Get the Most Out of a One-Day Trip to Napa
Napa Valley Welcome Sign, 7602 St Helena Hwy, Napa, CA 94558
There are no commercial flights coming in to Napa’s county airport, only chartered fights. You can access one of the nearby larger city’s major airports and drive to Napa, or hire private drivers. Napa Valley is only a one hour drive from San Francisco, Oakland, and Sacramento, so it is a great day trip destination.
You know the phrase, “You can't drink all day if you don't start in the morning.” ?Well, I don’t think the saying is any truer unless you’re in New Orleans, or Napa. To enjoy the most of your time, I recommend visiting 3 - 5 wineries in one day, starting in the morning. Most wineries will seat the last guests at sunset, so expect to be done with wine tastings no later than 7 - 8 pm. Because of Covid-19, vineyards and wineries in Napa are not allowing indoor seating, so be prepared to drink and enjoy light bites al fresco. This also means that space is limited, so make reservations in advance as soon as possible. If you forget to make a reservation or two, you can always call the vineyard or winery directly to see if they’ll accept walk-ins or same day reservations.
Before visiting Napa Valley, I wanted to make sure I visited black owned wineries and vineyards. 1% of winemakers across the globe are black and the percent is almost nonexistent in Napa. I knew of a few brands that I wanted to visit, like Brown Estate, whose downtown tasting room is closed until further notice. I also wanted to visit Corner 103, a black owned winery in Napa, but I forgot to make reservations, and called the day before I was set to go, and they were completely booked for the day.
I used CellarPass to discover new wineries, and book reservations. What I loved about the website was that I can search by day and time to see what vineyards have available time slots. You can book and pay directly on the site for contactless payment and have one less worry while gulping wine and becoming too tipsy to fumble for your credit card.
Tips on how to get the most from your visit to Wine Country:
Discover new wines and visit wineries of your current favorites. If you’re new to Napa, I recommend looking up some of your favorite wines that you drink at home to see if they’re based in Napa and try to book a tasting or buy bottles or cases direct. If you’re not familiar with wine, or don’t have favorites, using CellarPass is perfect to explore new favorites. While Napa is known as wine country, it is more so known as Cab country. The soil is perfect for growing red grapes of many varieties and almost every vineyard and winery will produce a Cabernet Sauvignon, so make sure you taste as many of each variety as possible. 😉
Take your time. It’s not recommended to book tastings back to back or be rushed to visit as many as possible in one day. Each vineyard is so gorgeous, and the scenery should be taken in and relished. You should budget at least one to two hours per tasting and allow for driving time to each vineyard.
Go at your own pace, don’t book group tours. The Napa Wine Train is still in operation, but for first timers, you should go to each vineyard or winery on your own. If you need a designated driver, splurge for a hired car or limo for the day because Ubers/Lyfts will begin to add up. If you’d prefer a more structured day and don’t want to plan anything on your own, by all means hop aboard the train which includes dinner and drinks while you ride and enjoy the view.
Plan ahead on hotels. We booked ours weeks in advance, to stay a few days before Labor Day weekend, and all of the hotels, BnBs and inns were either fully booked, or were $500+ per night. Yikes!
Avoid the big name vineyards. Visit the smaller and family run vineyards and wineries instead —you’re bound to get a more personalized visit and enjoy your time versus being set to a time block that the bigger names follow to ensure they get as many people as possible through the door per day.
Make sure you eat! Allow time for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Some wineries offer light bites and cheese plates that pair well with their wines, and some done. You can always pack snacks, and ask the winery if you can bring in outside food. If you’re pushed for time, and can’t sit down, there are a ton of road side vendors and fresh produce stands in Sonoma that you can quickly grab something to go. For sit down service, head to downtown Napa and dine at one of their six Michelin star restaurants, or find a local favorite — just make sure to book reservations for that as well.
Ship wine back home. If you purchase at least a case of wine, or multiple bottles from one winemaker, they’ll be able to ship your wine home to you. Just know that wines bottled in milk jugs or sparkling wines won’t always be able to ship by air since they are combustible at the high altitudes on planes so you may be limited to drink your wine before you head home, or expect extended shipping times to account for ground transportation only. If you buy a bottle here and there from each wine maker you visit, one winery may be unlikely to ship other wineries’ wine due to liability reasons. So, you can find wine shippers in downtown Napa, here.
