A Fabulous Napa Valley Winery Tour Experience

Old Apr 22nd, 2007, 02:48 PM
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A Fabulous Napa Valley Winery Tour Experience

We just returned from a wonderful three-day trip to the Napa/Sonoma Valley area. We arranged to spend two of our days touring wineries with the services of Napa Valley Chauffeurs. This is not a big, impersonal chauffeuring service that takes you to all the big tourist trap wineries, but a personal, thoughtfully planned out customized itinerary to meet your preferences. George Stone is the owner and sole guide/driver for everyone that makes an appointment with his company. He wants to personally see to every detail and experience when you hire his services, rather than ship you off with some less experienced or less knowledgeable driver. George has a couple choices of vehicles you choose from for your day. We chose the Cadillac Escalade, which was roomy and comfortable for the four of us. Before we arrived in the Napa area, we had a couple different conversations with George about our preferences with wines and types of wineries we’d like to visit. Then he sketched out an itinerary and emailed it to us. We’d already visited one or two of the wineries on the list, so he readjusted and put a couple different ones on the schedule. Not to worry, even if you don’t have any idea of what you want or you’re new to the world of wines, George can plan the perfect itinerary for you. He planned everything for our two touring days from the winery visits (all of which required appointments), to shipping us all of the wine we purchased, to the restaurants we ate at for lunch, and finally a beautiful picnic we enjoyed one afternoon on the grounds of a winery on Spring Mountain. He arranged a beautifully set table overlooking the vineyards and valley below. The food was delicious and included things like smoked salmon, grilled chicken, prosuitto, baguette bread, numerous cheeses, and fruit. We visited wineries that we would have never found without George’s knowledge and connections. Our favorite wineries were: Kelham (we got to sit out on the deck of the Kelham winery property and visit with Susanna Kelham as we tasted their FABULOUS wines), Barnett (which was gorgeous on top of Spring Mountain and had wonderful wines), Larkmead, Frank Family, The Terraces, and Chase. Everywhere we went everyone was so hospitable and welcoming. George clearly has great relationships with the people at the wineries we visited. He is aware of every detail. On top of all this, we thoroughly enjoyed George’s personality and willingness to adjust the itinerary as we had an urge to pop in at Dean and Deluca or grab cocktails and appetizers at Rutherford Grill at the end of the second day. More than a couple times (sorry George) we spent longer at wineries talking with the people or taking impromptu tours of their property – George just readjusted our appointments, he didn’t skip a beat. This truly was once of the most stress free and enjoyable vacations I’ve ever taken. I am a planner and love researching and sketching out our itineraries for vacations however; I can guarantee I will leave it up to George Stone every time we are in the Napa/Sonoma area. We only wish we could take him along on every vacation. Napa Valley Chauffeurs # is 707-363-0704 or email him at [email protected]. You will not be disappointed if you schedule a day or more with touring the area with George at the wheel (and you can drink as much as you’d like without having to drive!) – enjoy. If you have any questions about our experience our trip don’t hesitate to email.
-Angela
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Old Apr 22nd, 2007, 06:41 PM
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Hello kinsel3, where did you stay while in the Napa/Sonoma Valley area? That would no doubt be of interest to Fodorites that are planning on visiting there. I am glad you had a wonderful visit and that your wine tour experience worked out well for all of you.
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Old Apr 23rd, 2007, 07:29 AM
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Sounds perfect, thanks for the report! ***kim***
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Old Apr 23rd, 2007, 09:10 PM
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Thanks. It's always great to hear about someone who provided excellent service.
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Old Apr 24th, 2007, 04:09 AM
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Where did you stay? What is the approximate cost of his service? Is it per day/ per person? Sounds perfect - but can I afford it?
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Old Apr 24th, 2007, 05:21 AM
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Yes, we want more details
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Old Apr 24th, 2007, 07:36 AM
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Glad you had fun. Always a better experience doing the small production wineries, IMO. Meeting the owners and winemakers is so special! I don't see in this report where you visited Sonoma, however.
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Old Apr 24th, 2007, 12:49 PM
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Hello all! Glad the information is of interest to some of you. I really did feel as though I had to share this experience, since it really isn't the norm to have such excellent service these days. As far as how much per day and so on, honestly the couple we went with was EXTREMELY generous and paid the whole bill for the two days. I do know his prices are very competetive with other area guide/chauffeur services because both my husband and I and the other couple we went with "shopped around". It was a winery that we had called to make an appointment with that gave us his name. We asked Schaffer Vineyards if they knew of anyone in the area that we should call to arrange for a chauffeured winery tour... and they said... George at Napa Valley Chauffeurs.. the rest is history. I have no doubt that it would be a challenge to match the experience we had with his connections and knowledge of the area. Plus, he is a cool and laid back guy, we truly enjoyed his personality. I would strongly urge you to shoot him an email or call for a quote. Even if your just getting an idea and are not even sure if you can afford or want to do this, I know he'd be more than happy to give you a general idea of what a day would cost depending on your needs.

