IMO, you cannot go up Spring Mountain without stopping in at Sherwin…make an appt with Donna…you won’t regret it…
Some good open-to-the-public tasting rooms for Cab are Freemark Abbey, Heitz, Raymond
I was up at Arkenstone’s recently completed tasting room for the first time yesterday. I highly recommend that place. Really good wines, awesome facility, family owned.
Have not been to the completed tasting room, but I will echo what Roy stated. Plus, Sam is a passionate winemaker that like to talk business if you can catch him there.
If you go up Howell…would add one more recommendation…Cimarossa. Interesting tour (ATV) around the property and tasting in a little cottage on the property. Beth is wonderful…the Olive Oil outstanding and the wines are darn good. You need an appt. Near O’Shaun. rather than going left through their gates…continue straight. Mia Klein is their current winemaker. Think it was Melka before that.
I just paid a visit to Larkmead a few weeks ago and thought the entire tasting experience was fantastic. Try to get a place out on the porch if possible. And if you decide to do Chateau Montelena, go with the library tasting; the regular tasting is not worthwhile IMO.
We took a large group to Chappellet many years ago and had a fantastic time. I recently revisited and did the seated tasting with tour for a friend that had not been there before. The experience was wonderful and the wines were tasting great. We actually have reservations to go back in a few weeks again. I’d recommend this winery to you.
I also second the comment about Neal. A bit off the beaten path but his wines have always been solid.
Chappelet has beautiful views. I find their wine a bit overpriced, but that’s the norm for Napa. As far as walk-ins go, Beringer has a magnificent property and they have a wide variety of tasting options.
If you want a break from Cabs, try Robert Biale for the Zins or Vincent Arroyo for the Petite Sirahs. In both cases you’d likely get to meet the owners and winemakers, definitely a more intimate experience than many of the biggest names.
+1 on Lewelling
Erna Schein/Behrens–worth the drive just to sit in the tasting room (1940something travel trailer) The wines are good too
Many excellent recommendations here. I would add Spottswoode to the list. I think they only do tours/tastings a couple days during the week, and you’ll need to schedule in advance, but the setting in old St. Helena on the valley floor is fantastic, and seeing what they’re doing with biodynamics is pretty cool.
Michael
We had a great trip to Napa/Sonoma in October of 2010.
My three favorite visits, any one of which would have been enough to make the trip worthwhile, have already been mentioned.
They are:
KAPCSANDY - Contact Lou in Advance
ALPHA OMEGA - Contact Jean in advance
BLACK CAT - Contact Merrill in advance
I have reviews and pictures of these and some others on my blog at:
South Jersey Wine & Dine
Go to the alphabetized column on the right and click on NAPA/SONOMA TRIP 2010
Enjoy your Napa visit.
Frank
Dear Sir,
If you want me to organize you a private tasting in our single vineyard room at Alpha Omega just let me know and you will be able to taste it all. To Kalon, Misourri Hopper, georges III, Stagecoach and Era of course
Just let me kow Boss
Jean
We just got back from our first visit to Napa, and we thoroughly enjoyed Paradigm. It’s super easy to get to and since they don’t make a lot of different wines it’s a relatively short visit. Unfortunately they didn’t pour their Zin or Cabernet Franc, but they poured the Rose of Merlot, 3 different vintages of their Cab, and the current Merlot. Not sure how wide the distribution of their Rose is, but it was absolutely fantastic and worth a stop in just to buy that.
The other amazing spot we went to was Vineyard 7&8, on Spring Mtn Road just before Pride. Probably the most amazing view of the trip, with their tasting room looking over their Estate Chardonnay vineyard with Barnett in the distance. I’d never even heard of the wines when our appointment was made, but they’re very restrained with amazing structure.
And while you’re on Spring Mtn Road, you’ll pass Keenan and the visit there was so much better than I expected. They poured close to 10 wines and offer great prices on library vintages. The woman at the tasting room (a redhead, Laura?) was so much fun and really knew her stuff about the winery and Napa in general.
My biggest regrets:
Not stopping in at Heitz or BV to buy older wines, and not stopping at Alpha Omega for a tasting. We drove by them like 10 times and I wanted to stop every time but we were pretty tight on time.