This post was written by The Sunday Morning Mimosa's Executive Producer Nathaniel Chamblin.
The Sunday Morning Mimosa with Lawson Roberts is our weekly syndicated radio show
An enjoyable trip to California’s wine country can be taken without being lavishly expensive. There are a few easy ways to save a lot of money when heading to the vineyards for tastings and tours. In this day and time we live it’s as simple as showing an offer on your phone to receive special discounts on tastings and tours, which I did over and over again. I spent 4 days tasting in the Napa and surrounding areas with never once paying full price at any stop I made along the wine trail. When in the wine country you need to make a plan as to where you are going to head out each day. There are a 2 major roadways to travel when in Napa, the St Helena Highway and the Silverado Trail you will see wineries on your right and left one after another after another , some are big names you will recognize but many the average person wont ,don’t let the lack of recognition steer you away from stopping. I found that the best wine we tasted was at some of the smaller lesser known stops. The tasting rooms open early, some as early as 9:30am, but most are open from 10:30 – 4:30 and a few are open ‘til 5:30. The one big tip I will give is make friends with person pouring your tastes ask about the winery , the wines, the area, tips for places to dine, all this will form an interest with you and this person which will lead to extras …a taste from the reserve lists, a bigger pour, a recommendation to where else to visit, a name to drop at a restaurant or bar that will get you treated better than just the average tourista, all things that will benefit your trip.
The Sunday Morning Mimosa with Lawson Roberts is our weekly syndicated radio show
An enjoyable trip to California’s wine country can be taken without being lavishly expensive. There are a few easy ways to save a lot of money when heading to the vineyards for tastings and tours. In this day and time we live it’s as simple as showing an offer on your phone to receive special discounts on tastings and tours, which I did over and over again. I spent 4 days tasting in the Napa and surrounding areas with never once paying full price at any stop I made along the wine trail. When in the wine country you need to make a plan as to where you are going to head out each day. There are a 2 major roadways to travel when in Napa, the St Helena Highway and the Silverado Trail you will see wineries on your right and left one after another after another , some are big names you will recognize but many the average person wont ,don’t let the lack of recognition steer you away from stopping. I found that the best wine we tasted was at some of the smaller lesser known stops. The tasting rooms open early, some as early as 9:30am, but most are open from 10:30 – 4:30 and a few are open ‘til 5:30. The one big tip I will give is make friends with person pouring your tastes ask about the winery , the wines, the area, tips for places to dine, all this will form an interest with you and this person which will lead to extras …a taste from the reserve lists, a bigger pour, a recommendation to where else to visit, a name to drop at a restaurant or bar that will get you treated better than just the average tourista, all things that will benefit your trip.
The first day we enjoyed the tasting rooms in downtown Napa. There are more than a few tasting rooms downtown but for me the best was Vintner’s Collective. This tasting room offers selections from 18 different amazing small lesser known wineries. The tasting is $25 for 6 different wines, with the 2 for 1 tasting from the smartphone this is a steal. I tasted some incredible wines with a very knowledgeable staff in a wonderful setting of an old stone house. The star was the Showket “Asante Sana “ a super Tuscan blend that was beautifully balanced and a true joy to drink. From there a short walk of a few blocks and you will see the Bounty Hunter Wine Bar, where we enjoyed another 2 for 1 deal from the smartphone, with a wine flight and accompanied that with an incredible cheese plate. This is a place to stay for awhile and enjoy a few wine flights. The Bounty Hunter Wine bar became a stop we made almost every day. This is a true highlight, a cool enjoyable atmosphere, a great knowledgeable staff and great wine and food. A must stop for anyone in Napa. The dining for the evening was a casual stop at the Hopmonk Tavern, a very busy place so reservations are suggested, good house brews and tavern fare, nice end to a good first day.
The second day we decided to drive the Silverado Trail, one of the main roads to travel Napa where wineries are one after another on either side of the road traveling through some of Napa’s well known districts. There are so many stops along the way it really doesn’t matter where you visit. Most of the vineyards have some sort of discount available via your smartphone. We started with brunch in downtown Napa at locals favorite Downtown Joes, they not only boast an all natural menu it is also a brew pub that uses all natural organic products, good start to what would be a great day. The first stop we made was at Darioush a winery that mixes old world style with modern technology. This is where I met Frank ,who gave me a wonderful recommendation for a tasting room in Sonoma, which we went to on our final day. Travelling a little further north toward Howell Mountain we stopped at two of the more beautiful vineyards first the Silverado Vineyards that sits back from the road up on a hill overlooking the vineyards, this is worth stopping just for the views. The next stop was the Rutherford Hill , which sits high up on a hill giving another great view of the valley and again a great selection of wines in the tasting. This was a good stop and they have a great tour available, mostly known for merlot but feature some great surprises in their portfolio. Conn Creek was good stop for wine tasting not much on atmosphere or personality at the tasting bar. A little lesser known stop was Black Stallion wine was a nice surprise ending to a day of tasting. All in all with using the smartphone for discounts we went to 5 vineyards and tasted on average 5 wines and spent $65 a great deal for a day of tasting and also got some great recommendations for dining. Day 2 tasting ended with another stop in downtown Napa at the Bounty Hunter Wine Bar with wine flights and a charcuterie plate. We also realized that a quick nap after tastings when you’ve made 5 stops will turn into a missed dinner reservation. So we headed to downtown Napa looking for a place to dine. Little did we know that Napa truly is not a late - nite hot spot. The sidewalks seem to get rolled up early beginning about 9:30. I came to find out that most places kitchens are closing by 9pm and last call happens at 10pm for most. We found a pizza place, Azzurrocali -style pizza.
