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Napa

Deac2010

Deac2010

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Location
California
Napa Valley
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My girlfriend and I are planning on going to Napa for our two year anniversary. I have never been but I know that the region is large and there are a lot of options on where we could stay, etc

We were looking for advice on the follow:

1) What region to stay in? We are red wine drinkers and do not want to spend a ridiculous amount of money on hotels/B&Bs. Also, we do not want to drive long distances between vineyards (since I plan on being crunk).

2) Is one night enough? We planned to get there early Saturday morning and leave Sunday evening.

3) Any specific vineyards/B&Bs you suggest.

Thanks!
 
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One night is not enough IMO.

My wife and I (when were broke) stayed at The Chardonnay Inn just outside of downtown Nappa...across from the high school.

It was basically a motel but the rooms were actually very nice (my wife said cute). I would imagine that is one of the cheapest places to stay in Napa and if all you are looking for is a room it will definitely work.
 
Its napa and anniversary. Expensive should not be a priority, and one day does not seem appropriate (who would want to travel the next day after a 1 day binge)

Although I suppose one could say that if you save money on your 2 year anniversary you could save alot of money on subsequent anniversaries.
 
We would have to take Friday off then.

We plan to drive there and it takes about 4 hours to get there. There is no point in leaving after work on Friday (I work till 6 pm); so I would have to either take the day off/half day off.

I looked at B&Bs and I they are between $150-$250 for normal rooms a night. I don't think we want to spend over $200 a room/night.

Budgeting about $1000 for the whole trip. Hotels = $400, Gas = $50 (about), Wine Tasting = $300-350 and Meals = $150 - $200
 
If you shop at a local wine shop (and if you don't you should) talk to the owner. They can probably recommend some places to you to taste and they could probably set it up at a reduced tasting fee.
 
I'll edit my statement (through a new post), you can go to Napa for a day and have a fantastic time. Can you "do" all of Napa in a day, of course not, but that shouldn't keep you from having a blast during your time there and picking out things that you want to do on your next visit.
 
Are you ready for a sullen ride home when she realizes you aren't going to propose on the trip?
 
Joseph Phelps winery used to be run by the late great Flipper, a true Deacon legend.

From Boone's Farm to $60+ bottles of wine. Talk about a metamorphisis.
 
RJKarl said:
Joseph Phelps winery used to be run by the late great Flipper, a true Deacon legend.

From Boone's Farm to $60+ bottles of wine. Talk about a metamorphisis.
Click to expand...

And then Phelps tried to screw his family out of millions of dollars.
 
French > Cali*


*but it's close, well kind of close, if you exclude champagne, rhone and burgundy (though cali pinots are good)

Cali comes closest in cab,and it's one great contribution is Zin
 
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SkinsNDeacs said:
If you shop at a local wine shop (and if you don't you should) talk to the owner. They can probably recommend some places to you to taste and they could probably set it up at a reduced tasting fee.
Click to expand...

There are several coupons available online for half price tastings too. But I will definitely talk to the sommelier at the local store.
 
BF and I are flying up for a Napa weekend at the end of August. Will be my second time up there so I have a couple of recs. First would be try to get some appointments at some of the the more private/off the beaten path type places. It was so worth it to spend a longer time at smaller places than feel rushed and cramped at the super popular, touristy places. We were mostly in the Calistoga area and most places we went up there weren't overrun with people. Be friendly and ask for recommendations at wineries you are at and you will often get great recommendations or free tasting coupons.

Another recommendation if you can get a reservation and they still do it is the blend your own wine at Conn Creek. We had an insider who got us a reservation so I'm not sure how hard it is to get in. Basically you spend 2-3 hours with a wine expert and you get to take as much time as you want tasting their various Cabs from all different areas (there were around 18 different ones) and a few of the blending wines (merlot, malbec...). You take notes on what you like and come up with the ratios you want for your wine. Add them all into your beaker and taste, if you don't like your blend dump it out and try again! Not cheap (I think around $80) if I remember right but you can get totally blasted and you end up with your own blend to take home. It was freaking awesome. They do it in fairly small groups, ours was our group of 6 hoodlums and one nice couple. Might be a good activity for Sunday if you are going to try to hit a bunch of wineries on Saturday.

If you both want to get blasted you may want to check into one of the wine tours, there is also some company that will give you a driver for your own car that get good reviews on yelp. Just do a couple searches on yelp and there is quite a bit of info.
 
http://www.conncreek.com/AvaRoom/BlendingExperience

Linky to the Conn Creek "Blending Experience". Looks like its $95/person, I think we got a discount because of our insider hookup, I don't really remember since after tasting 20 something wines I was quite warm and fuzzy. It was fun to take home our bottles, our group held onto them til the next time we had a girls' trip and opened them then. They were surprisingly good considering we were less than sober when we mixed them.
 
calideacon12 said:
BF and I are flying up for a Napa weekend at the end of August. Will be my second time up there so I have a couple of recs. First would be try to get some appointments at some of the the more private/off the beaten path type places. It was so worth it to spend a longer time at smaller places than feel rushed and cramped at the super popular, touristy places. We were mostly in the Calistoga area and most places we went up there weren't overrun with people. Be friendly and ask for recommendations at wineries you are at and you will often get great recommendations or free tasting coupons.

Another recommendation if you can get a reservation and they still do it is the blend your own wine at Conn Creek. We had an insider who got us a reservation so I'm not sure how hard it is to get in. Basically you spend 2-3 hours with a wine expert and you get to take as much time as you want tasting their various Cabs from all different areas (there were around 18 different ones) and a few of the blending wines (merlot, malbec...). You take notes on what you like and come up with the ratios you want for your wine. Add them all into your beaker and taste, if you don't like your blend dump it out and try again! Not cheap (I think around $80) if I remember right but you can get totally blasted and you end up with your own blend to take home. It was freaking awesome. They do it in fairly small groups, ours was our group of 6 hoodlums and one nice couple. Might be a good activity for Sunday if you are going to try to hit a bunch of wineries on Saturday.

If you both want to get blasted you may want to check into one of the wine tours, there is also some company that will give you a driver for your own car that get good reviews on yelp. Just do a couple searches on yelp and there is quite a bit of info.
Click to expand...

This is a great suggestion - if you call in advance, lots of places will take appointments but won't just let you show up, especially on a Sunday.

Also, I personally enjoyed the Santa Rosa/Russian River valley wineries much more than I enjoyed Napa - they were much less pretentious in my opinion.
 
For lunch I would recommend either Rutherford's (no corkage fee, try the french dip) for a restaurant or if you are looking for a picnic type atmosphere try V. Sittui. If you are starting out early in the morning and looking for lighter type wines I would suggest you start at Mumm Napa, great atmosphere...if you make it to Sonoma/Russian River make sure you check out Martinelli or Benzinger.
 
Marquee Moon said:
French > Cali*


*but it's close, well kind of close, if you exclude champagne, rhone and burgundy (though cali pinots are good)

Cali comes closest in cab,and it's one great contribution is Zin
Click to expand...

You are really comparing apples to oranges. The French approach to wine is totally different than the new world approach and it produces very different wine. A better comparison (IMO) would be between America, Australia, South Africa...
 
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