On our tour on Sonoma, there were a few wineries we felt we had to visit in Napa. We made a couple winery stops and had lunch in Yountville, which we loved from our last trip there. What was going to be three stops turned into almost a full day’s worth of visits – and great ones at that.

Napa vs. Sonoma

Our overall impression of Napa versus Sonoma is consistent with what we’ve read. Napa has much bigger wineries and you tend to taste the same thing at every stop. Sonoma is more rural, much more spread out, and more personal. You end up talking more often with the people who actually make the wine and you get to try some unique wines.

You can hit more wineries in a shorted period of time in Napa because they tend to be lined up. You’ll also have horrendous traffic if you hit there on a weekend. Highway 29 can turn into a parking lot.

Having said that, our experiences this trip in Napa were consistently excellent. The secret is being very selective in your wineries in either place to get the experience you want. We wanted smaller, more intimate and more creative. Our stops mostly reflected those choices.

Clos du Val
www.closduval.com

We decided to stop at Clos du Val one the way to revisiting Steltzner and it was great.

The tasting room was a good size and very friendly. Their Chardonnay and Zinfandel was excellent.

We bought a bottle of the Zinfandel and went to the car to leave. As we sat in the car discussing our purchase, we decided we just had to have the Chardonnay too. Of everything we had tasted so far on the trip, this was the one Chardonnay that really stood out from the rest. So we went back in and picked up a bottle of that as well.

Steltzner Vineyards
www.steltzner.com

Our favorite stop last year was Steltzner. Tiffany (their Marketing Manager) was great and the wines were excellent. We had to go back this year and visit them again. And it was as nice as the last time. Tiffany wasn’t working the tasting room this time, but the woman there was just as nice. Steltzner tastings are “by appointment only” but we made an instant appointment and started tasting.

As last year, the wines were excellent and the tasting room was fun and informal. They are going to expand their tasting room next year, so it’ll be fun to see it again. We bought a bottle of the Claret and didn’t get charged for the tasting.

We always recommend Steltzner to anyone visiting Napa.

Pine Ridge Winery
www.pineridgewinery.com

This was a totally unplanned stop. As we were driving by, we looked over to the vineyard and saw a Chihuly glass sculpture! We had to go back and check it out -- any winery showing that much class in its fields had to have something special. And boy did it!

First comment: WOW! The Chenin Blanc was exceptional. What a great wine. But the Cabernet – WOW! WOW! Incredible. The most distinct Cab we’ve ever had (until later in the trip). What a great, great wine. This was one of our best stops the entire trip and we’ll go back there the next time we visit Napa.

Niebaum-Coppola
www.niebaum-coppola.com

This was the absolute must-see stop of the Napa part of the trip. We love their ‘98 Claret. We recently had the Rosso and loved it as well (a great everyday red). We had also read about the Rubicon, their top of the line red wine that they only make on years worthy of it. We had never had the Rubicon, but were hoping to taste one at the winery.

Niebaum-Coppola is the old Inglenook estate founded by Captain Niebaum. Francis Ford Coppola purchased the estate over a period of a few years. After he acquired the entire estate, he got very serious about making fine wines and also to preserve its heritage and the Niebaum name.

The winery is gorgeous. The house is big and has been well preserved. The only new addition: the $1 million staircase Copppola recently had built in the house. Everything is lush. Before we went into the tasting room, which was very crowded even for a mid-weekday, we walked through the downstairs. There are a series of small meeting rooms, more like cellar rooms, specializing in a certain period of wines all the way back to the 1800’s. They would be great to have a corporate meeting in.

We went back to the tasting room. There was a $5.00 per person fee (which we never were charged) and you got to taste four wines, but not the Rubicon. We had the Chardonnay (good), Rosso (excellent), Claret (excellent) and Merlot (good).

Then we brought up Rubicon. The gentleman helping us with our tasting went to great lengths to describe the wine and his tastings of it. We ended up buying a bottle — and have put it away for a very special occasion.