The plan for day three was to drive St. Helena highway. We drove to the famed gourmet grocer, Dean & Deluca, where we began our day with lunch we grabbed from their grocery café. Not worth all the hype, it was fair… nothing special. After lunch we headed out armed with our smartphone to take advantage of tasting discounts. The first stop was at Freemark Abbey, one of the oldest wineries in California, they have been making wine since the late 1800’s. Freemark is also one of my favorites for cabernet. We had a 2 for 1 tasting offer for their basic tasting, after a quick conversation expressing my love for their wine we were extended the reserve tasting for the same 2 for 1 offer. This was a fabulous start of the day, a seated private tasting of 4 reserve wines overlooking the winery. After enjoying the Freemark tasting we stopped by Trinchero not great wine but did get a recommendation to stop at a tasting room that turned out to be the best stop of the day. We left Trinchero and headed to the Frank Family Vineyards, a highly recomennede stop, wine was good but didn’t really see what all the rave was about. By this time we were wanting to head back toward the hotel having now driven all the way to Calistoga. Our next stop, which is a must see, was a tasting room in St Helena, A Dozen Vintners. We tasted about 7 wines all being fabulous. A wine house I was very familiar with, Krupp Brothers, is just some that we were able to taste here. Though there wasn’t any discount offer to be had, by mentioning I was sent from a guy at Trinchero all we were charged for the tasting was $10 each, a steal for the amount of quality wine we were given the chance to taste. This is a place I will be purchasing some cases from for my personal cellar in the near future. Heading back down St Helena highway we stopped by V.Sattui a winery tasting room that is very commercialized with a market deli and huge vast wine store. Here we tasted some Italian style wines that were very drinkable and had a very knowledgeable and friendly staff pouring for us. Again we were able to utilize the smart phone with a 2 for 1 tasting, another great bargain. From here we headed back toward the hotel making one more stop along the way at the Folie A Deux/Napa Cellars tasting room, a nice stop but probably one to many stops for the day, not sure my palate wasn’t already overworked. All in all with using the smartphone for discounts we went to 6 vineyards and tasted on average 5 wines and spent $75, a great deal for a day of tasting, another day well spent. Now back to hotel to nap and get ready for dinner reservations. After a little sobering nap we left for dinner at 9pm. We were going to go to Michael Chiarellos but had been warned about it being a little bit of a tourist trap, so we switched our reservations to Bistro Don Giavonni a highly recommended locals favorite. We arrived at 9pm to a full restaurant on a Monday, I knew then we had definitely made the right choice. The wine list was reasonable and menu prices were very fair. Since it was later in the evening we decided to share a five course dinner: Antipasti – Carpaccio, Insalate - Insalata Verde, Primi - Risotto, Secondi- Braised Lamb Shank and Dolce- Bostini Trifle and Top Shelf Butterscotch Pudding. We started with a glass of rose and enjoyed a bottle of Dolcetto d’Alba. This was the best dining of the week, a bistro that I would highly recommend.
For our fourth and last day we headed to Sonoma highway, about a 35 minute drive travelling through Carneros on the way. We made our first stop in Kenwod at the VJB Tasting room. This was the recommendation we received from Frank at Darioush on our second day. The best of the day was this our first stop, they use old world Italian style wine making with a California terroir focused approach. These wines were simply delicious. We tasted 5 different varietals and finished with 2 ports. The ports were a nice change of pace. If you don’t make this a stop you are truly missing out. We then started back from Kenwood and made a few stops along the. The Kunde Estate, described as a favorite tasting room in many magazines and papers, was not worth the stop. It was a free tasting via the smartphone but it was like tasting with a grumpy old grandpa. “here this is semillion. Here's a chardonnay. Here's a merlot.” Not friendly no info given seemed as though we were keeping him from a nap or something. From here we stopped for lunch, not a great idea to mix wine tasting with cocktails over lunch, but I’m never one to pass on a few Hangar One vodka drinks. Lunch was soso but the hangar cocktails were wonderful. After lunch we stopped by at Ravenswood for some zin tasting and soon figured out our day was done. The final day of tastings was only 3 stops but each had 5 or 6 wines for us to try, with deals via the smartphone and recommendations we spent $20 another day of great bargain tasting. It was time to head back and rest ( sober up is more like it) for dinner reservations later that evening. We had plans to dine on our final night at Morimoto’s in downtown Napa, thinking this would be a great end to a great week. So very wrong. Morimotos was a total disappointment. Food was very pretty, but 3 apps,1 entrée and 2 small carafes of sake $170 and we left sober, hungry and not at all impressed. We again seeing that Napa was closing up early headed for a last visit to the Bounty Hunter Winebar a few good beers and a wine flight later we were enjoying some kobe sliders and starting to rue leaving in the morning.
The trip to California’s wine country is a trip we will make again soon, there are so many vineyards to try and plenty to enjoy. Without much effort you can find so many deals to make this trip on a small amount of spending. Below is a few links to Napa must sees and savings.
Sites with discounts, applications and all info you will need about the wine country:
Wineries, Tasting Rooms and Restaurants :
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