Sota Brides takes on Wine Country! If you are looking to do a destination bachelorette in Wine Country, read on for things to see and do while you are there!
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In our destination bachelorette series, we travel to a location, scope out all the must sees and dos for a quick weekend trip, and then put together a fun little party pack that you can shamelessly steal. This time we decided to visit Wine Country!
Itinerary:
Wednesday:
Arrive into San Fran We got in pretty late, so we picked up our rental car and then drove to Napa.
Drive to Napa, check in to Andaz Napa This hotel was adorable and in a great location downtown! The downtown area of Napa was super cute the buildings were all a similar style with cafe lights strung up.
Thursday:
Brunch at Grace's Table This restaurant was super tasty and had great vegan options!
Tasting at Domaine Carneros Absolutely stunning grounds and a great way to kick off our tours! This place specializes in sparkling wine and champagnes. Our server Jake was so knowledgable and kept the wine (and laughs!) coming. He was the cutest!
Jake was kind enough to bring Angie an extra sample because the label matched her dress, what a guy!
Tasting at Caymus Vineyards: Again, another stunning vineyard. Caymus is best known for their cabs. This was the only tasting where every single one of us left with a bottle of wine! It was a favorite all around.
Tasting and picnic at V. Sattui Winery This one was a little different than the others we had gone to. They gave us a large menu and we could each select our own custom flight which was a perk of this location! They also have a deli on site which was much needed after tasting #3.
Tasting at Cosentino Winery: This was the smallest of the wineries as far as their tasting room and vineyard space. We tried 4 wines here... but if we are being real, this last stop on our tour was not well remembered. (Not because the wine wasn't great, just because of the abundance of wine consumed!)
DoorDashed Dinner: We had plans to go out to an Italian restaurant this night but we ended up staying in instead... again, because of the abundance of wine consumed. We requested some oddities from the hotel concierge and they were very accommodating! High marks from us for Andaz Napa.
Of Note: While we had a rental car, we opted to utilize Lyfts/Ubers on our winery tour days. We were told to schedule rides ahead of time because of service and location. Unfortunately, right before we went, there was a major change regarding how drivers were allowed to be paid so many drivers chose to stop driving. We had a really hard time getting rides and getting the app to let us schedule rides because of this. Thankfully, we lucked out and met Russel on our first Lyft/Uber ride and he offered to be our personal driver for the day. It ended up working out really well! Russel is thinking about starting his own DD service so if you are heading to Sonoma and want his info let us know! He was a very nice guy and helped us take some pretty awesome photos which was much appreciated!
Friday:
Check out of Andaz, Drive to Sonoma
Stop for Coffee & Breakfast at Java Jack's in Petaluma, CA- This was a fantastic accidental find! It's just a tiny little shack set up in a parking lot and they had a surprisingly huge menu. Organic, family owned place with excellent coffee and food all around. 5+ stars from us!
Check in to Hyatt Sonoma
Pool Day! We just used the pool at the hotel which was pretty quiet. They had some nice loungers and day beds that we were able to enjoy. If you end up somewhere without a pool, there are several hotels in the area that offer day passes that aren't too terribly expensive!
Dinner at La Rosa Tequileria - Watch out for these margs! We shared a pitcher between the 4 of us. This restaurant had a large patio and was located on a nice stretch of restaurants and shops so there was lots to choose from. Also was a walkable distance from our hotel.
Saturday:
In-room breakfast at the Hyatt
Tasting at Iron Horse: This winery is in such a stunning location. You can see the valleys and vineyards all around and they have a gorgeous palm tree entry as you drive into the winery. They specialize in sparkling wines which was a really nice way to start out our day.
Scones and Bread from Wild Flour Cafe: Again, we lucked out on the Uber/Lyft situation our first driver Melanie offered to stick with us for most of the day and also went and got us pastries from Wild Flour Cafe while we were at our first tasting. It sounds like they switch up their menu often... But we all had excellent scones and Cait ended up with an entire loaf of olive bread.
Tasting at Hartford Family Winery: We had a really nice time here. Our server was really knowledgeable on the wines and taught us a few things we didn't know. Their outdoor space was very cute and serene.
Tasting & Lunch pairing at Kendal Jackson: We opted to do the wine and food pairing at this location. Highly recommend doing this at at least one winery while you are in wine country! The food was really excellent and they were very accommodating for one of our friends that is vegan. They again had really pretty grounds. They also have a large garden you can walk through, in which I think they told us they grow a lot of the things they use in the food pairings. We love a good farm to table! Unfortunately we didn't have enough time here to be able to go walk through the gardens, but they looked beautiful!
Tasting at Harvest Moon Winery: Cute spot, not our favorite when it comes to the wine. They had several wines with notes of pepper in it that most of us couldn't get with, but if that sounds great to you, head here!
Dinner at Perch and Plow - it never fails that we have one restaurant that just wasn't it. While the food was delicious and it was a cute spot within walking distance of the hotel... it may have been the worst service we've ever had!
When out at tastings, if you like a wine, do ask if they waive the tasting fee with a certain number of bottles purchased. Majority of places we went to had a 2-3 bottle minimum per person to waive the tasting fee or just didn't offer waived fees at all. Caymus had the best deal in this respect. We just had to purchase the same amount or more in wine that the tasting was and then they waived the tasting fee.
Sunday:
Breakfast in hotel
Starbucks stop
Drive to SFO to head home!
Decor:
Backdrop- We decided to do something different this time around and picked up some super cute fabric from Joann's! It ended up working perfect and looked adorable with our theme!
Rose all day floaty - TJ Maxx
Cheers Balloon - from Party City
Streamers - from Party City
Goodie bags - Everyone got a bag full of goodies, see below for what we included!
Fine Like Wine Banner - DIY with Cricut
Goodie bags:
DIY stemless wine tumbler - see our DIY here!
DIY luggage tag - see our DIY here!
Budget:
This destination is going to be more expensive than some other options, so just make sure you and your bridal party are prepared for the expense. We wanted to try out both Napa and Sonoma so we split our time but you could certainly find enough wineries to do several days at both location. In general, Napa is more expensive for tastings than Sonoma is.
Hashtag ideas:
Spotify Playlist:
Get in the wine tasting mood with our Spotify Playlist! We decided to go for upbeat yet chill vibes and we were loving it.