Napa  Valley Vacations

To plan your Napa Valley vacations, you'll need to understand how the area lays out, understand Napa's AVA regions, and where Napa wineries are located.  The area considered Napa Valley encompasses well over 30 miles of highway (29) from the city of Napa to Calistoga and thousands of acres of vineyards both on in the valley and on the hillside ridges flanking the valley floor.  For this reason, Napa is usually divided into areas that make traveling to wineries, restaurants, hotels, spas, and stores convenient without spending too much time in traffic and on the road.

Napa Valley Map

The map at the left is deceptive since it doesn't account for the many, many visitors that come to Napa especially on weekends and can cause congestion and delays on the main route.

You can see from the number of wineries shown, that Hwy. 29 is the main attraction for wine tasting and Napa wineries.

If you do need to travel the valley during the day, try taking the Silverado Trail.  It's scenic, has some great wineries, and a lot less traffic.

Napa Valley AVAs

Napa is divided into 14 AVAs (American Viticultural Areas) that determine the varietals the areas produce.  Although most wineries and tours are divided by Napa's towns, the varietals a winery produces is determined by the where their acreage is located.  Here's a little bit of information about Napa's primary AVAs.

Diamond Mountain
The Diamond Mountain District, one of the northernmost appellations in the Napa Valley, is steep and rocky. The soils are mostly volcanic, and the climate is influenced by ocean breezes and fog, resulting in large temperature swings between day and night, which help to preserve the acidity of the grapes.  Diamond Mountain District is best known for its big, structured Cabernets.

Spring Mountain
There is no actual Spring Mountain but a mostly forested AVA, just above St. Helena that's a saddle of land between Mount Veeder and Diamond Mountain District. The name comes from the area's numerous natural springs. Grapes have been grown here since the 1870s, but only in the past decade or so did the region's reputation start to soar. Much of this is thanks to Cabernet, and that's what counts in Spring Mountain—powerful, rich, dense, dark Cabernet

Rutherford
Rutherford has been an AVA since 1993 but has produced some of the regions most outstanding wines for decades.  The best vineyards lie west of Hwy. 29 producing dense, rich Cabernet grapes and wines.

Stags Leap
The controversy over Stags Leap District—the appellation name and its boundaries—began in the mid-1980s and lasted through the decade. A few vintners continue to grumble that some vineyards which weren't included when the AVA was approved in 1989 should have been.  A distinct resemblance can be found in many of the Cabernets from the district, and the most likely reason is climate. Stags Leap is heavily influenced by the cool breezes that swirl through its knolls and crags and give the district an exceptionally long growing season.  Stags Leap District Cabernet is typically described as "an iron fist in a velvet glove."

Mount Veeder
It used to be easy to spot a Cabernet from Mount Veeder because the wine with the hard green (unripe) tannins. The problem was that some parts of the district were simply too cool for Cabernet grapes to fully ripen.  Cabernets from Mount Veeder are still intense and structured, but today's winemakers have been able to craft wines with finer and riper tannins. One reason is that they are growing Cabernet in the warmer areas, leaving the cooler places to grapes like Merlot and Syrah, which require less heat.

Howell Mountain
Howell Mountain was the first subappellation in Napa Valley to earn AVA status (in 1984). Unlike the mountain appellations on the west side, which start at a 400-foot elevation (some vineyards barely rise above Highway 29), the Howell Mountain AVA, in the eastern Vaca Range, begins at 1,400 feet, above the fog, meaning warmer mornings and cooler afternoon breezes.                                                                              Howell Mountain is known for Cabernets, it is also home to some fine Zinfandels. The Cabernets are concentrated and structured, and many have a subtle herbaceous character that ranges from cedar to dill to black olive, while the Zins are intense but, thanks to the climate here, rarely overripe.

About Our Weekend Guides

For the sake of ease and simplicity, we've divided our guides into geographic areas:

1. A Weekend Guide To St. Helena (includes Oakville & Rutherford)

2. A Weekend Guide To Calistoga

3. A Weekend Guide To Yountville (includes Napa and some Carneros)

4.  Napa No Charge-- A Guide To Wineries that do not charge for tasting.

Napa Weekends is a division of Online Advice and is not responsible for any damage, harm, disappointments, or loss that may result from using these guides.