Ask a Napa Winemaker: What Most Visitors Get Wrong About Wine Country
Elena Torres, 43, winemaker at a mid-size estate on the Silverado Trail. Fourteen years making wine in Napa Valley. Trained in enology at UC Davis, apprenticed in Bordeaux, and has watched Napa evolve from a wine region into a luxury tourism brand.
What's the most common mistake visitors make?
They try to visit too many wineries in one day. I watch people pull into our parking lot at 3 PM, already flushed from three prior tastings, rush through our four wines in twenty minutes, and leave. They remember nothing. They tasted everything and experienced nothing.
Three wineries is a day. Maximum. One in the morning, lunch, one in the afternoon, an early evening visit if you're not driving. That pace lets you actually pay attention to the wine, talk to the staff, and absorb the setting. Four or five is a drinking marathon, not a wine experience.
What about the reservation requirement?
Post-2020, nearly every Napa winery requires advance reservations. Popular spots need 1-2 weeks' notice. Cult wineries like Screaming Eagle or Harlan Estate need months — or an existing relationship with the winery.
Use CellarPass or Tock to book. Walk-ins may work on weekday afternoons at smaller producers along the Silverado Trail, but don't count on it for Highway 29 wineries.
The reservation system is actually better for visitors — it means the tasting room isn't overcrowded and the staff can give you real attention instead of processing a crowd.
How do I avoid paying $75 per tasting at every stop?
First: many wineries waive the tasting fee if you buy a bottle. Ask before you go. At our estate, the $50 tasting fee is waived with any two-bottle purchase. This is common.
Second: seek out the Silverado Trail instead of Highway 29. The Trail wineries tend to be less expensive and more personal. Clos Du Val, Mumm Napa (excellent sparkling, $30-40 tastings), and smaller producers nobody's heard of yet.
Third: visit Sonoma County next door. Tastings run $20-40. The wines are excellent — different grapes (more Pinot Noir, Zinfandel) but world-class quality. Sonoma is what Napa was twenty years ago.
What's the best day of the week to visit?
Tuesday or Wednesday. Without question. Friday through Sunday is packed — Highway 29 traffic crawls, tasting rooms are shoulder-to-shoulder, and restaurants are fully booked. Monday some wineries are closed.
Midweek you get shorter waits, more personal attention (the winemaker might actually be pouring), easier parking, and the possibility of walk-in tastings at places that would turn you away on Saturday.
Some wineries offer midweek-only specials: library tastings, barrel samples, vineyard walks. Ask when you book.
Are the expensive wines actually better?
Sometimes. But not proportionally. A $200 bottle is not four times better than a $50 bottle. It might be marginally more complex, or it comes from a prestigious vineyard site, or it's aged longer. The difference between a $30 bottle and a $60 bottle is usually noticeable. The difference between a $100 bottle and a $300 bottle requires a trained palate and attention.
My honest recommendation: spend $40-80 per bottle at the winery for excellent wine you'll enjoy. The wines in that range from good producers are world-class. The $200+ bottles are for collectors and special occasions.
What wine should a first-timer focus on?
Napa's strength is Cabernet Sauvignon. It's the king grape here — the valley floor and hillsides produce Cabernet that competes with (and has beaten) the best in Bordeaux. Start there.
But don't ignore:
Stag's Leap district Cabs (elegant, less tannic)
Carneros Pinot Noir (the cool-climate southern end of the valley)
Calistoga Zinfandel and Petite Sirah (big, bold, unfashionable, and delicious)
What's overrated?
I'm going to get in trouble for this. But: the cult wine obsession. People spend hours trying to get on allocation lists for wines they've never tasted because someone told them it's exclusive. Exclusivity isn't a flavor.
And some of the highest-priced tasting experiences ($100-150 per person) are more about the real estate than the wine. A beautiful tasting room with mountain views is wonderful, but the wine in the glass is what matters. Some of the best wines in the valley come from unglamorous concrete buildings on the Silverado Trail.
What's underrated?
The small, family-owned wineries that don't have tasting rooms — they sell direct from the barrel or by appointment only. Production of 500-2,000 cases. The winemaker pours personally. These are harder to find but infinitely more personal.
Also underrated: the food scene. People come to Napa for wine and discover that the food rivals anywhere in California. Oxbow Public Market is a treasure. Bouchon Bakery is flawless. The farmstead restaurants that source from Napa Valley farms are doing some of the most interesting cooking in the state.
Designated driver situation?
DUI enforcement in Napa County is strict, and after three to four winery tastings you're well over the legal limit even if you feel fine. Arrange a driver.
Private driver: $60-80/hour, 4-hour minimum. Worth splitting with another couple. Napa Valley Wine Trolley: $150/person for a group tour with included tastings. Bike tours (Napa Valley Bike Tours, $45/day rental) work for the flat valley floor if you're disciplined about the riding-after-drinking thing.
Uber and Lyft exist but surge pricing on weekends is brutal.
Best time of year?
September through November. Harvest season — the crush. The vineyards are heavy with fruit, the cellar doors are busy with production, and the energy in the valley is electric. This is when wine country feels most alive.
The catch: it's also the busiest period for the wineries, so tasting room attention may be divided. But the trade-off of seeing actual winemaking in action is worth it.
March through May is the quiet secret — wildflowers, mustard blooming between the vine rows, fewer tourists, and the wineries' full attention.
What keeps you making wine in Napa after 14 years?
The fruit. Everything else about Napa — the prices, the traffic, the Instagram culture — I could live without. But the Cabernet grapes that come off the hillside above our estate in late October, after a season of fog and sun and the specific alchemy of this valley's soil and climate — that fruit is extraordinary. It has been extraordinary for decades and it will be extraordinary long after the tasting fees hit $200.
Visitors looking to extend their California trip should consider Big Sur or San Francisco.
The wine is the point. Everything else is scenery.
