Napa, CA (#NapaJaggs)

You wanted it, you got it. The guide to Napa Valley (my style and the best you are going to find):

This is going to be a lot of thoughts, but you can also look at the wedding blog (I couldnt bring myself to do a wedding website) to get a bit more layed out and not all over the place overview. www.meredithandjaggs.blogspot.com

(If you want our wedidng contact info)

Wedding Information:

Brix

Contact – Matt Guyot matt@brix.com

Wedding Planner- Sharon Burns sharon@nvcustomevents.com

Rehearsal Party- Oxbow Market

Wedding Hotel- Napa Valley Marriott

Napa  Driver- (707)227-6452, or email  napavalleywineguides@yahoo.com. Geoff Pope (he knows everyone and everything about The Valley) will take your car and drive it for you. Really cool guy! Tell him I sent you.

Places to eat

• Bottega- Best restaurant out there
• Mustards-all local foods great great great
• Oakville Grocery- sandwiches and great for picking up food while doing tastings (ask the driver Geoff to include this in your day drinking/wine tour 
• Brix-we are having our wedding there and the scene, food, and place is just.. .well the bestest
• Bouchon Bakery- great pastries/coffee

• Ad Hoc- killer (they also have Addendum that is in the back of the restaurant with tables and you just get a to-go lunch box of the best friend chicken of your life 
• Yountville-anything in Yountville is going to blow your mind. Such a cute place to walk around
• Farmstead- THIS IS A MUSTdo yourself a favor and stop for lunch while you are wine tasting, just perfection. Get the burger, dear lord. I mean this is without a doubt a MUST for places to eat lunch or dinner. 
• Brix- we got married there, the food is unreal, all local, all from their gardens. If you dont want to eat here at least get some cocktails and check out their vineyard/gardens. You will prob take your Facebook porfile pic here

All places in Napa if you are going there for dinner need a reservation and I would call ahead to most vineyards as well.

Stay in Yountville or Napa Valley Marriott. It is right in the middle of everything that you are going to want to see, eat, and do. The little town is wine country at its best and all of the best restaurants are there. Any property is going to be really nice! We have stayed at the Vintage Inn, i mean they have an unlimited champs bar for breakfast... right. But really anywhere is going to be fab. I have not stayed in Sonoma yet, basically that is a whole trip. Napa and Sonoma are about 20-30 min. from each other and are totally different. I mean yes they have wine but since you guys are going for a few days and this is your first time I would say focus on Napa wines and staying in Yountville. However, you can stay in the town of Napa but I suggest you just go there for the day and check out all the cool markets and the waterfront. You wont be disappointed with Yountville!! We have stayed in quite a few rental homes there and if you are interested in that I can send you the link. 

Vineyards

• Obriens- coolest set up and people, great wine club
• Silver Oak- just amazing
• Domaine Carneros- bubbles vineyard (go to this on your way into Napa, it is the first big ass mansion that you will see when you are driving into wine country and it is a great way to start your trip)_
• Round Pond this is without a doubt A MUST (must make reservations but one of the best places you will go with the Olive Oil tasting) and prettiest views from the Vineyard also if you are there on Fridays you can call ahead and make reservations to their Sunset Cocktail Lounge.. i feel like that needs no explanation bc the name says how cool it is. Period. 
• Barnetts- best wine you will have while you are out there. go, i promise, game changer. the views are to die for of spring mountain
• Duckhorn- Great wine, great porch, it is a must 
• Hall Winery- You can either go to the tasting room on the St. Helena Hwy or go up on the mtn to get the prettiest views and tasting with the MOST AWESOME oak table. Ugh so great!!! Cave tour
• Ehlers- family owned
• C.I.A. really great food for a wonderful price, get to see them cook and have great cocktails 
• Cakebread- taste 6 wines, $15, fun
• Flora Springs Winery (not tasting room)- can get a picnic basket and sit in the vineyards for 2 hours, totally private, great wine, off the main road. BEAUTIFUL views

Check on the state park website, but on the weekends you can go and watch hot air balloons take off in the morning! 

If you are going to rent a bike, dont drink and pedal.... people get tickets out there for that. However, really cool activity to do in the morning time.

Random Napa Thoughts:

As far as Napa, that is the most expensive but totally doable. SO, we rented someone else's house off of VRBO. We loved it, as a matter of fact, we always rent peoples houses (if you want more info on the houses we rented let me know and I will send you the links). The reason it is so great is that you get to have a house with a kitchen and we cook a lot of our food. Since the markets are so amazing out in Cali the food we cook is just as good as the restaurants. But if you want to stay in hotels that is totally fine too. My suggestion would be that you pick 4 vineyards that you really want to go to for your day of wine touring. Anything more WOULD BE TOO MUCH, trust me. I highly suggest saving money and really get a cool experience that two of the 4 be Round Pound. For 25 dollars each you can do a olive oil tasting, but really it is this HUUUUGE lunch with cool foods from their garden and a tour of the olive mill. Then you go on over to Round Pond Vineyard and pay 25 to do their food and wine pairing and you get to sit on their porch for as long as you want and enjoy life. I think the key to Napa is to not pack too much in bc then you will just spend spend spend spend (literally). Also the second key is to know that you arent goign to do it all in the trip. So many people go out there and want to see it all and really that is annoying and costs a lot. There have been times where Jaggs and I went to the Whole Foods in Napa and just ate outside there on their picnic tables and had the best meal. We also have been to Oxbow Market in the city of Napa and just gotten a few things from different food stands and sat on the water front. Those meals are literally as good as anything you will get in the 5 star places. 

I feel like I mentioned this but go to Oxbow Market and get ready to have your face blow off by the great selection of food and wines. We spent prob 4 hours just eating and looking and tasting and loving life there. 

Wine region staying there:

Stay in Yountville or Napa Valley Marriott. It is right in the middle of everything that you are going to want to see, eat, and do. The little town is wine country at its best and all of the best restaurants are there. Any property is going to be really nice! We have stayed at the Vintage Inn, i mean they have an unlimited champs bar for breakfast... right. But really anywhere is going to be fab. I have not stayed in Sonoma yet, basically that is a whole trip. Napa and Sonoma are about 20-30 min. from each other and are totally different. I mean yes they have wine but since you guys are going for a few days and this is your first time I would say focus on Napa wines and staying in Yountville. However, you can stay in the town of Napa but I suggest you just go there for the day and check out all the cool markets and the waterfront. You wont be disappointed with Yountville!! We have stayed in quite a few rental homes there and if you are interested in that I can send you the link.