Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
aren't so interesting—more like a corporate park—but the mode of touring is dif-
ferent from the Wine Country norm. Two tastings are free, and beyond that, you'll
pay $5 for four—a good bargain. Tours of the rest of the grounds are also free
(11am, 3pm), but in winter or in bad weather they may not go regularly, so you'll
want to book ahead. In summer (June-Sept), the winery presents a series of outdoor
concerts, but you'll need tickets; check online for the lineup.
Exactly next door to Rodney Strong (you could walk, but no one does), you'll
find
J Wine Company
(11447 Old Redwood Hwy., Healdsburg;
%
707/431-3646;
www.jwine.com; daily 11am-5pm),
another arresting early-'70s concrete architec-
tural experiment that fans of the genre might enjoy. The wine here is expensive,
tastings start at $10, and its Bubble Room is just silly ($55 flights served with foie
gras, paddlefish caviar, gnocchi with truffle emulsion, and other trappings of culi-
nary pretension). But the tour here has a point of difference. It's free, and it takes
in one of only two
coquard
presses in America; this piece of equipment, estab-
lished in France's Champagne region, is one of the gentlest grape presses in exis-
tence. The press is enclosed, so it doesn't put on a show. The winery also makes a
pear liqueur, which being a distilled spirit cannot be sold online, so this is the
place to try it and take some home.
NAPA COUNTY
The oldest continuously operating winery in Napa Valley (established in 1876) is
Beringer Vineyards
(2000 Main St., St. Helena;
%
707/967-4412; www.
beringer.com; May 30-Oct 23 daily 10am-6pm, Oct 24-May 29 daily 10am-5pm),
which is right off the main road and easy to duck into. This highly tourist-savvy
winery supplies visitors, who come by the busload in summer, with wine educa-
tion but not really a relaxing day out, since there's no picnicking. The grounds are
beautifully tended, though. The Info Center's back wall is lined with placards
announcing the day's myriad tour and tasting times as if it's a day at the zoo,
which, during crazy high season, it might as well be since the place is right on the
main road, Highway 29. The 30-minute “Introducing Beringer” tour (usually
10:30am, 2pm, 2:45pm), gives you some light wine-aging tutorials and a vine-
yard history, costs $15, and includes three tastings and a glass to keep. Upgrade
to the “Taste of Beringer” for another $5 and you get an hour's tour with more
information and four tastes (11am, noon, 1pm, 3:40pm). This place sells a vari-
ety of other tour and tasting permutations, too, but I have no evidence that the
more expensive ones have any appeal other than to wine snobs. All the gifts here
are about 50% more expensive than in other places; I saw a set of glasses here for
$20 that I also saw at Ledson for $11. Fortunately, you'll get a 20% discount on
everything on the same day you take a tour.
Tip:
Several tasting areas line the
warehouses that make up the winery; tastings are cheapest in the one marked
OLD
BOTTLING ROOM
, where full bottles are $20 to $40; the one marked
BERINGER
WINERIES
is more for pricier reserve bottles.
Despite the fact the label has become a supermarket titan, the operators
of
Sutter Home
5
(277 St. Helena Hwy., St. Helena;
%
800/967-4663; www.
sutterhome.com; daily 10am-5pm)
like to pretend they're still just an aw-shucks
family winery. You could almost believe it from this pretty layout. The perfumed
garden dates to 1874 and, in season, blooms with 100 varieties of roses and 40 of
