Caymus Vineyards
Phone: 707.967.3010
8700 Conn Creek Road
Rutherford, CA 94573

Make a reservation for the tasting, it’s free. Excellent Cabernet. The Special Selection Cab from a dry harvested 15-acre parcel is outstanding. The tasting is limited in size so it’s comfortable, relaxing, and you might even learn a thing or two. Purchases of the Special Selection were limited to 3 bottles at our visit – and of course we bought the limit. See detailed review.

PlumpJack Winery
Phone: 707.945.1220
620 Oakville Cross Rd.
Oakville, CA 94562

Well what can I say – the first winery to offer a metal screw off top in their top end $145 per bottle cab. Should last forever… This winery is neat, comfortable, and fun. Interesting Sangiovese too. Enjoy a sandwich outside while drinking wine (your bring the sandwich).

Merryvale Napa Valley
Phone: 707.963.7777
Phone: 800.326.6069
1000 Main St.
St. Helena, CA 94574

Merryvale is one of our favorites. Nice tasting room with a big counter and multiple people behind it ready to pour wine or sell you some Profile – if there is any left. On Sunday mornings you can join them in a great room with walls made of large barrels for a wine tasting/learning session. Last I knew it was $10 and definitely worth it.

Niebaum-Coppola Winery
Phone: 707.968.1100
Phone: 1.800.RUBICON
1991 St. Helena Highway
Rutherford, CA 94573

Well, you can tell what their big red wine is – just look at the phone number above. This winery is kind of different, special, coming back into play. Now owned by the director of the The Godfather, Francis Coppola has done a great job restoring the original house on the property of the former Inglenook Estate, that produced some of the best Cabs in the world in the late 1930’s through the 1960’s.

Combining this with some movie going items upstairs in the old winery building the visitor can really get a combination of history, entertainment, and great wines. I like the big Rubicon but it’s expensive. I also like the Director’s Series wines that can only be bought at the winery or one of the Niebaum-Coppola restaurants. We frequent the newer restaurant on University Avenue in Palo Alto. Great, casual food, including Coppola’s favorite pizza, and surprisingly affordable for Palo Alto. Look for our more detailed review and write up of Niebaum-Coppola.

Regusci Winery
Phone: 707.254.0403
5584 Silverado Trail
Napa, CA 94558

Transformed from late 1800’s winery to farm and back to late 1900’s winery. One of the few “Ghost Wineries” left today. What’s a Ghost Winery? Visit them to find out, or at least visit their web site. The ’98 Cab was their first, and it was great. Pick up some olive oil while you are there too. The tasting room is in the historic barn and if you ask nicely on a slow day, you might get to see the other barn where some wine is aging. This is a definite stop. You can sit outside too and relax.

Rutherford Hill Winery
Phone: 707.963.1871
200 Rutherford Hill Road
Rutherford, CA 94573

Great wine, great location at the top of the hill. Take a tour, taste some wine, relax outside. We stop in here frequently to see what’s new. More to come…

Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars
Phone: 707.265.2420
5766 Silverado Trail
Napa, CA 94558

“No Power Tasting Here” is what I overheard on the first visit to Stag’s Leap. Stag’s Leap is a great place to enjoy a top end cab or Cask 23 outside. No rush. The tasting for the high end product is $20 and worth every penny if you like big red wines. They also have the standard tasting for a lower fee. Purchases of the Cask 23 were limited to one bottle at our visit – so I went in twice… The grounds are very nice too with lots of flowers and landscaping. If you don’t stop at Stag’s Leap, you’re probably not as much into the big reds as you thought…

Steltzner Vineyards
Phone: 707.252.7272
5998 Silverado Trail
Napa, CA 94558

Located in the Stag’s Leap District. Our limo driver Martin brought us here. What a neat surprise. The tasting room is in the front part of a very large cave below natural springs where all the wine is cellared. The temperature and humidity seem to be perfect. There’s also a dining room underground for special wine tastings and dinners with the owner, Dick Steltzner. We haven’t done that yet, but when looking at the room I could tell it was my type of place. This is a neat stop. I recommend hitting it.

Sterling Vineyards
Phone: 707.942.3359
Phone: 800.977.3242
1111 Dunaweal Lane
Calistoga, CA 94515

Construction should be complete now on the new visitor center at the top of the mountain. Take a ski lift ride from the base building to the top of the mountain and enjoy some great views. When you get to the top, enjoy some great wines. The construction was still in progress at our visit so we were not able to get off the lift, but we were able to enjoy the views and the tastings were done at the base area. If you are lucky enough to catch them on a day they are selling from the garage – wines with damaged labels, etc; you can really pick up some good deals. This is a fun visit if you have kids with you too – they’ll enjoy the ride to the top.

Van der Heyden Vineyards & Winery
Phone: 707.257.0130
Phone: 800.948.9463
4057 Silverado Trail
Napa, CA 94558

Now, if you want to see a real, small, family owned winery, this is the place. We pulled our stretched limo in, avoiding grandchildren and their toys, and stepped into the tasting room no larger than our kitchen (and we have a small one) – and enjoyed talking to the owner, who that day, had been up since 4AM tending to the vines. We had some great wine, bought a bottle of the Chardonnay, and moved on. They are the only producer of the Late Harvest Cabernet. A visit here may wake people up that have the impression that running a family owned vineyard and winery is easy…because it doesn’t appear to be so…

Back to CALIFORNIA: Napa Valley

Tags: california, Caymus Vineyards, Merryvale Napa Valley, Napa Valley, Niebaum-Coppola Winery, PlumpJack Winery, Regusci Winery, Rutherford Hill Winery, Stag's Leap Wine Cellars, Steltzner Vineyards, Sterling Vineyards, Van der Heyden Vineyards & Winery, wine book review, wine country, winery

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010 at 7:43 am and is filed under California's Wine Country, Wine review. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.