{"id":917,"date":"2018-03-28T18:12:16","date_gmt":"2018-03-28T18:12:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=917"},"modified":"2018-03-28T18:12:16","modified_gmt":"2018-03-28T18:12:16","slug":"advice-for-first-timers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=917","title":{"rendered":"Advice for First-Timers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Maybe you\u2019ve heard this question from some friends: \u201cI\u2019ve got a business meeting in San Francisco and my Significant Other is coming with me.\u00a0 We\u2019d like to spend some time going wine tasting.\u00a0 You\u2019ve been there a lot, so what would you suggest?\u201d\u00a0 We\u2019ve gotten that a lot.\u00a0 In fact, the reason we started <em>Power Tasting, <\/em>in part, was to answer questions like that.<\/p>\n<p>There are a lot of questions to ask your friend first, among which are<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Are you driving or will someone else drive for\u00a0 you?<\/li>\n<li>Are you going just for the day or are you staying over?<\/li>\n<li>Are there particular wines you especially like or dislike?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So let\u2019s assume that these hypothetical friends are going to drive up for the day and are pretty open about what they will taste.\u00a0\u00a0 Moreover, they\u2019re not going to be constrained about paying for top-quality tasting. \u00a0We would recommend a day-trip to Napa Valley.\u00a0 Why Napa?\u00a0 Because that\u2019s where American wine as we know it today got started.\u00a0 We love Sonoma County and some parts of Santa Clara County \u2013 also short distances from San Francisco \u2013 but if your friends have never been wine tasting in California, they really ought to start with the most famous American wine locale of them all.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/napa_sign.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone  wp-image-918\" src=\"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/napa_sign-300x225.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"671\" height=\"503\" srcset=\"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/napa_sign-300x225.png 300w, http:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/napa_sign-768x576.png 768w, http:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/napa_sign-1024x768.png 1024w, http:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/napa_sign.png 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 671px) 100vw, 671px\" \/><\/a><em>Photo courtesy of Eater San Francisco.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s how we would respond:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><em>Take it easy.<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0 If you\u2019re not used to sipping wine all day, you need to respect your limits \u2013\u00a0 don\u2019t wait until you\u2019ve reached them.\u00a0 This is especially true because you\u2019re going to be behind the wheel.<\/li>\n<li><strong><em>Restrict yourself to the southern end of the Napa Valley.\u00a0 <\/em><\/strong>There are a lot of great wineries on the southern (i.e. Carneros and Napa appellations) end so you can minimize your driving time.\u00a0 That\u2019s doubly important, since you\u2019d like to avoid the traffic and not spend too much time driving with alcohol in your bloodstream.<\/li>\n<li><strong><em>Try to taste a wide selection of wines.<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0 You could do all Cabernet Sauvignon or Chardonnay, but what\u2019s the point?\u00a0 So, for example, <a href=\"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=491\">Etude<\/a> winery is one of the closest to San Francisco and you can taste top-end Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon there.\u00a0 Not far away is <a href=\"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=349\">Domaine Carneros<\/a>, for more Pinot Noir and especially for sparking wines.\u00a0 We\u2019d also recommend getting into the main valley; Trefethen is close by and has a lot of top-end wines to offer.<\/li>\n<li><strong><em>Stop for <a href=\"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=69\">lunch<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0 For one thing, if you\u2019re tasting wine, you ought to have some food. For another, Napa Valley is almost as famous for its restaurants as it is for its wines.\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=171\">Mustards<\/a> on Route 29 has been a destination restaurant for decades.\u00a0 Or you could drive into Napa town, where there are many places to eat.\u00a0 There\u2019s also the Boonfly Caf\u00e9 on Route 121, near Domaine Carneros.<\/li>\n<li><strong><em>Enjoy the <a href=\"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=82\">views<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0 There\u2019s more to Wine Country than wine.\u00a0 Everywhere you go, it\u2019s beautiful.\u00a0 If you\u2019ll excuse a bit of American pride, Napa Valley is among the most beautiful.\u00a0 If you do go to Domaine Carneros, you\u2019ll have one of the loveliest vistas while sipping Champagne\u2026(oops, California sparkling) on the terrace.\u00a0 Maybe give yourself a little time to drive around on some of the little side roads.\u00a0 Route 29 is too full of traffic to be taking in the views.<\/li>\n<li><strong><em>And above all else, have fun.<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0 Don\u2019t be over-awed or try to do everything in a day.\u00a0 You can always come back.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Maybe you\u2019ve heard this question from some friends: \u201cI\u2019ve got a business meeting in San Francisco and my Significant Other is coming with me.\u00a0 We\u2019d like to spend some time going wine tasting.\u00a0 You\u2019ve been there a lot, so what would you suggest?\u201d\u00a0 We\u2019ve gotten that a lot.\u00a0 In fact, the reason we started Power &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=917\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Advice for First-Timers<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/917"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=917"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/917\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":919,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/917\/revisions\/919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}