Last Friday we flew into Sacramento, CA because I had training for work on Saturday and Sunday and we thought this might be a perfect chance to see California Wine Country.
From Sacramento International Airport, we rented a little red car and hit the road towards Napa! We wanted to see wine country, but we wanted to do it on a budget, so we decided to make a picnic. Ryan's first suggestion was the "Walmart coming up on the next exit" according to his phone, but something about that statement did not seem to mesh well with the visions I had in my head of Napa. So he did another search and found a co-op in the little college town of Davis.
Davis is absolutely adorable and the co-op was the perfect place for picnic shopping! We were able to get a freshly baked loaf of a multigrain bread with pumpkin and sunflower seeds (yum!), 2 pears, a pint of strawberries, a bar of 70% cacao chocolate, blue cheese from a local dairy, havarti with dill and a very sharp white cheddar...all for $25! Delicious? Yes! In budget? Double yes! While we were sampling cheeses, we also spoke with a very nice woman who informed us that yes, we could take the freeway to Napa which is faster, but it would only take a few minutes longer to drive through the mountains and past the dam at Lake Berryessa and it was a much more beautiful drive and worth the extra minutes. We thanked her profusely and made our way to HWY 128 for one of the most gorgeous drives I have ever been on. Breathtaking only begins to describe it.
Our first stop in wine country was Frog's Leap Winery. I had read about Frog's Leap after doing a search for organic vineyards. Frog's Leap is not only organic, but they also do not use irrigation to grow their grapes, meaning that they rely only on the rain, a rarity in California. They also are completely solar powered and are using many other environmentally friendly and ethical practices in their business, for more information you can read this article.
This was, by far, my favorite stop of the trip. It was so beautiful and peaceful and the people who worked there were so kind and helpful. The tasting is $20/person and it is definitely worth it. In addition to 4-6 wine samples, they also bring out a plate with a delicious aged gouda, dried berries, almonds and breadsticks. You can enjoy your wine on the back porch of the building overlooking the vineyards or walking through the gardens, admiring the fig trees, flowers and chickens :) They also have cornhole, but I suggest setting down your wine glass before you throw the beanbag...not that I spilled any...
We almost didn't want to leave Frog's Leap, but we felt that we'd be doing ourselves a disservice if we didn't explore further! We didn't really have any plans other than: find cool wineries. We drove along a main rode and past names like Hall, BV, Sutter Home and other recognizable wines. (I didn't say good, just recognizable!) We stopped at V. Sattui but after walking about 10 feet from the parking lot towards the entrance, we realized that it was not for us. (Families, kinda crowded and loud, commercial)
We hit the road and I had to pull a U-turn to make it back to the "place where there are rosebushes at the end of each row of vines" aka Heitz Cellar which also happens to be an organic vineyard. It was a very beautiful place and the tasting was free of charge. We bought a bottle of the Sauvignon Blanc for about $20 (to have with dinner later) and then we got back into our little red car and started off again. (Pictures below: flowers and vineyards at Heitz Cellar)
While trying to find Sterling Vineyards, we accidentally stumbled onto Steltzner Vineyards (We were actually going to just turn around in their parking lot but decided to stay when we saw this hobbit door leading to their cellar)
The tasting here was $10 person, which we decided to split since I was driving. The man who poured for us was very nice and informed us that our trip would not be complete without a trip to Yountville. He made a few suggestions and after we finished our tasting, we made our way to Yountville.
Yountville is very quaint and the main street is lined with restaurants and tasting rooms. Our final stop was Hill Family Estate, a tasting room which offers tastings for $10/person. Again, we decided to share one since I was driving and honestly, I was starting to get sick of wine. I'm sure that's blasphemy, but I was over it! Both the owner and his son were on hand to say hello and the staff was kind enough to give us this complimentary plate of cheese, bread and prosciutto. (The cheese was a soft type of mozzarella that spread, I can't remember what it was called but it was really good) This place was cool because they create items that have been stained with red wine. They had a surf board stained with wine and the front wooden doors had also been stained. We got a bottle of Chardonnay for about $30.
Side note: the entire day we wanted to buy more wine as gifts, but we carried on our luggage and were unable to bring wine on the plane :( Even the tiny bottle of grapeseed oil I wanted to buy wouldn't have made it past security...boo
We walked along the main street in Yountville but then decided we were hungry and broke from our day of vino, so we decided to check out this little Mexican place in Napa called Taqueria Rosita that had an amazing vegetarian burrito ($5) and their chips and salsa were really good too :) Originally, we were looking for places that didn't charge a corkage fee so we could drink one of our bottles from the day, but after considering the almost 2 hour drive back to our hotel, I thought that would probably be a terrible idea! (I'm a super lightweight and Ryan had been fully participating all day in the tastings....we would have ended up sleeping in a Toyota Matrix on the side of the road...uncomfortable, probably illegal and all around terrible idea)
So that was our day in Napa! It was beautiful and I'm really glad we were able to do it and not go too far overboard on our budget. My favorite part was the drive out there and Frog's Leap, since it had such a relaxed atmosphere and beautiful gardens.
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