Around the World in 87 days: Wine tasting in the Napa and Sonoma Valleys

Our transport to California

On arrival at San Francisco we discovered we are now an Argus Rent a Car express member! This means a free upgrade and fast-tracked car pick-up. We turned down the Ford Mustang convertible (boot too small, too thirsty, and we are too old!), and took the luxury model Ford Fusion with heated leather seats, satellite radio and programmable interior light colours.

These mainly useless extras kept us entertained in the traffic jam all the way from San Francisco to Napa. Famous for its wine, the Napa Valley also had a couple of hikes to choose from. We thought we would be healthy and go for a brisk walk in the morning to see the lay of the land, work up a thirst, and then go wine tasting in afternoon.

Our first objective was Mount Saint Helena, near the little town of Callistoga. The film “Bottleshock” was based on a winery near Callistoga. At the beginning of this track there is a memorial to Robert Louis Stevenson. Apparently he stayed in a cabin there while on honeymoon with his wife Fanny in 1880.

Another survey point for our collection

Having seen the view over the valley from the highest point we could see we had plenty of vineyards to choose from. Over 100, with the oldest vines planted around the same time Robert Louis and Fanny were having a wild time on the slopes of Mt Saint Helena.

First up, near Callistoga, was the “Envy” winery. This was probably the most enjoyable tasting, with good wines, few people, good company, and a friendly helpful girl behind the bar.

Following on from this, mood enhanced, we tried a little known boutique winery with no other cars in the car park. We soon found out why. The tastings were $20 each, that is, per wine! Making excuses, we backed out and went on to Grgich where, despite the bar-man being an idiot, the wine was OK and we had a coupon giving us 2 for price of 1. Yes! And the glasses were thrown in as souvenirs. Up until now we had been drinking our evening tipples from flimsy plastic glasses from the motel bathrooms. Things were looking up. As a bonus, and to round off a great day tasting, we had a very agreeable dinner at a Mexican restaurant in Napa. It was quiz night, and needless to say our general knowledge of NZ affairs didn’t help much, but we didn’t get last.

On our second day, we visited Sonoma, the wine growing valley next to Napa. Our morning walk took us up to Gunsight Rock, for a view over the vineyards. The leaves on the vines were just turning into their autumn colours. The vineyards, with their rows of different vine varieties, were a ribbed patchwork of greens, yellows and copper colours. Wines tasted that afternoon were St Francis and Sebastiani. While all the wines were good, the interesting ones were the petite syrah and the Zinfandel.