My plan for SF/Sonoma/Napa

Mikkeller Bar SF also has a really cool t-shirt design ... make sure you order food there, really awesome stuff ... love their Reuben ... the mac and cheese is solid ... bratwurst is pretty damn tasty too. Damn, miss that place already!

 

Pride mountain vineyards has amazing views, appointment needs to be made in advance. Really well done cabs if you prefer bigger, forward, tannic cabs. Alpha Omega on the main strip is nice too, beautiful outdoor sitting area for tastings. I'd much rather go to Mondavi than many of the other wineries you listed, historical and well educated tours if you contact them ahead of time. Also their wines have so much history. If you do a tour with the to kalon/reserve society you get to taste a lot of their older reserve wines that are some of the best expressions of Cabernet purity in California (old school guard style). It's also close to yountville where you are having dinner.

If you like pinots you'll probably want to stop in Healdsburg, it's about 15 minutes north of Santa Rosa. Lots of great pinot producers there. Copain (great view) & William Selyem are great pinot makers. They make wine in the more restrained, high acid, low alcohol style.

 

rare barrel: Does it have fruit? yes? drink it

 

Just a quick aside on that...Cellarmaker will NOT fill a 32oz growler. Tried to get my Boneyard 32oz filled and they refused. They will fill 750s, 1L, and 64oz. @TambaTime they tapped Coffee and Cigarettes last week so there's a decent chance it will make it for 3 weeks or so...maybe a little longer. And AlexM is right. Everything Cellarmaker makes is worth trying.

 

shit sorry - my bad ... I keep thinking 1L and 32oz are the same

 

easting breakfast in sausalito requires a stop at Fred's place

 

California has won the right through litigation to call their sparkling wine "California Champagne." This took place at least a year ago. Maybe two.

 

Yet they still dont. Not even at the Winery itself. They still call it sparkling wine.

 

A man that knows his wine. Nice! Love me some J Schram!

 

A few bits of info for Napa...

By law, most wineries require an appointment for tastings. They may be nice if you walk in but it's bad form and you're putting workers out who had their day planned.

Avoid Billco's unless you're a white male. And if you're a white male who has standards, avoid Billco's. Go to Cadet instead. You can try Downtown Joe's but it's not a crowd I connect with.

And there are signs up, but the bridge over Napa River on Oakville Cross is closed. We had a minor earthquake last week and they closed the bridge (locals have differing opinions on whether the earthquake actually damaged the bridge or not).

Feel free to BM me, I work at 3 wineries right now (2 in Napa, 1 in Sonoma) and can definitely suggest some wineries or set up something for one of the places I work.

 

In the '90s, I forget specifically which year, a law was passed and defined a winery as an agricultural business whose primary role is producing wine, not catering to tourists. For wineries that had tasting rooms open before a set date they were grandfathered in and allowed to accept visitors via walk-ins. There are plenty of tasting rooms like this: Heitz, Robert Sinskey, Sterling, BV, Mondavi, Stag's/Stags' Leap and plenty of tasting parlors in the downtown areas of Calistoga, St Helena, Yountville and Napa you can walk in to.

Since there were a ton of wineries established after said date, these wineries are required to allow visitors by appointment only. As I said, many wineries will let you walk in but they create an appointment on the spot to circumvent breaking the law Many wineries accept day-of appointments if you call in the morning (or even if you call from the parking lot). At the winery where I work hospitality we very rarely turn away walk-ins if we can at all accommodate them, but if you walk in at 3PM on a Saturday we might ask if you can make an appointment for the following day. We are also much more than a counter that you stand at and taste 2/3 wines, we have one tour/tasting option and it takes about an hour with much of the experience being seated comparing several vintages of a Cabernet Sauvignon.

I think I covered most of the points...let me know if anything is unclear. I can probably dig up links to the laws I'm referencing later.

As far as Billco's, the more I went there and the more I met people who used to go there it became apparent that the owner and bartenders prefer a very specific color of customer.

 

I said most, not all, and yes although many wineries welcome walk ins some still by law require an appointment (whether or not you know they may have set up an appointment for you on the spot), and these wineries would still prefer you call in advance. And yes, some older wineries will require appointments per their hospitality policies.

Just because you can name 20 wineries that allow walk ins doesn't mean all 500+ wineries in Napa allow walk ins.

The OP mentions Failla, who has a pretty strict appointment policy, which is why I brought it up. Not many people know of this law and it can save some headaches if one plans in advance.

 

Any good winery will require an appointment anyways

 

I don't even know where to begin, so here's a couple of basics.

In Napa, do not miss Praeger Portworks and Winery. Mostly port but they usually have a straight wine or two. Incredible California ports and some of my favorite people in the valley.

If could do wine tasting only in one spot, it would be Healdsburg, no question. My good buddy Dave owns Russian River Wine Company in Healdsburg. He has excellent taste and very reasonable prices. Buy some wine, chat him up and you will likely get some special love somewhere.