Napa Valley & Sonoma Overview

Grapes, vineyards, wineries and mud. California's Wine Country shares with the French countryside great vintages, superb restaurants, and a refined lifestyle. Tour Napa Valley on the Wine Train, stay in a Victorian B&B, and relax in a hot mud bath. Napa Valley ranks among the premier wine growing regions of the world. An estimated five million tourists pass through each year, visiting wineries, dining at designer restaurants, and trying to get a taste of Napa's refined and moneyed lifestyle.

Even if you're a teetotaler, however, Napa Valley can be a real delight, and for some of the very reasons grapes like it so much: it's sunny without being hot or arid, and the gentle valley landscape makes a perfect tableau for a summer afternoon. There's no better place for a picnic, a long bike ride, or a hot air balloon ride. It's easy to see why so much wealth has migrated to the area.

Districts

The city of Napa is largest in the county, yet it's possibly the community least connected to the refined, vinicultural image the world has of the Napa Valley. While there are quite a few mansions and large estates back against the hill, Napa tends to be a down-to-earth, blue-collar city. Farther up Highway 29, Yountville hews far closer to the popular, Falconcrest image of Napa Valley. Less populous and more gentrified than the city of Napa, there are also a lot of grapes growing here.

Robert Mondavi, one of the titans of California wine, is headquartered in Oakville. By this point, one has entered the real heart of Napa Valley wine production. While tiny Oakville has a post office, it's really an unincorporated part of Napa County, best known for the Oakville Grocery, a legendary roadside delicatessen stocked with a mind-boggling array of gourmet delights from France, Italy, and their own kitchens.

Microscopic Rutherford, population 525, is home to Beaulieu (BV) Winery, Rutherford Grove, Rutherford Hill, St. Supery Vineyards & Winery, Mumm Napa Valley (of champagne fame) and Francis Ford Coppola's Niebaum-Coppola Estate Winery, which features memorabilia from his directorial career, including the Tucker automobile from the film of the same name.

Worth a stop independent of wine, St. Helena is a town that strives to look as it did 90 years ago. To a commendable extent, it succeeds. The vintage facades on Highway 29, St. Helena's main street, are striking. St. Helena features surprisingly upscale shopping.

Calistoga is famous for its. . .mud. Mud baths, along with mineral baths, saunas, hot steam treatments, whirlpools, and herbal body wraps, have all been an attraction of the area ever since San Francisco entrepreneur Sam Brannan first promoted the benefits of the area's hot springs in the mid-19th century.

Entertainment

Napa Valley may have many delights, and for residents and many guests, one of them is its peace and quiet. Communities here are small, and tend to be affluent. Which is by way of saying that you (A) won't find big-city nightlife here, and (B) won't find a lot of hoe-downs or honky-tonks, either. There are bars, sure, but Wine Country propriety, noise ordinances, and the amount of wine consumed as part of the job all militate against raucous, after-hour saloons. What you will find, albeit in more specialized and rarified formats, is culture. Classical. Jazz. The Arts. Primarily in a festival format, and often at wineries.

Dining and Drinking

Just as Napa Valley saved the French wine industry with vine cuttings after the 19th-century Phylloxera blight, today's Wine Country chefs have given a new life and new direction to French cooking. It may not be a direction chefs in France acknowledge, of course, but the national awards showered upon chefs and restaurants in the Napa Valley is indicative of their influence on fine cuisine in America. Of course, it's also possible to eat a perfectly good meal in the Wine Country without booking three weeks in advance (or blowing three weeks' salary). Napa Valley is strewn with spots that are casual, inexpensive, and can seat you just about whenever you like. And oh—it goes without saying that wine cellars in Napa Valley restaurants are very, very well-stocked.

Where To Stay

Of the millions of tourists traveling through Napa Valley every year, there are some who naturally want to stay for a day or two. The valley's lodgings stand ready, as graceful, pleasant, and varied as its wines. The first question one needs to ask oneself is whether to stay in a hotel or a bed and breakfast. One other bit of advice: many Napa hotels and bed and breakfasts have a two-night minimum stay. Ask about this in advance—it may save you some driving.

Did You Know?

Napa is world renowned for its wine, the mild climate and topography providing the perfect conditions for the vineyards. Napa is home to over 200 wineries, and its popularity has grown as vigorously as the grapes in the vineyards. Hence when anyone mentions the Wine Country it is synonymous with Napa.

Orientation/Geography

Located in northern California, the Napa Valley is 50 miles northeast of San Francisco, 40 miles west of Oakland and 58 miles east of Sacramento.


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