Vineyards in the Oakville AVA in the Napa Valley
One of the most spectacular times to view vineyards in the Napa Valley is at dusk. When the set begins to set over the Mayacamus Mountains, the vineyards change dramatically. The filtered light and shadows bring amazing colors and changes to the vines. Read more about traveling to the Napa Valley.
For our Wine Country Photo of the Day, I chose this vineyard shot of a row of Petit Verdot next to a row of Cabernet Sauvignon. Petit Verdot is one of the five Bordeaux varieties, along with Cab Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Malbec. The vineyard belongs to Revana Family Vineyards in St. Helena. There are only a few rows of Petit Verdot on the Revana Estate vineyards. Most vintners use Petit Verdot to add when making a Cabernet Sauvignon wine. It may add color, spice, tannins, and intensity to the wine. Petit Verdot is used in only small amounts.
Ballentine Vineyards in the Napa Valley – Small and Family Owned
Voted as one of Napa Valley’s top “Boutique Wineries,” Ballentine Vineyards is a refreshing change of pace from the usual fare of the fancy tasting rooms in the Napa Valley. Ballentine Vineyards founding date is 1906. The vineyard and winery are family-run, now by the fourth generation. The winery is low key and more like the Napa Valley was 25 years ago. Most visitors tend to pass up a visit to Ballentine Vineyards in favor of the more famous nearby St. Clements, Beringer, and Markham tasting rooms. Next time in St. Helena visit the Ballentine tasting room. You will be rewarded with good wines and good wine karma.
August through the end of harvest, early October, is the busiest time in the Napa Valley. These are some important tips if you are planning a Napa Valley wine country getaway.
How to Visit the Napa Valley
Weekend traffic is at a virtual standstill along Highway 29. Cars turning left or right, in and out of tasting rooms, resemble a game of Russian Roulette. The popular tasting rooms are jammed with travelers, sometimes three deep, waiting to get a taste. Tasting fees are at an all-time high, ranging on the average from $15 to $35 a person (Napa Valley Wine Tasting Index ). Getting a restaurant or lodging reservation is tough unless you plan weeks ahead. Expenses for a weekend stay, dining and tasting, could run well above $1000. Yet despite all of this, the Napa Valley is a very cool place to visit. With this advice on how to visit the Napa Valley, you can make your trip more enjoyable.
Envy Winery: You can visit this winery early and it is just north of Calistoga on the backroads
Beuhler Vineyards is away from the crowds at the base of Howell Mountain and requires an appointment
We have a very handy trip planner and winery guide to help you select wineries according to your needs. We also like this little quick video on Napa Valley Travel Tips.
Bud Break in St. Helena in the Napa Valley – Cabernet Sauvignon
Drive along Highway 29 or the Silverado Trail from Napa to Calistoga and you can witness the dawn of a new cycle in the life of the vines. Cabernet Sauvignon is in the midst of bud break. Most of the vines have been pruned and dressed for this wonderful event in nature. Grape growers unite in the joy of celebrating a new year in the making of fine Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. The recent rains have also given the growers more to celebrate. The question still remains: What will mother nature provide the grower and winemaker this year from bud break to harvest?
Celebrating 50 years of the Robert Mondavi Winery
It all began in 1966 when Robert Mondavi established his winery in Oakville on Highway 29. I remember reading the San Francisco Sunday Examiner magazine about the new winery and viewing the cover photo of this beautiful mission-style winery. We visited the winery shortly after it opened and have been visiting the winery on a regular basis ever since. The Robert Mondavi Winery is a reminder of the influence that Robert Mondavi had on the Napa Valley. His legacy lives on throughout the Napa Valley and the world of wine. Back in the day, the Napa Valley was very quiet, with few wineries and few visitors. The food scene was meager. Today, of course, that has all changed, and much of that has to do with Robert Mondavi. If you have not been to the Robert Mondavi winery, you owe it to yourself to visit and walk in the footsteps of one of the great men of wine and humanity. The Robert Mondavi Winery is open daily from 10am to 5 pm. The winery has introduced a special wine commemorating the 50th year of the winery. It is called the Maestro.
Freemark Abbey is one of the most stunning wineries in California wine country. The historic stone buildings date back to the late 1800’s. As we recently drove into the parking lot of the winery, we were shocked to see a construction crew appearing to begin demolishing one of the buildings. Thankfully, once in the tasting room, we found out that the buildings were being retrofitted and added on to as part of a huge 5-year remodeling and expansion. The beautiful stone facade will remain on the existing structures. The hand-hewn stone had originally been transported from nearby Glass Mountain by horse and oxen.
The ambitious expansion will include 2 restaurants, a remodeled kitchen to prepare appetizers for wine pairings, and a boutique hotel to house visitors and guests for potential weddings on the property.
Freemark Abbey has a very interesting history. According to the information we were given at the winery, Josephine and John Tychson purchased the property in 1881 to pursue their dream of making wine. Following John’s untimely death, Josephine became the first woman to own and operate a winery in the Valley. In 1886, Josephine began constructing a small redwood winery and hired Nils Larsen as her foreman. Together they produced wine for 8 years, and in 1894 Josephine sold the winery to Larsen. Larsen leased the winery to Antonio Forni who began construction on a new stone building.
Because of Prohibition, the winery was closed for 20 years. Despite its name, the winery has never been used as an Abbey. It was purchased by 3 men from Southern California in 1939 and the name is a combination of their names.
