You’re getting ready for a getaway to the Napa Valley but the gloom of the economy is making you feel a little guilty about spending so much money. You can save an easy $100 in tasting room fees if you use the right approach. Plot your strategy with some of these ideas.

Number One: If you walk into a tasting room and the fee is $20, get the heck out of there. No winery should charge that much for a tasting no matter how good the wine.

Number Two: Visit wineries that have a tasting fee of $10 or less and combined with a policy where the tasting fee can be applied to a purchase of wine. Encouraging folks to purchase wine by waiving the tasting fee makes good marketing sense. We don’t understand why more Napa Valley wineries do not have this policy. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m not sure how the organizers of the Wine Blogging Conference found sponsors or determined what events were to be staged, but clearly Sonoma wineries were at the forefront of this inaugural event. Except for the Culinary Institute of America, which conducted the blind wine tasting event, Napa Valley and its wineries were nowhere to be seen at this conference.

Sonoma wineries went all out for this event. From the opening event, a lunch and tasting of 12 Sonoma wines at Kick Ranch Vineyards, to the final luncheon on Sunday, just about every event featured Sonoma wines. The major sponsors, the Winegrowers of Dry Creek Valley, the Sonoma County Tourism Bureau, and Sebastiani Vineyards, provided lunches, dinners, bus transportation, and more wines than we could possibly taste. What a coup for Sonoma wineries. Read the rest of this entry »

With redevelopment projects along the Napa River and the buzz created by the Oxbow Market, you would think that all is joy among Napa businesses, restaurants, and lodging establishments. Not so. The last few weeks have not brought good news to the city of Napa.

One of Copia's exhibits,
interesting or humdrum?

Copia continues to have its share of financial problems. Copia recently announced layoffs and surprisingly their winter hours leave Copia open only on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The Copia store and Julie’s Kitchen restaurant remain open on a daily basis. We stated in a blog post a year ago that on our last visit to Copia we felt that the exhibits were sparse and not very compelling. The most interesting area to us was the vegetable garden and now we hear that the garden plot might be up for sale to shore up Copia’s financing. You would think that with the addition of the Oxbow Market next door, Copia would see an increase in visitors. Apparently, that has not happened. Read the rest of this entry »

In a couple of weeks, we will be visiting the Napa Valley for a few days and once again we will be making the town of Yountville our destination locale. We also like Calistoga, but we have to give Yountville the edge for a number of reasons.

For starters, Yountville has a great choice of restaurants and most within walking distance of all the B&B’s. The famous Thomas Keller has the French Laundry, Bouchon, and Ad Hoc in Yountville. There are also Redd’s, Bistro Jaunty, and Michael Chiarello is about to open a new restaurant in the V Marketplace, Bottega Restaurante. We are very fond of Mustard’s but you have to hop in your car or take a cab. It is just too far to walk from Yountville’s main area of Washington Street. Fortunately, the cab service is quite reliable. Read the rest of this entry »

With the gloom of the economy casting a pall on just about everything these days, a trip to the Napa Valley just might be the perfect escape. Harvest is over but fermenting tanks are going strong and there is that delicious smell in the air of wine being made. The vines are turning various shades and Fall is a wonderful time to be in the Napa wine country.

There is some economic relief in sight in the Valley because as the harvest ends, many of Napa Valley’s finest lodging establishments begin their Fall and Winter rate specials. Our guess is that because of the economy there will be more specials and packages as lodging establishments and other businesses try to lure visitors to the area. Now is the time to plan a budget trip to the Napa Valley.

Here are some tips on how to save some cash visiting the Napa Valley.
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Could two small Vintners from Foster City and others like them be a possible challenge and take a piece of the pie from the Napa Valley wine market? Probably not, but with over 100 Crushpad clients making and selling as much 1000 cases of wine, something has to give.

We met the owners of Jazz Cellars at the Family Winemakers event in San Francisco. We tasted their wines and thought they were very well made. We wanted to find out more so last week we sat down with the two aspiring winery owners of Jazz Cellars of Foster City. Read the rest of this entry »

Schramsberg Vineyards is the last of the wineries on our sparkling wine trail to be reviewed. It is perhaps the most interesting and fascinating of the five wineries that we have visited and posted to our blog.

Jacob Schram originally built the historic winery and the magnificent Victorian house in the mid 19th century. After Jacob Schram’s death in 1905, the winery remained largely abandoned. The Victorian house went through several owners until Jack and Jamie Davies purchased the entire estate in 1965. Jack Davies, a successful businessman in L.A. had decided in his mid forties to quit the “rat race,” move to the Napa Valley and become a winemaker. When Jack and Jamie took over the winery, they had the daunting task of renovated the winery, the house, and the vineyards that were all in disarray. Amazingly, Jack Davies chose to tread where no other winemaker had in the Napa Valley. His mission was to produce the finest sparkling wine in the world. Today, the Schramsberg sparkling wines are highly acclaimed and their wines have been served to nobility around the world. Read the rest of this entry »