Help a wine neophyte traveling to Napa Valley

[melkor]

Bilrus (and others),

i always recommend stopping in at Prager Ports in Napa for a fun time and a chance to taste 6 or 7 ports. your host will most likely be the owner and portmaker, jim prager, who is about as nice as, and resembles, santa claus. just don't touch the 50 year old cobwebs on his kitchen window, as mrs. tommy tried to do. mr. prager doesn't take too kindly to that.

If your going to prager, ya might as well go across the street to heitz as well. They are one of the few places left on highway 29 with good wine that still have a free tasting.

[bilrus]

I just finished my stay day and a half stay in Napa and had a great time, thanks to the advice here and from others on the Gullet. Forgive my typos, but the laptop I am usng doesn't seem to want to recognize t wen my somewhat sizeable fingers hit the keys.

I had decided my strategy would be to taste as many wines as I could in order to get a sense of wat I like and don't like. Being more of a food geek than a ine geek, my verall goal is to get comforable wth ordering wne with meals and occasinally buying some wine for home.

We drove straight from the Arport to Modavi fr the winery tour and tasting. This was a good place to start. My expectation was of a much bigger, factory style place teeming with tourists, but it was in fact fairly small and it seemed like there were maybe three tours going on staggered every half hour with only ten or so people on each tour. This was a good grounding in the process and why so many wineries are cenered n Napa. And the wines weren't bad (at least to my neophyte taste buds). This was $10 with four wines and an hors d'oeuvre paired with oe of the wines.

The next day we went to Copia in he morning. I posted elsewhere about this, but it was interesting ad very well put together, although I couldn't see spendng a whole day there - an hour and a half was plenty unless there were a partcular program you were interested in. The Wednesday half off admission made it much more palatable.

We then went to two wneries stritcly for tastings. First was Sinskey which might have had my favorte wines, but we felt a little like it was "OK, here's a wine, here's another, now how many cases do you want?" We told the guy at the counter that we were new to ts ad help us learn but he didn't have much to add. This was $10 for four wines.

Second we went to S. Anderson. This was similar to Sinskey but the girl who helped us was very friendly and patient with our stupid questions. Both Sinskey and Anderson had tastng roomswere ou just stand at teh counter. I don't kw if this is common, but I was expectng more of a bar set-up with tables and stools. It gives you a little bit of a rushed atmosphere, which is probably good for the wineries during peak season, but at Sinskey wewere the only ones there and at Anderson there was only one other couple. This was five dollars for three wines. We each had one flight ad she gave us an extra taste of an older version of oe of the newer wines we tried so we could see the difference aging made, so we tasted probably nine wines for $10.

In the afternoon we were signed up for a wine appreciation tasting at Joseph Phelps. This was 15 per person. We were the only ones signed up so we bascially had a guided tasting tour with our own guide. The purpose was to learn how to taste, what to look for in wines, etc. We sarted in a board room with whites and a video about the winery and then went out on their patio for some stunning views, reds and pleasant conversation about Napa and wines in general. This was by far the highlight of the tastings, although I would recommend it early in your trip because it will help you appreciate subsequent stops.

We stayed at the Villagio Inn in Yountville (The sister hotel of the Vintage Inn wich was recommended here) and were upgraded to a suite (I think our package was $199 for the night with a bottle of "champagne" from Domaine Chandon and a bottle of wine from Beringer). It also included a champagne brekfast. I normally am leery of free breakfast buffets, but this was actually pretty good. The room was wonderful adn the prices wasn't out of line comparatively.

Meals started with dinner at a place called Market in St. Helena. I had gotten so many recommendations from eGUllet, but we were exhausted and didn't feel fired up about an elaborate meal the night before the French Laundry. We went to Martini House but it was a little more elaborate and formal than we wanted and had a strangely dead vibe that evening. Market was fine - in fact the fish and chips wih champagne were outstanding.