Freemark Abbey is now owned by the Jackson Family and the winemaker is award-winning Ted Edwards. The winery has one of the most extensive library collections in the Valley and guests can enjoy a memorable tasting of these called “Decades.”
Other tastings offered are:
The winery is located north of the town of St. Helena at 3022 St. Helena Highway (Hwy. 29). To schedule a tasting, call 800-963-9698. You won’t be disappointed!
This is the Long Meadow Ranch Tasting Room in St. Helena. The tasting room is located in the historic Logan-Ives House built in 1874. There is also a small café and general store in the Logan-Ives House. There are two tastings: For $15 a tasting of the current release of varietal wines is offered, plus a tasting of the Long Meadow Ranch olive oil. For $25 per person, an estate series of wines are offered as well as the olive oil. We found the Sauvignon Blanc to be our favorite wine of the tasting session for $15.
Adjacent to the Long Meadow Ranch tasting room is their Farmstead Restaurant where we enjoyed a leisurely lunch time meal. The restaurant features farm to table ingredients from local purveyors, as well as the Farmstead vegetable garden. Dairy products and grass-fed beef come from the Long Meadow Ranch estate in the Mayacamus Mountains. Janelle enjoyed a delicious grilled chicken salad while I had a pulled pork sandwich. The pork had been smoked for 12 hours. The pulled pork sandwich came with a creamy potato salad. The meal was quite scrumptious.
The wine list is extensive featuring Long Meadow Ranch wines as well as other Napa Valley vintners and a few from other wine regions. The wines are priced on the high side. For example, the Long Meadow Ranch Sauvignon Blanc was $54 on the wine list. I have seen the S.B. for less than $20 in wine shops. Overall, the Farmstead Restaurant is excellent. The restaurant is very busy, so be sure to call ahead for a reservation.
Note: If you enjoy a meal at the restaurant, be sure to get a chip good for a two-for-one tasting at the Long Meadow Ranch tasting room.
St. Helena Restaurants
St. Helena Lodging
Napa Valley Wine Trails
The tourist season is in full swing in the Napa Valley. Visitors will flock to the Napa Valley from now until the end of September. It is estimated that 5 million visitors travel to the Napa Valley each year, and you can bet most of those visits are in the summer months. Weekend traffic is at a virtual standstill along Highway 29. Cars turning left or right, in and out of tasting rooms, resemble a game of Russian Roulette. The popular tasting rooms are jammed with travelers, sometimes three deep, waiting to get a taste. Tasting fees are at an all-time high, ranging on the average from $15 to $35 a person (Napa Valley Wine Tasting Index ). Getting a restaurant or lodging reservation is tough unless you plan weeks ahead. Expenses for a weekend stay, dining and tasting, could run well above $1000. Yet despite all of this, the Napa Valley is a very cool place to visit. With this advice on how to visit the Napa Valley, you can make your trip more enjoyable.
How to Visit the Napa Valley
Envy Winery: You can visit this winery early and it is just north of Calistoga on the backroads
Beuhler Vineyards is away from the crowds at the base of Howell Mountain and requires an appointment
We have a very handy trip planner and winery guide to help you select wineries according to your needs. We also like this little quick video on Napa Valley Travel Tips.
How much $$ for tasting?
Get the latest Napa Valley Wine Tasting Fee Index for 2019
You’re heading to the Napa Valley and wondering how much to figure on tasting room fees for your travel budget. You are not alone. Our readers will often email us asking questions related to tasting room fees. What should I expect in tasting room fees on our vacation? Are the fees the same from winery to winery? Are there any tasting rooms in Napa that do not charge a fee? Where can we get a discount or two-for-one tasting coupons? This got me to thinking how much tasting room fees have increased over the years. There was once a time when no winery in the Napa Valley charged customers to taste their wine. I have no idea how much tasting room fees increase each year. I’m sure someone out there has done a reliable study, and that is more likely a survey for industry wine folks. I want something as a gauge for the wine country traveler who visits our Website looking for that information. I decided to devise a quick and easy, but unscientific, Napa Valley Wine Tasting Fee Index, one that I can update a couple of times per year. It will be interesting to do a chart year to year on the increases in these wine-tasting fees. At the very least, the Index will give a ballpark figure when someone asks how much the tasting fees are in the Napa Valley.
For the index, I decided on a nice, easy, round number of ten wineries. I decided that, since most folks travel Highway 29 when visiting the Napa Valley, to focus on wineries between Napa and Calistoga on this road. I selected wineries on this route that are highly visible and popular. They are all open daily and visitors can pop in any time that the tasting room is open.
Sequoia Grove – $15 for wine tasting
Just about every winery in the Napa Valley has a range of tasting options. Reserve tasting, library tasting, food and wine pairing, barrel samples, and a tour and tasting. For each of the selected wineries, I am tracking only the tasting fee for a basic, or lowest priced, level of tasting. Currently, these are the established tasting room fees as of February 2014 at these ten wineries for a basic tasting.
Doing a calculation, the average Napa Valley tasting fee for a basic tasting is $18.50. Five of the wineries charge $15, three at $20, and two at $25.
I always remind readers that there are ways to save on tasting room fees, especially in the Napa Valley. Check with your hotel concierge, who will more than likely have two-for-one tasting coupons. You can always share a tasting with your partner. I find that the host will pour a tad more than if it was just one person tasting. A few wineries will waive the tasting fee if you purchase a certain dollar amount of wine. For budgeting purposes, use the Index to estimate how much to set aside for tasting fees depending on the number in your party and how many wineries you plan to visit.
Provenance – $25 for wine tasting