Including the best routes and where we wouldn’t go again
We loved our first trip to Napa in 2023, but our trip was SO expensive. Since then, we’ve reveled in how great our experience there was but agreed that we probably wouldn’t go back until a major anniversary.
Since that trip, we have gotten into using credit card points to travel and were able to save THOUSANDS on our trips. When I found a work trip on my calendar to San Francisco in April, it was too hard to resist the proximety to not add in a quick weekend in Napa.
Read below to get our exact itenerary, the best wineries we visited, our food and wine fails, and our new favorite hotel!
Also – if you haven’t checked it out yet, click here to ready 5 tips you’ve probably never heard of for wine tasting trips in the U.S.
Getting there
Rob flew into SFO after work on Thursday night. Thankfully the time change worked in our favor, so after a 4 hour flight he arrived about 8pm. We picked up a rental car at the airport and slept at the hotel I’d been staying at for work in downtown San Francisco.
Highly recommend doing it this way so that you only need to take Friday off work and can still get 2 full days of wine tasting in for the weekend.
Friday morning, we drove up from San Francisco to Napa – about a 2 hour drive.
Money Saving Tip #1 – On the way up to Napa, we did Wal-Mart pickup. I ordered the night before, and this gave us a case of water for the car and hotel as well as car snacks.
We stopped at this Wal-Mart, but there are several along the route: 7011 Main St, American Canyon, CA 94503
Friday – south to north
10am – Robert Biale Vineyards – known for their zinfandels and petite sirah
We chose to book the Estate Tasting. It’s pricey at $85 per person but we felt it was well worth it because it was a private tasting – just us and the host – and we tried SO. MANY. WINES.
We loved the story of the Black Chicken Wine. The grounds were so beautiful and April gave us perfect weather.
This was the most generous winery of the weekend as far as amount to taste and we loved what we tasted so much that we joined the wine club!
Highly recommend adding this to your agenda.
12pm – lunch at Priest Ranch Tasting Room
Honestly, I don’t recommend. I had read that the smash burgers were amazing here. We felt they were just ok and a lunch of 2 bugers and 1 fry was over $50. There are so many amazing restaurants and delis in Napa, I would try somewhere else.
1pm – Stewar Cellars – Tasting Room
Another pass for us. We split the reds tasting and weren’t very impressed. The pictures from other bloggers looked way nicer than it was in real life and the wines didn’t seem worth the outrageous prices that they were charging.
2:30pm – Goosecross Cellars
We liked this place! Our view was gorgeous. I don’t know if its typical or just the time or year but our host sat at our table with us and did a private tasting.
Their patio is open to dogs so I loved going around to pet our neighboring tables dogs! We bought a few bottles from here. It was a nice experience and in a great location.
4pm – Round Pond Estate
We love this winery so much that this is the only winery that we’ve visted twice and we’ve been wine club members multiple times. Their cabernets are great and the views are phenomenal. I love their rooftop tasting patio so much. This is one of the most perfect tasting experiences on the rooftop, overlooking the vineyard, surrounded be palm trees (my favorite!) with a beautiful breeze wafting over you while you try beautiful wines.
Round Pond is a must visit!
Check into the perfect Napa hotel – Harvest Inn
Tucked away on St Helena Hwy in St Helena, CA is the Harvest Inn. In a land of rolling hills of vineyards, it feels magically to pull into a little forest that is this hotel.
The German-style buildings are cute. The rooms have a gas fireplace and are large but not fancy. This is not a luxury hotel but the bathrooms are huge and I obsessed over the stone shower that was immaculately clean with great water pressure.
On our last trip, we stayed in downtown Napa in a hotel twice the cost with tons of road noise to keep you up all night and a 20-30 min drive from the wineries we wanted to go to.
We booked this hotel using credit card points so we didn’t actually pay for this hotel. Its exceptionally clean, the setting is magical, and the location is perfectly placed between all of the best wineries.
Could not recommend the Harvest Inn enough!
6pm – dinner at Market
We had a lovely dinner at Market in downtown St. Helena – just minutes from our hotel. The food was really good – we got the fish special, calimari, and the fish and chips.
