Napa wine tastings for my wife

[Howard_Cooper]

These are great, thanks! She’s googling them all.

I did a quiet litmus test and said “hey, check out Del Dotto.” She’d never heard of it. She passed. Said, “no way, this is cheesy”. She really seems to like Montelena. As she keeps looking…

Montelena is great, if you do a special tasting.

Also, Stony Hill is a great visit. Very AFWE - she can obtain forgiveness for your sins at Ovid. Prettiest view in the area.

She should eat at Farmstead in St. Helena.

[Randy_Bowman]

If they want an easy day, go to the Oxbow Market. Tasting rooms across the street south, across the street west and inside the Market. Food includes Gott’s Roadside Grill, Fatted Calf Deli, Kara’s cupcake factory, Hog Island Oyster bar and a ton more. Taste and eat on foot in a one block radius.

https://oxbowpublicmarket.com/#merchants

[Ed_Steinway]

Randy Bowman wrote:
If they want an easy day, go to the Oxbow Market. Tasting rooms across the street south, across the street west and inside the Market. Food includes Gott’s Roadside Grill, Fatted Calf Deli, Kara’s cupcake factory, Hog Island Oyster bar and a ton more. Taste and eat on foot in a one block radius.

This is an excellent idea. Additionally, a few blocks west on 1st Street or Main Street there are a number of tasting rooms. Mayacamas has a tasting room on 1st Street that usually has a nice selection to taste.

Ed

[M_Meer]

I second going for some bubbles, if they are into it. The sparkling houses have some of the best wines and facilities to experience in the valley. Domaine Carneros is also pretty solid as is Gloria Ferrer.

If they get tired of flights, I’d suggest to go straight btg/split bottles of the really good stuff.

[JLuch]

Schramsberg, palmaz (state of the art facility), Barnett on spring mountain if you like great views, round pond also does a nice job as others mentioned. Alpha Omega does a nice job but you could also stop by without a reservation if you want to hang out and try a few wines.

[David_Glasser]

Montelena if you do a private tasting, also lunch on the lake there but maybe only for members.

I’ll second Schramsberg as my favorite bubbly and the tour is nice, but they might prefer Domaine Carneros for the setting.

Hess’ art collection is an added dimension.

Oxbow and downtown Napa have a lot to offer within walking distance, but beautiful vistas of vineyards is not one of them.

[Howard_Cooper]

Robert, I do have to congratulate you. I have taken my wife on many wine trips and she enjoys most of them. But, I do not see her going to a winery without me. Great job.

[Robert.A.Jr]

Robert, I do have to congratulate you. I have taken my wife on many wine trips and she enjoys most of them. But, I do not see her going to a winery without me. Great job.

Started out right: Chinon, Bordeaux and Cognac for our honeymoon, with the obligatory few days in Paris; and then Rhone region the next year. #lifestyle.

Her friends are all really cool, enjoy nice wines, just don’t get all dorked up like us. Or hoard stuff, while planning for the 50 year storm.

And remember, Howard, this is Napa, which is like Disney for adults.

[Howard_Cooper]

Robert, I do have to congratulate you. I have taken my wife on many wine trips and she enjoys most of them. But, I do not see her going to a winery without me. Great job.

Started out right: Chinon, Bordeaux and Cognac for our honeymoon, with the obligatory few days in Paris; and then Rhone region the next year. #lifestyle.

Her friends are all really cool, enjoy nice wines, just don’t get all dorked up like us. Or hoard stuff, while planning for the 50 year storm.

And remember, Howard, this is Napa, which is like Disney for adults.

I understand (although I really think of France as Disney for adults). But, most non wine geek people visiting Napa would be looking for spas in Calistoga.

And, yes. On our first date, we went to a play and I asked her whether she wanted to go afterwards to a bar or a wine bar. She picked wine bar. On either our second or third date, we just did wine bar. Sometime early on, she told me she liked Liebfraumilch. A few months (and a number of really good Rieslings later), we were at a party where someone served Blue Nun and she told me she did not like this anymore. On our first trip to France (a couple of years after we got married), we spent a few days in Burgundy. So, I understand. And, I still don’t think she would go to a winery without me unless others were insisting.

[Robert.A.Jr]

Chris and I went to a wine bar on our first date as well, Dexter’s. It’s still around. They also have their own California wine made and bottled. I still have a bottle of the 92 Cab, the year of our first date there. Had intended to pop it in an anniversary, but being a regular dude, I forgot! The owner thinks the wine is like dead, but you never know!

