Restaurants
Breakfast / Brunch / Lunch: Winston’s Cafe & Bakery
Lunch / Dinner / Dessert: Joella’s Deli
Lunch / Dinner: Gott’s Roadside
Wineries
Fontanella Family Winery: Scenic, great wine, hidden gem
VGS Chateau Potelle: Amazing mountain fruit wine, great food pairing, fun story
Truchard Vineyards: Fantastic hosts (Lauren!), old school Napa vibe, fun wines and different varietals
Handwritten Wines: In Depth Comparative Tasting of AVAs, Unique Food Pairing, Great Location
Activities
- Coffee and walk around Fuller Park
- Early morning hike to the top of Westwood Hills
- Grab Gott’s to go, head to fieldwork brewing company and get a flight! It’s okay to feel wined-out!
Hotels
Andaz: Andaz Hotel is centrally located in downtown Napa, so it is close to literally everything. This way you don’t need an uber to get to the hustle and bustle of downtown Napa; all you have to do is walk out the main entrance and take a left and you’re there!
Driving Company
Wine Tasting Driver: Wine Tasting Driver will either drive you around in your rental car, or they also offer their own car service you can book and they will drive their own company cars.
Full Day in Napa
Start the day around 7:45am, head to the Napa Bookmine which opens at 8am to get a cappuccino and walk over to Fuller Park to enjoy the brisk morning air before the park is too busy. From the park, walk to Winston’s Cafe & Bakery on Third Street for breakfast, which is only a block away from the park; get a maple twist and a breakfast sando or breakfast burrito. The maple twist is all the best parts of a donut and a croissant, the crispy outside and pillowy inside, but it has the layers of a croissant. The breakfast sandwich is good regardless of how you order it, but I always add avocado. Or if you prefer, get the burrito as-is, not wet, unless you want it to be more like lunch.
Let’s get wine tasting! First one of the day is going to be at 10am at VGS Chateau Potelle up in St. Helena to do the food and wine pairing with La Toque, VGS offers a fantastic lineup of mountain fruit wine and knowledgeable hosts in a beautiful and cozy tasting room. After VGS, it is time for lunch at Gott’s Roadside since it is about a block away from VGS. After lunch we’ll head down the valley to Yountville to Handwritten Wines for the bread and butter tasting at 2pm. The bread and butter tasting ends up being about an hour and a half in length, we’ll try through a plethora of beautiful mountain fruit cabernets and enjoy a unique food and wine pairing. We should be leaving Handwritten around 4pm, which even for me is a touch early for dinner, but it is just late enough to go to the bar at Cole’s Chop House and get a rosemary paloma! Around 5:30pm it is time for dinner, which will be Amami Sushi Bistro on Main Street, about two blocks north from Cole’s Chop House. After a full day of rich food and wine, I like to finish with something refreshing and light.
