Napa / Sonoma Trip Help

We’re looking at heading to Napa/Sonoma to celebrate my 35th on 4/21 and I was hoping I might be able to get some insight on wineries. Sunday morning on the 24th I’m holding for Bedrock before we fly out.

Syrah
I love both the Halcon Alturas and Stolpman Estate (and Twenty). We enjoyed a Pax Griffin’s Lair a couple of years back and though a tasting there might be interesting. Arnot Roberts, Ridge, and Jolie Laide were others to try not just for syrah, but also zin, cab, and gamay. I think we should max at 3 tastings, currently leaning towards Pax-Arnot-Ridge. Very open to suggestions, my knowledge of the region is pretty limited.

Cabernet Sauvignon
I have limited experience with cab and would appreciate some help. I love the 2015 Saunter ESV and have a couple of the 2016s I haven’t tried yet, but they don’t seem to do tastings from what I can find. I’ve also enjoyed Immortal Estate’s Slope cab and the Wine Access Concept Album which I believe was based on that. I enjoyed the de Negoce 25 off Spring Mountain, but I’m not sure how indicative that is of the area. We very rarely enter into the $100+/bottle range, so starting bottles in the $60ish range would be much appreciated but would want to try at higher price points as well (edited).

TIA!

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Frog’s Leap is a great place to taste many varietals including ~$60 cab (among the best out there). Also if they waive tasting fees for joining their club (which they prob do - club members get free tastings, so the inverse should probably be true? - the club is actually a good one IMO. You get library vintages regularly and a few bottlings are club only (including an excellent cab franc).

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Consider visiting Unti for Rhones and Italian varieties including Zin. Low key tasting is only $25, refunded with purchase.

https://www.untivineyards.com

Robert

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At $60/bottle you will be much more successful in Sonoma. Some suggestions:

Smith Story
Sixteen 600
Sojourn
Abbot’s Passage
Alma de Cattleya
Flanagan
Forth
Lasseter Family
Pangloss Cellars
Ram’s Gate.

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I will add: Calluna in Sonoma and Bougetz in Napa. Both are in your price range, excellent wines and different varietals. Bougetz also has several different AVA wines…and just as important they are both great hosts!!!

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I have tasted at Pax. It’s a fun time. Don’t expect a winery set in a vineyard. It’s a tasting room in the middle of a development called the Barlow. The restaurant we had lunch before our tasting and then hit a couple of the shops.

Pax is about 30-40 minutes south of Ridge Lytton Springs.

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Not looking forward to the drive, but figure we’ll try and knock out Pax in the morning and move north from there. Thanks for the insight

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I started with that thread, it has a lot of good info.

I was yanking your chain. It took me months to plan our last trip because of that thread.

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I suggest Jolie Laide for Syrah, Grenache, GSM, Gamay etc. I say this as they now have tastings in the same address as Idlewild where you can taste their Italian varieties, Arneis, Cortese, Dolcetto, Barbera, Nebbiolo etc. A lot of wine in one location.

Ruth Lewandowski is also located at this location. They have an eclectic lineup of Natural wines if that is your thing.

For Cabernet, my favorites in Sonoma are Calluna and Scherrer. In Napa my favorite is Frogs Leap.

Enjoy and report back where you wind up going.

Tom

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Anyone been to region at Barlow? Seems like a great way to try scherrer, revisit immortal, and check out a couple others over food…

I fully second that endorsement!

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Yep, we go there quite regularly (if you pay a one-time fee of $20 for their premium membership you get a free half glass of wine every time you go so it’s a no-brainer for locals). I would recommend Region very highly; I think it’s a really well run establishment. Ordering food to your table from the adjacent Barlow restaurants is a definite perk. And if you’re there tasting at Pax anyway it’s an easy additional stop. You can taste some of Calluna’s wines there, too, if you don’t make it to a dedicated tasting with them.

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If you have the time, you can eschew the highways and drive up to Forestville from Sebastopol and then up Westside Road to Healdsburg. It’s a lovely drive and there are other good options for stops on the way up, though most are light on Syrah/Cab and heavy on Pinot/Chard.

There have been lots of good suggestions already but let me add Rafanelli to the mix. It’s not far from Ridge and their Cab and Zin are both stellar. There are a number of very good wineries in dry creek valley but they stand out to me. Last time I went they still weren’t charging for tastings

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I believe that is the general route we took when we went from Pax to Flanagan. We also enjoyed our tasting there a few years back. They had just moved into their current tasting room and were just starting on rehabbing the vineyard which was a cool story.

After Flanagan we went to Valette for dinner. Can’t recommend that place enough.

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Gary Farrell has a great wine and cheese pairing with a beautiful view. Just down the street from Williams Selyem and Rochioli.

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I agree with the couple of others who have mentioned Calluna. Great wines, reasonable prices, tasting is in the kitchen of their house with 360 degree views overlooking Sonoma area.

I’ll second Gary Farrell, and you can’t go wrong cruising Westside Rd. I’ll mention Hartford Family as well.

Good call on Hartford. It wasn’t as personal as some of the other visits we’ve had, but we did have some good conversation with the person who was pouring the wines. And, just showing interest and a little knowledge led him to pour several other wines for us that were not a part of the tasting, so we could experience a broader range of what they produce and do some comparisons. In the end, I think we tasted 9-10 wines there.

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