Napa on weekend in early October
 

We will be in CA Wine Country Oct 4-11th.

We are staying in Sonoma area (Agua Caliente) in a house.

We are meeting friend the last weekend we are there who will be coming in from Sacramento, and staying over Friday night. We are trying to come up with plans for Sat and Sun. They have suggested going to Copia and Opus One.

I have heard that Wine Country - but Napa especially - is a zoo on the weekend, with long tasting lines, and bumper to bumper traffic. Doesn't sound like my idea of fun.

My husband and I would like to see Napa, but thought we'd go during the week when it might be less crowded.

I'm thinking that perhaps something in the Russian River area or Alexander/Dry Creek area might make more sense and be less crowded.

Is Copia worth it, and are we best NOT to do this on a weekend? Any suggestions on what might be good to do for that weekend?

Tentatively, we are planning on breaking days as follows:

Day 1 - Travel Day In - Check into house, shop for food (where is the regular grocery store in Sonoma?), and then tour Sonoma town.

Day 2 - Sonoma Valley/Carneros -
Viansa, Gloria Ferrar, Chateau St. Jean and Glen Ellen town and Jack London Park

Day 3 - Napa Valley -
Niebaum-Coppolla, St. Supery, Beringer and St. Helena town, Yountville town, and Calistoga town.

Day 4 - Sonoma Coast and Green Valley -
Iron Horse, Korbel and
Sebastapol/Graton towns (antiquing), Jenner, Goat Rock Beach, Bodega and Bodega Bay, Armstrong Redwoods Forest, and Petaluma town.

Day 5 - Russian River/Healsburg -
Ferrari-Carano, Chateau Souverain, Jordan Vineyard, and Santa Rosa

Day 6 and Day 7 (Sat and Sun) is when our friends will be over, and then

Day 8 - travel home.

Also wondering if day 4 is too packed.

Wanderer~Napa will probably be a zoo on a weekend in October. It's the crush.
The Alexander Valley is a wonderful place but likely to be busy as well.The zins and pinot noirs are not to be missed. I might also suggest since you will be here for awhile, you plan a day of tasting in the Anderson Valley(along hwy 128). There are some great,small tasting rooms. We were just up there again. Personally, I think it's wine tasting as it was meant to be done.
Definitely try Lazt Creek,Roederer, Greenwood Ridge, Husch and Handley.See if you can have lunch at the Booneville Hotel.

wqhoops that's Lazy Creek. I might also suggest you call Esterlina and make a reservation for a tasting. You will taste on a deck overlooking the Anderson Valley. Their Pinot Noir is very good.

"Le Pammer" is up this early??? =-O

Agree tho. SV and NV will be pretty busy. Get a good map and don't be afraid to take one of the "Cross" roads.

Just don't go down there the 2nd to the last weekend. We'll be celebrating a friend's "double nickel" b'day and the old guy gets nervous in traffic. ;)

Wanderer:

What you have put together is very good.
Your day 4 is "impossible". We have a place in Bodega Bay and what you have will take two days. Delete one of the days with friends to make this work.

Your day 5 which ends in Santa Rosa is because??? I ask because unless you like to shop I am not sure what you plane to do in Santa Rosa. If you have not identified a great restaurant in Santa Rosa for dinner then consider stopping for dinner at any of the awesome restaurants that you will pass up on your way to Santa Rosa.

Now of course we have had some fine dinners in Santa Rosa...but...

You will get a zillion recommendations for wines to taste and wineries to go to. What you have seems planned so stick with your plans...allowing for some detours along the way.

Pace yourselves, designate a driver...
You are actually doing more Sonoma than Napa...EXCELLENT.

Your day 5 will work fine on day 6...you have identified Sonoma properties...no worries...take your friends with you.

Copia...depends on what YOU like. We like it...not sure what the measure of worth is?
Factor in the cost to taste and factor in that you will leave some of these wineries with a glass that comes with your fee to taste...grab a wine box early to put these in so they don't roll around in the trunk of your rental car.

Enjoy Crush!

Oh....very important...It is a buyers market for wines for a host of reasons.
Buy what you can't get at home...

If you or your friends are flying with wine as a carryon in today's airport climate be prepared.
Ship/send what you can as the weight regulations are enforced on a whim by the greedy TSA folks...if pressed to only have a certain number of bottles do not surrender your wines to them...go back out side and smash the bottles curbside like my girlfriend did.

