5 Reasons Sonoma Is Better Than Napa
A month or so ago Corin encouraged me to keep the blog going by writing just 5 sentences a day. His challenge was 5 sentences a day for 1 week. I made it two days.
But now that I'm back in business here's 5 sentences (maybe a little more...) on why Sonoma is better than Napa, mere hours after Laina and I returned from our wine/sun/food/spa weekend:
- It's cheaper. It's hard to find a tasting for under $20 in Napa. In Sonoma, the average price is closer to $10, and there are many places where you can do a full flight for free.
- No snobbery. The people in Sonoma are just nicer, more approachable, happy to talk to you about their wine. In Napa, the pourers are very knowledgeable, but if you aren't, they won't necessarily go out of their way to make it simple for you. Some might even try to make wine sound more complicated than it really is, just because you're a n00b.
- You can picnic! Napa has some county ordinance against picnicking. Supposedly it's about picnics encouraging ppl to drink more and the risk of drunk driving, but that makes no sense. (At least if you're picnicking you have food in your stomach.) I think it's really about driving more business to Napa restaurants. In Sonoma, nearly every winery has picnic tables and encourages you to bring a picnic lunch.
- Mexican food. While Napa has all those fancy restaurants, Sonoma has plenty of taco trucks and taquerias, where you can get some awesome cheap eats. Laina and I went to El Molino Central, which serves Blue Bottle Coffee, and scarfed some light & flaky fish tacos and chicken enchiladas en mole.
- Better Pinot and Zin. Napa Valley is farther from the ocean and San Pablo Bay, so it's usually hotter than Sonoma Valley. Perfect for Bordeaux varietals (Cab, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Cab Franc, etc.), but a little too hot and rough for Pinot Noir and Zinfandel, which thrive in Sonoma's mixed climate.
N.B. As I was typing this, I get misspelling "Pinot" as "pinto." Clealry, that Mexican food is still on my mind!
