4-Days in Sonoma & Napa Valley

A few years ago, I decided that I wanted to reinvent my New Year’s Eve experience which is also my birthday. Overly crowded open bars and a race to get an overpriced Uber while waiting in the cold is overrated. My new criteria for New Year’s is that the destination must be someplace decently warmer than the North East temps and most importantly, it must be relaxing. Our first trip for New Year’s was to Sonoma & Napa which exceeded all expectations.

If you’re looking for a low-key way to celebrate New Year’s or you just want to drink great wine (no explanation necessary), this is our itinerary for a 4-day itinerary in Sonoma and Napa Valley.

4-DAY ITINERARY IN SONOMA & NAPA VALLEY

Day 1: Fly into SFO Airport, pick up your vehicle, grab lunch or a light bite at The Girl & The Fig, head to Scribe Winery for a tasting, pick up groceries and wine shipping boxes at a local mail store, dinner at Chalkboard.

Day 2: Reserve a driver for tastings in Napa. Reservations should include a tasting at Stags’ Leap, Caymus Vineyards, lunch at Farmstead, and a tasting at Orin Swift in downtown Napa.

Day 3: Breakfast at Flying Goat before a full day of tastings at Rodney Strong, Mazzocco, Ridge, and Mauritson, dinner at Valette.

Day 4: Start your morning with a tasting at Bella Wine Cave, picnic lunch from Oakville Grocery or Dry Creek General Store, then visit the Healdsburg tasting rooms (La Crema, Willamson Wines, Portalupi), dinner at Spoonbar.

Day 5: Drive back to San Francisco. If you have time before your flight, visit Buena Vista Coffee to see the birthplace of the Irish coffee, wander around Japantown, then stop by the Painted Ladies for a photo opp.

One of the many courses served during the tasting at Scribe Winery

Where to Stay:

Sonoma and Napa Valley are vast in size. We chose to base ourselves in Healdsburg, a city in Sonoma County. We were 10-15 minutes to Alexander Valley, 15-10 minutes to Dry Creek Valley, and 45 minutes to Sonoma the town.

There are ton of beautiful hotels and resorts in Sonoma and Napa Valley (Kenwood Inn, MacArthur Place Hotel & Spa, Carneros Resort and Spa, and SingleThread Inn). For our needs (as three couples traveling together), a vacation rental in Sonoma made most sense. We wanted to cook meals together and spend late nights in the hot tub or lounging in pajamas together.

Airbnb - We booked a house overlooking the Russian River. To receive $55 off your first trip, you can book an Airbnb with my link.

Sonoma and Napa have the perfect blend of modern and historic like Stags’ Leap in Napa

Where to Taste:

When you start planning your trip, inquire with each vineyard about reservations. These vineyards came recommended to us, along with 20 others but there’s only so much time. Three vineyards a day is a great balance if you have dinner reservations that night or want to remember dinner. I’ve added an asterisk to my absolute favorites.

HEALDSBURG (a city in Sonoma County)
Bella Wine Cave
Downtown Healdsburg Tasting Rooms
Mauritson Wines*
Mazzocco Winery
Rodney Strong Vineyards
Ridge Vineyards*

NAPA
Caymus Vineyard
Stags’ Leap*

SONOMA
Scribe Winery*

ST. HELENA (a city in Sonoma County)
Orin Swift Tasting Room

Other recommended vineyards that we wanted to try but didn’t make the itinerary in Sonoma: Jordan, Mantzana, Benzinger, Michel-Schlumberger, St. Francis, Paradise Ridge, Dehlinger, DuMOL, Kosta Browne, Kinsella, Williams Selyem, Alexander Valley, Duckhorn, and in Napa: Cakebread, Del Dotto, Nickel and Nickel, Alpha Omega and Artessa.

Where to Eat:

The Girl & the Fig - it’s tempting to order the entire menu at this French restaurant in downtown Sonoma. We came for lunch or a light snack, and devoured all of the charcuterie.
Scribe Winery - farm to table is overused but it’s a real statement at Scribe. With each course delivered to the table, we were able to see where it grew in their garden. The food, the setting (outside and inside the house) and the wine are all phenomenal.
Chalkboard - another Healdsburg restaurant that does a great job at showcasing ingredients farmed locally and local wine flights.
Valette - two brothers came together to create this restaurant which showcases local purveyors, artisans and winemakers. The owner’s father stopped by for a conversation making the dinner extra special with his personal touch.
Spoonbar - the perfect spot to ring in the New Year. It was a multi-course dinner, followed by live band and dancing. Spoonbar is normally known for its cocktails and open-air dining.
Farmstead at Long Meadow Ranch - everything was made fresh the restaurant’s farm, ranch and vineyard; we even waited for the famous chocolate pie freshly made that morning to finish “setting” while we were there.

Other recommended restaurants that we wanted to try but didn’t make the itinerary: SingleThread, Barndiva, Farmhouse Inn, The Restaurant at Meadowood, Rutherford Grill and French Laundry.

Common Questions

How will I get around? We rented a large van in San Francisco with enough seats for six of us and space for our luggage (limit one piece of luggage per person; you’ll also need room for your wine bottles). To travel responsibly to the vineyards, we found the most unique service, a company that drove our rental vehicle; I highly recommend Colleen or Sharon at Valet of the Moon.

How should I get my wine home? One of our very first orders of business was to pick up a box for shipping bottles of wine with packing to keep each bottle secure. At the end of the trip, we boxed it and checked it at the airport. Just a note: All of the wineries are looking to sell you a membership with a regular shipment of wine, but it may not include any of wine from your tasting. Some of the wineries do offer direct shipping, but it will depend upon your state’s alcohol laws.

One of the most surprising aspects of the trip was the culinary scene, outside of the Michelin-star restaurants. Every meal was super in-touch with the local agricultural scene and rivaled the last meal. We were so inspired by the food that we started monthly wine dinners when we returned home. The obvious is that it was an opportunity to share our newly purchased wine treasures. However, it was beautiful to try to recreate the meals we had in Sonoma. We prepared multi-course dinners by recalling the taste and flavors, and relying on our tastebuds’ memory, like the decadent chocolate pie from Farmstead or Scribe’s butter lettuce radish salad with the most scrumptious lemon champagne vinaigrette I’ve ever tasted. I never did find that vinaigrette recipe - it’s something I’m still perfecting.