Please help plan-sonoma/napa

Old Oct 20th, 2004, 06:19 PM
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Please help plan-sonoma/napa

We will be leaving San Francisco on a Friday. Should we stop and see anything on way to sonoma? We have never been to SF or Wine country. We are staying in SF for 2 days.
The following are the wineries we have put on a list. We like light white wine such as Riesling. We want to visit some wineries on Friday and then we have a limo for 6 hours on Sat. Which wineries are best for us and which make more sense for our time and plan. We will not spend too much time at one place, as I want to try as many as I can.
What would be the best plan? I have no idea how to plan this. Where to go when and in what order to make the most of the time.
Mondavi
Sterling
V. Sattui
Coppola
Joseph Phelps
Stag's Leap
Artesa
Beringer
Freemark Abbey
Frog's Leap
Grgich Hills
Koves-Newlen
Viansa
Benziger
St. Francis
Chateau St. Jean
Blackstone
Sebastiani
Ravenswood
Kenwood
Ledson
Gundlach-Bunschow? sp.
Arrowood
Geyser Peak
Adler Fels
Kunde
Kendall-Jackson-Healdsburg
Smith-Madrone
Trefethen
Stony Hill
St. Supery

lomillerin is offline  
Old Oct 21st, 2004, 05:27 AM
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I realize that people are really different in their need to plan for vacations...

When we visited wine country we didn't start out with a list like you've got. We bought a good map that listed the wineries and picked a route. Then we just stopped when we felt like stopping--including some wineries we were familiar with and some we weren't. Driving around in the country was 1/2 the fun. There were a few that had tours we wanted to take to learn more about wine makeing and with those we made and appointment.

We always asked the employees giving the tastes for suggestions and sometimes that helped to direct where we would go next.

If you are interested in visiting the most places, I suggest you go to napa instead of sonoma. The tasting rooms are much closer together and they are better suited to a taste and go style.

In sonoma it is likely you may the only people tasting. Chatting with the person giving the tasting (often the owner or winemakers in Sonoma) totally made the experience for us.

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Old Oct 21st, 2004, 06:02 AM
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Hi, lomillerin!

It's not clear to me whether you will be spending your nights in SF and travelling up to the wine country each day for two separate days or you plan to stay one night in the wine country or you have two days in total in SF and one of these will be spent in the wine country.

If you have two days for the wine country, I would strongly suggest staying overnight in either Sonoma or Napa.

Q #1: where to stop between SF and Sonoma?

As you cross the Golden Gate Bridge, the very first exit on the right leads to a Vista Point. I would suggest stopping there, if there is no fog.

After you leave the Vista Point and get on Highway 101, the second exit will be labelled "Alexander Road". Take that exit and curve UNDER the freeway. Once on the west side of the freeway, follow the signs for "Marin Headlands". Park anywhere along the hill at the top. Walk to the old batteries and get a fantastic view of the Golden Gate Bridge as well as of the entire Bay Area. Recommended, again, if no fog.

Return back the way you came and continue on northbound on Highway 101.

Q #2: which wineries to visit?

I'll leave this to the experts like PamSF, Kimamom and others.

Personally, I much prefer Sonoma to Napa. The vineyards I would take any visitor to would be: Ferrari-Carano, Chateau Souverain (possibly a lunch stop), and Roshambo and J for contrast.

For you, since you are coming in from the south, Viansa is a good first stop. I don't particularly care for their wines, but their jams, etc. are quite good and the view is wonderful.

Ledson is not usually open, but you can drive by and gawk at their "chateau".

My personal favorites are Grgich Hills and La Crema for their Chardonnay. We used to drink a lot of reisling, but not so much now, so don't know which wineries to recommend in that area. I'm certain other Fodorites will be able to offer excellent suggestions.

Have a great trip!
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Old Oct 21st, 2004, 10:44 AM
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I too prefer Sonoma to Napa - less crowded. Ferrari Cerano is my personal favorite not only for the wonderful wine but for the fabulous estate they have. I do think that just getting a wine map and seeing which ones work on your route is better than listing all the wineries and trying to pick.

ALso, try some wines you've never tasted before. If you want a tour of the wine making process, only do it once, as they are all basically the same and it takes a lot of time.
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Old Oct 21st, 2004, 11:27 AM
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Here is another option. Call California Wine Tours. They offer chauffers to take you on a tour of the various vineyards. The guy who drove us had a notebook with suggested tours based on the kinds of wines you liked, whether this was the 1st or 51st time you'd been to the valley, etc. Yes, you'll pay for it but we had a great time. If you don't take that route, I'd suggest Benzinger, Kunde, Ferrari, Duckhorn and Cakebread for their whites. On our last trip, we bought about 60/40 Reds to whites and stayed only in the Sonoma area.
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Old Oct 21st, 2004, 05:54 PM
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We are staying in SF for 2 night and then staying in Sonoma at the Ledson Hotel for 2 nights.
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Old Oct 21st, 2004, 07:42 PM
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Make sure you bring your Dior pajamas when staying at Ledson's. (Just kidding!).
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Old Oct 22nd, 2004, 09:57 AM
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We just got back from St. Helena in Napa. But we did drive through Sonoma on our way back to SF. I'd recommend staying in the Sonoma area for your tours/tastings so you're not driving all over the place. Pick your favorites must hits for your list - I'd say about 3 per day with a few to fill in in between if you have time. I would not want to be rushing around for tastings. The key is to enjoy your time at each place. Look for good free tours. If you end up going to Napa, our favorite free tour was at Cakebread Cellars. We found Mondavi to be big and less friendly - but they let us pick some grapes off the vines. We also really enjoyed the Schramsberg tour in Calistoga.
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Old Oct 22nd, 2004, 09:58 AM
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Note: Cakebread was free and Mondavi and Schramsberg had a fee. Sorry if that was confusing.
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