Napa Valley Wine Tour: Top 2 Incredible Stops
What better way to experience Napa Valley Wineries than on a Napa Valley Wine Tour shuttle?! Leave the driving and all the planning to someone else and enjoy!
Our wine tour shuttle bus picked us up in San Francisco, took us across the Golden Gate Bridge and into some beautiful and warmer territory. This is not only a great day of fun and meeting some interesting and fun people, it’s also a very educational way to spend a day in Napa Valley.
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Our 1st stop was the Robert Mondavi Winery. The vineyards and winery were fascinating to me. Acres and acres of grapevines. We were there in June so there were grapes on the vines. They were small and still green at this time of year. As we looked out into the distance, we could see Danielle Steel’s home across the way. What a beautiful view she must have overlooking Robert Mondavi’s sprawling vineyards.
Being a large winery, everything was of enormous scale. It’s hard for me to describe the magnitude of the equipment, but just imagine all of these tanks -some are towering over us, with catwalks running between them, lined up one after another filling up this facility. That’s a lot of grapes being processed into a lot of wine! It’s very interesting to be able to learn about their process and see it in action, all while already enjoying the finished product that you were served upon arrival.
The next stop was a little smaller winery owned by the race car family, the Andretti Winery. This winery had more of a Tuscany old world feel. It was a beautiful winery, the people were so nice. Here, we were served lunch, and of course wine, out under the trees. They had tables, food and wine all set up for us. It was a great experience.
We continued our tour to various wineries and tasting rooms while meandering through Napa Valley. It was lovely to hang out with our group, meet the folks at the wineries and learn so much while enjoying such beautiful country. It was so relaxing for someone else to do all of the driving and make all of the arrangements. Having access to some of the spaces and individual winery tours, lunch, etc would not have happened had we just been wandering to wineries on our own. Our driver took very good care of us and any purchases, so we didn’t have to keep up with anything but ourselves and our current glass of wine! At the end of our incredible day, we were driven back to San Francisco, where we were staying. If you get the chance, go to Napa Valley and tour some wineries!
Big Dog’s Review: While visiting San Francisco we took a day trip over to Napa Valley on a wine tour. San Francisco is a cool (temperature wise) city. But when we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge things heated up. I bet it was 10-15 degrees warmer in the valley. The way we traveled is the way to go, on a tour bus. No fuss on the bus just ride and enjoy the scenery. The Robert Mondavi and Andretti wineries were two stops we made on our tour. Very contrasting wineries. Mondavi was a large modern facility, where the Andretti winery had the feel of an old world winery. Both were very educational and fun. The size of the Mondavi winery with its huge barrels, multiple levels of iron walkways, and piping were tremendous. The Andretti winery was smaller with smaller barrel inventory. At both location we taste tasted some of the wine offerings, very good! We enjoyed a nice lunch at the Andretti winery and continued our tour thru the valley and back to San Francisco. A Napa Valley Wine Tour, for us, was the way to go. Remember “no fuss on the bus”. Cheers!
Grapevines 
From the barrel 
The vineyards 
Robert Mondavi Winery Wine Tour Napa Valley 
Souvenir glass 
I went to Napa Valley a few years ago, but after reading this I definitely want a return trip
Thank you! That’s a nice compliment!
What a great tour. Very well written. Love the pictures. I felt like I was in the tour with you 🙂
Thank you for the kind words Dawn! So glad you enjoyed the tour! 🙂
This looks like the best day! My husband and I went for my birthday last year and just had 1 full day for wine tasting and didn’t get to all of them we wanted. We were hoping to make another short trip this year, but it’s looking like we’ll have to wait awhile with the fires.
That’s a good bday trip, Eva! So sad about the fires!!
This sounds like a great tour. I love that you had lunch set up for you under the trees. How lovely. My husband and I have done our fair share of wine tours, here in the US and aboard and we always come away learning something new. I know we would love your Napa Valley Wine Tour.
Yes, the lunch was a treat. 🙂 We haven’t done any abroad yet, that sounds wonderful. Maybe one day!
Wow! That looks beautiful. I am not a wine fan so I haven’t considered visiting one, but maybe I’ll find one i like at a place like this.
It was a cool experience and we loved seeing the process. We aren’t huge wine drinkers either, but we even brought some home. Lol
How fun! I love doing wine tours and tastings.
Yes, and Napa Valley was such a wonderful place to tour and taste!
Napa Valley is so beautiful. I didn’t do any wine tasting, but I sailed over in a hot air balloon, it was amazing!
What?!! That is amazing!! Wow!
Napa Valley is on my to do list for when we do our West Coast Road Trip! I’ve only been to a couple places in California, and the kids and Hubby haven’t been there at all. Soon I hope!!!
Yes hopefully soon we can all start traveling again! Enjoy your family trip!
Napa and Sonoma wine tours are so awesome. We loved it!
They really take care of all of the details to allow you a carefree day!
Love your pictures.What a beautiful place!
Thanks Maya!
Now that’s a tour I could enjoy 🙂
Right??!! I bet you could make wine!
Looks lovely! I have always wanted to go. This would be a great girls trip!
I agree Jill!! Girls gotta have fun! Lol
This looks so interesting! I’d love to explore this too!
It’s a sweet place to explore!!
Not really a wine drinker, but it looks like an interesting place
It is pretty country, and the wineries are interesting, even if you don’t like wine.
Isn’t Napa lovely? (And the wine tasting is fun!) I love that area and have been often. It’s not too far from San Francisco, like you said, so I usually do both in the same trip. And it’s definitely warmer in Napa!
You are fortunate to be able to frequent the area!! I would love to go back!
How cool! I would definitely hit up the wine tour
It’s great getting chauffeured around and tasting wine!
WOW ts looks like you had an amazing experience! I love visiting wineries but this is one I have not been to! Thank you for sharing!
The major wineries were certainly a treat for us!!
What a fun way to spend a day.
Yes great memories of this day!
I’ve been wanting to do this! Looks like such a fun time. I’ll have to plan a date with my girls! Thanks for the review!
Oh that would be a fun girl’s trip!!
Ive always wanted to visit Napa! Looks gorgeous!
All of the vineyards in the area are quite a site!
I visited the Napa Valley area when I was in college and thought it was gorgeous.
Yes love all of the vineyards. Beautiful.
I love visiting wineries! I have been to them in South Africa, Australia, France, and even where I live in Switzerland! Nice blog post!
Jan, I bet you have been to some amazing wineries!!
Ohh how fun! If I go back to California this is definitely on my to do list!! Thank you for sharing!
Glad you enjoyed it, Alyssa! The tours are great!
I would love to try this one day! I’ve heard so much about Napa Valley!
So many wineries, so little time!! Haha
What a beautiful place! I’ve never been to Napa, but you make me want to go now! 🙂
Awe that’s good to hear, Megan!
I’ve heard so many great things about Napa Valley. My in-laws are wine enthusiasts; I know they especially would love this.
Oh yes! I bet they would!
What a beautiful area to tour! It is seriously so gorgeous!
Nothing like interactive site-seeing! Lol