Napa Valley, California

Windsor

Windsor is located within 5 miles of Russian river, just north of Santa Rosa on Highway 101. It is only 60 miles north of San Francisco, making it a quick ride for us to get there from the South bay.

This is of course, the wine country, with good food and wines. Beutiful view of vineyards stretching as far as the eye can see. During spring and summer, one can take river kayak or canoe trips from the nearby town of Healdsburg.

Windsor has a small downtown with unique shops and nice restaurants. A few miles south of Windsor is Calistoga where you can soak in mud baths or take a dip in one of the private hot-spring pools.

Kendall Jackson Winery – Fulton exit 4 miles south of Windsor

Winery tours are free and open 10-5pm. They have a nice vegetable garden on the winery grounds and a section where different variety of grape vines are grown for different types of vines.

The only disappointment I had from our visit to Windsor was lack of California Quail which is the mascot of this city. They are seen from time to time, but are not as common as one would think.

Other Wineries..

Domain-Chandon Winery

Wine making room

Bottles @ Sattue Winery

During July-August you can see grapes on the vines

Many wineries have a garden area where they display vines of different varieties of grapes for different types of wines. Best time to enjoy the grapes is early to mid September.

Napa

$15 dollar tasting tour takes you around the winery with practical advise on wine tasting.

Woody wines – acquires taste of wood in which wine fermented, while fruity wine is fermented in steel containers. We get 80% of flavor of wine from sense of smell. That is the reason people swirl the wine in their glass before tasting it.  You get to taste a couple of wines and keep the wine glass as a souvenir.