Think twice before joining a wine club. Sure the appeal of saving a few dollars per bottle sounds great, but wine clubs are not ideal for everyone because they add up to hundreds of dollars over the course of a year. Wine clubs may be a great fit for you if you’re a professional in sales or real estate and would like to gift wine to your customers, or if you are part of a wine club back home and you share wine with your friends, and frequently gift wine to family members and colleagues. Join a wine club if you really love a specific blend or wine from a winemaker and can see yourself drinking it throughout the year. Don’t feel pressured to join multiple wine clubs because they are pricey and the wine will begin to pile up. Simply tell your wine host that you belong to another club or you’re not interested. They won’t take it personal, they hear it dozens of times throughout the day.
You’ll want to start the day with a hearty breakfast. South Kelly Grill, located right outside of Napa county, it is an American country diner with all of your traditional breakfast favorites including Belgian waffles, breakfast potatoes, chicken fried steak, omelettes and more.
We started our day with a 10:15 am reservation at Monticello Vineyards. Luckily we discovered them through Cellar Pass and at $40 per person for 5 wines, it should be on everyone’s list. The vineyard is only 50 years old, and we learned so much about the city and the vineyard. Our host was amazing! The grounds are gorgeous, and you’ll want to spend the whole day there. We had outdoor seating since guests are not allowed inside. No outside food or drinks are allowed, but you can purchase a cheese plate to nosh on. Masks are required to enter and must be worn until you start sipping. There are two cats wandering the grounds, but if you hate cats or have allergies, you can ask them to be taken inside.
We headed over to Sonoma for a wine and olive oil tasting at The Jacuzzi Family Vineyards. You know, the steamy jacuzzis that we all love to enjoy on cool days? Well the grandson of the inventor of the jacuzzi owns this vineyard along with the Cline vineyard across the road from this one. There are no tours given through the breathtakingly beautiful European stone castle, but you are allowed to walk the grounds once you finish your tasting and visit the bell tower. There’s even a fountain and blackberry trees on the grounds — I even picked a few.
We did the Classico tasting for $20 that includes an introductory tasting of 6 of the vineyard’s more classic wines as well as a tasting of their traditional olive oil with local bread. Prior to Covid, Jacuzzi allowed guests to stomp grapes as well as press olive oil in interactive demonstrations which was one of the draws to visiting. During social distancing, Jacuzzi took the most hands on approach I’ve seen to wine tastings. The wines are pre-poured prior to each guests reservations and your host stands at the opposite end of the table from guests to ensure social distancing, and if you need anything such as water or another glass, your host will place or slide it down to you from the opposite end of the table. The tastings take place in the castle’s courtyard and you’re shaded from heat under their huge patio umbrellas. You’re allowed to take your masks off once seated and sipping, but while moving across the grounds, you must be masked up.
Our final tasting for the day was at J.Moss Winery. The winery is run by husband and wife duo, James and Janet Moss in the urban area of Napa. The tasting was done at their facility and afterwards we received a hands-on tour of how their wine goes from grapes to bottled finished product. Visiting J. Moss Winery, I felt like I was at my cool uncle’s house whose hobby is making wine. James and Janet feel like family, and run their business with love. The $35 tasting fee including at least 3 wines plus James’s favorite Cabernet Sauvignon. All of J.Moss wines are award winning and have scored high points by reviewers, so having a tasting here felt very lucky.
Brown Estate is the first and only black owned winery in Napa, so I just had to go. Unfortunately, due to Covid-19, their downtown tasting room is closed until further notice. You can however still pick up wine orders at their downtown location, or order online to have them shipped to you.
I am a lover of sparkling wines and champagnes. Since the large majority of wineries in Napa produce primarily red wines and a white or rose here or there, it is a treat to find a vineyard that specializes in sparkling wines. Mumm and Domaine Carneros were the recommendations I constantly received when I said I wanted a sparkling wine. Unfortunately they were completely booked when we were there, but I was able to try Mumm with my dinner at Azzurro and we drove through Domaine Carneros to experience the grounds. Can you say breathtaking???? Next time I’m in Napa, I have to visit these two vineyards.
I highly advise everyone to visit Azzurro Pizzeria in downtown Napa. We ate there for dinner and everyone we met on our tours recommended this place! I was in the mood for Italian, and they delivered. Since we didn’t have a chance to go to Mumm vineyard, and I saw they sold their sparkling wine by the glass, so I ordered it with salads. The pizzas are better than the seasonal pastas, but if you’re in the mood for both like we were, treat yo self. But hands down, you cannot leave without ordering the salted caramel soft serve ice cream. I mean, chef’s kiss. The soft serve is soooo good, and the caramel doesn’t get hard but stays velvety soft, and they sprinkle just a few sea salt flakes that perfectly blend together with the ice cream and caramel. Omg, can you tell how much I loved it?!
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xoxo
