthur, Keever, Pott, Seven Stones, and Roy Piper’s new venture.

Don’t forget Rivers-Marie!!

You may be able to schedule a trip to Sonoma to taste with Carlisle and Bedrock, since you’re an existing customer. Those are fun experiences.

I would target areas vs wineries. Howell Mtn. You can choose to visit Foley, Outpost, Cimarossa, O’Shaughnessy, Neal, Outpost and many other fine ones. Over on Spring Mtn. consider in addition to Pride… Sherwin, B&H and Relic (although B&H now has a tasting room in St. Helena…visit is fun), Barnett, Fantesa, Newton, Cain, Togni just to name a few.

Consider going to Schramsberg. I do think the tour/sparklers are somewhat unique for the area. Plus their wine holds a place in US History (served at the White House multiple times for functions)

If you do a Spring Mountain day, I’d recommend hitting Pride in the late morning and Fisher (over on the back/Sonoma side) in the afternoon. Two beautiful properties with great wine.

If your interested in Rhones, send me a pm and I would be happy to meet up and taste you through some wines.

Might as well spend a day in Dry Creek and hit up Ridge, Rafanelli, Mauritson, Sbragia and Unti for your non Cab based wines. End the day with an al fresco dining adventure in Healdsburg.

You can do anything/go anywhere you want with 4 weeks. I’d recommend spending a few days out in the Mendocino Coast.

thanks for all the great suggestions so far. I’ll definitely be following up on this.

Keever, Morlet, Bure, Blackbird, Luscher-Ballard, Vine Hill Ranch and Detert would be well worth looking at as well.

Check out Cimarossa on Howell Mtn. It’s a fun tour as they take you on a vineyard tour on a Polaris to see the unique blocks of the vineyard.

Are you spending 4 weeks in Napa doing tastings?? or mostly chill vacation?
4 weeks you would taste through most of the known wineries in the area no?

If you do a Howell Mtn day, try to get an appointment at Black Sears. I love their Zins and they have beautiful views and you can then make your way back down the mtn to hit the other spots recommended. You can hit Outpost for more Zin, CS, PS, & Grenache and Viader can scratch your Cab Franc itch.

Also, since you like Zin and will be near Calistoga, make an appointment for a tour and tasting at Storybook and potentially with Merrill at EMH.

mostly chill. when we have people in that want to taste, we’ll do more, but that’s only a small part of the time. The rest of the time we were thinking we’d hit one in the afternoon or something if we felt like it but we’d mostly chill.

4 weeks in Napa…better take out a second mortgage! And that’s just for tasting room fees. Plan on spending at least some time in Sonoma for less expensive, more laid back experiences.

If you’re staying in Napa that long, try to check out the boys at Frias (Scotti Stark at Casa Piena will vouch for them and in full disclosure I used to work with them). Great wines and a really fun, laid back experience.

If you’re feeling like venturing further afield Lake County offers some great wines as well. Six Sigma, Greg Graham, Chacewater and Steele (my employer) are all making great wines.

Hope you enjoy your time in wine country!

Besides stony hill and fishers mountain estate Chardonnay, any places that make non-buttery Chardonnays that anyone would recommend?

Although they make big reds, both Venge and Shafer make a Chardonnay with no maloactic. I think Venge’s is from the Maldonado Vineyard and uses a Dijon clone. While Shafer’s is from a vineyard in Carneros.