We'll be in Yountville in March. Any must try's for restaurants? Preferred winery visits? Other stuff that we should see/do that might not be on the main radars?

Not sure if you have your wine tours all straightened out but we did a day with https://www.westwinetours.com/ and it was awesome.

Cruising around Napa in an old restored VW van with the windows down and music on was cool. They served a great lunch as well.

Highly recommend

Yountville's the best, feels like a movie set. All the restaurants are pretty much must-tries, but my favorite thing to do is get a cafe au lait and fresh croisant (and they have this like fried monkey bread thing thats incredible) every morning at Bouchon Bakery. There can be a line right when it opens so sometimes it's best to wait 15 minutes.

Otherwise French Laundry is the top of the list if you can get a reservation, should try it at least once. Bouchon and Bistro Jeanty are similar, I prefer Bouchon as I feel like Jeanty is a little too crowded and gets really loud, especially inside, like can't have a conversation with your table loud. Ciccio might be the best value in my opinion, and they have great cocktails when you're tired of wine. RH is a really pretty space, the ladies love it, the food won't blow you away and it's just wine/beer. We did Bottega like 15 years ago and thought it was just ok and haven't been back since, but I am sure it's not bad since it's lasted this long.

I'm a Bouchon guy. I'll go at least twice on every trip for the onion soup and the salad lyonaise.

But really, lots of good spots to choose from.

Can't find a bad restaurant in Yountville. All the Thomas Keller restaurants are good. I've always enjoyed Bottega, it's a regular stop when my wife and I go.

Outside of Bouchon Bakery, there's a small local chain called Model Bakery that is great for breakfast as well. If you venture out more around Napa Valley, we always stop at Gott's Roadside Burgers in St. Helena for lunch (get there early).

As far as wineries, just kind of depends on what kind of experience you want. Some places offer tours and others just offer seated tastings. We've had good tours at Raymond, Krug, and Cakebread in the past. If you end up at Del Dotto, make it your last stop since they are generous with pours straight out of the barrels. Schramsberg is great if you want to mix in some sparkling wine with all the cabs - they take you down into their underground caves where all the bottles are stored which is pretty cool.

I'd recommend two wineries a day, maybe three if you can really spread the timing out.

We just had a pretty good discussion on this topic.

Here is the link to the other thread
Napa Restaurant Recommendations | TexAgs

East Dallas Ag said:

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RH is a really pretty space, the ladies love it, the food won't blow you away and it's just wine/beer.

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The RH Wine Vault (right next door) is a good stop, too. Beautiful setting and a great place to try local wines.

Definitely agree on both Bouchon Bakery and Mini-Model.

Yountville is really cool.

posted on the other Napa thread, but for a lighter, casual lunch, go to the Oxbow Market and eat at Hog Island Oyster Co.

Their oyster farm is close by on Tomales Bay near Point Reyes. Good folks and the best oysters.

Went over Valentine's Day weekend.

Coles and water front grill in napa were great. Did bouchon bakery and a pop up burger place by it one day. Can't really go wrong in the valley, just make sure you have reservations for dinner for ease.

There's tons of ways to pick wineries, so you know what you like or prefer tastings?

Most of Silverado trail now requires a reservation. We love to have a glass at rombauer and enjoy the view. Silver oak was also great and phenomenal wine/people watching. We usually do one tasting a day, then another one or two stops for by the glass, but we mostly just drink cabs. There's Tons of views on big vs small, but the big names are big for a reason and you should definitely do both a big and small. Pacing depends on how long you're there. It's really easy to drive the whole valley during the off-season.

tx.ag11 said:

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Can't find a bad restaurant in Yountville. All the Thomas Keller restaurants are good. I've always enjoyed Bottega, it's a regular stop when my wife and I go.

Outside of Bouchon Bakery, there's a small local chain called Model Bakery that is great for breakfast as well. If you venture out more around Napa Valley, we always stop at Gott's Roadside Burgers in St. Helena for lunch (get there early).

As far as wineries, just kind of depends on what kind of experience you want. Some places offer tours and others just offer seated tastings. We've had good tours at Raymond, Krug, and Cakebread in the past. If you end up at Del Dotto, make it your last stop since they are generous with pours straight out of the barrels. Schramsberg is great if you want to mix in some sparkling wine with all the cabs - they take you down into their underground caves where all the bottles are stored which is pretty cool.

I'd recommend two wineries a day, maybe three if you can really spread the timing out.

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I was completely hammered by the second wine tasting lol, not sure I couldve survived a third!

We did seven in one day. That was a bit much.

HTownAg98 said:

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We did seven in one day. That was a bit much.

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You visited 7 different wineries in a day?

If you never go to sleep, it's all the same day, right?

HTownAg98 said:

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We did seven in one day. That was a bit much.

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Helps to be an alcoholic when going to Napa.

The wife and I hire a driver if we are doing tastings. Great friend owns winetastingdriver.com. First time we went out to Napa we went out there and he set the entire tastings for us. We gave him the our favorite styles of wines and he set us up at some boutique wineries vs. the big names. Now I go stay at his house when we visit.