Lunch the next day was at Taylor's Refresher. I loved my burger and onion rings and he shakes were great. My wife didn't love her chili dog which caused some heartburn that lasted through the first few course of TFL that night.

French Laundry was almost everything it is made out to be (which is saying a lot). I posted on another thread about that.

So thanks to everyone for a memorable few days. Now I still ahve meals at Slaned Door, Farallon and Chez Panisse to look forward to before I go back home.

Edited November 14, 2003 by bilrus (log)

[Carolyn Tillie]

Second we went to S. Anderson. This was similar to Sinskey but the girl who helped us was very friendly and patient with our stupid questions. Both Sinskey and Anderson had tastng roomswere ou just stand at teh counter. I don't kw if this is common, but I was expectng more of a bar set-up with tables and stools. It gives you a little bit of a rushed atmosphere, which is probably good for the wineries during peak season, but at Sinskey wewere the only ones there and at Anderson there was only one other couple.

This is not only common, but required. Even during off season, there can be wineries with a hundred people a day in a tasting room and the last thing they want are for guests to get comfortable and stay awhile...

It may sound rude, but please understand, the tastings rooms don't necessarily want to rush people, but neither do they want guests to settle in for hours on end (which does happen!). Give folks a chair and they will stay.

I'm sorry you didn't enjoy Sinskey - I believe that was based on my suggestion and I feel badly they didn't treat you better. Did you let them know you were newbies? Honestly, a lot of times that is the key - starting a dialogue with the pourer.

[bilrus]

We did mention that we were new to this and that this was our first tasting. We told him we wanted to learn what we could. He just wasn't a really talkative fellow.

We didn't disklike it there, in fact the wines there were among my favorites that we tried. My guess is that who you have helping you makes a big diference. It was fun to have the different experiences.

I was pleasantly surprised at how uncrowded every place was. This must be off-season. I don't really like people in general so that was for the best.

[BHwine]

If you're looking for some nice wine-diversions while your wife is at her conference in SF, there's a beautiful, small new shop in the Ferry Building (on the Embarcadero near the water). It's called the Wine Merchant (http://www.fpwm.com/), and the staff there is really great. I don't know a ton about wine but I'm learning, and this is a nice, low-pressure place to hang out a bit and learn.

Also check out the new mayor's wine shop, PlumpJack (http://www.plumpjack.com/pjwines/index.html).

Also, K&L (http://www.klwines.com/), big players but nice and pleasant.

And THE place for champagne, D&M (http://www.dandm.com/) not so far from PlumpJack.

Just some of a bunch of good places in SF where you can learn a little more and pick ujp some nice choice wines.

[Zeemanb]

Thought I'd piggyback on this thread with a similar question...

I'll be in the San Francisco area for the first time during the weekend of Nov. 11. I'll be travelling alone and would like to make it up into wine country on that Saturday. Because I don't want to worry about finding my way around, enjoying wine a little TOO much, etc. I was wondering if there are any reputable guided tours anyone could recommend. Initial internet investigation is just information overload.....$45 all day supercoach bus tours, $700 vintage Packard deluxe tours.....etc. I'm not enough of an expert to be too finicky when it comes to the wineries I'll be visiting, but at the same time don't want to experience a day long cattle call in a huge tour group if at all possible. Optimally, if there is a decent tour that will pick me up downtown and is in the $250 or less range for a day long tour, that would be perfect. Any recommendations? Just wanting to max out the enjoyment on a very short stay. Thanks!

[winesonoma]

Plan on a minimum of $500 for all day from the city. 1-2 hours coming up and 1-2 hours getting back. Better you should stay up here and tour from here. Feel free to pm questions.

[Carolyn Tillie]

Hmmmm... maybe I should start a new business. $250 for a day's work might be right up my alley...

[winesonoma]

Sounds like a plan. But don't forget that you have to go to the city and back twice. unless he takes the Vallejo ferry.