Calistoga Wine Country

So you know on wine labels when it says "Napa Valley?" I never knew that Napa consisted of several smaller cities. Darren and I are staying in Calistoga at Stevenson Manor. It's a beautiful, small city with rolling hills and many vineyards. Today we visited two vineyards: Sterling and Chateau Montelena. Have you seen the movie "Bottle Shock?" That's why Chateau Montelena sounds familiar. Darren and I were looking up Yelp.com reviews about the vineyard, and I kept seeing people writing about this movie, so we ended up watching it this morning before we left on our vineyard tours. Below I will give a brief critique of the 2 vineyards:

Sterling: 4.5/5 stars
Customer service really made this place! Darren and I opted for the $35/person Sterling Silver VIP Experience wine tasting and tour. It included a tram ride, free wine glass, self-guided tour of the facility, and 9 different wines to taste (including some reserve wines). The waiter at the VIP Experience lunch was very friendly and recommended a place for dinner tonight, which we made reservations on the spot. There was also a $5 coupon online that you could present before 12:30 PM, so the total cost for both of our visits was $60. We didn't buy or ship any wine, but we did buy a cheese plate with pate and duck at the VIP Experience lunch. Delicious!

View from the outdoor terrace. We had 2 of our wines out there.

The wine glasses they gave us, but we couldn't take them because there's no glass allowed in Bonnaroo.

View from the terrace

 Chateau Montelena: 3/5 stars
Darren and I opted for the $20/person wine tasting, which included the tasting of 4 different wines, including 1 estate wine, which means that they make it there on the premise. I may mention that I was feeling a bit tipsy (Darren would say I was drunk) after the Sterling experience, so I didn't fully enjoy the wine here. Darren also rated this vineyard a 3 though. We bought a few bottles of the famous Chardonay. Unfortunately, it wont arrive in CT until November, so that the wines stay cold through the shipping process. Oh well, it will be a nice birthday surprise once I forget I spent $350 on wine. The wine tasting fees were also both waived because I spent so much, so that was nice! No food or tour here. We just walked a bit through their gardens. The staff was 75% friendly... an old man hated us because we switched our minds about where we wanted the wine shipped to (CT or NH).

Their Chardonay won first place in a blind wine tasting test in Paris in 1976. This is what the movie "Bottle Shock" is based off of.

The castle of Chateau Montelena

Tomorrow we are going to wine tastings at Franciscan and Vincent Arroyo. I am so excited for Franciscan! Ever since my friend Victoria recommended their Cabernet, I have fallen in love! Vincent Arroyo has AMAZING Yelp.com reviews. YAY! Off to SolBar for dinner now. XO

***Update: Solbar is a very modern and trendy restaurant that's within walking distance of Stevenson Manor. It is delicious but pricy. The atmosphere is unforgettable.