Beautiful Napa, California

Beautiful Napa Valley, California

Napa Valley is considered one of the top wine growing regions in the world. The combination of Mediterranean climate, geography, and geology of the valley are conducive to growing quality wine grapes.

061-IMG_9076

Beautiful Napa, California

079-IMG_9124

The Napa Valley is located in Northern California, about 50 miles northeast of the San Francisco Bay Area and about 60 miles west of Sacramento. The Napa Valley is 30 miles long and 5 miles across at its widest point.

Beautiful Napa, California

Napa 2017 Small

In 1968, Napa Valley vintners and others in the community had the foresight to preserve open space and prevent future over-development by enacting the nation’s first Agriculture Preserve.

I live in South California and Napa Valley is just 2 hrs drive away. Whenever there is good whether which is very frequent in California we rush to our favorite picnic spot..Napa

Napa 2017 Small4

Beautiful Napa, California

Napa 2017 Small3

Amazing wines, beautiful vineyards, interesting wineries,  variety of cheeses and breathtaking landscapes are the main characteristics of Napa Valley.

Each season is a secret waiting to be discovered in the Napa Valley.

Fall is the time of harvest when the workers are in the fields in the wee hours of the morning. Grapes are harvested while they are still cool so there is less damage to the grape clusters. The grape leaves take on fall colors and the whole valley seems to range from yellow to orange. The daytime temperatures remain high, even in the 90’s Fahrenheit in September though gradually cooling in October and November. This is the high season for tourism, so make your reservations early.

011-IMG_8963

Beautiful Napa, California

During winter, the grape vines lose their leaves and the young grasses spring up, encouraged by the inevitable January rains turning the valley green once again. Temperatures are low for California, in the 40’s and 50’s most of the time. This is the low season when you can get the best hotel room, the best seats in restaurants and you can most easily pass for a local.

The springtime weather is variable and can range from a low of 40 degrees to a high of 80 degrees. It is the season when pink and white blossoms sprinkle the valley and fields of yellow mustard flowers grow between the dormant grape vines. This is a low season for tourism and hotels rooms are usually less expensive and restaurants are not as crowded.

Summer daytime temperatures are usually in the 70’s and 80’s but can spike to 100 on occasion. The leaves have returned to the grape vines and the whole valley is green. If you look closely, you will see small grape clusters on the vines that will become fully mature in late summer or fall depending on the varietal.

Couple of my favourite wineries are mentioned below:

V. Sattui Winery

Beautiful Napa, California

Visitors to this winery will not only taste wine but also samples of pate and full deli-style offerings.

The main selling point of this winery, and one of the reasons it is so popular, is their delicious Italian deli and picnic area. (Side note – Only their food is allowed!) The deli has plenty of tasty cold and hot options, as well as an extensive cheese area. We were offered multiple free samples of products such as dips, all of which were delicious. The deli food is a tad pricey, but it’s Napa, so that’s essentially the case wherever you go. We split a caprese salad, a pesto penne salad, and a large cheese and sausage-stuffed portabello mushroom cap.

Napa 2017 Small2

IMG_2529 IMG_2535 IMG_2550 IMG_2548 IMG_2536 IMG_2541 IMG_2646 IMG_2644 IMG_2657

As far as the wine, the tasting room is very large, but can be quite crowded at peak times. They have an extremely large wine selection, some may say it’s too large. I’ll admit I wasn’t blown away by some of the wines I tasted – I had better elsewhere for a number of varieties – but I liked a few of them quite a bit, enough to buy a bottle

1 2 IMG_2563 IMG_2564 IMG_2576 IMG_2591 IMG_2594_pp IMG_2554 IMG_2636 IMG_2639 IMG_2604 IMG_2614 IMG_2617 IMG_2657 Beautiful Napa, California

Bottom line – Great service from the tasting bar, tasty food options, and a very nice place to stop and spend some time.

IMG_2762_pp IMG_2775 IMG_2755_pp IMG_2655_pp

Napa 2017 Small1

Silverado Vineyards

The Silverado Vineyards is located on top of a hill overlooking the Napa Valley along the Silverado Trail. It’s worth a visit just for the view, but don’t stop there. The staff is friendly and knows their wines. Their premier offering is a cabernet sauvignon called Solo, an estate wine from grapes grown along the northern vineyard from the hill. This is a beautiful wine. We discussed wines with the staff and sat on the outdoor patio to take full advantage of the view. This is a great winery stop.

IMG_2982-2 IMG_2967-2 IMG_2959 IMG_2946_pp IMG_2921 IMG_2917 IMG_2912 IMG_2905 IMG_2880 IMG_2862 IMG_2855 IMG_2841 IMG_2838 IMG_2828 IMG_2806 Beautiful Napa, California

IMG_2850

Hope you enjoyed the post. I have to explore much more wineries in Napa..will definitely keep on adding to this post.

See more pics on below link

Enhanced by Zemanta