Exploring the Napa Valley

What an awesome day! This was an early morning with a conference call with our Augie internship advisor. Then this afternoon, Grant took Lindsay and I on an educational tour of the Napa Valley. We learned SO MUCH. Grant first took us up north in the valley. As we were driving, Grant explained that the Napa Valley is very small. We drove through many of the AVAs including Yountville, Oakville, Rutherford, St. Helena, Calistoga and Los Carneros. Rutherford is an interesting area because the soil is very rocky. The AVA even produces what it called “Rutherford dust,” which allows for growing great grapes.

Vineyards in Conn Valley

On our way through Rutherford, Grant took a road east to the Conn Valley, which is right off of the Napa Valley but is hidden by all the trees. There are fourteen wineries tucked back in this Valley. It was a beautiful drive! We saw Redwood trees and the vineyards on the mountains, which were amazing! Unfortunately, it was too narrow of a road we could not stop for a good picture. :(

The tasting room in a cave!

Then we stopped up on Diamond Mountain at Grant’s friend’s winery called Reverie. Grant decided to stop there because this winery does their tastings in three different locations. The first part of the tasting takes place in the cave, which was so cool! The cave is also where their barrels of wine are stored. Then the tasting continues outside under the circle of Redwood trees. It was absolutely beautiful! This is my first time seeing Redwood trees and I can’t even describe how awesome they were! Finally, the tasting ends right outside the Redwoods in the garden. I bet the experience at the Reverie Winery is a memorable one!

Redwoods

The volcano

After getting back on the road, we drove up to St. Helena. There is an active volcano near the town of St. Helena conveniently called St. Helena. We drove through Beringer Brother’s Winery and they had a beautiful estate. I believe Grant said it was one of the Napa Valley’s oldest wineries.

Then way up north in Calistoga, we drove through the Chateau Montelena Winery, which put the Napa Valley on the map for producing great wines. Their old winery building was restored and it was gorgeous!! They even have a little lake in the back with many gazebos to do private tastings in. I would love to do a tasting there sometime!

We also drove around Spring Mountain, which contains the best of the best wineries. The vineyards in this area produce the best wines because of the land on which the vines are growth.

Then after looking around up north, we drove south of Napa to Los Carneros, which is known for producing great Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. This is because of the rolling hills the grapes on grown on and the cooler temperature. We noticed some trees that did not look like they belonged and it ends up they did not. They were Eucalyptus trees from Australia, which were planted many years ago to block the winds. However, now most of them have been cut down because they turned out to be more of a problem then help. We drove by many of the vineyards and even stopped for a tasting at one of Grant’s favorite places, Estude. 

Finally, we got back to the town of Napa. Grant drove us around the town and pointed out many bed and breakfasts, which Jessup Cellars does outside tastings at. Grant also explained that Napa use to be a town filled with older people who retired after working in San Francisco. Back then it was also an agricultural area that produced pears and plums. He also took us downtown to show us how Napa is revamping itself. Downtown is now filled with many new shops and restaurants.

Overall, Lindsay and I had another full day of learning! We feel like our brains have turned into these huge sponges that cannot even hold all the information we are learning. It is so great and I am having such a wonderful time!

Cheers!