For labor day weekend, my family and I decided to go to Napa Valley. I’ve been dying for some photo opportunities with my lomo cams and vineyard scenery is always enthralling to behold. So off to Napa Valley we went. Napa Valley is synonymous to wine country. The Napa-Sonoma area is a conglomerate of vineyards each with its own distinct brand and taste. Different vineyards are scattered all over the area: Sonoma, Napa, Yountville, St. Helena, and Calistoga.

A few years ago, I treated my mom to a wine country tour. For a pair of nIMG_0949on-drinkers, what in the world were we doing in a wine country tour where wine  tasting was the main itinerary? The tour mainly concentrated on the Sonoma area. In March, the weather wasn’t spectacular (very foggy and overcast and cold) and the vineyards are not blooming yet. No signs of green except the grass. This time around we had a great weather. It was sunny and warm and the vineyards are almost ready for harvesting. October, I believe, is the harvest season for the grapes. Napa is a 1.5 hour drive from our place.

In Napa, we mainly focused on the town center. Even though there’s a river festival going, the downtown is barely populated. There weren’t a lot of stores open: 1. because it was a Sunday, 2. there were just a lot of empty building spaces. The downtown was fairly small. We were able to walk around it thrice (because we were looking for my mom’s sunglasses) in a matter of 2 hours. We ate at Grace’s table which served brunch menu. The food was ok and expensive. A non-refillable glass of orange juice is USD4! For me, the downtown wasn’t really charming at all unlike the one in Carmel or Sausalito.

IMG_0891

After exploring the downtown, we headed to Yountville to check out a vineyard – Domaine Chandon. There are many vineyards around the area but I was looking for one that has free entrance, cheap wine tasting, and a beautiful view. The place was hopping with people and the wine tasting area was busy. Nonetheless we were able to do the wine tasting. Actually it was only my dad who did it because my mom and I were not really fond of wine. The wine tasting has different variety of wines: Classic (18USD), Reserved (20USD) and Prestige (25USD). Pair it with food and the price goes up more. My dad had the reserved tasting. Unfortunately the wines they had was always pinot noir or chardonnay. My dad likes the red wine and we didn’t find any red wine there. We stayed for more than an hour. My dad was almost drunk when we got out of the place. Initially I planned to visit at least 2 vineyards however we’re running out of time and my dad was almost drunk. We got the wineglass as souvenir though.

  IMG_0921        IMG_0926

We capped the day by visiting the Napa Premium Outlet. Holiday means IMG_0953spectacular sale events in the outlet malls. So we passed the the time at the outlet mall, which is near the Napa town center. As for the river festival, as much as I wanted to see the fireworks at 930pm, we decided to go home because it was still a long drive home.

For those of you who are interested in touring the wine country, I suggest you  do wine country tours offered by tour companies. For under 100USD, you get a chauffer/tour guide, visits to more than 3 vineyards (entrance fee and tasting fee included), and a well-presented tour of the area. There’s not much to see in these places and the main objective here is the winery itself. So if you’re not familiar with the area but love wine, do the wine tour.

Related posts:

  1. what to do…so little time
  2. The charm of Sausalito