Enjoyable Wine Tasting Tours
One of the very best trips a wine lover could ever take would be through the Napa Valley. A wine tasting tour that travels through Napa, Yountville, Oakville, Rutherford, St, Helena, and Calistoga.
Wine Tasting Tour - Napa
Napa is the county seat of Napa County and has a population of around 90,000 people. The Napa River runs through the city on its journey to the San Pablo Bay. The city was founded by Nathan Coombs in 1847. In the 1850s the gold rush turned Napa into a bustling tent city erected along Main Street. Today, Napa is very famous for its wine tasting tours.
Wine Tasting Tour - Yountville
This city gets its name from early pioneer George Calvert Yount, who is credited with the very first vineyard in Napa Valley.
Wine Tasting Tour - Oakville
Oakville got its name from all the dense forests that surrounded the area in the 1800s, Henry W. Crabb, owner of one of the largest vineyards in Napa Valley founded Oakville.
Wine Tasting Tour - Rutherford
This area’s soil quality is some of the best in the world and is referred to as “Rutherford’s Dust.” Judge S.C. Hastings is generally considered to be the founder of Rutherford. This city offers some of the most scenic fields and meadows anywhere in the world and is the best place in the world to grow cabernet grapes.
Be sure to stop at Rutherford’s Niebaum-Coppola Winery to see the gracious fountains, rare wood staircases and railings. The gift shop is worth a look as it features, tapestries and clothes that Coppola’s wife scours the world to find.
Wine Tasting Tour - St. Helena
In the 1860s, miners were streaming into St. Helena because of the great silver rush. The most famous of all the mines was the Silverado Mine, located near the summit of Mt. St. Helena. This silver mine was immortalized by Robert Louis Stevenson in his classic “The Silverado Squatters.”
Wine Tasting Tour - Calistoga
This city is known as the “hot springs” of Napa Valley and is home to “Old Faithful” Geyser of California. This geyser is one of three in the world known as “old faithful.” Today Calistoga is better known around the world for its water than its wine.
Appellation
The Napa Valley Wine Region encompasses nearly 297,000 acres, with more than 50,000 acres planted in the ground. The Napa Valley is itself an appellation. Within the Napa Valley Appellation exists 14 sub appellations, including: Atlas Peak, Chiles Valley District, Diamond Mountain District, Howell Mountain, Los Carneros, Mt. Veeder, Oakville, Rutherford, St. Helena, Spring Mountain District, Stags Leap District, Yountville, Wild Horse Valley, and Oak Knoll District.
