Day Trip to Napa From a Napa Virgin

A June 2006 trip to Napa Valley by Parradise

Quote: A day trip from the bay area called for a sampling of what Napa Valley had to offer: wine Tasting, indulgence at a spa, and gourmet food.

HaGafen Cellars

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Attraction

Quote:

In all my years of living in the bay area, I had never been wine tasting before. Mainly, because I'm not much of a drinker. I have very low alcohol tolerance like most Asian people, I lack the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase that breaks down alcohol in the liver. I wanted to try a small non-pretentious winery. I also wanted to find a winery that had a picnic area so that we can purchase a bottle of wine to go with our crackers, prosciutto, and cheese that we brought from home. We decided on Hagafen, a private family owned winery established in 1979. It produces about 8000 cases of wine each year.

When you turn into the winery, you drive along a pebbled path in between aisles of grapevines and park at the end of the path next to what looks like a small stile. A side walk takes you to a nicely decorated small outhouse where your wine tasting takes place. Cost is $5, but you can obtain a free coupon for wine tasting for two from the Napa Valley Visitor Information Center in downtown Napa Valley.

You can choose from a flight of red or white wines. Each flight contains 5 wines. At other wineries there are typically strict rules about not mixing and matching. However, at Hagafen, they were really low key and you could mix and match up to 5 wines from either flight. You also get 2 complimentary wine glasses to take home with you. The hostesses were really warm, friendly, and helpful. We purchased 3 bottles of wine and wanted to have one there to accompany the food that we brought for a picnic. The staff lent us 2 glasses and gave us a chilled bottle of white wine to enjoy immediately. Picnic tables were located on the other side of the outhouse under a small awning. The views weren't anything to write home about as there wasn't much of one. But it was nice to be outside in Napa Valley enjoying the countryside with some nice wine and cheese. Ahhhh.

For more information you can go to www.hagafen.com

To obtain the complimentary coupon, visit:
The Napa Valley Conference & Visitors Bureau
1310 Napa Town Center
Napa, CA 94559
Tel: (707) 226-7459
Fax: (707) 255-2066 Read Less

Member Rating 4 out of 5 on December 8, 2006

HaGafen Cellars
4160 Silverado Trail
Napa Valley, California 94558
(888) 424-2336