• Wine Regions
    • Napa Valley Wine Country Guide
    • Healdsburg – Russian River Wine Country
    • Sonoma Valley Wine Country Planning Guide
    • Mendocino Wine Country
    • Carneros
    • Paso Robles Wine Country
    • Santa Barbara Wine Country
    • Livermore Valley wineries
    • Lodi Wineries
    • Sierra Foothills Wineries
    • Monterey Wineries
    • Santa Cruz Wineries
    • Lake County Wine Country
    • Yolo County Wine Country
  • Tasting Room Guide
    • Tasting Room Etiquette
    • How to Taste Wine
    • Bocce Wineries
    • Organic Wineries
    • The Wine Country Picnic
    • Vineyard Year
    • Best wine country backroads
    • Winery Wine Clubs
    • Buying Wine at a Winery
    • Wine Varietals
    • Wine Appellations
    • Solar Wineries in California
    • How many bottles of wine in a barrel?
    • Hiking in Wine Country
  • Wine Guide
    • Pairing Food & Wine
      • Which wines for dinner?
    • Which Wine Glass
    • Decanting wine
    • Which Corkscrew works best
    • Corkage Fees
    • Corked Wine
      • Preserving Wine – what to do with the unfinished bottle of wine
    • Hosting a Wine Tasting Party – How to pull it off
      • Hosting a Serious Wine Tasting Party
      • How to Host a Fun and Casual Wine Tasting Party
      • Wine Scoring Sheets | Wine Tasting Forms | Wine Scorecards
      • Checklist for Successful Wine Tasting
    • Wine Gifts for Wine Geeks
      • Best Wine Books
      • Top Ten Wine Cookbooks
      • Best wine fiction books
    • Best Wine Bargains
    • Wine Collection Tips
  • Wine Country Insider
    • Wine Trails off the Beaten Path
    • Quick Getaways
    • Hiking in Wine Country
    • When to Visit Wine Country
    • How to decide which wine region to visit
  • Blog
  • About Us
  • Site Map
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise
You are here: Home / Archives for Activities

Copia | Wine Classes and Wine Education

August 16, 2006 by joe

Copia offers the visitor many opportunities to learn about wine. We visited Copia when it first opened five years ago. Frankly, we were not that impressed. The price of Admission was $12 each and there were few exhibits that really “caught our eye.” We recently returned and had a much better experience. The first thing we noticed on this visit were the informative wine exhibits stationed around the halls. There was also the Wine Spectator wine bar that highlights a different varietal or region of the wine world each week or month. They provide good tasting notes and the host is quite knowledge and willing to share information. Copia has several food and wine classes scheduled each week. The main purpose for our visit was to take a two-hour class on Spanish wines.

copia-wine-class For the entire month of March of this year, Spain was the theme at Copia.

The Spanish wine class was $32 per person and this included admission to Copia, which is now a more reasonable $5. The class was well taught. Burke Owens, our instructor and a wine director at Copia, provided us with practical information on the wines of Spain. The handout was informative and contained tasting notes to accompany the six Spanish wines we sampled. We were also presented with appetizers prepared for each of the wines served. All in all, it was a good experience and we learned a great about the wines of Spain.

The Copia website can give you full details of their scheduled their events. They also have an email list that alerts subscribers to coming major events at Copia.

Filed Under: Activities, Wine Education

Learning About Wine in the Napa Valley

August 11, 2006 by joe

What seems “hot�? right now is an interest in taking wine classes or participating in activities centered on wine education. We have noticed a recent increase in emails from visitors to our Wine Country Getaways Web site requesting information on how and where they can learn about wine. We thought it to be a worthy Blog topic and so here is the first of a few articles on learning about wine. These are based on our own experiences in the Napa Valley.

Our first recommendation is going wine tasting! The more wine you taste, the more opportunity to train your brain for recognition of wine types, wine characteristics, and the quality of the wine.

One of the easiest things to do when your wine taste is to work with the tasting notes provided by the tasting room. Most tasting rooms have them available, but sometimes you have to ask. Add your own comments to the tasting notes. Note the color, the aroma, and the taste. Be descriptive in your own words. Even if you cannot recognize any specific smells or tastes, try and describe what your senses are telling you. Finally, rate your impression of the wine, in other words, how well you like it.

It is always helpful to take a wine tour. The best kind is one that ends with a private tasting. Any time you can taste wines in individual wines glasses and have a chance to compare and contrast the differences in each wine, the more you will learn. When you visit the Napa Valley, try and schedule a tour and tasting of this type. Here are a couple of our recommendations in the Napa Valley.

Chateau Montelena has a tour for $25 per person which includes at walk in the vineyards and a private tasting. wine-classes

Peju Province Winery has a food and wine pairing sessions Monday to Friday, at 11:30 am and 1:30 pm for $40 a person. Call to reserve a spot.

Watch for our next post on this subject when we discuss Copia, the American Center for Food & Wine.

Filed Under: Activities, Wine Education

Napa Valley Artists

August 5, 2006 by joe

Our good friend Dale Perkins is a successful watercolor painter. Dale’s focus in watercolors has been scenes from the beautiful city of San Francisco. Now he has added wine country watercolors to his portfolio. Dale got the bug for wine country once he visited our web site, Wine Country Getaways, and viewed the various photographs on the site. napa-valley-art.gif

He saw the beauty of the landscape and with his brush has produced some marvelous wine country art. We really think these are very special and would make a great gift for the wine lover. Dale is a terrific artist and better yet just a very nice guy.

