Napa/Sonoma "Must Do’s"

[Anonymous]

Calistoga

[Anonymous]

Cheese tasting class at Cowgirl Creamery!

[Anonymous]

We enjoy tastings and tours at Chandon each time we visit.

I would also suggest booking a tour through Platypus Tours. They pick up and drop off from your hotel or Airbnb, pack a picnic lunch for you, plus cheese tray and snacks on the bus, and take you to three or four small vineyards, usually ones not typically open to the public that you cannot book yourself. This lens itself to a really private and individualized experience. We’ve used their services many times on the group tours, with about 10 to 12 people, and have also rented out a bus with them when it town with friends. We have use them both in Sonoma and Napa. Can’t recommend highly enough!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ferrari Carano is beautiful and great wine.

I would suggest going to the places where you know you like the wine. Lots of “experiences” at the winery but you will get home with bottles you don’t like.

Think your favorite wines first and foremost.

We just got back from Sonoma today and this was one of our two faves. The other was Storybook Mountain. Loved both for different reasons!

I posted this and also posted that too many people here were recommending bad wineries. Glad you liked. Good wine. Beautiful setting. Unfortunately, not a lot of great recalls on the rest of this thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most of y’all are wine jokers. Crap wine is crap wine even at the vineyard.

Why don't you just stick to things you know like moonshine.

Of all the recommendations on here, mine was one of the only or very few that actually helped someone. Landing people at bad wineries wastes their time.

[Anonymous]

Went years ago, but agree with Andretti and V"Sattui as recommended. Also enjoyed Sterling (take the gondola to the top where the main building is; great views) and Chateau Montelena (from "Bottle Shock") in Calistoga. In Sonoma, the winery Coppola owns in Geyerseville is fascinating and houses his Godfather Oscars. I also enjoyed Ledson (beautiful mansion and nice gift shop) as well as Iron Horse (which was brand new when I went there) and Gundlach Bundschu. We at at the Girl and the Fig, which was good as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Went years ago, but agree with Andretti and V"Sattui as recommended. Also enjoyed Sterling (take the gondola to the top where the main building is; great views) and Chateau Montelena (from "Bottle Shock") in Calistoga. In Sonoma, the winery Coppola owns in Geyerseville is fascinating and houses his Godfather Oscars. I also enjoyed Ledson (beautiful mansion and nice gift shop) as well as Iron Horse (which was brand new when I went there) and Gundlach Bundschu. We at at the Girl and the Fig, which was good as well.

If the Girl and the Fig is still around, I second above - it’s worth going.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Went years ago, but agree with Andretti and V"Sattui as recommended. Also enjoyed Sterling (take the gondola to the top where the main building is; great views) and Chateau Montelena (from "Bottle Shock") in Calistoga. In Sonoma, the winery Coppola owns in Geyerseville is fascinating and houses his Godfather Oscars. I also enjoyed Ledson (beautiful mansion and nice gift shop) as well as Iron Horse (which was brand new when I went there) and Gundlach Bundschu. We at at the Girl and the Fig, which was good as well.

If the Girl and the Fig is still around, I second above - it’s worth going.

I’m the PP that just got home. It IS open and it was wonderful.

Also - we hated V. Sattui. It was recommended by several friends of ours, but the experience was awful. It felt like a bad amusement park, with patrons being shuffled around, swarming with people, and hosts who were virtual used car salesmen. One bathroom was closed and there were more than a dozen women lined up. I will say the food was good. But I’ll never go back there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Went years ago, but agree with Andretti and V"Sattui as recommended. Also enjoyed Sterling (take the gondola to the top where the main building is; great views) and Chateau Montelena (from "Bottle Shock") in Calistoga. In Sonoma, the winery Coppola owns in Geyerseville is fascinating and houses his Godfather Oscars. I also enjoyed Ledson (beautiful mansion and nice gift shop) as well as Iron Horse (which was brand new when I went there) and Gundlach Bundschu. We at at the Girl and the Fig, which was good as well.

If the Girl and the Fig is still around, I second above - it’s worth going.

I’m the PP that just got home. It IS open and it was wonderful.

Also - we hated V. Sattui. It was recommended by several friends of ours, but the experience was awful. It felt like a bad amusement park, with patrons being shuffled around, swarming with people, and hosts who were virtual used car salesmen. One bathroom was closed and there were more than a dozen women lined up. I will say the food was good. But I’ll never go back there.