The food arriving at the tables next to us looked incredible and I would definitely go back to try more of their menu.
Saturday
10am – Jericoh Canyon Winery
I was really excited about this winery because the experience that I booked included a side-by-side tour of the vineyard. Upon arrival, I was disapointed to find out that the owner – who live on the property – had a baseball game that day for their kid and had asked a friend who sometimes worked on the property to give our tour.
This is a great example of when your host can make or break your experience. This guy just didn’t have any passion for the wine. He seemed lost and you could just tell that hosting these tours is not something he does regularly.
Going up the hill on the ATV was a nice experience and the tasting room was pretty. The tasting was very expensive at $100 per person and both the wine and the experience was not worth the money in our opinion.
11:45 – AXR
AXR is a boutique winery just north of St. Helena, CA. I chose this winery because it looked like they have grapes we enjoy and they have redwood trees on property. Again, this was a pricey tour at $90 per person but it was a private tour and tasting.
We really enjoyed the wine. They served what they call “Napa nachos”, which was kettle cooked chips with parmesan finely grated on top. These were surprisingly delicious and a nice touch.
We loved the property and seeing redwoods for the first time.
Our host was enthusiastic and knowledgable. We bought 2 bottles to take home.
1pm – lunch at Brasswood
We had lunch at Brasswood with the intention of doing their wine tasting after. At this point, we had had plenty of wine and Rob wasn’t excited to do the tasting here so we passed on that.
The food was tasty but very expensive.
Reviews and wine makers had told us to ask for the “secret” tableside mozzarella. It was ok.
We also had the calimari and the pepperoni pizza.
Its not that I wouldn’t recommend it, but the food was just ok and it was very pricey.
We will keep looking for bettwer options on future trips.
Oops – a drink at Auberge du Soleil
This was not on our list but I’d heard great things about the resort and the view and we had like 30 minutes to kill.
The view is beautiful. The drinks are outrageously expensive. The service was perfection.
The reason this was an mistake for us was because out next stop – Rutherford Hill Winery – was right up the road and literally had the exact same view.
Read on for why we didn’t like this winery and pick either Auberge du Soleil or Rutherford Hill Winery but I don’t think you’ll want to do both.
3pm – Rutherford Hill Winery
Another instance where the host can make or break your experience. The views were gorgeous here. We chose this because I knew we had so many cabernet-focused tastings on the agenda and suposedly this winery had excelllent merlots. I booked a tasting that was supposed to highlight their best merlots, but I was sent a survey prior to our visit where I shared that we like cabs.
Our hostess did not follow the order of the page. She gave us some wines off-list, which was nice, but when we asked her for the ones included in the tasting she seemed put out. There was one wine we specifically asked her for and instead she brought the same wine we had previously tasted – which I knew because I mark down a rating for each one as we go through.
I felt like we didn’t get what we paid for and the chaotic order of wines didn’t give us an experience that allowed us to enjoy our wine to the fullest.
This is a pass for us.
Dinner at Harvest Table
We were supposed to go to RH Yontville but after a week of entertaining customers and hitting too many wineries the day before, we opted to eat at Harvest Table – the restaurant at our hotel.
We got the Parker House rolls and split the tomahawk steak dinner. This seemed like a great deal – steak, sides, sauces, app, and a bottle of wine for $x – but the steak was extremely fatty. I was also devestated to realize that it wouldn’t be the best idea to fly home with a giant bone and no dog was going to get to enjoy it. We also couldn’t finish our bottle of wine before we flew home so overall we made a poor financial decision, but the food was good and everyone else’s looked wonderful.
The ambiance was beautiful. The 20 steps from our room was perfect.
We would go back, but would try other menu items on the menu.
That’s it!
We drove back to SFO early on Sunday morning and were home around dinnertime.
After finding what we would pass on, I think you could consolidate this down to 2-3 wineries per day. We found beautiful wines in gorgeous settings.
I hope this breakdown helps you plan your most perfect trip to Napa!
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