a couple of weeks ago, i had the best trip to napa that i’ve ever had.
our stops:
it started out friday at silverado resort (
http://www.silveradoresort.com/). it’s an old antique-type facility that spreads out pretty far over napa. the main mansion is beautiful and is surrounded by little cottages.
saturday morning began at chandon (
http://www.chandon.com/) for champagne. normally i don’t care for the wine tasting experiences where they shuffle you through in a herd, you pay your $20 for two tastings and then the show begins for you and about 25 other guests. chandon, while great champagne and a beautiful facility, was no exception.
for lunch, we stopped at the old oakville grocers (
http://www.oakvillegrocery.com/default.php). they have delicious sandwiches and snacks!
for those of you who haven’t been to saddleback cellars (
http://www.saddlebackcellars.com/) i highly recommend it. the wine is really good, but the best part was their staff and the entire experience. you sit outside on old, very cool red picnic tables right next to the vines. it was a beautiful, bright and sunny, yet crisp day in napa and we were there for about two hours, enjoying a bottle of their merlot with a couple of their pourers! they gave us a generous discount on the bottle of wine we bought (free) and didn’t charge us for most of the tastings.
then we when to napa wine company (
http://www.napawineco.com/) to kill some time before our next appointment. it’s a convenient stop location wise, the price is decent and the wine is good, but the staff isn’t overly friendly. i feel like we’re always rushed in and out of there, and they’re not excited to see you hang around and enjoy yourself for a bit.
next, we headed out to elyse (
http://www.elysewinery.com/). this is some of the best wine i’ve ever had! we were there for quite a while, enjoying ourselves and getting to know the staff. great family people, great wine and a fun time! they were recommended to us by robert biale (
http://www.robertbialevineyards.com/), a fantastic zin maker, that i also highly recommend.
after that, it was over to hope & grace (
http://www.hopeandgracewines.com/Main.htm). the wine was amazing and the staff commented that we were the best (and rowdiest) group they’d had in a while.
off to dinner. i ordered chicken fingers (mind you, this is a pretty decent restaurant). the waitress – who was awesome – changed my order to the tri-tip. while chicken fingers sounded delicious, the trip tip was excellent and i’m glad she did that.
Labels: napa
