Napa and Sonoma Wineries: Darioush, Clos du Val, V. Sattui, and Alpha Omega

By grace.g.yang · June 22, 2008
Under: California,My Life,Travels

After our French Laundry lunch, Chris and I walked around a bunch of wineries. The first stop was Darioush, based off a recommendation a guy gave us when we were having brunch at Blue Ribbon Bakery a while back. He kept emphasizing how great the winery was…when we got there, we thought the place looked a little….over the top:

The winery opened in 1997 and focuses on Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, Merlot, Malbec, Petit Verdot, Chardonnay and Viognier:

The winery reminded me of a building the belonged in Las Vegas, and guess who we ran into…the Texas couples that walked out on The French Laundry! We took some pictures on the grassy lawn and by the grapes:

The next winery we visited, Clos du Val, was opened in 1972:

Their tastings were really popular:

We weren’t really in the mood for drinking, so we walked off all the food we just consumed, took some pictures around the estate, and headed to our next winery.

V. Suttui was being decorated for a wedding when we got there and was pretty packed (not only with people from the wedding). It’s one of the more popular wineries because they offer really cheap tasting ($5 for 6 wines or something like that):

They also have an outdoor picnic area (you’re supposed to buy food from the marketplace, but I’m guessing people bring in whatever they want since it’s outdoors). The marketplace sells various cheeses, dips, and sandwiches that pair well with the wine they sell:

I actually bought a wine from V. Sattui the last time I was in Napa. We liked the Rieslings the most (I brought one home last year but didn’t want to bother with it this year).

After our V. Sattui tasting, we drove to another winery, Alpha Omega. The winery was still under construction, but was open an hour past the other wineries in the area so we went in:

We were wined out, but had a great time walking through all of the tasting rooms. After all of the wineries, we headed to Taylor’s Refresher for an awesome dinner – a post will be up later this week!