Old School Napa Valley Tasting Suggestions

I’m sure there must be plenty of threads, but I haven’t really found what I’m looking for, so please excuse me asking again…

I’m planning a tasting trip to Napa with my parents, who are visiting from Europe at the beginning of August. I’m looking for suggestions on wineries that make classic, old school (or “old world”) wine and do tastings for a reasonable price. I’m willing to spend $200-300 a bottle, as long as the tasting is not more than around $50 per person or gets waived with a purchase. We don’t care about views tours, caves, views (although this one is a plus :wink:), etc.

I don’t drink a lot of Napa Cabs, but I do enjoy wines like Togni, Dunn, Forman, and Mondavi Reserve with some age on them. I also liked Larkmead and was a member for a while until they went crazy with pricing. I also love and buy Arnot-Roberts Cabs and Monte Bello, but other than that I don’t really buy much CA Cabs…

As far as I know, none of the above really do tastings (Larkmead does, but I no longer support them) or are not in Napa Valley…

Any suggestions where I may want to go?

PS: My dad drinks a lot of Bordeaux, it’s his main region of interest, but has limited experience with Napa

I’m not sure if you have to be a member, but Peter Michael springs to mind.

Diamond Creek may be pleasing.

Davis winery makes some lovely cab/cab franc, etc wines, not very Bordeauxy, though. Lovely place and they will treat you well.

Pine Ridge offers a classic California style red tasting.

If you could combine mending Wall and William and Mary, that would be a win!

Dunn may offer a visit, and La Jota is an often overlooked prize!

The upper and tasting at Mondavi has some very stylish offerings.

I don’t know how mailing list wineries handle visits. I would off to ‘pre-buy’ a MacDonald or Piper wine and go there to taste and show your dad.

Thinking of minimizing drive times…

Combining Mondavi with MacDonald and maybe even Nickel and Nickel would make a good walking tour, almost.

Silverado Trail going down from Davis, you could hit Duckhorn, Pine Ridge, Clos Du Val, Stag’s Leap and maybe Schrader and Shafer and Silverado winery.

We had a nice taste at Beaulieu Vineyards last year, if you get the right host and discuss your fondness for older wines they may have something open you could try. We were there the day they had a '75 GdL open and it was excellent. Mondavi Reserve room is excellent also.

Most places are opening current vintages or close to current vintages, unless you’re willing to buy an older bottle from their library collections.

Some great suggestions from Anton…adding a few more-

Corison- leaner/old world style and in your price point
Forman- nice setting and they are also open for tastings

Will try to think of some others but agree on Dunn, Diamond Creek.

Smith-Madrone, up Spring Mountain Road. Classic napa, old school, will probably taste with one of the Smith brothers, and great views.

Smith-Madrone

I haven’t visited, but Mount Veeder Winery seems to be making more traditional, restrained wines.

This for sure.

id shoot for the moon and try to get into Dominus.

Stony Hill
Chappellet

I’d put Seavey towards the top of that list. Views, wines and people are top notch. Definitely made in a more old school/restrained style for Napa Cabernet, and when we were there in February, we were able to taste some late ‘90s Cabernets and early ‘00s merlots. Julio is a great host.

Stony Hill
Heitz
Chateau Montelena
Forman

Freemark abbey

Not sure if Heitz still offers the free tasting, but a few years ago we did the tasting, and they poured a nice selection of the Napa Cab, Trailside Vineyard, Martha’s Vineyard, along with their Zin, and a few others. Not very personal, but it was zero cost, and pretty fun to taste the Trailside and Martha’s side by side.

Thanks so much for all the suggestions so far! This is great :slight_smile:

A couple of comments:

  • I have a lot of experience with Clos du Val and Pine Ridge (due to a family member having memberships) and neither have ever really wowed me, maybe except for the 2013 Fortis, which was very good.
  • Heitz is no longer free and the quality is going downhill IMHO.
  • We’ve been to Corison a couple of years ago and totally forgot about it, thanks for reminding me, great suggestion!
  • I’m not really interested in Duckhorn or Stag’s Leap, but Shafer may be interesting, I’ve never been but heard good things about their tasting.

I’ll try to contact Forman, Dunn, and Diamond Creek as well and see what can be done…

+1 for Diamond Creek

I’ll second these four. It also wouldn’t hurt to take him up to Domaine Carneros, Taittinger’s sparkling operation. Incredible views and decent, relatively restrained wines.

Not at all old school anymore

Visited Diamond creek a few weeks ago. $95 a person, no discounts, no fees waived with purchase, no trade courtesy, no way, no one. Worth visiting once as it’s such an iconic place but expect to pay well for it

Tasted at Dunn in the fall. It’s possible and was wonderful to see the place the wines I love so much come from. Randy is pretty much out of the picture and would have to get lucky for him to be around. Mike is often around and you may get some time with him. Such a great guy. Tasting will likely be with Ben, a guy they hired a couple years ago for these things. You’ll be tasting current vintage Dunn (not ideal but it is what it is) and have access to buy most anything out of the library which is pretty deep. With that said it’s more of a bucket list thing to check off these days then a great tasting experience IMHO