Solano County

I booked an airbnb in Napa a few days ago just because I saw a really cheap one for the area. Afterwards reading up about it and talking with Evi and Hugo, we realised we probably would have been better off going to the neighbouring Sonoma region. Napa is the super famous, fancy and expensive wine region, while right next to it Sonoma has similar wines, but a more laid back atmosphere and about half the price (even one of the sommeliers in Napa itself tod us to go there instead) . But anyway the airbnb was booked, so it had to be Napa after all. We considered renting bikes, but Seamus wouldn't have wanted to drink that much even then (still trying to get his stomach to be normal again) so he just drove us around and I did most of the drinking. We chose an amazing time to visit, as 2 days after the torrential rain, the whole place was ridiculously green. Like greener than Scotland green. There were also all kinds of wild flowers growing here and there. So basically Napa valley is a 30 mile long valley, about 5 miles wide at its widest. The sorrounding hills are all covered in forests, and the valley itself is covered with grape plantations. There's 400-600 little vineyards all around, and all of them offer tastings. Unfortunately while about 10 years ago these used to be free, now they al charge a fee, which at "cheap" places start at 20 dollars from having a small tasting of 4 wines, but easily start from 40-50 at others. We still drove in to multiple wineries (even though we only consumed wine at 2 of them) as all of them have beautiful setup so it was always nice to stop and look around. In the middle of green wine fields, all the houses are beautiful (in a variety of styles, from super modern ones, to cute wood houses, to tuscan villas) they all have big terraces to hang out, try wines or have picnics. We did a tasting flight (that's what they call them apparently) at Black Stallion vineyard, where the sommelier's grandparents were Hungarian, so we bonded over his wish of visiting Hungary and his love of bikaver. Our favourite place was Honig vineyard, I could spend days sitting in their garden. The girls serving us were super friendly and we talked with them for a long time. One of the girls got married in Scotland, on the island of his "husband's clan" ! Here we managed to buy a half bottle of wine instead of the tasting, which was actually better value. They kept bringing out thoughtful stuff, like a cute book on the dogs of the area's vineyards, or just to check on us and chat. Even if the wine was expensive, the experience was definitely worth it for the day!Read more