Napa and Sonoma
We’ve compiled the best of the best in Napa and Sonoma - browse our top choices for the top things to see or do during your stay.
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10 Recommendations
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1. Gamble Family Vineyards
Unlike most of his neighbors, third-generation farmer Tom Gamble doesn't trumpet his boutique winery's tasting room with a sign along St. Helena Highway. When confirming guests' (required) appointments, hosts describe the mailbox to look for. The low-key branding is among the clues that a visit here is less about flash and more about substance. Gamble, whose family settled in Oakville more than a century ago, sells grapes to A-list wineries, reserving a portion for single-vineyard Cabernet Sauvignons, a Bordeaux-style blend or two, and a knockout Sauvignon Blanc. The collector-quality reds, meticulously crafted, remarkably restrained, and reminiscent of Napa's Judgment of Paris heyday, are poured in a 2013 structure whose design pays tribute to 19th-century Napa Valley farmhouses. When he's around, the amiable Gamble often drops by tastings to say hi.
7554 St. Helena Hwy./Hwy. 29, Oakville, California, 94562, USA707-944–2999Sight Details
Rate Includes: Tastings from $150, Closed Sun. -
2. Nickel & Nickel
A corral out front, antique barns, and a farm-style windmill add horse-country flair to this winery renowned for its smooth, almost sensual, single-vineyard Cabernet Sauvignons. Some of the best derive from the home-base Oakville AVA, including the John C. Sullenger Vineyard, which surrounds the property's 1884 Queen Anne residence. Cabernets from other Napa Valley appellations supply the contrast. For the splurge Terroir Tasting, hosts introduce eight Cabernets, paired with artisanal cheeses and charcuterie, describing how each vineyard's distinctive soils and microclimates influence the finished product. Two other tastings explore similar issues less comprehensively. Cabernet lovers won't want to miss this sister winery to elegant Far Niente.
8164 St. Helena Hwy./Hwy. 129, Oakville, California, 94562, USA707-967–9600Sight Details
Rate Includes: Tastings from $90 -
3. Silver Oak
The first review of this winery's Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon declared the debut 1972 vintage not all that good and overpriced at $6 a bottle. Oops. The now-celebrated Bordeaux-style blend, still the only Napa Valley Cab bearing the winery's label each year, evolved into a cult favorite, and founders Ray Duncan and Justin Meyer received worldwide recognition for their signature use of exclusively American oak to age the wines. Tastings take place in a hospitality center constructed out of reclaimed stone and other materials from a 19th-century Kansas flour mill. The standard session includes sips of the current Napa Valley vintage, its counterpart from Silver Oak's Alexander Valley operation in Sonoma County, and a library wine. Hosts of vertical tastings pour six Cabernet vintages. All visits require an appointment.
915 Oakville Cross Rd., Oakville, California, 94562, USA707-942–7022Sight Details
Rate Includes: Tastings from $60 -
4. Turnbull Cellars
It'd be easy to confuse this winery for its more famous neighbor to the north, Cakebread Cellars—William Turnbull designed the original buildings at each. Founded by the architect in 1979 and owned since 1993 by Patrick O'Dell, Turnbull produces richly textured Cabernets from Oakville and Calistoga vineyards. Winemaker Peter Heitz plays light with French oak or, in some cases, handmade Italian amphorae. Guests sip his estate wines indoors among curated shows of works from O'Dell's art and photography collection or outside on landscaped patios surrounded by vineyards. The hospitality exceeds millennials' expectations, and social media–friendly backdrops make for enticing shots, but there's an older-Napa gentility to this appointment-only winery that even many locals haven't gotten around to visiting. Beat them to the punch. This place is worth it.
8210 St. Helena Hwy., Oakville, California, 94562, USA707-963–5839Sight Details
Rate Includes: Tastings from $65 -
5. B Cellars
The chefs take center stage in the open-hearth kitchen of this boutique winery's hospitality house, and with good reason: creating food-friendly wines is B Cellars' raison d'être. Visits to the Oakville facility—all steel beams, corrugated metal, and plate glass yet remarkably cozy—often begin with a tour of the winery's culinary garden and vineyard, with a pause for sips of wine still aging in barrel. A seated tasting of finished wines paired with small bites follows the tour. Another session surveys the Napa Valley and Sonoma County appellations that supply B Cellars fruit. Kirk Venge, whose fruit-forward style suits the winery's food-oriented approach, crafts red and white blends and single-vineyard Cabernets from estate fruit and grapes from Beckstoffer and other noteworthy vineyards. All visits are strictly by appointment.
