Before going to Napa Valley, we had done some prior research about doing a full-day or half-day guided bike tour that takes you to 4-5 wineries, or booking a shuttle service that would drive us conveniently to the different wine tastings, usually with a small group of other people. All of these options are pretty pricey—and the tasting fees (ranging between $15 and $30 each) at the wineries are not even included. We weren’t quite sure what the best option would be to explore Napa Valley, and whether we needed to be escorted and guided at all.
In the end, we were very happy that we decided to explore Napa Valley on our own, on bikes. And it’s definitely easy enough to do it individually and self-guided.
We stayed at a beautiful AirBnB in Calistoga, reputedly the most authentic village in Napa Valley. We were lucky that we could use the owners’ bikes, so we could pedal around with lots of flexibility and could save some money to spend on the tastings.
Biking around Napa Valley is definitely a thing to do when you visit this region. It’s easy, mostly flat, with designated bike lanes and routes of varying duration. Actually, the 4-5 wineries that are usually included in the guided tours would have been too much for us. During our afternoon bike trip of barely six miles, we only stopped at two Estates: Clos Pegase and Sterling Vineyards.
Sterling made Simone’s battle-tested tour guide heart beat faster, since it featured a gondola across the vineyards that took us up to the actual winery, where the wine is produced and visitors can participate in a self-guided tour with short info videos and info panels. So we could casually chat with the staff and sip wine at our own pace.
The famous Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon (or simply “Cab”) was indeed good—even though many Austrian and European wine regions and wines are in no way lagging behind when it comes to white wines.
Austria might be a small country, but the world is even smaller. In fact, we knew of fellow Austrian Georg Salzner (a native of Simone’s hometown St.Florian/Linz and brother of Simone’s parent’s friends) who is the President of a winery in Calistoga. And it’s not just any winery, it’s one of the most visited and unique ones in the whole Napa Valley: Castello di Amorosa, an authentically-built, 13th-century-inspired Tuscan castle residing on a hill overlooking the vineyards of the valley.
Georg gave us a very warm welcome and showed us around the Castello. We were absolutely impressed with the high level of attention to detail, by the castle’s wonderful location and by its backstory. The castle was built using authentic bricks (we even spotted a few bricks bearing the Habsburg Dynasty’s label with the Doppeladler), original furniture, arms and instruments of torture (because no authentic Medieval castle would be complete without a torture chamber, right?), all imported from Europe. Two painters from Italy were flown in to paint the frescoes in the stunning Great Hall, which took them almost two years. We also visited the wine cellar, the production area and got to ask many, many questions about wine making, the Napa Valley and how to get a job like this (serious career reconsiderations!). A wine tasting concluded our visit at the Castello di Amorosa. Our favourites: the Sangiovese and, of course, the Cab.
