Napa Wine Trail

I have always wanted to visit Napa, even though I consider myself more of an old world wine lover. After our San Francisco trip we spent three full days in Napa. We stayed in St. Helena at the Wine Country Inn, which was a lovely family owned B&B. Each day we began our wine tours at 10am and wrapped up around 4pm. It was quite the adventure. Below are some of the highlights from our tastings and tours although the entire trip was memorable.

This is tasting room #5 located at Beringer. This beautiful dark wooden mansion was once the home of the Beringer family. We didn't have an appointment here but stopped for two reasons, the tasting room looked beautiful and my mom LOVES Beringer. We sampled their library wines and their tasting room was certainly one of the most beautiful ones we visited.

Schramsberg was hands down my favorite winery. Specializing in sparkling wine, this winery gained notoriety in 1972 when their 1969 Blanc de Blanc was served at the "Toast to Peace" in Beijing between President Nixon and Premier Chou En-lai. Schamsberg wines have been served by every subsequent presidental administration.

We were also fortunate enough to see Ramon Viera at work. Ramon is Schramsber's riddler and is responsible for turning thousands of bottles daily in order to help filter out the sediment. It is becoming more uncommon for riddlers to turn bottles as machines have largely replaced their job. Ramon is known as one of the best riddlers in the world.

Sipping wine at the top of Rubbisow's vineyard

I discovered Rubissow randomly from a Google article about unique boutique wines in Napa. It was nearly impossible to find any additional information, as they are not even on the Napa wine map. Luckily, I stumbled upon their phone number and was able to schedule us a tour. Rubissow is a small production, high quality, family-run winery. They sell to some of the top chefs and restaurants throughout the US. They are a favorite of President Bill Clinton and you can even find one of their Cabernets by the glass at Per Se.

During our visit, we were fortunate enough to meet one of the owners, Peter Rubissow, who was a wonderful host. He allowed us to taste some of their sold out library wines, and among my favorite was their 2004 Merlot. This was the most personalized wine tour we had, and the views of their grape vines were breathtaking.

Opus One was the most austere winery we visited. The exterior and interior of the winery is very modern. Opus only produces one vintage per year. You have the option of tasting one library wine and their current vintage. We tried both and the library wine won out. It was the smoothest initial sip of any Cabernet I had tried in Napa. The age allowed the wine to develop more complex flavors that helped to balance out the high alcohol content. A good tip at Opus, they sell a non-vintage wine, called Overture, that is about 1/3 less than the vintage, which is almost as good, but not good for aging.

The original Stags' Leap wine production building.

This is the original Stags' Leap Winery (not to be confused with Stag's Leap Wine Cellars). One of California's earliest wine estates. The stunning buildings and property set off of the Silverado Trail, had the most historical wine tour we experienced. The estate is filled with history, from California's first in-ground pool to its infamous dispute with their neighbors down the street that have a similar name. This winery had the only Chardonnay that I liked. Aged in steel, it did not have any oak characteristics, it had good acid and was very fruit forward.

A view of the Stags' Leap Vineyard

Rubissow's Grapevines