1. Downtown Joe’S
City: Napa, CA
Category: Nightlife
Telephone: (707) 258-2337
Address: 902 Main Street
Description: This riverside microbrewery offers a variety of live entertainment Tuesday through Friday. Wednesday nights are for contemporary jazz; on Sunday evenings there might be a blues jam or comedy (second Sunday of each month). On other nights there are singer-songwriters.
2. Tuscany
City: Napa, CA
Category: Nightlife
Telephone: (707) 258-1000
Address: 1005 First Street
Description: It’s known more for its food, but on Friday and Saturday from 7:00 to 11:00 p.m. there’s also live jazz or blues.
3. Piccolino’S Italian Cafe
City: Napa, CA
Category: Nightlife
Telephone: (707) 251-0100
Address: 1385 Napa Town Center
Description: Forget Jerry Vale’s versions of those old Italian ballads. Catch them performed here by the duo of Steve Albini and Helen Mead, who also throw in a few of today’s tunes. Hours are generally 5:00 to 9:00 p.m.
4. Napa Cinedome 8
City: Napa, CA
Category: Nightlife
Telephone: (707) 257-7700
Address: 825 Pearl Street
5. Monticello Vineyards
City: Napa, CA
Category: Nightlife
Telephone: (707) 253-2802
Address: 4242 Big Ranch Road
Description: Proprietor Jay Corley is a big fan of Thomas Jefferson. So big, he named his winery Monticello and built a small-scale “Jefferson House,” patterned after the founding father’s Virginia mansion, to serve as the company’s offices and culinary center. It’s a pretty setting on Big Ranch Road, which heads north out of Napa city about halfway between Highway 29 and the Silverado Trail. There is a vivid rose garden and a shady picnic area called the Grove. Monticello makes Cabernet, Chardonnay, Merlot, Pinot Noir, and Syrah.
6. Trefethen Vineyards
City: Napa, CA
Category: Nightlife
Telephone: (707) 255-7700, (866) 895-7696
Address: 1160 Oak Knoll Avenue
Description: When Capt. Hamden McIntyre built the Eshcol winery in 1886, the three-story, wooden, gravity-flow architectural design was standard. Grapes were crushed on the third floor, fermented on the second, and stored at ground level. Today the old Eshcol building is the centerpiece of Trefethen Vineyards, and it’s one of the last gravity-flow winery buildings in Napa Valley. Trefethen is a throwback in another way too: Surrounding the winery are vineyards, plus gardens, walnut trees, and oaks. It was Eugene Trefethen, an executive for Kaiser (the massive construction firm responsible for Hoover Dam and the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge), who bought the estate in 1968. His son, John, and John’s wife, Janet, started the winery five years later.
7. The Hess Collection Winery
City: Napa, CA
Category: Nightlife
Telephone: (707) 255-1144, (877) 707-HESS
Address: 4411 Redwood Road
Description: The “collection” is a stunning assemblage of modern art (see the Arts and Culture chapter). The Hess is Donald Hess, the Swiss millionaire whose holdings include Valser St. Petersquelle, one of Switzerland’s most popular mineral waters. Hess keeps it simple as far as the wines go, with Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Syrah, and Cabernet Sauvignon.
8. Black Stallion Winery
City: Napa, CA
Category: Nightlife
Telephone: (707) 253-1400, (888) 279-6272
Address: 4089 Silverado Trail
Description: The newest winery and tasting room to open along Silverado Trail in the past couple of years is Black Stallion, an 11-acre site (once an equestrian center) surrounded by vineyards planted to Malbec, Petite Verdot, and Cabernet Franc. (These are the grapes that will compose a future meritage blend.) There’s a huge outdoor tasting patio in addition to the large indoor visitor center, and a “petting” vineyard, too, where you can learn about grape-growing. The wines—Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah, Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio, and Muscat—are available only at the winery and online.
9. Darioush
City: Napa, CA
Category: Nightlife
Telephone: (707) 257-2345
Address: 4240 Silverado Trail
Description: Rising from the vineyards alongside the Silverado Trail is a magnificent building that evokes Persepolis, the capital of ancient Persia. It’s hard to miss this architectural wonder, a 22,000-square-foot palace set off with 16 columns that act as stone trees, inviting visitors into the tasting room. The travertine stone that gives the building its warm glow was quarried in the region of Persepolis, then cut in Turkey and Italy before being shipped to Napa Valley. Named for its founder, Darioush Khaledi, who grew up in a wine-growing region of Iran, the winery produces exceptional reds, such as Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz, and whites such as Chardonnay and Viognier.
10. Clos Du Val
City: Napa, CA
Category: Nightlife
Telephone: (707) 259-2225, (800) 820-1972
Address: 5330 Silverado Trail
Description: Clos Du Val is French in more than name only. Founder John Goelet is descended from a distinguished Bordeaux wine merchant family, the Guestiers, and president/winemaker Bernard Portet is a sixth-generation vintner from the same French region. They crushed their first Napa Valley harvest together in 1972, and their ivy-covered, stone tasting room opened in 1983. Clos Du Val now produces several wines, including its signature Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon and Ariadne, a blend of Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc grapes. Tours are available in the demonstration vineyard; tasting room staff can hook you up.
11. Chimney Rock Winery
City: Napa, CA
Category: Nightlife
Telephone: (707) 257-2641, (800) 257-2641
Address: 5350 Silverado Trail
Description: At the foot of the hills east of the Silverado Trail—including the outcrop from which it draws its name—is Chimney Rock, a stately white structure of Cape Dutch style, cloaked (in the summer) or picketed (in the winter) by a row of poplars. Ask if you can see the wine cellar, where resides a faithful reproduction of the Ganymede frieze depicting the gods’ cupbearer atop a fierce eagle. The winery makes Fumé Blanc, Cabernet Franc, and Cabernet Sauvignon, and its own Cabernet Sauvignon–Merlot–Petit Verdot blend called Elevage.
City: Napa, CA
Category: Nightlife
Address: 5766 Silverado Trail
13. Pine Ridge Winery
City: Napa, CA
Category: Nightlife
Telephone: (707) 253-7500, (800) 486-0503
Address: 5901 Silverado Trail
Description: The pines aren’t only high on the ridge. A grove of them surrounds the picnic area, making for a cool experience on a hot Napa Valley day. Winery and cave tours are by appointment only. Pine Ridge currently produces Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc-Viognier, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Malbec, Merlot, and Rosé. If you can’t fit a tour into your schedule, investigate the Pine Ridge Demonstration Vineyard adjacent to the winery. It displays various combinations of rootstock, clone, and trellising apparatus.
14. Steltzner Vineyards
City: Napa, CA
Category: Nightlife
Telephone: (707) 252-7272, (800) 707-9463
Address: 5998 Silverado Trail
Description: Dick and Christine Steltzner started making wines for bulk sale in 1977, and they opened their Silverado Trail winery in 1983. (The current structure was built in 1992.) Steltzner is noted for its reds, as are all labels within the Stags Leap appellation. Its wines include Cabernet Sauvignon, Claret, and a South African varietal called Pinotage.
15. Silverado Vineyards
City: Napa, CA
Category: Nightlife
Telephone: (707) 257-1770
Address: 6121 Silverado Trail
Description: This is no Mickey Mouse winery, despite ownership by Walt Disney’s daughter, Diane Disney Miller, and Diane’s husband, Ron Miller. The Millers are longtime Napa Valley denizens. Silverado offers great views above the trail and a winery crafted of native stone and redwood. It made its reputation with Chardonnay but probably is best known these days for its Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot, Sangiovese, and estate-grown Cabernet Sauvignon.