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Originally Posted by MoeTE87
We got in Wednesday night, the 4th. Drove from Sacramento airport as San Fran was too expensive due to the super bowl. The drive took about 1.5 hours and we stopped before hand at Target to get some drinks / snacks for the room.
We took the long way into Four Seasons and did some canyon driving. I had a VW Jetta rental and the SOB was slow as shit. Tons of M3’s and M4’s passing me. Some chick in a Vette and a guy in an S2K almost crashed as he split the lane trying to pass me with on coming traffic. I tried to pull off as much as possible but some stretches I couldn’t. My wife wasn’t having any of it. Lol. Made for an interesting drive into the resort.
We stayed at Four Seasons and it was just perfect! The grounds were beautiful and everyone was very nice and helpful! I highly recommend!
We ate at Four Seasons for dinner. Restaurant was called "Truss" and we weren't impressed by the food. Very expensive for the lack of taste with what we got. Very bland. Hell...even the house win was $40 per glass. I just laughed at the price. We hardly ate what we ordered. Paid and left. Luckily we had snacks back at the room.
Next morning the wife and I had a wine tasting at Davis Estates. We by far had the best time there and the winery was just simply amazing! We compared the remaining wine tours to this place. We spent a few hours here and then headed back to the resort to drink more wine and relax in the pool / hot tub. We were still pretty exhausted from the travel day prior.
Next, we went into downtown Calistoga and went shopping, had more drinks and ate at Lovina, which is a small Italian restaurant that doesn’t take tips as the tips were already built into the price of everything. We thought everything was good until our main entrée’s came out and it was decent at best and the service was super slow.
We went back to our room and grab some wine and walked around the grounds before calling it a night.
Friday morning, we went to Brasswood and had a great breakfast, mimosas and coffee. We were here for a few hours and really enjoyed the perfect / peaceful weather.
We had reservations at Mum for a champagne tasting and it was okay. My wife was the most excited for this but the hostess girl wasn’t the best. Felt like we were rushed and wanted us gone. But there were plenty of seats open and they have a 2 drink limit which seemed weird as we were prepared to spend most of the day here as it was pretty outside. The actual building, looked tired and old. My wife wasn’t happy about the 2 drink limit at all and we repeatedly told the lady we had an uber and weren’t driving. Wife and I were wondering if they don’t tell anyone that and it’s not posted because they would lose out on a lot of business.
We called around to other Vineyards to see if we could get in but it was either sold out, which is hard to believe or there was a one bottle minimum purchase of over $250 to just hangout. We were shocked by that.
We got an uber and went to downtown St. Helena to shop and drink wine. We walked into almost every store and stopped in a few places for wine. Made for a fun afternoon! Very nice shops and people!
We got an uber and went back to the Four Seasons. We had a bottle of champs that my in-laws surprised us with for out 10 year wedding anniversary. So, we put that in two large cups and headed to the pool / hot tub. We were the only ones out and drank the champs and had a good time out there listening to music and just talking!
We went back to the room and took a nap. We ended up getting room service for dinner. We walked around the grounds again with a wine glass in our hands and just strolled the property! It was a gorgeous night. Just cool enough for a lite jacket or hoodie.
Next morning, we drove into downtown Napa to shop around and grab breakfast at Grace’s Table which was simply amazing! Food was out of this world and we both loved our dishes.
After breakfast we walked back towards the Market that was happening so we grab some coffee at Starbucks and walked over. The market was packed and had a lot of good fresh veggies and meat. We didn’t but anything as we had no way of bringing it home.
We left after about 30mins there and started to drive back to the Four Seasons. We decided to stop at Sterling Vineyards and had a great time there for 2.5 hours and just walked around and drank very good wine.
After the wine tasting, it was about 2pm and we were about 20mins from the resort and had dinner reservations at Charter Oak at 5pm.
The dinner at Charter Oak was top notch! Pretty freakin awesome food, atmosphere and everyone was just so nice there! Would go back for sure!
Went back to the resort room and just crashed as we were exhausted. Started packing early the following morning and drove the 1.5hrs back to the airport.
I would definitely go back to Napa and go an extra day. Now we know what to expect and I would bring my golf clubs to help break up the days.
We had a great time!
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Flying in through Sacramento is definitely the right choice. You avoid all of the horrible bay area traffic.
Taking the backroads via SR 128 is the scenic route/driver's route. It used to be so beautiful before the 2018/2020 fires we experienced here. If you get the chance to drive a fun car in the valley, please SR128 from Winters into Rutherford and Rutherford to Lake Berryessa via SR128 to Berryessa Knoxville road. The nicer weather weekends always have enthusiasts carving up the roads.
I'm sorry to hear about your experience at Truss. There is definitely a NV tax for dining and just about anything else. Davis Estates is a solid choice for a tasting.
Brasswood is an amazing location, I used to work there. Do yourself a favor and get the Mozzarella al minut. It is fresh hand pulled mozzarella on a slice of toasted sourdough with EVOO and fleur de sel. It is to die for.
Please visit Chandon in Yountville, Schramsberg or Domaine Carneros (in route to Sonoma from Napa) for delicious sparkling wine/champagne. The service at those locations is top notch.
Saint Helena is a very nice town. Most of the things to do there (much of the valley too) dies down around 5PM.
I've been meaning to visit Grace's Table! What did you get?
Visiting the Farmer's Market on Saturday is a must. So many local people and their delicious foods.
Sterling is great! The only time I've gone was when there was a small fire happening on the eastern mountains. We had the best view of the fire, and aircraft attempting to put it out lol.
For next time, visit Bodega Bay. It is roughly 60-90 minutes away from Calistoga and it is a gorgeous NorCal beach. Plenty of fresh oysters and seafood.
