Another fall, another trip to Wine Country! This one was a little different because we went with a group of friends rather than as a romantic escape. But much fun was had by all!
This is a general tip if you’re going to Wine Country with a group. Appoint someone as the official planner of the trip, and just let them set the schedule. There are soooo many choices with so many factors for every one that if you try to do everything democratically it can be quite a headache. If you’re the lucky trip planner, try to be prepared for people making last minute requests for types of wineries or specific areas and have one or two places in mind for any circumstance. Make sure any reservations you make can be canceled without penalty, and keep phone numbers handy to cancel or change reservations as your schedule changes.
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Hotel: Some of the group stayed with someone who lived in the area, so the rest of decided to stay somewhere cheap rather than scenic or romantic. This was the first trip I planned since Thailand, and I got a little sticker shock from the hotels! Being high season and a weekend, there really wasn’t anything under $250 a night. So I went a little farther out and found the Holiday Inn Express American Canyon. There were pros and cons to it. The biggest pro was that it was $100 cheaper per night than anywhere in Napa! Also, it’s very new (opened in Spring 2009), so it’s in good shape, they had free breakfast, and it was very clean. The biggest con is that it’s about a 20-minute drive from Napa. That’s not awful, but you can’t really pop in to drop off bottles or rest a bit between tastings. Another big con is that it’s in a strip mall complex. It’s a pretty far cry from a lovely little B&B with helpful owners to recommend out-of-the-way vineyards.
Wineries: I was assigned with choosing our itinerary, and I had to account for budgets, newbies who don’t know anything about wine, and people who had been before. I stuck to tastings (tours can add up fast), places with pretty grounds or views, and also mostly vineyards we hadn’t visited. Here’s the list, in order of what I liked. There’s a lot of sparkling places because we had a fan of bubbles with us.
Tin Barn Vineyards: It got raves on Yelp and now I know why. It’s in a sort of industrial, storage looking area, but don’t let that fool you. They have awesome big reds, and their one white is very good, too. The pourer (not one of the owners) was very friendly, and we were the only people in the tasting room. In the middle of a Saturday in October! It was great. The tasting room is just a room in the corner of their winemaking facility, so one of the interns gave us tour of the equipment. It was honestly one of the best tours I’ve ever had. Very real world rather than staged specifically for tours.
Frog’s Leap: All around just kick ass. You have to make a reservation to taste, and when we arrived they said they needed a minute. After about 10 minutes or so our pourer found us and took us to our tasting table. Our freaking beautiful table under some trees away from the main building, all set up for us! I just reserved a regular old tasting, but I felt like we really got the VIP treatment for our group. The wines were nice and our pourer was great about taking pictures and answering questions. They even gave us all straw hats because it was so sunny where we were sitting.
Gloria Ferrer: This was the first place we went on Saturday morning, and it was a nice start. Very pretty views, and we all just split a bottle of bubbly.
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Domaine Carneros: A request from one of the first timers — the gorgeous building is just too tempting right off the highway. Again, we did it first thing Sunday morning and split a bottle of sparkling wine on the front deck area.
Sequoia Grove: A pretty place right off a busy section of 19 with good wines. Not much else to say.
Artesa: In a region with some gorgeous vineyards with impressive views, this place really goes one better. It’s very dramatic and modern, and the views are just nuts. The wines aren’t bad, but they were very busy when we were there so the tasting experience wasn’t the best. If you catch them at a slow time I bet it’s fantastic.
Mumm: We stopped here to wrap up our tasting day with some bubbles since we were in the area. You know, I’d been before and didn’t remember being all that impressed with the wines themselves. And this time when we went they were jam packed with people getting in before they closed. And it just seemed like a zoo for not-so-great sparkling wine. Having seated tastings is an advantage and the views are nice, but I think there are lots of places on the Silverado Trail with nice views.
Food
Mustard’s Grill: This was our big dinner of the weekend, and was a bit of a compromise due to the aforementioned budget stuff. It was fine as far as the food, but I think you can do a lot better in the Napa Valley. We also had to wait 45 minutes for our table. We weren’t too bothered by it and they gave us some free appetizers to apologize for it, so I think that’s fair. Our waiter was really nice and very helpful about the menu.
For our tasting day lunch we stopped and got sandwiches at the Sonoma Cheese Factory and ate them at Diamond Oaks Vineyard, which has since been bought by Harlan Estate and is no longer open to the public (boo!). The sandwiches were good and we didn’t have to wait too long for them considering the size of the crowd in there, and it was fun tasting cheese while we waited.
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