Note, if you or your friends fly in October...close to election time, we are sure to be on some type of high/red alert which will make travel next to impossible...i.e. all "hidden" bottles are sure to be found...

You are doing a lot, but it will be worth it! We had a "crush" this weekend, ourselves! We're making Syrah! My home smells like a winery right now. We've received some pretty good advice from a sommelier at Engelmann Cellars ( they distribute to Erna's Elderberry House) on what to do, so we'll see how this turns out!!

Hubby has a bunch of Pinot Noir vines planted at our house that he picked up in Napa. Now I need to come up with a name for our labels. I'm leaning towards KC Cellars. We need to design a label, also. ***kim*** :)

Hi wanderer!
Your finally (almost) here. Here's my thoughts:
On Sonoma Hwy (12) just south of Aqua Caliente is a large shopping center with a Ralph's and Rite Aid drug-closer to the town square is another center with an Albertsons and Long's drug.
In the Ralph's shopping center is a great little restaurant called the
Breakaway Cafe,perfect for your first night or when you get tired of $100+
dinners. (Last Wed eve I had a Mayo chard.- Laurel vines-here for $5.50 that I had passed on lunch at Meritage as it was priced at $9.)

Your days 1 & 2 look good. Your Napa day
3-may I suggest you start up valley
in Calistoga via Hwy 29 and then wend your way back down the Silverado Trail
using the "cross roads" as our brilliant Kal has suggested.
Beringer is on the north side of St. Helena as is Rombauer. You could do a nifty lunch stop in St. Helena at Cindy's Backstreet Kitchen-then venture down into Rutherford for Coppola and St.Supery.

Your days 4 and 5 are too much, I suggest re-arranging. Do Healdsburg-Russian River (West Side Road for wineries)to 116 out to Jenner/Goat Rock and back through Guerneville/Santa Rosa.
loop. And my, that's still alot. You are likely to take many happy detours.
(Do not be steered away from Santa Rosa-there are marvelous things to do and enough destination restaurants that you could skip many heavily hyped eateries in the valley,IMHO, to bad you will get only a glance).

Then I might take your next day for a Sebastopol/Bodega Bay/Petaluma loop.
You might consider your Healdsburg loop with your friends-we've done that one on the weekends and it's not to bad.
I would however, stay far away from Napa on the weekend.Opus One requires
reservations and Copia-not for us, but others enjoy it.
Pam's idea of venturing up 128 is also excellent-if you go to the coast-the views from Elk along the coast are lovely.
I know, I know, too much to do.
Happy to help in any way I can!
R5

We just returned from a 2 day trip to Napa and Sonoma over the Labor Day weekend.

It wasn't any busier than any other spring or summer weekend we have visited - that applies to both areas! The wine country always seems crowded!

We visited Copia for the first time and arrived at 10:30 AM on Sunday. We were some of the first people to arrive and saw a cooking demo, a wine (sake) information class, looked at both main galleries, did the tomato sampling, checked out the gardens, wine tasting, and had lunch. All in time to leave about 1:00 PM. We felt we had done plenty and saw everything. It was much busier when we left.

Crush is in full swing because of the heat wave in the area right now - so I can't imagine October will be any worse.

I would concentrate your days a bit more on a particular area more - for Day 1 I would do Carneros and Sonoma Square and save the Kenwood area for your trips up north or for the first afternoon since it is close to Aqua Caliente. Also Viansa has a tasting bar in downtown Sonoma. I would hit all of the wineries in a close circle - and try to find some of the family run ones to get a private tour - check out the Wine Room in Kenwood for several small producers.

Carneros could also be done on the way to or from Copia or Napa Valley.

Do prepare for Napa to be busier than Sonoma, harder to get right up to the counter and more costly for tastings. Napa during the week is going to be easier...Also use Silverado Trail as opposed to Hwy 29 for easier driving.

Wanderer, don't miss Sterling in the Calistoga area. Try to hit the Wappo Bar & Bistro for lunch. www.wappobar.com

Also, in Yountville, Bistro Jeanty is nice and Domaine Chandon has beautiful grounds.

St. Helena has some outlets there and nice shopping in the downtown area. Check out the small boutique winery, Freemark Abbey, they make a really nice Reisling. ***kim***

Thanks all. I will rejuggle and rethink all this based on these suggestions.

