Napa Tasting Rooms: Walk, don't drive from one taste to the next
Driving from winery to winery in the Napa Valley poses a dilemma. To summarize it in three letters: DUI. It takes a while to exceed the legal limit while wine tasting, but eventually you get there—and it’s irresponsible to drive even if you get close.
The solution? You can ask your travel partner to be the designated driver, but good luck with that. You can sign on for a bus or limo tour, but that costs some bucks. Or you can do something that’s only been an option in the last couple of years: confine your tastings to downtown Napa, where 20 tasting rooms have sprouted like grapevines, all within walking distance of one another.
Most of these tasting rooms represent one or two labels from boutique winemakers. They don’t sell their bottles widely and produce fewer than 4,000 cases per year. What most also have in common is that they’ll let you taste their wines only at the downtown tasting rooms and sell them only there or through their websites.
At Toolbox, all wines sell for $14, toolboxes line the shelves and $1 per bottle goes to Habitat for Humanity. They share a tasting room with Gustavo Thrace, named after the winemaker portrayed in the 2008 motion picture Bottle Shock, whose fine wines are sold alongside a display of memorabilia from the film.
That’s just one tasting room. They all compete for customers with friendly and knowledgeable staff, with inventive interior design (such as Mason Cellars’ lime-green theme); and with a variety of tasting experiences —at bar counters, at tables or at couches.
Twelve of these tasting rooms can be visited for just $20 per person—total—with a “Taste” card (www.napadowntown.com). At most of the participating tasting rooms, this gets you two or three tastes, or one full glass of the wine of your choice, often including high-end and special reserve wines.
Because that’s a lot of wine in one day—you want to walk, not weave, between tasting rooms—use of the card can be spread out over two or three days, or two or three trips. It’s valid for a full calendar year.
HelloSanFrancisco Tip: The “Taste” card can also be used for discounts and specials on wines or wine products at some of the tasting rooms.
Posted by Bob Cooper