We also just heard about a painting retreat offered in the Napa Valley by Alla Prima Studio, which was founded by artist Gretchen Kimball. The studio has begun providing landscape-painting retreats at various locations throughout Napa Valley. They have just finished their first retreat in July and there are more to come. Check out the offerings on Alla Prima Studio’s Web site.

With harvest time nearing, photographers have that once-a-year opportunity to photograph the Napa Valley at its greatest time, “The Crush.” Whether it is a close-up of ripe bulging grapes, or photographing the furious work of harvesting grapes, the amateur or professional has the chance to visually capture the making of a bottle of wine. Get those cameras ready.

Filed Under: Activities

Napa Valley Half-Day Wine Country Getaways

July 25, 2006 by joe

You’re here for a convention and have a half-day of free time. You have always wanted to visit the Napa Valley, and this time you are going to do it no matter what happens. Your goal is to bring home at least a four pack of wine and a photo of yourself with the vineyards and mountains of the Napa Valley in the background. So, where do you go in the Napa Valley to sample the best of this fabulous wine country?robert-mondavi-winery.jpg

For a second winery, how about visiting the famous Robert Mondavi Winery? It’s another four miles north on Highway 29 from Domain Chandon. Although Robert Mondavi no longer owns the winery, there is a lot of wine history here and it’s one of the most beautiful spots in the Napa Valley.

Option Two
From the Bay Bridge and Highway 37, you can work your way through the city of Napa and to the Silverado Trail. The Silverado Trail is on the east side of Napa Valley and is much less busy than Highway 29, the main artery of the Valley. Within a short distance on the Silverado Trail, you will pass several small boutique wineries ideal for a quick visit. Robert Sinskey and Pine Ridge Winery are two of our favorites along this route and both wineries have picnic areas. A good deli just before you hit the wineries on Silverado Trail, is the Soda Canyon Store, 4006 Silverado Trail. If you don’t want to picnic, drive back into Napa and have lunch at the Bounty Hunter Wine Bar & Bistro at 975 First St. in Napa.

Click here to get a printable map of suggested wineries to visit in the Napa Valley.

Filed Under: Activities, Tasting Rooms

Dean & DeLuca

July 7, 2006 by joe

After a visit to the Flora Springs tasting room, we wandered next door to the upscale gourmet food shop of Dean & DeLuca. It really is a happening place with lots of tourists grabby up gourmet goodies to take back home. They have an extensive cheese shop, sandwich department, a mammoth wine shop, local produce, and a whole lot more. It is fun to see all the amazing array of gourmet goodies.

dean-delucca.jpg

Visiting the wine department is worth the visit alone. You won’t find a much better selection anywhere, especially if you are looking for oversize bottles of wine or the so-called “cult” Cabernets.

The store is located on the west side of Highway 29 in St. Helena, 607 South St. Helena Highway. The Flora Springs tasting room is in the same parking lot area.

Filed Under: Activities, Deli's

Bocce Ball at a Winery

June 28, 2006 by joe

We spent an entire day playing Bocce Ball at the Larson Family Winery in Los Carneros. Bocce Ball among the vineyards with a group of friends is a fabulous way to enjoy the wine country. There are several wineries in the Napa Valley with Bocce Ball courts. Whenever we visit a winery and see a Bocce Ball court we try our hand a game. It is a fun sport and low-key on the mind and body. Check out our list of wineries with Bocce Ball courts.

bocce-ball.jpg

This is our 2nd annual Bocce Ball tournament. We have set up a double elimination tournament with 12 of our wine-loving friends. We meet at the Larson Family Winery just off Highway 121 in the famous wine and sparkling wine region of Los Carneros.

The winners of this tournament, as occurred last year, were first-time players. Don and Nell capture the tournament with relative ease like they had been playing the sport for years. We modified the rules a bit so we could get through the 11 games scheduled within a three hour period. We took time off to wine taste at the Larson Family tasting room and to enjoy our picnic lunch among the vineyards. We decided beforehand that each couple contribute $20 for prizes. We award Larson wine certificates to our top three finishers.

We will cap off our day with a group dinner at the Bistro Don Giovanni later in the evening. Bocce Ball information.

Filed Under: Activities, Tasting Rooms

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • …
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9

Wine Country Updates from Janelle and Joe

Subscribe to our wine country reports

* indicates required


Latest from the Blog

  • Dario Cecchini – The Butcher of Chianti Classico
  • Wine Country Photography for Wine Lovers. Frame it
    A Vineyard Year
  • Daffodil Hill in Wine Country
-->

CALIFORNIA WINE COUNTRY REGIONS:

Carneros • Livermore • Lodi • Mendocino • Monterey • Napa Valley • Paso Robles • Santa Barbara County • Santa Cruz Mts. • Sierra Foothills • Russian River • Sonoma Valley

Connect With Us

Want to keep up with Wine Country Getaways? Follow us across our social networks!

  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Twitter

Sign up for wine country news from Janelle and Joe

* indicates required

Copyright © 2021 · Wine COuntry Getaways