I am thinking that maybe what we should do since friends arrive Friday night is meet them for dinner, drive back to the house together where they will stay over, do something other than Napa on Sat., then they will stay Sat. night and we each will do what we feel like doing - if they want to see Opus One and Copia, they can easily from our place, and we can do something else.

The reason for Santa Rosa - and Petaluma, but to a lesser degree due to cost - is that we have in the back of our mind retirement in Northern CA, and Santa Rosa (perhaps Petaluma) are the only places we could afford.

We wanted to get a general feel for the city to see if it is something we would seriously consider or not. If we like, we can always go back and spend more time.

I'm wishing now we had 2 weeks!! However, since this is vacation, we are picking our favorite winery to visit each day, and we will definitely see that one. If we have time for the others, great, but if we feel like doing only one - or none - that day, that's how we will be. We want to amble about, see the scenery, and just get a sense of the area more than anything else.

Kal my darling..c'est moi at that early hour! Some days there's just too much money to take to the bank so I must rise earlier than usual to complete the massive deposits before 2 pm:).
R5 -loved loved Queenie's! And Wanderer, if you move here you can join the SF Winers get together in Yountville. Kal manages to herd us cats and we have a grand time.

Razzledazzle -
Re: Day 5. I had thought all were close together, and with only two towns (Healdsburg and Santa Rosa) we would be OK. I'm still not certain of my geography.

Are these wineries really scattered and not near at all to Santa Rosa?

Your suggestions have been really helpful. Thanks as well to everyone.

Pammer, I had to get up that early to make my own "massive deposit".:-"

As for Y'ville, it might be time to start counting the kitties! ((@))((@))

Go here and order the Santa Rosa/Sonoma Map-it'll show all the majority of wineries in the county.

http://www.compass-maps.com/streetroad.htm

also look over their sight for a Napa/Sonoma Map (maybe in the speciality map section then you can see for yourself how close who is to what.

Healdsburg and Santa Rosa are about 20 mins apart. It's all the other places you want to go-Jenner is about an hour
from SR and with stops and exploring
you be surprised at what you'll miss.

And then SR is a good hour from Sonoma.
Petaluma is 20 minutes from Sonoma, but Bodega Bay will take you nearly an hour from Petaluma. So try to "bundle" your stops.
Be sure to come back and post your new
plans for all the wine-o's here!
R5

Albertson is a standard grocery. If you want to see the best in Sonoma, go to the Sonoma Market on West Napa St going into downtown Sonoma. Good restaurants in Sonoma are Girl and the Fig and Cafe Le Haye. Up the road where you're staying is Glen Ellen which has the Garden Court Cafe for great breakfast and The Fig Cafe for dinner. Glen Ellen Market (kin to Sonoma Market) is there. There are other good wineries along Route 12 depending on what type of wines you like. Landmark for Chard, Chateua St Jean for other interesting ones. Did a zin crush as well this weekend. Look at Lampyridaevineyards.com.

OK, here's the new plan, but still some problems...

Day 1 - Arrive SF at 1pm, drive to Sonoma - maybe arrive @3pm by time collect baggage at airport and pick up rental car. Check In at house, see Sonoma Town, then go grocery shopping for week. Eat somewhere out before crashing - coming from Boston. Like the idea of Breakaway Cafe - need something simple, cheap and close.

Day 2 - Chateau St. Jean - Kenwood, Glen Ellen town (is there anything here to see - shops, etc.?), Jack London State Park, Farmer's Market at 5:30pm in Sonoma, and eat out in Sonoma.

Day 3 - Calistoga via Hwy 29 (thanks Razzle Dazzle) - see Calistoga town, then stop in St. Helena and shop. Beringer - St. Helena, Lunch at Cindy's Backstreet Kitchen, Niebaum Coppolla and St. Supery in Rutherford. See Yountville town. (?)

Day 4 - Chateau Souverain - Geyersville, to Healdsburg town - shops, Ferrari-Carano - Healdsburg, possibly Jordan - Healdsburg (anyone been here?), West Side Road to 116 to Jenner and Goat Rock Beach, then Guerneville - Korbel and home. (I'd like to cut a winery or 2 here. Can anyone give opinions of who should keep vs. cut?) Considering Armstrong Redwoods Forest - is this worth seeing?

Day 5 - Sebastapol/Grafton - Antiques, Iron Horse Vineyards - Sebastapol, Bodega and Bodega Bay, and Petaluma town. Friends arrive tonight. Meet for dinner somewhere.

