A Girls Weekend in Napa
At the end of January, my long distance bestie and I hit the road (well, first I hit the airport, then we hit the road) and made our way up to Napa Valley, aka girls weekend mecca. We stayed at the fabulous Vino Bello Resort, ate some amazing food, and of course, drank all the wine. Here’s the highlights from our trip!
The first thing we did (literally first thing, before we even checked into our hotel) was hit up downtown. We stopped in and purchased a discount tasting card for $15 each that got us half off tastings at a bunch of wine tasting rooms downtown. Even though we didn’t stop at all of them, it was still worth the price for what we saved on tastings. Our first tasting was at the Napa Valley General Store, where we got to choose five different wines to sample. I’m a big fan of tastings where you get to choose what you want, and this one offered some great selections.
Our second stop downtown was Vintage Sweet Shoppe, which does a wine and chocolate pairing for their tasting. The wines here were meh, but the chocolate was fantastic. I mean, I’m never going to say no to chocolate.
We were super stoked to discover that we happened to be in town during restaurant week, which was a totally happy accident, but one I might plan for again in the future. A bunch of local restaurants had some pretty awesome deals available; we decided on Charlie Palmer Steak downtown. We hopped on our hotel’s shuttle (because not driving in Napa is the only way to go) and were seated right away even though we didn’t have a reservation. The restaurant week deal included a started salad, surf and turf entree…
…and this super yummy chocolately hazelnutty dessert. You also had the option to add on bottomless wine pairings (duh). All together, the meal was about $60 per person before tip and it was delicious (and so much wine I literally couldn’t finish my last glass because I was so full).
On our one full day in Napa, we hit the road to head out to some of the wineries in the valley. First we stopped at Cline, which was absolutely gorgeous. I wish it had been a little warmer so we could have tasted outside, but we found a spot at the tasting bar inside and sampled quite a few yummy wines. On our way back to the car we got to watch a proposal, which is always fun (I managed to resist giving them my card).
After Cline, we went across the street to the Jacuzzi winery, which I highly recommend as they not only have tasty wines, but also tasty olive oils for you to sample. We only did those two wineries out of town as Ashley had to drive, and you know, DUIs are not cool on vacation (or any time, and there is nothing worse than driving drunk, so just don’t do it). Luckily, across the street from Vino Bello is a cute little outdoor marketplace with some tasting rooms and a little grocery store. We stopped in at Foley Food and Wine Society, which ended up being a mistake because the tastings were $45 each, which is insane. Luckily we had a two for one coupon, but even still, ridiculous.
That evening we hopped back on the shuttle and headed over to Oxbow Public Market, which is one of my favorite places in Napa. Our first stop was Hog Island Oyster Bar where we indulged in oysters (Ashley), grilled cheese (me), and wine (both of us, obvs).
And you know I found the cutest bookstore in all of Napa while we were there. Napa Bookmine is in the middle of Oxbow and I found a couple of new books and a new tote bag, which I totally I needed.
On our way out of town the next morning, we stopped off at one final winery, Etude, for one final tasting. It was an absolutely gorgeous day, and we sampled some really tasty wines here. Also since it was relatively quiet and at one point we were the only people in the winery, our sommelier hooked us up and let us try some reeeeaaaallly good wine.
Honestly, I could spend a week in Napa and still not be tired of it. There’s so much to see and eat and drink that you could never get to everything in just one weekend trip. So I guess that means we’re just going to have to go back!
