We had some time to visit Napa Valley which was a nice changeup from the national park scene. We got a campsite just outside of the town of Napa, as options are few and far between. The campground was quite nice, and reachable by Uber, so we were able to explore town a bit. The tasting rooms in town seemed more like bars, where it seemed more normal to just get a glass versus actually doing a tasting, and many offered live music to pull people in. Restaurants in town had hours long waits even in the off season.
We did try to take the bus around, which got us around for cheap, but they came only every 30 minutes and drove quite slowly due to all the traffic. Ubers were just so much more convenient that it felt worth the cost. We did take a bike ride in the valley, there is a nice trail from Napa to Yountsville, but it follows the main highway which killed part of the views. It did get us to a few tastings. There were also bike lanes on some of the roads, which means you could reach more tasting rooms than you could visit in a month, the roads however were so busy, it didn’t make us feel comfortable enough to take them too far.
The whole valley felt super commercialised, the tasting rooms were as expensive as the wines, the staff rarely seem to know much about the wines, they could rattle off the tasting notes, but beyond that they were stymied. We did have our share of good wines, but also quite some bad ones that were still listed at $35+. And with tastings ranging from $15 to $30, it quickly got expensive just to know if the wine you are buying is good.
My favorite tasting was actually in Sonoma, in the city of Glen Allen. The winemaker at Talisman works closely with a few growers and specialises in only Pinot Noir. In general I don’t think of Pinot Noirs as a dynamic varietal, but the tastes at Talisman brought us 8 different wines that each had their own unique character and each were delicious. Also the tasting room experience was phenomenal, we came in a bit late, and stay 45 minutes past closing. She was knowledgeable about the wines and the region, and shared with us some exclusives which we ended up purchasing a few bottles that are normally far outside our price range. If you get a chance, stop by Talisman
I think Napa started out as a great wine region, and still produces some stellar wines, the commercialisation of the valley has taken away its soul, and has raised the prices of the wine to the point you would have to sell your own to afford them. The valley created a name for itself, but now that name has been abused to the point where it now means something else entirely. So for me, I will opt to buy my wines elsewhere, it will probably take more searching, but I am sure there are equal wines to be had in the other regions, and the experience will be better.
