Napa & Sonoma, USA
America's wine country, at its best during the September–October crush and the spring mustard bloom.
Best time to visit
Weather by month
Cost
Serves travellers at Mid-range→Ultra-luxury level. Typically around $400 a day on the ground.
Ranges are typical costs, not quotes. Check the real price before you book.
What's on
BottleRock May
Music and wine festival
Harvest (crush) September
Grapes come in
Worth knowing
A car, with the obvious problem that tasting and driving do not mix. Groups hire a driver for the day or stick to one town and walk. Cycling the Silverado Trail and the Dry Creek valley works well in spring and autumn.
getting around · editorial
San Francisco or Oakland, then a drive of ninety minutes to two hours north. There is no useful train. Most people land, collect a car and are in the valley by lunch.
getting there · editorial
Most wineries now take visitors by appointment only, and the small ones book out weeks ahead. Turning up at the gate rarely works.
know before · editorial
Cards throughout. Tipping is expected in restaurants at American rates, and tasting-room staff and drivers are tipped too.
money · editorial
Late summer into autumn is wildfire season, and smoke can settle over the valleys for days with no warning. Harvest weekends are the busiest of the year.
when not to go · editorial
Napa town is the cheapest base and has the most restaurants. Yountville and St Helena are pretty and quiet. Calistoga has the hot springs at the top of the valley. In Sonoma, Healdsburg sits at the junction of three valleys and Sonoma plaza is the sleepier choice.
where to stay · editorial
Quests
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Downtown Napa
The river, the old market and the start of the valley.
Yountville
Four blocks, and more guide stars per metre than anywhere else in the United States.
St. Helena
The middle of the valley, with its 1900 main street still standing.
Calistoga
The top of the valley, with hot water coming out of the ground.
Sonoma Plaza
The largest town square in California, with the Spanish barracks in one corner.
Healdsburg
The centre of the Russian River, quieter than Napa and well aware of it.
See
See the valley from above, by balloon or from a hillside
Eat
Taste a Cabernet at a family winery, not a large one
Taste a cabernet from the valley and a Sonoma zinfandel on the same day
Two neighbouring valleys that do not do the same thing.
Picnic between the rows, with cheese from the area
Ask first: not every estate allows it.
Moment
Cycle the Silverado Trail in the morning
Cycle between two vineyards late in the afternoon
Flat road, walnut shade.
Watch the Pacific fog come into the valley at dawn
It is the fog that makes the wine what it is.
Craft
Join a harvest early in the morning, in season
Between August and October, and it starts before six.