My 1st wine tour was 25 years ago in Napa.   I have a different appreciation for wine these days and tend to put a lot more planning into my wine touring.  I recommend a visit to http://www.visitnapavalley.com to help with planning and for some really great Special Offers.

We stayed at the Silverado Resort again, but next time I’m staying downtown, where there’s lots of fun in walking distance.  The  Napa Valley Welcome Center on Main Street is a good place to start.  Be sure to see if there are any good discount coupons. Oxbow Market is great for breakfast; try Ritual Coffee for seriously good coffee.  I’d love to try it for lunch or dinner too.

Mumm Napa has a great patio tasting experience. We learned that a piccolo is a small wine flute and that a water cracker is an excellent way to cover a piccolo to keep out the elements.  Also worth a visit for the Ansel Adams art collection.

My favourite tasting room was Beaulieu Vineyards.  The Cabernet Collectors Tasting was $50, and well worth it.  We tasted 5 Cabernet Sauvignons, 2 different clones in 2 different vintages and then a 2015 BV Private Reserve Georges de Latour that knocked our socks off.   We splurged on a bottle since we had a half price coupon for the tasting fee thanks to http://www.visitnapavalley.com.

Solbar at the beautiful Solage Auberge Resort in Calistoga was my favourite meal of the trip. Great service, a fantastic wine list and raves around our table for the food.  The Wilted Kale salad with pickled grapes, roasted romanesco and candied pistachios was so good I’ve already pickled some grapes and am working on my replica.  Don’t miss the crab cakes, no filler here so you can really taste the sweet crab.