The wine tasting scene continues to grow in downtown

By PAUL FRANSON
Register Correspondent

It’s now difficult to believe that when Vintners Collective and Napa Wine Merchants opened five years ago, the only dedicated wine tasting salon in downtown Napa was Bayview Cellars in Napa Traditions.

Now 20 wine-tasting rooms,  wines stores offering tasting, wine bars and wine-oriented cafés are clustered within a few blocks of First and Main, and others are expected to join them.

Downtown Napa probably has the densest concentration of wine tasting venues in California — and that doesn’t include the restaurants, most of which offer numerous interesting wines by the glass.

These popular sites arose both because of Napa’s overall renaissance and for very practical reasons: Many local wineries can’t host their own tasting rooms or find it impractical or prohibitive. They may not have a physical winery building but make their wines at someone else’s winery or a “custom crush” facility. The county may prohibit them from offering tasting or restrict it significantly. Their winery may be remote or difficult to reach. Or their production may be too small to justify their own building and staff.

By law, every winery is allowed to open a “second” tasting room away from its primary site (even if it doesn’t have one!), and a number of the venues act as remote sites for one or more wineries, including Vintners Collective, which hosts a number of wineries, and Taste at Oxbow, which has two, Mahoney and Waterstone.

A number of the tasting rooms are basically wine retail stores that offer tasting, including Back Room Wines, soon to relocate to the heart of the action at First and Main; it’s now on Franklin St, in what sometimes seems a war zone. Back Room sells cheese and charcuterie, too, as does JV Liquors.

The Bounty Hunter and Oxbow Wine Merchants are retailers, but also offer full menus of wine friendly foods.

And ZuZu is a classic wine bar, offering tastes of interesting wines with tapas and full meals, but doesn’t sell wines to go (though by law, restaurants with wine licenses are allowed to do so).

Stave is an automated wine bar, dispensing samples from machines using a card you can purchase. Like many of the others, it also sells snacks to go with the wine.

And we shouldn’t overlook the restaurants, which often serve interesting wines — some tastes — at their bars. Cuvée even sells 12 on tap from local wineries, and Ubuntu focuses on organic, sustainable and other earth-friendly wines to match its food.

For visitors to Napa Valley, there’s little question that going to a winery, getting a tour and meeting with the winemaker or owner is a special treat, but for those of us who live here, we realize that most of the wineries simply have staffers — often very entertaining and knowledgeable, admittedly — pouring wines. As one who’s seen more than his share of bottling lines, I won’t say, “You’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all,” but most wineries tend to be the same after a while.

There are advantages to visiting the downtown tasting rooms. You can taste and compare a number of wines from different producers and you don’t offend the owner or winemaker by not buying a bottle. Just pay a small fee and that’s the end of the obligation.

In addition, you can walk to all of these sites from a number of downtown inns and hotels, including the Westin Verasa due to open this summer and the Avia to follow. No designated driver is needed.

Naturally, all charge for tastes, but the $20 Napa Downtown Wine Tasting Card lets you try the first wine at many of the tasting rooms for only 10 cents. You can buy the card at any tasting room that accept it or get details from www.napadowntown.com.

And the original downtown tasting room, Bayview Cellars? It closed last fall. Fortunately, there are plenty of other choices to take its place.

Downtown Napa Tasting Rooms

Back Room Wines

974 Franklin St.; moving to 1000 Main St. 226-1378  www.backroomwines.com

Wine shop and tasting bar. Features special tasting programs Friday nights plus cheese and charcuterie.

Bounty Hunter Rare Wine & Provisions

975 First St. 226-3976  www.bountyhunterwine.com

Wine bar and retail shop plus café. Popular hangout for young patrons.

Calwine

1215 Silverado Trail at Main 226-7671 www.calwine.com

Will relocate when the Ritz Carlton construction begins, perhaps to the former Martial Arts space on Main Street.

Ceja Vineyards Wine Tasting Salon

1248 First St. 255-3954 www.cejavineyards.com

New wine-tasting salon with artisan cheese in a lounge atmosphere with and art gallery of by local artists.  

Chateau Potelle

975 Washington St. 255-9440 www.chateaupotelle.com

Awaiting license.

Copia: The American Center for Wine Food and the Arts

500 First St. 259-1600 www.copia.org

Many chances to taste during free and paid programs plus the Wine Spectator Tasting Table and automatic wine dispensers with various wines including those with defects like Brett and TCA.

Robert Craig Winery

880 Vallejo St. 252-2250, www.robertcraigwine.com

Single-winery tasting by appointment only.

Elements Restaurant and Enoteca

1400 Second St. www.elementsnapa.com

Small plates restaurant and wine bar coming soon to the former Pizza Azzurro site, featuring the cuisine of chef Charles Weber.

Folio Enoteca & Winery

610 First St. #10 256-3700  www.foliowine.com

Folio Enoteca & Winery in the Oxbow Public Market features wine tasting of wines from  the Michael Mondavi family plus a café serving light meals.

GustavoThrace Tasting Room at McKinstry

1146 First St.; moving to 1021 McKinstry 257-6796  www.gustavothrace.com

Pours GustavoThrace wines and sells other wines as well. Welcomes visitors to bring in food from Oxbow Market across the street.

JV Wine & Spirits

301 First St. 253-2624  www.jvwineandspirits.com

Big wine store with wine tasting from 1-6 p.m. daily plus $2 winemaker tastings Friday evening.

Napa General Store

540 Main St. 259-0762 www.napageneralstore.com

Café and gift store with stand-up wine bar. Enjoy wines on the river plaza.

Mason Cellars Oxbow Tasting Room

714 First St. 255-0658 www.masoncellars.com

Pours and sells wines from Mason Cellars including its popular and inexpensive Pomelo Sauvignon Blanc.

Oxbow Wine Merchant and Wine Bar

610 First St. 226-5587 www.oxbowwine.com

Wine tastes, glasses and carafes including wine on tap plus charcuterie, cheeses, panini and other light dishes. Enjoy wines and food on the riverfront deck.

Rocca Family Vineyards

1130 Main St. 257-8467 www.roccawines.com

Single-winery tastings.

Stave Wine Lounge

1149 First St. 259-5411 www.stavewinelounge.com

Wine bar with lounge-like atmosphere, card-operated automatic dispensers, snacks and free wi-fi. Dessert and sparkling wines by the glass.  

Stonehedge Winery

1004 Clinton St. 256-4444 www.stonehedgewinery.com

Single-winery tasting room.  

Taste at Oxbow

708 First St. (at McKinstry St.) 265-9600 www.tasteatoxbow.com

Wines from Mahoney Vineyards and Waterstone Winery, snacks and retail sales. Includes Mahoney’s rare Vermentino, Montepulciano, and Tempranillo.

Vintner’s Collective

1245 Main St. 255-7150  www.vintnerscollective.com

Multi-winery co-op tasting room with many renowned Napa boutique wines in the historic Pfeiffer Building, the oldest stone building in Napa.  

Wineries of Napa Valley

1285 Napa Town Center 253-9450 www.napavintages.com

Multi-winery tasting in comfortable atmosphere including outside seating plus free wi-fi with purchase.

X Winery

1405 Second St. 204-9522 www.xwinery.com

Wines from X Winery and Amicus Cellars wines by appointment only.

ZuZu

829 Main St. 224-8555 www.zuzunapa.com

Popular tapas restaurant with many interesting wines by the glass.

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