Planning a sparkling wine tasting day in Napa Valley? Find out how I packed three tastings plus a lunch into one unforgettable day!
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When my family travels to northern California, we typically visit wineries in Sonoma County. The past few years though, we have set aside one day to visit Napa Valley.
For this Napa trip, we planned to exclusively taste sparkling wine! We chose three wineries - go big or go home!
If you're thinking about visiting wineries, check if they require reservations or not. Ready? Let's get into it.
8445 Silverado Trail, Rutherford, CA 94558
Since we were making a day out of wine tasting, we decided to start on the northern side and make our way down. We arrived at Mumm at 11 AM, bright and semi-early and ready for bubbles!
We opted for the reserved Oak Terrace Tasting so we could sip on our sparklers with a spectacular view. I highly recommend this! It was such a great start to our day.
As we were poured four different sparkling wines, we learned about Mumm, their process, and history. Once we finished tasting the brut prestige, blanc de blanc, and brut reserve rose, we indulged in their finest cuvée, the DVX.
I truly loved all their sparkling wines and would love to come back to enjoy the beautiful northern California weather and scenery with a flute in hand.
933 Main St, St Helena, CA 94574
After tasting at Mumm, we were ready for lunch! As somebody who gets hungry after a couple hours, take it from me, make sure to eat before starting your wine tasting adventure and plan to have lunch or snacks in between tastings.
I've been to Gott's a few times and truly think it needs to find a slot on your Napa itinerary. They have a few locations, but we always hit the St. Helena spot. It's great food, a fun atmosphere, and if you sit out front you can catch the Napa Wine Train roll by.
In the past, I've ordered the regular burger but this time I got the plant-based Impossible Burger! I love seeing restaurants add items like this to their menu, so I usually try to order them and express my gratitude for offering options for everybody.
1 California Dr, Yountville, CA 94599
After lunch, we were fueled and ready for the next two stops!
Chandon doesn't require reservations for their basic tasting, so we made our way down there. I've driven past Chandon but didn't quite realize how huge their property is until driving in. They actually have a visitors center, retail shop, beautifully landscaped lawn, patios, and tasting rooms.
The way their basic tasting works is you can enjoy your tasting standing at a bar or seated on their lawn, in the tasting room, in a lounge, patio, or terrace.
It was a unique tasting experience for a winery and I really liked being able to take my wines outside to enjoy their grounds. They had so many cute photo ops and gorgeous views.
1240 Duhig Rd, Napa, CA 94559
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Y'all, I have been wanting to visit Domaine Carneros for a while now!
In my mind leading up to our trip, I envisioned it as quintessential Napa. Reservations are required for tasting and you can choose to stay in the salon or sit out on the terrace.
Of course, I wanted to taste on the terrace overlooking the endless vineyard-covered hills. We arrived about an hour before they closed, and it was truly amazing to feel the weather shift as we were making our way through the sparkling wine flight.
We chose to do The Sparkling Sampler and tasted four great wines! When I taste wine, I really like to go back and "visit" previous pours, so I really enjoy wine tasting flights.
It's not something I've thought much about before this trip. As great as the wines were here, my favorite part of this winery was the views. The views alone are reason enough to visit!
All in all, our sparkling wine tasting tour through Napa was so much fun and something we don't get to do very often.
I'm so grateful to have family out in beautiful northern California and thankful for the opportunity to taste my way through wine country.
Each winery was amazing in its own way but the "winner" for me was Mumm! The relaxed terrace, learning about each wine as they were poured, and taste, of course, makes me eager to go back again next year.
Tell me your favorite Napa spots in the comments! Do you have a favorite sparkling wine? Be sure to let me know below.
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