Napa

Napa, the city, lies at the southeastern end of the Napa Valley, forming its southern terminus. This is the largest town in the area, with approximately 60,000 residents (which represents roughly half the population of the entire county). Napa is an affluent town, at once modern and historic. It has both upscale shops and malls, as well as quaint bed and breakfast establishments housed in restored Victorians. There are also museums, galleries, parks, good restaurants and hotel accommodations here, making it an ideal base from which to explore the rest of the valley.

The chief attraction in Napa is Copia, where the food and wine culture is well preserved. Copia is in parts a museum, gallery, tasting bar, cafe, culinary institute, and performing arts venue. It hosts concerts year-round, changing exhibitions, and a constantly evolving roster of both California and international wines for tasting. There’s a Julia Child “kitchen” here, as well as museum exhibits dedicated to the history of California wine.

Los Carneros

Napa also has two or three worthwhile detours for wine country visitors. Just to the southwest of town, for instance, is the Los Carneros region, one of Napa’s newest viticultural areas, characterized by its rolling, vine-covered hills, and reached by way of the Old Sonoma Road and Highway 12. Los Carneros, typically, has cooler growing conditions than Napa Valley, ideally suited to the early-ripening Chardonnay, Gewürztraminer, Pinot Noir and Johannisberg Riesling varieties. It also has in it a handful of small wineries, including Mont St. John Cellars and Domaine Carneros, situated just off Old Sonoma Road, and Acacia, Bouchaine and Saintsbury, are situated a little to the south on Las Amigas Road, Buchli Station Road and Los Carneros Avenue, respectively. All offer wines from the Carneros region. Two others, the Carneros Creek Winery and Codorniu Napa Valley, are located, respectively, on Dealy Lane—which goes off Old Sonoma Road northwestward—and Henry Road, farther to the north of there. The last of these, Codorniu, a méthode champenoise sparkling wine producer from Spain, is especially to be recommended to first-time visitors to the area, housed in a unique, architect-designed winery building, with sweeping views of the Cameros district, and offering visitors a first-class tour of its facility, highlighting the méthode champenoise sparkling wine-making process. Codomiu also has an art gallery and museum on its premises.

Mount Veeder

Another detour, northwestward from the Napa township, is on Redwood Road. which has on it the Hess Collection winery, housed in a restored, turn-of-the-century winery building, built largely from stone, and where you can visit an art gallery with a superb collection of paintings and sculpture by well-known American and European artists. From Redwood Road, too, just south of Mont La Salle and the Hess Collection, Mount Veeder Road peels northward and into the small, lofty viticultural area of the same name. Mount Veeder, with roughly 200 acres or so of planted vineyards. On Mount Veeder Road, of course, is the small, family-owned Mount Veeder Winery, specializing in Cabernet Sauvignon; and a little farther, on Lakoya Road are the Mayacamas Vineyards—named for the Mayacamas Mountain range, in which the Mount Veeder area itself is located—and Sky Vineyards, offering estate-grown Zinfandel From their hillside vineyards.