Napa Valley Wineries

Napa Valley is replete with both restaurants and wineries. There are hundreds of each about the valley. Here are my suggestions on navigating your way through the forest.

WINERIES

Wineries tours vary from winery to winery so it's important to select different types of tours.

The best production tour is Rutherford Hills winery. Here you will learn all about the production of wine. The guides go into reasonable but not too belabored detailed about how the grapes are selected, the wine aged, bottled, and stored. In addition to viewing the mixing tanks the tour also includes the caves where the wine is blended, then aged in casks made of various types of wood, most typically French or American Oak.

The most fun wine tasting is at the Peju Provence winery. Here you will taste 6-8 very different types of wine, both red and whites, ranging from inexpensive table wines to expensive cabernets. The guide will explain how to pair wines with foods, share personal recipes and convey humorous anecdotes. Also, the wines are available for purchase only on site, which makes the visit even more exciting.

The best tour for the serious wine enthusiast, try Swansons. The staff here is extremely knowledgeable and you will learn more than you'd want to know about different types of wine, how the grapes are selected and how the wine is produced. The tasting are very small and intimate, typically seating around a table with a handful of guests, sampling wine accented by cheese, crackers and delicious chocolates (some are coated with curry powder – YUM!).

The cultural history of wine and its splendor is best depicted at Berringer winery. Here different types of tours are featured, focusing on the history of the winery, the architecture, the history of California, and, of course, the creation of wine. The winery itself is housed in a very old stone building, dating back to the 1800s, and there are several houses now used for wine tasting were originally used as the residences of the family members.

For an overall fun California experience, try Neibaum Coppola winery, where Hollywood meets Napa Valley. You will see Francis Ford Coppola's Oscar statutes and memorabilia from his movies, as well as a stunning banister and wine tasting on a hilly patch of ancient eucalyptus trees overlooking the valley.

There are numerous small, family-owned wineries along the Silverado Trail where you may be treated to a wine tasting in the kitchen of the winery owner – something to bear in mind.

To cap your experience, go to St. Helena and buy those delectable chocolates in the blue box on the main street by Gilwoods. They are worth the trip!