Happy Friday! Instead of the usual Friday Favorites post, I wanted to share details about my trip to Napa last weekend. If you saw Wednesday’s post, you know I was in California visiting friends from law school, and although we spent most of our time in San Francisco, we made a day trip to Napa from the city.
Napa is gorgeous! I’m not sure what I was expecting, but it is such an amazing place. It’s like a dream – the weather was absolutely perfect, and there are fields upon fields full of grape vines. We learned that there are around 500 vineyards in Napa alone! Each vineyard that we visited was completely different, but in such a good way. We stuck to smaller (mostly family run) wineries, and it was perfect! We had such an amazing time that I wanted to share the small vineyards in Napa Valley with you so you can plan your own trip! At each stop, we had a very personalized tasting and tour – No tour buses or mobs of people!
Small Vineyards in Napa Valley
Our first stop was Azur. Azur was the perfect place to start. It was still pretty early in the morning when we arrived. Azur’s grounds are stunning! I’m kicking myself for not taking more photos outside, but basically I would move into the house on the property in a heartbeat. It was so calm, quiet, and peaceful on their estate. And what better way to kick off a day in Napa than starting off the morning with Rosé?!
Our next stop was Bell Wine Cellars. Overall, this was probably my favorite! I think I enjoyed Bell the most because we sat outside the entire time and our guide was super friendly and knowledgable and he answered all of our “wine gossip” questions like if the Trader Joe’s 2 buck chuck divorce story is true or false – it’s true my friends! Once again, the grounds at Bell were incredible. We actually got to walk through the vineyards here and taste the grapes!
After a couple of hours of sipping on vino, we made a pit stop for lunch at Mustard’s Grill. Mustard’s is a Napa establishment. It has been around for over 30 years and is outstanding. I recommend getting the burger and wine of course. If you’re needing a little break from the wine, they do have a full bar as well. One side note/fun fact of the day – Since California is in the midst of a historic drought, you have to ask for water at every restaurant. They don’t just automatically bring it. You’ll probably need a glass at lunch to keep you going through the afternoon!
After lunch we made our way to Baldacci Vineyards. If I’m being honest, this was probably my least favorite. Not because of the grounds or the actual vineyard (because those were both beautiful), but there just wasn’t much to the actual tasting. Our server kind of just left us by ourselves without explaining anything about the vineyards or the wine. Maybe it’s because we were one of the last groups of the day – not sure. BUT it was nice to be able to wander through the vineyards at our leisure.
Our last stop was so. much. fun. Holman Cellars, which produces Uncharted wines, was so cool. The owner of the vineyard and his cousin were our guides, and we had a ball with them. They are both pretty young and have a great thing going at Holman! Not only did we have the opportunity to taste their delicious wines (and how cute is the table they set up for us?!), they let us “punchdown” the fermenting grapes and also let us in on their burgeoning beer brewing business by letting us sample some of their brews!
If you’re planning on visiting San Fran and would like to sneak in a trip to wine country, I highly recommend doing a day trip. We used a service that planned out our entire trip and also provided us with a driver, who picked us up in San Francisco and drove us from place to place all day. Having a driver is the way to go! He was so friendly and kept us on schedule throughout the day. If you would like more details on the company we used and our specific planner/driver, email me! Also, if you’re interested in hearing more about any of the places that we visited, shoot me an email as well – I tried to give a nice overview of each place that was on our tour, but I have more detailed info if you’re interested!
As always, thanks so much for stopping by! Have a great weekend!