As far as where we stayed, my husband and I own a timeshare and we traded into the Worldmark Windsor. We had a great experience there. Granted, we really weren't there much but our 2 bedroom unit was very nice and roomy. The grounds and facilities, we also found to be great.

We ate dinner at the Martini House one evening and weren't super excited about our experience. Next time, we will know to ask George for his recommendation before we book reservations. Nothing about the Martini House was bad at all, just not worth what we paid. For the first half of the dinner we were freezing because the air conditioning was on... and it wasn't hot out at all. We weren't impressed with the wine list and thought it was unusually overpriced. The food was good but not memorable with the exception of the Cream of Mushroom Soup (yum). We had lunch at Mustard's Grill one day (a reservation which George arranged) it was delicious! We also had appetizers and cocktails at Rutherford Grill one night and would love to go back for dinner or luch sometime, it was delicious. We missed having lunch at Bistro Ralphs in Healdsburg, but it is definately on our list for next time. The menu and food looked amazing as we walked by and it was a cozy, cute atmosphere. Hope this helps with some of your planning, let me know if you have more questions.
Angela
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Old Apr 24th, 2007, 01:00 PM
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I almost forgot to mention our lunch at The Girl and The Fig. Our first day there we drove in from Sacramento and on our way up to Windsor we ate there... it was wonderful and we would definately go back. Linda, we didn't tour many wineries in Sonoma this trip. George actually planned a Sonoma itinerary for us one of the days, but at the last minuted we decided we wanted to do more up in the Spring Mountain area and stuff so George completely rearranged for us. Next time we will spend some of our time in Sonoma - we love it over there also. After two full days of wine tasting over on the Napa side we were a little burnt out and decided to shop the thrid day instead. We typically have been more drawn to Sonoma because of the smaller, friendlier wineries. But this trip, because we had George as a guide, we got to experience those type of wineries in the Napa Valley, which was really fun.
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Old Apr 24th, 2007, 01:08 PM
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What a fantastic report! Makes me want to jump on a plane tomorrow!

I sure hope George puts you on his friends and family discount plan next time. You are sure to bring him more business!
 
Old Apr 26th, 2007, 11:52 AM
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Your trip makes me excited for our visit next month in May! Thanks for the recommendations. We are also flying into Sacramento. Is there a route you took that you recommend? Also, we're returning to Sacramento from Napa on a Monday morning. I am a bit worried about making the 9:55 a.m. flight. Any recommended routes for the return as well?

I am also planning our itinerary and can't decide between dining at COPIA or Hurley's in Yountville.

Have you been to either? We're staying in Napa and weren't sure if we wanted to drive very far at the end of a "wine tasting" day.

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Old Apr 26th, 2007, 12:25 PM
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reneea...are you staying in the TOWN of Napa? I am not crazy about that town...it's very commercial and no charm. Staying in, say, Calistoga is so much easier to get to SAC. We go yearly;I am not a Napa fan really (much prefer Sonoma and other parts of wine country) but it is easier to get to SAC from there. We love SAC because we can use our SWA points and because it is an efficient airport/car rental place. You might consider staying in downtown Sacremento before your flight. We used Holiday Inn points and walked to the old town, had a great dinner and loved it!
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Old Apr 26th, 2007, 12:35 PM
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We are using a timeshare called RiverPoint and I believe it's in or near downtown Napa.

We arrive at 9 p.m. on a Thursday, so I was thinking of staying overnight in Sacramento that night. Then driving over to Napa on Friday morning.

Thanks for the Holiday Inn advice in Sacramento. I am reading all the posts for Napa/Sonoma and realizing that next time we'll have to stay in Healdsburg or Sonoma.

We are doing lunch on Friday at Bistro Jeanty (after reading all the posts). Are any of those wonderful wineries that kinsel3 mentioned near there for tasting before/after?
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Old Apr 26th, 2007, 05:01 PM
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I love Bistro Jeanty (in Yountville). It is charming and delicious. Love the Tomato Soup in Puff Pasty and the Crudites. Yum!
My husband and I ate at Hurley's last weekend and really enjoyed the food. We highly recommend an appetizer: Morrocan Beef Skewers with hummus, pita and Mediterranean salad. I was very brave and tried the Wild Boar entree - wonderful!
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