Being an American wine lover, visiting Napa Valley was on top of my must-visit bucket list. So this was the year I decided to plan a trip with my husband to the California valley of dreams. My event planner self spent loads of time researching which of the many, many wineries to visit. It proved to be a rather daunting task as there are over 400 wine-making hot spots to choose from (thanks Google!). Like many of you, I tackled this planning feat by opening up a bottle of red (Silver Palm's Cab Sauv to be precise).
As I sipped on the calming wine, I came across Yountville on my search and found it to be the perfect quaint town for our stay. The sidewalks leading to noteworthy wineries, tasting rooms, restaurants, shops, spa & more made it an easy pick. Plus there's a wine walk where you can win prizes along the way. Then after further research, I discovered Vintage House and was drawn to their uniquely designed decor and rooms. It was a bonus knowing they had a pool, fitness center, and yes, complimentary breakfast to start your wine journey off right.. accommodation check!
Now, it was onto checking off which wineries to visit. This proved to be challenging so a re-load of my wine glass was a must. My trick to narrowing down my options was creating a Napa Valley List in Google Maps so that I could pin the worthy wineries and see if the locations were feasible for our adventures. I should note that my goal on this trip was to naturally take photos, but also enjoy time with my husband and leaving the camera behind. That being said, I set aside one day for a winery tour where I would bring my camera with me. And the other days limit myself to just an hour of shooting while my husband patiently waited with his white wine in hand.
Back to the winery decision making process, once I realized that Domaine Carneros Winery was on the way to Yountville from San Francisco I made that our first stop in wine valley before checking in. I then made note of the walkable wineries in town and added a few to the list for whenever we felt we had time to explore nearby. The next step was choosing four wineries on our 1 day wine tasting tour. Being a photographer, I must admit that my main preference for deciding was based on the beauty of the location rather than the actual wine (honestly, I pretty much like any wine you hand me so for me, it's all about the aesthetics!). In my next blog post "Taste of Napa - Part III", I'll let you know which wineries made my cut so please do check back!
I'll leave this post with photos taken from our visit to Domaine Carneros Winery and stay at the Vintage House. Cheers!