Oh, and we really disliked Iron Horse too… the host there barely spoke to us, it was hot, and no seating. And no ceiling fans to even move the air. We couldn’t get out of there fast enough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Went years ago, but agree with Andretti and V"Sattui as recommended. Also enjoyed Sterling (take the gondola to the top where the main building is; great views) and Chateau Montelena (from "Bottle Shock") in Calistoga. In Sonoma, the winery Coppola owns in Geyerseville is fascinating and houses his Godfather Oscars. I also enjoyed Ledson (beautiful mansion and nice gift shop) as well as Iron Horse (which was brand new when I went there) and Gundlach Bundschu. We at at the Girl and the Fig, which was good as well.

If the Girl and the Fig is still around, I second above - it’s worth going.

I’m the PP that just got home. It IS open and it was wonderful.

Also - we hated V. Sattui. It was recommended by several friends of ours, but the experience was awful. It felt like a bad amusement park, with patrons being shuffled around, swarming with people, and hosts who were virtual used car salesmen. One bathroom was closed and there were more than a dozen women lined up. I will say the food was good. But I’ll never go back there.

DH loves their wines and gets monthly club shipments so he always wants to go when we visit, but I totally agree with you. It is by far the most crowded of any other vineyards we go to every single trip. Even the separate club member bar is packed most of the time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most of y’all are wine jokers. Crap wine is crap wine even at the vineyard.

Why don't you just stick to things you know like moonshine.

Of all the recommendations on here, mine was one of the only or very few that actually helped someone. Landing people at bad wineries wastes their time.

Meh, this is one of those things where if you ask 10 different people you'll get 10 very different answers. There is no "right" way to do it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most of y’all are wine jokers. Crap wine is crap wine even at the vineyard.

Why don't you just stick to things you know like moonshine.

Of all the recommendations on here, mine was one of the only or very few that actually helped someone. Landing people at bad wineries wastes their time.

Meh, this is one of those things where if you ask 10 different people you'll get 10 very different answers. There is no "right" way to do it.

Nope. Great wine as the priority and there is a way to do that. All the “experience” stuff is to lure tourists and to overcome the bad wine on the premises.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most of y’all are wine jokers. Crap wine is crap wine even at the vineyard.

Why don't you just stick to things you know like moonshine.

Of all the recommendations on here, mine was one of the only or very few that actually helped someone. Landing people at bad wineries wastes their time.

Meh, this is one of those things where if you ask 10 different people you'll get 10 very different answers. There is no "right" way to do it.

Nope. Great wine as the priority and there is a way to do that. All the “experience” stuff is to lure tourists and to overcome the bad wine on the premises.

Not everyone agrees on "great wine", people have different tastes and either want a Cab or Sauv Blanc or Chardonnay and the wineries don't all do all the varietals, and not all equally well. So you really have to hone in on your particular taste to get the most out of it. Of course there is bad wine out there, but to say there is one definitive list is ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most of y’all are wine jokers. Crap wine is crap wine even at the vineyard.

Why don't you just stick to things you know like moonshine.

Of all the recommendations on here, mine was one of the only or very few that actually helped someone. Landing people at bad wineries wastes their time.

Meh, this is one of those things where if you ask 10 different people you'll get 10 very different answers. There is no "right" way to do it.

Nope. Great wine as the priority and there is a way to do that. All the “experience” stuff is to lure tourists and to overcome the bad wine on the premises. [/quote

Not everyone agrees on "great wine", people have different tastes and either want a Cab or Sauv Blanc or Chardonnay and the wineries don't all do all the varietals, and not all equally well. So you really have to hone in on your particular taste to get the most out of it. Of course there is bad wine out there, but to say there is one definitive list is ridiculous.

Of course there are great producers of different varietals but the point is going with great producers. And there is a list of those.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most of y’all are wine jokers. Crap wine is crap wine even at the vineyard.

Why don't you just stick to things you know like moonshine.

Of all the recommendations on here, mine was one of the only or very few that actually helped someone. Landing people at bad wineries wastes their time.

Meh, this is one of those things where if you ask 10 different people you'll get 10 very different answers. There is no "right" way to do it.

Nope. Great wine as the priority and there is a way to do that. All the “experience” stuff is to lure tourists and to overcome the bad wine on the premises.

Not everyone agrees on "great wine", people have different tastes and either want a Cab or Sauv Blanc or Chardonnay and the wineries don't all do all the varietals, and not all equally well. So you really have to hone in on your particular taste to get the most out of it. Of course there is bad wine out there, but to say there is one definitive list is ridiculous.

Additionally, there is a list of folks who FONT produce great wine or only so so when they get REALLY lucky.