Best places for walk-in tastings in Napa?

[Merrill_Lindquist]

@dougwilder

It is your DAD for god sakes! make a couple calls Try the Patz & Hall Salon in South Napa. They are in the business park on the South end of Soscol near the airport. A premier negociant of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Also a quick call to Ma(i)sonry in Yountville will allow you to taste a lot of different small producers without fuss, and do so in a relaxed garden setting. Drive past any place you see a bunch of limos (pretty much factories).

Andy was asking for some walk-in recommendations to fit around their appointments. Perhaps his dad has not been to Napa in 30 years, but Andy sure has.

[Andrew_Demaree]

I appreciate all the recommendations, everyone. And, yes, I will be setting up reservations for two tastings per day, as I mentioned. I’m just assuming we’ll have an urge to pop in at least one more place per day. My wife was a trooper on our trip in September, but she was often ready for a nap by round 3. In fact, she snoozed in the car while I went into Carrie and Randy’s shop.

Anyway, many thanks, everyone. And feel free to make other suggestions if they come to you later. I’m keeping a list!

Andy

[Harris_Goldberg]

Another good place is Whitehall Lane on 29 in St. Helena. They have a nice place, good tasting options with some cabs only sold at the tasting room. We enjoyed it…

[markgugs]

@Harris Goldberg

Another good place is Whitehall Lane on 29 in St. Helena. They have a nice place, good tasting options with some cabs only sold at the tasting room. We enjoyed it…

Ironically, Whitehall was my contribution to the “producers you currently boycott” thread. Treated us like garbage. On our honeymoon no less!

[Tom_C]

+1 for Heitz and Cliff Lede. Heitz is great for cabs and the tasting is free, was there last week and they were tasting Martha’s vineyard.

[John_Davis]

Funny how these things work. I had a horrible experience at Heitz but granted, it was quite some time ago. Two years ago, Beringer was just plain awful. We got compted the $25.00 tour (I’m in the grocery biz and sell their wines) and free reserve tastings. The tour guide who was obviously on his last day was smashed. Sh*t-faced. Blotto. The touristy tour sucked and we left early to hit the generally rude reserve tasting room.

Alpha Omega was great last year as was Cliff Lede as just walking in. Chappellet is beautiful and the people are outstanding but you need an appointment. Shafer is great, too, but you need an appointment there, too.

[Andrew_Demaree]

Just checked out the Corison website and it says tastings are by appointment…doesn’t mention the possibility of walk-ins at all. I’m wondering if that’s a change? Has anyone done a walk-in there recently?

Thanks,
Andy

[Robert_Williamson]

Miner usually offers a pretty good selection of their current wines on a walk-in basis. Big plus is the view looking West over the Oakville Bench.

[Karen_Troisi]

@Robert Williamson

Miner usually offers a pretty good selection of their current wines on a walk-in basis. Big plus is the view looking West over the Oakville Bench.

Stopped by last week to taste and they had an awesome petite syrah they werre pouring.

[Mark_Y]

@Scott Brunson

Larkmead was the worst tasting room experience ever for us.
Tour and then a “private” tasting in an isolated area. Make it a cubicle and it would have been a timeshare presentation. They tell you that they waive the 40 buck per person fee if you buy at least two bottles per person. You taste (most) of the wines and then they don’t let you buy anything good (only the throwaways) unless you drop $1200 on the collector case.
NEVER again.
Drive up Spring Mtn and go to Behrens. Great view and you don’t have to say much because Robin will talk for everyone! Nice wines and Robin is very knowledgeable.

Strange, i had a great experience just a couple of weeks back… there was no sales pressure… I was able to buy a couple of Solari… no LMV since they’re sold out.
I also wouldn’t consider their $70 Cab a ‘throw away’… i actually enjoyed it quite a bit…

[H_Wallace_Jr]

@Andrew Demaree

Just checked out the Corison website and it says tastings are by appointment…doesn’t mention the possibility of walk-ins at all. I’m wondering if that’s a change? Has anyone done a walk-in there recently?

Thanks,
Andy

Andy,

I work for Corison and we are by appointment. We will try to accommodate last min arrangements if there is space, but we’ve reached a point (especially late afternoon on weekends) where it can be difficult to drop in. We have a small tasting space in our cellar and limited staff.

We’d love to have you in and give you and your dad a great experience- Feel free to email directly at hardy at corison dot com

[David_Whitworth]

Another vote for Cliff Lede. We were able to taste quite a few wines there and wound up buying quite a few bottles when we left.

[Andrew_Demaree]

Thanks, Hardy! PM sent.

[Nick_Ryan]

We went to Napa this weekend… (yeah I’ve made my peace with Napa Cab, but that’s another story…) Mostly did appointments but walked in to a bunch of places. Even walked into Corison and luckily it wasn’t busy so we did the compare tasting. The Hall tasting room was great, they were pouring lots of the good stuff, liked it so much we set up an appt. for the tour at their other property for the next day (which was fantastic). BV’s high end “Georges de Latour” room was very nice, most people don’t even know about it, it’s across the street from their “plonk” room where the tour-bus crowd hangs out. Also, Freemark Abbey’s room is great.