We spent our Labor Day Monday exploring some of the best (in our opinion) wineries Napa Valley has to offer. Waking up at 7AM after hiking was difficult, but it was worth it knowing we had a FREE tour of Mumm Napa waiting for us! Mumm does one free 10AM tour daily, which saves you from $10 - $25 depending on whether or not you do a tasting. The tour was great! We had a phenomenal guide, Penn, who taught us everything we wanted to know and more about sparkling wines – take note (as Penn informed us) that Mumm, and all other “champagne” manufacturers in the US are actually producing “sparkling wine,” and true champagne can only come from Champagne, France. As bartenders both Kyle and Megan were entranced by the process of how this sparkling wine is made, and the many steps from production to extracting yeast with the Madame Clicquot’s (Veuve Clicquot) method of six rotation yeast sediment extraction. After our tour we did a tasting, where each of us picked a different flight that allowed us to try every sparkling wine Mumm had to offer. Our gracious server, James C. even allowed a sample of a sparkling Pinot Noir, which was not on our flight list. We concluded that this Pinot Noir was by far our favorite – and if you ever come across it we highly recommend trying it! The tab for the four flights was minimal, and coupled with the free tour entirely worth every penny.
With a slight buzz on we left Mumm and headed off to Megan and our old roommate Nikki’s favorite red wine maker, Ménage à trois, which also makes Folie à deux and shares a building with Napa Cellars. There the two Megan’s shared two flights of wine, at a 2 for 1 price, and Kyle bought some BBQ sauce. We were excited for our third stop because Megan had heard many good things about Turnbull Wine Cellars. The stop at Turnbull quickly became one of our favorites because of the amazing staff, not to mention delicious wines – and again a 2 for 1 flight tasting! Our two servers, Abby and Burroughs helped the two Megan’s to more than their fair share of Turnbull wines – which left them giggly as could be. As the boys noticed the girls slipping away they hauled them off to the Farmstead Restaurant, at the advice of Abby. The four of us fell in love with this amazing boutique restaurant, with farm fresh vegetables, obviously great wine list and an ultra clean menu, what wasn’t to love?! We especially like walking up and smelling the fresh herb garden right outside.
Our final stop was Sutter Home, who shares free wine flights daily. Unfortunately this winery left much to be desired – unless you’re on a tight, tight budget we recommend avoiding this winery! By the time we had visited Sutter Home, our fourth winery, the Megan’s had, had enough. The couples said their good-byes as Megan and Kyle left to Rohnert Park, where they had booked a hotel for the night. All in all our day in Napa was to be treasured. We had come across many wonderful wineries that offered great specials and allowed us to discover that we like red wine over white, and Mumm sparkline Pinot Noir over everything else! We highly encourage anyone taking a trip to Napa to do a little research on winery specials, and of course stop by the wineries we were lucky enough to try – you will certainly not be disappointed!
Xo, M&K
