Trip to Napa - Advice Needed

WINE TALK
1

I am going to be in Napa for three days (July 22-24) staying at Bardessono. Do people have an opinion on the number of wineries you can visit in a day without rushing, as well as how long I should anticipate visits taking?

I am considering some combination of the following wineries (though if you think I’m missing something please let me know). Do people have any thoughts on what order these should go in (I haven’t been to Napa in years and don’t have a great sense how far apart the wineries are)?

Alpha Omega
Shafer
Outpost
Lewelling
Pride - do people think the $75 tour is worth it?
Kapcsandy - if they can match us up with two other people
Herb Lamb
Hourglass
Seven Stones
Buccella

Finally, does anyone have a car service they liked? Obviously I don’t want to be driving.

Thank you,
Kevin

2

Hi, hope you have a great time! I would only schedule 3-4 wineries per day max so that you won’t be rushed. There are a lot of wonderful restaurants up in Yountville, St. Helena & even some in Napa.

Pm me if you want specific suggestions
Joe

3

Three or four a day. If you’re going for appts make it three. If you’re still “thirsty” you can always find somewhere along the road in NV to stop.

4

Four wineries per day can be aggressive as you need to factor in driving time and lunch/snacks.

I’ll be in Napa 7/17-7/20 and here is what I have confirmed broken down by day and as to wineries geographically “close” to each other:

Larkmead
EMH Vineyards
Pott

Seven Stones
Herb Lamb
Arkenstone
O’Shaughnessy
Outpost

Wolf Family
Alpha Omega
Match
Realm

5

Go big or go home.

6

Bill,
Where are you meeting Randy for Match?

7

At Butterdragon Hill.

8

I am going 7/8 thru 7/11. Also staying at Bardesono.

Day 1:
11am Alpha Omega Winery
2pm Vineyard 29
3:30PM Realm Cellars


Day 2
11:30am Biale Vineyards
2PM Kapcsandy Winery

Day 3 Open to try to hit some of these after a hike

Hit list wineries with Open Hours North to South

St Helena
Acme Fine Wines 9:30 to 5pm
Flora Springs 10:30am to 5pm
Freemark Abbey 10am to 5pm
Heitz tasting Room 2 11am to 4:30pm
Rombauer Vineyards 0 10am to 5pm

Rutherford
Rubicon Estate 10am to 5pm


Oakville
Miner Family Farms 11am to 5pm
Plumpjack 10am to 4pm

Silver Oak Cellars 9am to 5pm


Yountville
Cliff Lede 10am to 4pm
Domaine Chandon 10am to 5pm
Flora Springs 10am to 8pm
Maisonry Tasting Room

Napa
Darioush 10:30am to 5pm
Domaine Carneros 10am to 6pm

9

Rich, isn’t the Flora Spring tasting room up in St. Helena near Dean & Deluca?

10

Gee, looks to be convention time in Napa. We’ll be there 7/10 til 7/18 covering both Napa and Sonoma. My current appointment list, and I’m sure others to be added on the fly:

Scribe
Bedrock
Arnot-Roberts
Wind Gap
Salinia
Zepaltas
Alpha Omega
Tres Sabores
Barnett
Pride
Keenan
Erna Schein
Failla
Gargiulo
Robinson Family

11

Come join us at Carrie’s on Saturday night for some Flannery critter and juice.

12

RE: the $75 fee at Pride. We thought it was steep, but probably worthwhile. Although a little “prepackaged,” the tour is enjoyable and the views are great. You can (conceptually) recoup some of the price by bringing a nice lunch and picnicking in their area for free, whereas a lot of other places insist you purchase one of their bottles to use their picnic space.

Spring Mountain in general can make for a good day of tasting. We enjoyed Erna Schein and, for a good off-the-beaten path tasting experience, get ahold of Pete at Ritchie Creek.

13

Thanks! I saw that thread and was thinking of chiming-in. I have 3 other folks with me (one being my wife who doesn’t drink wine). So I suspect I’ll be on a fairly short chain, but would love to try to drop in before of after dinner to meet everyone and share a glass. We’re staying in downtown Napa and having dinner at Oenotri that evening, so will be nearby on both counts. I’ll try to make it over, thanks for the invite!

14

Cool. We should be there from early evening until Carrie grows tired of my antics.

15

Who me ? Witches don’t tire !

Chad,
Hope to see you, we have non alcohol related beverages too.

16

You’ll tire of me in August!!! [snort.gif] [snort.gif]

17

Thank you everyone for your thoughts. This has been very helpful.

18

I just talked to my crew. If y’all can tolerate 4 more, we would love to join you afterall. Of course we’ll bring copious amounts of good juice, but please let us know what else we can bring.

19

Chad,
You may want to put it in the OL section so Bill can see it.

Mini-Offline: Napa, Saturday 07/17/2010---Updated with Time - Event Planner - Online or Offline - WineBerserkers" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

20

Re: car service, I recommend David Rasmussen and Eclectic Tours http://www.eclectictour.com/index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. We used his service a few years ago and it was excellent.