Shipping wine home to the US can cost less than checking another suitcase, or considerably more once freight, taxes and customs handling are added. The right choice depends on how many bottles you buy, where you bought them and whether the winery can legally deliver to your state. For most travelers returning with six bottles, … Read more
Calistoga wine resorts are spa hotels first, and that is the point of the town rather than a failing of it. Napa Valley’s northern tip sits on a geothermal field, so the water that fills the pools here comes out of the ground hot, and the mud is local volcanic ash. These seven stays put … Read more
Where to stay in Yountville comes down to a question no other town in Napa Valley asks: how far do you want to walk to dinner? A three-star restaurant, two one-stars and a Bib Gourmand sit inside a few blocks of each other here, which means a hotel in town buys you a valley holiday … Read more
The best wine tastings in Napa Valley are almost never the ones you can walk into. The cellar doors here take reservations, charge a fee that runs from about $30 to well past $100, and pour on a schedule. That is the trade: someone opens named bottles for you, tells you what is in the … Read more
Napa Valley wine resorts fall into two camps: the ones that farm their own ground, and the ones that borrow the view. The difference shows up at breakfast, when you can either walk to a barrel room or you cannot. These eight run from Carneros up to Calistoga, and every entry says exactly what sits … Read more
Napa Valley wine country comes down to arithmetic, and it is the part first-timers get wrong: thirty-odd miles of valley floor, more than 500 wineries, and a day that realistically holds three of them. The hard part is access: most tasting rooms take reservations only, and the good ones fill weeks ahead. This guide covers … Read more