A little place called Napa

         Traveling to me is like food to my soul that calms my mind and relieves my stress! It's been a while since I actually went out, so this year I so want to make up for the lost time. I started my year by visiting this small little town, called Napa, famous for it's aesthetic and age old vineyards which offer vine tasting and vine tours to it's guests. This was a last minute plan for us, with zero planning and hence, we couldn't get reservations last minute to the vineyards we wanted; but ended up reserving vine tasting at "Beringer Vineyards".  Continue reading if you plan to have a budget friendly trip, for a day visiting Napa.

    

    We booked a  "Legacy Tour and Tasting" that gave us the opportunity to sample their portfolio of winery-exclusive wines. Our wine cave tour was followed by a tasting at the historic old winery. The tour guide detailed the 146 year history as we tasted in the original location where the Beringer brothers produced their first vintages. Each of the 5 wines were named after a particular vineyard, variety or growing region. Wine tasting included a glass of Chardonnay as a welcome drink. The table had three types of wines already set up as shown in the above picture. The wines were Sauvignon, Merlot and Malbec. We were also offered a glass of Pinot Noir after chardonnay and cheese board that included different types of cheese. Below are few pictures from the wine cave tour.

      The overall experience wasn't that remarkable because of our tour guide's lack of enthusiasm. Other vineyards, I believe, offer significantly more than this one. This is most likely the best we could get for the price match we had! 

    We then decided to visit other vineyards before our dinner reservation. We encountered so many vineyards on the way, but we decided to stop at one of these luxurious vineyards called "Joseph Phelps Vineyards". This place was a visual feast for our eyes. The vineyard could have been built on acres of land, with wines stretching as far as our eyes could see! I wish we had done more research and booked this place because they also offered a tour in their Vineyards, which was not included in the previous tour we had.

         Our next stop was at "Ristorante Allegria" where we had our dinner reservations. The place is well renowned and centrally located in Napa Downtown. The restaurant has it's own distinct aesthetic and was extremely busy. We ordered pasta and garlic herb chicken and later had a stroll through downtown Napa exploring the different art works and the small-town night life that the town had to offer.

        We were unaware of the Napa Lighted Art Festival which was taking place during the day [January 21 - February 19 2023] we visited Napa since we had planned this last minute. The Napa Lighted Art Festival is an initiative to promote and celebrate innovative arts, technology, and lighting by encouraging unique ideas that use light and light technologies as an emerging art medium. This wandering outdoor experience in Downtown Napa is FREE for the first nine evenings of the festival and includes illuminated art sculptures and projection artwork on three prominent downtown buildings by various artists. We were fortunate to see one of the art installations by Martin Taylor called Chromaforms.

        The Art festival undoubtedly brightened the mood in this modest town. Apart from the vineyards, looks like the entire town relies on these famous restaurants and the many sorts of cuisine they serve. The whole experience at Napa is extremely appealing and the feeling will undoubtedly stick with you. I would definitely come to Napa again, but this time with adequate planning and also adequate budget. LOL! 

Until then, Adios Folks !

PS - That's me 😜 Please don't forget to provide your encouragement with just a simple like or comment on this post. Adios guys!