Day 6 - Day with friends - still unsettled...

Day 7 - Our last full day. Go to brunch with friends (they are staying over), then go our separate ways. Head up to Santa Rosa for the afternoon, then back to the house to pack.

OK, now the problems.

1) I'm wondering if Day 3 will be too busy including Yountville, or is it so small to not take up much time? (shops, etc.)

2) I took out the Carneros Valley wineries in Day 2, as someone said we were driving in 2 different directions that day. Was that a mistake, and if so, what day do they fit best in geographically?

3) I really have my heart set on seeing Napa town - I know, I know - but I have heard there are some beautiful Victorians there, and we love architecture. Again, it's also a place we've considered living - not so expensive it seems as other places.

Could we possibly fit this in Day 2 - after Glen Ellen, drive over to Napa and do Napa town and Yountville?

Yes, I admit I am geographically challenged, but not knowing how the roads are and how the traffic moves, it is hard to judge time, even if we can estimate the distance with a map. That's why these comments have been so valuable.

I don't want to run us ragged, and gaining Sunday helps a little bit. Any suggestions welcomed as usual. Thanks again to all. Can't wait!!

p.s. Can anyone suggest a good place for brunch not too far from Aqua Caliente area that is not fancy/dressy/very expensive for Sunday with our friends?

Thanks to all for the restaurant suggestions. We want to eat at casual spots where we don't have to dress, and where we don't pay an arm and a leg. Inexpensive to moderate price range. Most days we will probably eat lunch on the road, and then come back home and cook in and relax.

>>Glen Ellen town (is there anything here to see - shops, etc.?

visit the friendly, family-run Benziger winery (near the Jack London State Park) and take their 90min tractor-pull tour

We did a portion of your day 4 last month. We left from north of Jenner in the morning, skipped Goat Rock Beach (it was foggy, went to Armstrong Woods, stopped at Korbel, drove Westside Road and ended in Healdsburg.

We really enjoyed Armstrong Woods. However, neither of us had ever seen giant redwoods before. If you have time, the walk into the forest was nice. If you are pressed for time, drive in and it is only a short walk to the high points of the forest.

We did not stop at all the wineries on Westside Rd. nor did we spend excessive time at any one place.

We had inexpensive, decent Mexican food at El Sombrero in Healdburg. It is across the street from the grocery/deli that many here speak of (I forget the name). It is extremely casual.

You're wearing me out, girl!
You must be a "fire"sign
OK-had to kid you a bit-I know you are on a mission, so.....

Day 1
Get to Sonoma between 3-4P. Check in.
See Sonoma town (you mean the plaza yes?
you could stroll it from say 5-6P,but many of the shops close early AND you'll be to a 6:30 (or earlier) sunset
by Oct 4th. so, I say give it a look and see if there is anything you want to come back to.

Day 2
There is no reason you couldn't go
to Kenwood/Glen Ellen in the AM-grab a bite in Sonoma town-Cucina Viansa-shop around the square-and then go South of town to see a few wineries. Or do the opposite-yes you are in 2 different directions, but pick 2 north and 2 south-it's just not that far. On the south you could pick Gloria Ferrar (sparkling) and eliminate Korbel from day 4.

Day 3
Calistoga is nice to see, but there is not that much there for shops. Think I might go up 29,(a pretty drive) eyeball Calistoga, on to Beringer, prowl St. Helena, lunch at Cindy's,on to Niebaum and St.Supery and then prowl through Napa town-I don't know about Victorians there, but Petaluma has Victorians
and loads of antique stores.
Yountville is very tiny-nice,but
with your schedule...

Day 4
Hmmmm.....How about Jordon,walk around Healdsburg square, go out to the beach (picnic?) and come back-it's alot of driving. Save the Armstong Woods-on your way to Jenner you will see some trees-at least enough for a taste.

Day 5
My bias, but you need more time in Petaluma-our downtown is more than just a square-like 6-8 city blocks and then the Victorians. OK, if you want to eyeball Sebastopol, go to Iron Horse, skip Bodega Bay, have lunch in Petaluma (Dempseys?)and prowl for antiques and meet your friends.

At this point, I must say that your Healdsburg day could be your Day 6 and they could go to do their Napa things on Day 7.

On Day 7-I would consider a glance at Windsor (as I know you are considering living here) and maybe a peek at Cloverdale. Still close enough, yet somewhat affordable.

Now, I need a nap...HA-HA!
R5