[Rich_Salsano]

Schramsberg, Ehlers Estate, Chappelet (the garden tour and tasting is really quite nice), Alpha Omega, Stony Hill, Failla (for delicious Sonoma pinots and chards but with a Napa based tasting room), Matthiasson.

[Pat_Esposito]

If they want an easy day, go to the Oxbow Market. Tasting rooms across the street south, across the street west and inside the Market. Food includes Gott’s Roadside Grill, Fatted Calf Deli, Kara’s cupcake factory, Hog Island Oyster bar and a ton more. Taste and eat on foot in a one block radius.

https://oxbowpublicmarket.com/#merchants

Also Ritual Roasters has tremendous coffee inside Oxbow.

My wife and I really enjoyed Elizabeth Spencer, a wide selection of whites, reds, and Rose, pretty good quality but not overly priced. Nice grounds (although no view).

[J_a_y_H_a_c_k]

. . .
Schramsberg top wines and cheese pairing is the best brunch tasting in Napa. . . .

I have not done this but I have heard from a lot of people that Schramsberg is a good visit. Same for Domaine Carneros, which I have also not done.

[Howard_Cooper]

Chris and I went to a wine bar on our first date as well, Dexter’s. It’s still around. They also have their own California wine made and bottled. I still have a bottle of the 92 Cab, the year of our first date there. Had intended to pop it in an anniversary, but being a regular dude, I forgot! The owner thinks the wine is like dead, but you never know!

Was that Cab made by Ovid?

[K_John_Joseph]

Joseph Phelps has very interesting tastings / seminars (private tasting, blending seminar, aroma challenge) that are fun and educational. Plus their Pinots (and dare I say, even Chards) have recently been on a very positive trajectory, in addition to the classic Napa Cabs…

If you can swing a Le Nez du Vin tasting and seminar at Joseph Phelps, you should absolutely do it. The most fun group tasting experience I’ve ever had.

[K_John_Joseph]

. . .
Schramsberg top wines and cheese pairing is the best brunch tasting in Napa. . . .

I have not done this but I have heard from a lot of people that Schramsberg is a good visit. Same for Domaine Carneros, which I have also not done.

I recommend both, but they’re very different. Schramsberg is kind of old and grizzly looking with some neat old-build house buildings, but when you go inside, it’s into a room on the edge of their caves and looks and feels like it. The tasting area is quaint and nice, but nothing like Carneros, which is built like a gaudy chateau. Even so, the patio area at Carneros is really lovely, and sitting out there in perfect weather drinking a flight of their good stuff is pretty enjoyable. Schramsberg’s location gives you much better access to the valley, though. You could do a 10:00 tour, then hit lunch somewhere nearby and be right in St. Helena. Gotta drive for Carneros.

[Corey_N]

I agree on the Phelps recommendation. The tasting room is unbelievably gorgeous – rustic for rich people. A wealthy country lawwyer like you would feel right at home. We did a blending tasting there and it was very fun. I felt it was a bit scripted, but the people they hire are trained extremely well, so it ddidn’t bother me much.

Alpha Omega is another nice suggestion. I had a bit of a hard time with it because we tasted so many wines that they all got jumbled together.

[Joe_Chanley]

Also meant to say, I was just out there a week ago and had excellent meals at Farmstead for lunch and oenotri for dinner. Bottega was meh.

[Robert.A.Jr]

Chris and I went to a wine bar on our first date as well, Dexter’s. It’s still around. They also have their own California wine made and bottled. I still have a bottle of the 92 Cab, the year of our first date there. Had intended to pop it in an anniversary, but being a regular dude, I forgot! The owner thinks the wine is like dead, but you never know!

Was that Cab made by Ovid?

That would be quite the metamorphosis.

I find it amusing that the Roman family name - i.e., Ovid - was possibly derived from Latin ovis, “a sheep”.

Sheeple.

[Howard_Cooper]

I agree on the Phelps recommendation. The tasting room is unbelievably gorgeous – rustic for rich people. A wealthy country lawwyer like you would feel right at home. We did a blending tasting there and it was very fun. I felt it was a bit scripted, but the people they hire are trained extremely well, so it ddidn’t bother me much.

Alpha Omega is another nice suggestion. I had a bit of a hard time with it because we tasted so many wines that they all got jumbled together.

I was at Phelps a couple of times years ago and very much enjoyed the visits. It is beautiful there. But, Robert, the wines there IMHO are no longer made like the classic wines made in the 1970s and 1980s. I probably stopped drinking their wines 10-15 years ago because they had gotten modern in style. Unless their style has changed again, I have not followed them in a long time, she should only go there if she is looking for a more modern styled wine.