703 Oakville Cross Rd., Oakville, California, 94562, USA707-709–8787Sight Details
Rate Includes: Tastings from $125, Closed Tues. and Wed. -
Recommended Fodor’s Video
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6. Far Niente
Hamden McIntyre, a prominent winery architect of his era also responsible for Inglenook and what's now the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone, designed the centerpiece 1885 stone winery here. Abandoned in the wake of Prohibition and only revived beginning in 1979, Far Niente now ranks as one of the Napa Valley's most beautiful properties. Guests participating in the Estate Tasting learn some of this history while sipping the flagship wines, a Chardonnay and a Cabernet Sauvignon blend, along with Russian River Valley Pinot Noir from the affiliated EnRoute label and Dolce, a late-harvest white dessert wine. The Extended Estate Tasting takes in the winery and its aging caves, while the Cave Collection library tasting pairs older vintages with seasonal bites. Fall, when nearly 200 ginkgo trees lining the driveway glow yellow, is a fine time to visit.
1350 Acacia Dr., Oakville, California, 94562, USA707-944–2861Sight Details
Rate Includes: Tastings from $100 -
7. Oakville Wine Merchant
Survey the Napa Valley under Baccarat crystal chandeliers at this combination wine bar and museum next to Oakville Grocery. After purchasing a payment card, guests proceed on their own or are guided by hosts to wine dispensers. In 2-, 4-, or 6-ounce pours, you can sample Cabernets from a single AVA or compare ones from several subappellations. The mezzanine-level Napa Wine History Museum's displays include now taboo farm implements like "soil injectors" formerly used to blast insecticides into the soil. Admission to the museum, worth a peek even if you're not tasting, is free. If you're dying to sip a 100-point wine, ask about the dispenser with four selections.
7856 St. Helena Hwy./Hwy. 29, Oakville, California, 94562, USA707-948–6099Sight Details
Rate Includes: Museum free; tastings from $45 -
8. Opus One
The Napa Valley's Robert Mondavi and France's Baron Philippe de Rothschild joined forces in the late 1970s to produce Opus One, a Bordeaux blend often credited as Napa's first ultrapremium wine. The Cabernet Sauvignon–dominant wine is made and presented at a low-slung limestone structure, much of it concealed by a crescent-shape berm of native grasses and plants. In its poise and varied, textured surfaces, the 1991 neoclassical building mirrors the polished complexity of the wine, whose grapes come from To Kalon across the street and three other estate vineyards. The Courtyard Experience provides a suitable introduction to winery and wine, but consider booking the Opus One Experience. Involving small gourmet bites and including a visit to the tour de force semicircular subterranean barrel room, it takes place in a contemporary salon. Unveiled in 2021, the sumptuous space has views through its north-facing glass wall up the valley to Mt. St. Helena.
7900 St. Helena Hwy./Hwy. 29, Oakville, California, 94562, USA707-944–9442Sight Details
Rate Includes: Tastings from $100 -
9. Robert Mondavi Winery
Arguably the most influential participant in the Napa Valley's rise to international prominence, the late Robert Mondavi established his namesake winery in the 1960s. In an era when tasting rooms were downscale affairs, Mondavi commissioned architect Cliff May to create a grand Mission-style space to receive visitors. The winery planned to close in late spring 2023 for two years of extensive renovations of the production and hospitality facilities and expects to receive guests here again in summer 2025. From summer 2023 to summer 2025, all Robert Mondavi Winery tastings will take place in downtown Napa at Arch & Tower in the Borreo Building, 930 3rd Street.
7801 St. Helena Hwy./Hwy. 29, Oakville, California, 94562, USA888-766–6328 -
10. Saddleback Cellars
A short drive down a country lane leads to this winery whose founder, Nils Venge, made history as the first U.S. winemaker to earn a 100-point score from the wine critic Robert Parker. The wine that earned Venge this distinction was a Cabernet Sauvignon for nearby Groth. These days, he makes two Cabs for his own label, along with Pinot Blanc, Sangiovese, Zinfandel, Malbec, and several others guests sample by appointment at vineyard's-edge picnic tables. Saddleback's presentation is decidedly retro compared to its tonier Oakville neighbors, but the stories, wines, and mountain views east and west cast a memorable spell.
7802 Money Rd., Oakville, California, 94562, USA707-944–1305Sight Details
Rate Includes: Tastings $40
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