Travel Writing Challenge

My Favorite A-Z Destinations — Napa Valley

We have been visiting for 60 years.

According to our Apple Car Play, it took exactly one hour and 21 minutes to travel from our driveway in Castro Valley to the parking lot of V Marketplace in Yountville. And this is why Napa Valley has been the destination for dozens of our trips in the last 60 years: It’s just a day trip. And we can drive back home when the day’s activities are over.

In past trips we have driven the length of Napa Valley and stopped at various places along the way. In our trip the other day, though, we decided to spend the day in Yountville, the first town you hit north of the city of Napa as you make your way up the middle of the valley on Highway 29.

We had an extra passenger on this trip: our 15-year-old granddaughter Mia.

Our mission on this trip was to discover Yountville as we followed the famous Art Walk down Washington Street, the town’s main street which parallels highway 29 for a little more than a mile. West of Washington St is Highway 29. West of Highway 29 are the Veterans Home of California and the Domaine Chandon winery and vineyards. East of Washington St are more and more vineyards.

We discovered three things on our walk: (1) Yountville is gorgeous; (2) most of the people in the town have gray hair; and (3) everything is expensive.

We had lunch at the one place we found that had reasonable prices. My wife’s knees were bothering her and so she decided to sit and wait for us as Mia and I went on our Art Walk after lunch.

I ordered the Tyler sandwich: bacon, ham, tomato, two kinds of cheese and Dijon mustard. My wife had the Reuben sandwich and Mia chose a slice of pepperoni pizza. My sandwich cost $14.00 but it could be easily shared by two people.

About all the gray hair: Yountville has a population of 3,360. About a third of the populace call the Veterans Home their home. And there is a popular 55+ community right on Washington Street. Residents of these places who are closer to 55 than to 85 probably like to either walk or bike up and down Washington Street or along the Vine Trail.

Another thing about Yountville. There are no schools! If you are a school-age kid living in Yountville you have to go to either Napa or St Helena for your education.

Kids aren’t allowed in most of the wineries and tasting rooms around town. In fact, most of the big wineries do not allow anyone under 21 on their premises. There are exceptions. Charles Krug told us that our granddaughter was welcome but we opted not to drive to St Helena. And there are kid-friendly wineries that offer special tour prices for kids and special non-alcoholic drinks, too. One winery even has a pet zoo for the kids.

There are rules for pets, too. Most wineries don’t allow pets either. But some advertise that they are dog-friendly. I visited the V Marketplace Wine Cellar after our walk and was the only customer. But the manager had his dog with him.

Then there’s the dollar sign issue. Back in the day no one charged for tours or tasting. There was a general understanding that if you like what you were drinking then you would buy a bottle or two. Those days are long gone!

There were about 30 wineries in all of Napa Valley back in the 60s. Now there are more than 500. Those wineries of 60 years ago were all family owned. About a quarter of the wineries today are owned by other countries. Moet, France’s premier Champaign maker, owns Domaine Chandon. Treasury Wine Estates, the wine division of Australia’s Foster Beer, owns Berringer, BV, Stags Leap, Etude, Frank Family and Sterling.

And they are all expensive. Some have reached cult status and the price of a bottle may be out of this world!

Now for the restaurants. There are plenty and they are very expensive, some even exorbitantly so. Would you believe that this tiny town has three Michelin-starred restaurants? The French Laundry (three stars) offers an eight-course meal that will set you back at least $375.00 And you will have to wait a few months for your reservation.

Thomas Keller, the owner of The French Laundry, also owns the other two Michelin restaurants, Bonchon and Ad Hoc (both one stars) plus a bakery next door to Bonchon that seems to do big business. When we passed by there was a line out the door of people waiting to place their orders.

Let’s take a walk.

The Yountville Art Walk begins in Veterans Park on the corner of Washington St and California Drive.

The murals adorning the Highway 29 underpass on California Drive are part of the Art Walk.

The entrances to both the Veterans Home and Domaine Chandon are on California Drive.

We passed at least a dozen tasting rooms on Washington Street. The Silver Trident Winery Tasting Home features home furnishings designed by Ralph Lauren. There’s another tasting room further down Washington St that has an art gallery attached to it.

Mia and her bench friend.

Mia imitates the Sarvanga pose.

We passed several boutique hotels on our walk. They are all very expensive. Vintage House is one of three hotels that make up The Estate, a 5-star resort that includes a spa.

I had a glass of Winter 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon at the V Marketplace Wine Cellar. Thirty-one dollars. It was good. These wines sell for about a hundred dollars a bottle for recent vintages and more than two hundred dollars for vintages approaching twenty years.

After my tasting room visit, we bought some delicious candy at Kollar Chocolates. We then hopped in our car and drove home. The candy was all gone by the time we got back to Castro Valley.

The A-Z Favorite Destinations challenge began on Globetrotters a year ago and most writers have completed their Z story by now. But some of us are still plodding along.

Michael Rhodes published his G story last month.

And Anne Bonfert wrote about her favorite Q place.

And I wrote about my favorite M destination.

Thanks for reading!