Napa / Sonoma Valley cellar door recommendations?

[Caversham04]

I'm off to the Napa / Sonoma Valleys in a week or so, for a day and a half. I'll be driving up from San Francisco in the morning, via Muir Woods, then through Sonoma and on to the Napa Valley. The 2nd day will be a Napa Valley wine tour with Platypus Wines (had to pick that one when I saw it on Google!). Would be interested in any recommendations for good cellar doors - either in the Sonoma Valley on the way through on the first afternoon or in the Napa Valley if they're quirky or out-of-the-way places that are unlikely to be on the itinerary for the tour on the 2nd day!

Many thanks!

 

[yesbuds]

In general, you have to pay for all tastings in Napa etc so you must plan and also book your tastings in as it works a little differently to here is Aus.

Roberto Biale 100% worth a visit, beautiful Zinfandels and a great story too.

 

[robtemt]

Inglenook - owned by Francis Coppola. Known for a couple of killer wines... Rubicon, and their Cabernet Sauvignon "Cask" (which I don't know if they make anymore, but you can buy back vintages). Book a private experience, where you do a seated tasting in the cellar where some of Mr. Coppola's oldest wines are stored. You get a cheese plate with the tasting. It's a great experience. I liked that you could buy half bottles at the cellar door, maximising what we could bring back duty free..

Ferrari Carano - An amazingly beautiful property, with superb wines. Again, book a private wine tasting.

J Vineyard- J makes sparkling wine, and a fantastic Pinot Noir. Do the legacy tasting with the cheese pairing (I think you taste about 7-10 different wines, so you'll want the food!). We brought back a few bottles of their Vintage sparkling, and left a case of Pinot to age in my brothers cellar to enjoy on our trips over to the US (and we bring bottle or two back each time of the Pinot or of the case of Rubicon and Cask we have at his place as well).

I don't know what the fees are for the tastings, my brother is a member of all 3, so the fees were waived.

Tell me you booked French Laundry?!?! If not, there is an excellent place for dinner called Madrona Manor. An old mansion, with about 3-4 tables in each dining room. Beautiful food, intimate atmosphere, great wines, and excellent service.

Also, The Conservatory. It is a restaurant run by the Culinary Institute of America, and all the staff are students who rotate through being servers, cooks, etc. You can also do a tour of the institute which is a real experience. Made me want to change jobs! I think it's only open on weekends, as the students are obviously in class the rest of the week.

 

[Caversham04]

Thanks to both of the posters for their recommendations. Unfortunately, I was significantly delayed leaving SF and then slowed by traffic on the way up to Napa, so I wasn't able to visit any of the recommended wineries. I'll definitely aim to visit them (and maybe one or more of the restaurants) next time, when hopefully Mrs Caversham04 will be with me.

As a quick TR, Platypus Tours were excellent. They deliberately tend to lean towards smaller wineries, with our trip visiting Twomey, Laird Family Estate, Ballentine Vineyards and Bremer Family Winery. As the icing on the cake, the driver (Steve?) gave a brief talk on viticulture and had booked a tour of the cave cellars at Bremer. Platypus negotiate reduced tasting fees which can also be offset against wine purchases.

Twomey: 5 wines tasted - 3 Pinot Noir plus a Sav Blanc and a Merlot. Pinot isn't usually my cup of tea, but their wines were much less "earthy" than the Australian examples I've tasted, to the point where I would be happy to drink it if given a bottle (although I still wouldn't go out of my way to purchase it).

Ballentine: An absolute gem. The Zinfandel (2013), Petite Syrah (2013) and Cabernet Franc (2012) were all outstanding. Unfortunately, an upcoming flight meant I could only buy one bottle to drink that evening, and the Zin won the race by a very short head......

Bremer: Disappointing. Only 3 wines supplied for tasting. Reds were bland (to my palate).

Laird: 6 or 7 wines tasted, including a Sav Blanc, delicious Cold Creek Ranch Chardonnay (to my palate, more like a lightly-oaked and slightly mineralic Chablis than your more typical, buttery Chardy) and some nice reds. Would have bought a bottle of the Chardonnay if flight plans had allowed.......