Napa Valley wine trip trip report

[turnipmonster]

I thought Mustard's was really fun and great food, I can see it being a madhouse on the weekend though.

[TheMetetron]

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I'm thinking ahead for when my parents visit Argentina... shipping from here to the States would be expensive but I'm sure they will find a few bottles they can't get there that they may want.


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you are going to run into customs issues. iirc 3 bottles is the limit until you have to declare it.

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I've brought five bottles in the past, declared it, and owed no duty. I'm sure at some point they may owe some duty, but they probably won't bring back more than 5-10 bottles anyways.

[MrMon]

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I thought Mustard's was really fun and great food, I can see it being a madhouse on the weekend though.

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That's why we're going on Thursday.

[Weebl]

Sounds like a good day.

I am a Napa resident and work in the industry. I often have out of town guests and have put together a list of wineries that do not have national distribution or may be small production facilities. Visiting these places is a different Napa Valley experience. These suggestions are geared to wine buyers and those that appreciate wine. I did include some suggestions at the end that are more geared toward overall experience.

You can find all these places by Googling WINERY NAME Napa.

Cab houses:

Reynolds Family Winery. Great big cabs, solid pinot too.
Steltzner, Distinctive cabs.
Revana Family Vineyards. Superstar winemaker, expensive of course.


Good Variety:
Venge, check out the Scouts Honor.
Pride. Cab Franc rules, if you're into cab franc.
Goosecross. Good variety, easonably priced.

Merlot with Backbone: Twomey. Sister winery to Silver Oak Cellars. They also have a Pinot now that's kick ass.

Cool staff, fun environment:
Miner, great staff. Very different than your usual Napa Valley experience.
Sequoia Grove.
Peju, dude with guitar on the weekends is a real crowd pleaser.
Casa Nuestra. Hippies, decent wine. Organic I think.

Good Tour: Schramsburg, cool caves, make sparkling wine so its great way to start the day.

Nickel and Nickel. Good experience overall, most of the wine they pour is not ready to drink for a year or so but quality nonetheless. Tour is a good example of what billionaires do as a second act. (see also: Far Niente and Hall).

I appreciate feedback and discussion.

[nolanfan34]

Nice reports in this thread. The mrs. and I will be in Napa for a wedding this summer, so I'll have to check some of these places out.

[Weebl]

Oh yeah,
I would recommend appointments at all these places.

[MrMon]

This is perfect and exactly what I'm looking for. I've done most of the obvious tours and tastings and am looking for something different, but some of the small producers are tough to know if they're worthwhile or even open. I'm going to go through this list and all the other suggestions so far and start making calls.

[El Diablo]

Weebl: Some great recs, thanks much. I usually try to hit a couple like that each trip. I've found some of my favorites by asking the people doing the tasting, they know who's doing what at the moment.

Met: No idea. You can no longer carry a box of wine on, so that sucks for people visiting. There's a site I think can help you out with specific info, Google.com.

Mon: Mustard's is great and so is Schramsberg. Not sure if that's one where you need an appointment, but every place has all the details on their website now.

m: Great report. That experience you had at Stag's Leap is what happens at cool places if you actually talk wine with the people doing the serving. That sort of stuff definitely makes the trip special, glad you got to try that. That's the opposite of how the experience generally is at Darioush, which is why I'm so down on that joint, even though I've been a fan of their wine for a long time. They were much more fun when they were still building and the tasting was out in a trailer.

[TheMetetron]

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Met: No idea. You can no longer carry a box of wine on, so that sucks for people visiting. There's a site I think can help you out with specific info, Google.com.

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Crap, you can't carry on liquids anymore. I totally forgot about that. Thanks for the site, I'll look at it right away!

[MrMon]

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I'm thinking ahead for when my parents visit Argentina... shipping from here to the States would be expensive but I'm sure they will find a few bottles they can't get there that they may want.


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you are going to run into customs issues. iirc 3 bottles is the limit until you have to declare it.

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I've brought five bottles in the past, declared it, and owed no duty. I'm sure at some point they may owe some duty, but they probably won't bring back more than 5-10 bottles anyways.

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Your post has inspired me to look up the actual rules on alcohol importation, which I've been meaning to do for some time. They are not what people think.

First off, the limit on duty-dree importation of alcohol is 1 liter of anything, beer, wine, spirits. Kind of stupid, but that's the rule, and it's per person over 21. So, two adults returning from Argentina could bring back duty free 2 2/3 bottles of wine duty-free. In reality, Customs apparently lets larger amounts through free, up to several bottles per person, as long as you declare it, for reasons that will become apparent in a moment.

So, can you import more than the duty-free limit, and if you do, what's the penalty? The answer is, as long as it's for personal use, there is no federal limit, but you do have to pay duty and federal excise tax on amounts above the duty-free limit. So, those duty-free limits, which everyone thinks are the absolute limit, are no limit at all.

But what's the duty and excise tax? Pretty low, actually. The duty beyond the 1 liter limit is 3% for the first $1000, there's a variable rate beyond that that I haven't determined, but it can't be much. That's less than sales tax! The excise tax is a bit more, and varies by alcohol content. For wine, per bottle, it's either 21 or 31 cents per bottle, champagne is 67 cents. For alcohol, it's $2.14 per bottle at 80 proof. (Note that all this assumes 750ml bottles.)

So, if the alcohol is a good deal, the duty and excise taxes certainly aren't going to stop you from bringing it in, but what will? That old bugaboo, state limits. It's really hard to find them, but I've seen limits for some states on the order of 2 cases of wine per year per person, if your state allows imports at all. And Customs says they will enforce state importation laws, though if you claimed you had just moved to a state with the highest limits, would they check you out? You'll have to test that one yourself. If you're thinking of hauling back 15 cases from your trip to Bordeaux, you might want to check ahead of time on the rules for your state. You might be able to do it easy, with a slew of paperwork, or not at all.

The short version:

1. The duty-free limit for persons over 21 is 1 liter of any alcohol per person, except for the Carribean and U.S. possessions.

2. You can import beyond the duty-free limit for personal use. The duty and taxes are so low, you shouldn't even consider it when bringing in stuff. If you can get six bottles of Scotch cheap on your way out of Europe, do so and pay the damn tax, it's still a deal and it's not illegal.

3. Your state may impose more rules on alcohol importation than the feds. The more you're bringing in, the more likely you are to set off Customs into enforcing those rules. If you bring in a case of wine and your state allows imports, probably not a problem, 5 cases, might be a problem, 50 cases, and you should have checked ahead or you may be leaving it at the Customs desk.