Fun things to do in Napa

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This will be as tip will be as brief as possible because I love the Napa/ St Helena area I probably could sit here and discuss this place for hours. A visit to Napa sould not be missed. V.Sattui is a fourth-generation family-owned winery. Established in 1885, they do weddings, private tours and picnics. However there is a free self guided tour and museum. My favorite part of V. Sattui is the Wine Tasting Room which is accessible by passing through their Itallian-style rustic deli. By the way, stop by after you have picked up a nice bottle of wine, and trust me, you will. You can have a nice little picnic on the winery grounds. No reservations are needed to taste the wines or use the picnic grounds nor are you obligated to buy any of the wines you have tasted, reservations are required for parties of 10 or more. Open from 9 am-6 pm daily. 9 am-5 pm in the winter. They are open everyday except Christmas. They also sponsor special events during the year. Please check V. Sattui's online calender of events.

Tasting fees are as follows for a selection of six wines: $10 for Premium wines, $15 for Reserve tasting, memberships for the wine clubs require their own fees please check website for prices.

My favorite wines: White Riesling, Muscat and the ever popular Gamay Rouge.
V. Sattui has just been awarded the 2013 Winery of the Year.

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The little winemaker who could, did, and started the wine revolution in California beginning with the Chateau Montelena's 1973 Chardonnay which won the grand taste off with French white Burgundies vs the California Chardonnays and the story became a movie in 2008 called "Bottle Shock". Chateau Montelena has been around since 1896 and became wine world famous with that taste off in 1976 Paris, France.

Today, Chateau Montelena has a wonderful tasting bar, tours, and a lake garden that adds to the beauty of the Napa Valley. Make sure you walk around to see the stone castle from the front by the lake. The Tubbs started the vineyard in 1890's, The Frank family took over in 1958 and built "Jade Lake"but no major winemaking from the prohibition in the 1930's until 1972. Most of the credit for the wine and the win in Paris goes to Jim Barrett, Vitner, who took over the vineyard in 1972 and rebuilt the vineyard and the winery. Bo Barrett, eldest son of Jim, took over as Winemaker in 1982 and is still involved at Chateau Montelena. As stated by Jim Barrett; "I wanted to do something to make people happy." Well, I'm happy and I believe you will be too when you visit Jim Barrett's dream. Who says dreams don't come true.

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The Castello di Amorosa Castle and Winery sits high on a high in Calistoga. A thirteen year dream project of Dario Sattui and still building. This is a must see winery and a welcome sight for the wineries of old and the ones in the future throughout Napa Valley as it represents the premier wine region of the world topped by a castle, the Castello di Amorosa Castle and Winery.

Huge isn't the word, massive might be better as the Castle is four stories high and four stories below ground. Made with stones imported from Italy and set in a beautiful 16th century motif, including a moat. The wine cellars are long, deep underground and beautiful to behold. A tour of the Castle is a must to fully appreciate what has transpired here in Calistoga. There are more photos in my Castle Travelogue

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Basic Wine Tasting tips start like this:

Start with a clear wine glass then pour a little wine into your glass. If you are tasting several wines, begin with the lightest (sparkling wines, roses, then light whites followed by full-bodied whites) and progress to the heaviest (light reds to more full-bodied reds followed by dessert wines). This will help keep your taste buds more sensitive so you can better appreciate each wine in the series. Swirl the wine a couple of times by moving the glass in a circular motion to aerate the wine and release vapors, evaporating from the sides of the glass for you to smell. Make a small sip that fills your mouth maybe halfway. Before you swallow, let the wine slide across your tongue from front to back and side to side. after that swallow a whole shot so that you can be able to appreciate the wine's character whether is is sweet, acidic, sour, full bodied, bitter, etc.

you can also spit out the remaining wine as the wineries offer receptacles for you to spit out wine if you feel like it.

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for a more personal experience, you have to see the different kinds and varieties of grapes grown in the napa valley area whether they are seedless or not, green, violet, maroon kind of grapes to be able to get the feel of the basic of good wine which is the GRAPE! but other factors are also put into the character of the wine grown like the climate, soil, oak barrels, the harvesting time, but again the main ingredient in a good wine is the GRAPE!

choose a vineyard to view and taste their wines! most vineyards offer tasting tours with some free while others charge at least $ 5 for wine tasting for really exceptional and high price wines. You can log on the website below for a listing of Napa Wineries who offer wine tours and wine tasting.

Driving to Napa Instead of Taking a tour bus is better so that you can have your own pace in cheking out the Grapes and Vineyards.

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Some of the Wineries in Napa Valley allow visitors to see their assorted Grape vines and you can go through them even pluck some grapes to taste (but the grapes are mostly semi sweet, not that too sweet, ok). You can savor these grapes dedicated to wine making but it is better to drive to Napa than booking a bus wine tour so that you can savor these grapes and the wineries that you choose to visit and do wine tasting so that you can do them at your own pace.

You will see how they grow the grapes and there is also many aerial industrial fans around the area as to keep the frost away since frost can ruin a good harvest of the wine making grapes.

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This Bronze Mural that you can see in napa valley, along the silverado road in CA Highway 29, is a tribute to the various, nameless wine workers, namely the faceless pigeages (French winemaking term for the traditional stomping of grapes in open fermentation tanks) who stomp on grapes all day just to produce the world famous napa wines that we know! You can see his mural, it is locates along Highway 29, going to Napa and you can even stop at the mural and take pictures around. This mural is called "The Grapecrusher". The bronze sculpture was made by noted artist, Gino Miles, was erected in 1987 and is dedicated to the workers who labor in the vineyards.

There is another Napa Valley Sign and it is located in Calistoga near the Castello Di Amorosa. I will do a separate tip for it.

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The V. Sattui Winery is easily on top of the Wine Tasting lists in Napa since it is easily accesible via the Saint Helena Highway and Dario Sattui has a penchant for Collecting Awards for his wines hence the popularity of wine tasting here and at the Castello Di Amarosa.

The Main Tasting Room is located in the center of the Winery and is open from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm everyday a wine tasting of 6 of their wines cost $ 10 and for the exclusive and reserved wines, it's $ 15. They have a huge assortment of red wines like Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel, Merlot or Pinot Noir. White wines like the Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc or Chardonnay, plus a number of sparkling wines (Champagne OK! ) and Rose' wines. This winery even surpasses the main wine making and the Italian Style Castle of Dario Sattui's Castello DI Amorosa, where all of the wines sold in V. Sattui Winery comes from, plus where most of the grapes are harvested.