Napa Valley, California
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About Napa Valley |
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Napa Valley, California
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About Napa Valley |
Napa Valley is the country's premium wine region and one of the finest wine producers in the world. The valley is home to more than 350 wineries, ranging in size from large corporate-owned facilities to small boutique wineries producing only a few thousand cases a year.
But the valley has more than just wine. It's the heart of California "wine country cuisine" and home to some of the highest-rated restaurants in the country. The pairing of our outstanding wines with the art of our chefs produces a culinary experience that can't be topped.
Food and wine are enhanced by the beauty of the valley and its river, creeks and vineyards. The Mayacamas hills to the west and the Vaca range to the east contribute to the mild, temperate climate enjoyed by visitors as much as residents.
We're just an hour's drive from San Francisco, and a favorite destination for people from all over the world. Come see for yourself.
Most people come to the Napa Valley by car. This map will show you where the valley is in relation to the rest of the San Francisco Bay Area.
San Francisco Bay Area (Map courtesy of Napa Downtown Association)
The Napa Valley is in Northern California at the northeastern tip of San Francisco Bay (actually called San Pablo Bay up that far), about an hour's drive north of San Francisco. To the west is the Sonoma Valley, to the north is Lake Country, and to the east is the Sacramento Valley.
The Napa Valley is actually just one of many valleys in Napa County, but it's by far the largest and best known. The valley itself is about 30 miles long and ranges from one to five miles in width.
Napa County has a population of about 125,000 people, including five incorporated cities. North to south, they are: Calistoga, St. Helena, Yountville, Napa and, at the southern end, American Canyon. Angwin, Deer Park, Pope Valley, Rutherford and Oakville are communities with post offices but aren't actual towns.
The county's primary industries are winegrape growing, wine production and tourism. Thanks to stringent and ongoing efforts by a number of dedicated agriculturalists, environmentalists, elected officials, and concerned citizens, and the support of the vast majority of the voters, there is little development in the unincorporated area of the county. Most commercial and residential development is in the cities. This preserves a huge amount of agricultural land, allowing Napa County to avoid the urban sprawl that has affected almost all other San Francisco Bay Area counties. The result is an attractive place for residents to live and for tourists to visit.
The Napa River is one of four navigable rivers in California and one of only three surviving free-flowing rivers. It's a major source of freshwater to San Francisco Bay, and offers excellent fishing for striped bass and sturgeon. There's even peaceful canoeing right in the heart of the city of Napa.
A local organization, "Friends of the Napa River" (www.friendsofthenapariver.org), was formed to preserve the river, which has a tendency to frequently flood downtown Napa. Of course, building a city on a flood plain wasn't a great idea to begin with, but now that it's here, citizens decided to create ways to save both the river and the city by turning out a river that's developed and flood-safe, yet still natural and free-flowing.
Voters approved a bond issue and construction is underway now to restore the river to a more natural state, as well as one that will not flood populated areas.
For more information on the river, see the special Napa River section.
That extinct volcano you see at the north end of the valley—Mount St. Helena—is not extinct. But don't worry; it isn't a volcano either. Despite the beliefs of many locals, it's just a mountain, in fact the highest part of the Mayacmas Mountains (frequently misspelled "Mayacamas"—in fact so frequently, that we'll use that spelling in this book) that also extend into Sonoma, Lake and Mendocino Counties. It is, however, one (and the highest at 4,343 feet) of the four dominant mountains of the San Francisco Bay Area. Mount St. Helena at the north, Mount Hamilton at the south—near San Jose; Mount Diablo at the east—near Concord; and Mount Tamalpais at the west in Marin County.
Even if Mount St. Helena was never a volcano, there is a great deal of geyser activity just below it in the hot springs town of Calistoga, and to the northwest in an area known as The Geysers, currently used as a source of thermal energy.
See also our Chronological History.
The original inhabitants of the valley were the Wappo. The name Wappo was given by the Spanish and probably derived from the Spanish word "guapo" meaning "handsome." The natives were here at least 4,000 years before the Spaniards arrived. In 1831 there were an estimated 10,000 to 12,000 Wappo living in the valley. Most later lost their lives to cholera and smallpox, as well as to attacks by white men. There are still surviving Wappo in Napa, Sonoma and Lake counties.
The first American settler in the Napa Valley was George Yount. He arrived in 1831, became friends with General Mariano Vallejo, and was given an 11,000-acre Mexican land grant. He built the first wooden structure in the county, a two-story Kentucky blockhouse. He also planted the first grapevines in the Napa Valley. The vines were from Mexico; it was not until 1860 that the higher-quality European winegrapes were introduced.
The wealth of post-Gold Rush San Francisco created a huge demand for wine, and by 1891 there were 619 vineyards throughout the valley. Many of wines produced were receiving awards in European wine competitions. The wineries survived economic depression and the disease of phylloxera but were no match for Prohibition, the United States' "Great Experiment" of declaring alcoholic beverages not just immoral but illegal.
Prohibition closed almost every Napa Valley winery. The few that survived provided medicinal wine or sacramental wine for churches. Vineyards were ripped out to be replaced by prune and walnut orchards. Prohibition ended in 1933, but it was not until 1951 that a new winery was finally built in the Napa Valley. It was Stony Hill, a small family winery that is still actively producing excellent wine. Sixteen years later, in 1967, the next winery opened. It is a much larger winery, located in Oakville. Its founder, Robert Mondavi, launched a wave of winery construction—and wine promotion—that has not yet stopped.
Since that time more than three hundred wineries have been built, as the Napa Valley was rediscovered as a premium wine region, recapturing its earlier pro-Prohibition fame. Today there are more than 300 wineries throughout Napa County.
Napa County is one of the 27 original counties that were established on February 18, 1850 and therefore part of California when it became a state on September 9, 1850. In 1861, Lake County, including Clear Lake, was formed from the northern part of Napa County. Some additional land was given to Lake County in the 1860s but returned back to Napa County in 1972. In addition, some land in Solano and Sonoma Counties was also added to Napa County in 1855.
Today the Napa Valley is one of the most popular tourist attractions in California, and world-renowned for its wines. The fame of its wineries is matched by the reputation of its restaurants. Combined with the beauty of the area, and the gentleness of its climate, they provide a vacation holiday without equal anywhere in the country. Although many locals bragged for years that the Napa Valley received as many visitors as Disneyland, the reality is that Disneyland has about 14 million visitors a year and the Napa Valley nearly five million.
Five million is enough, particularly because most of them come during the summer, during the harvest ("Crush") in September and October, or for the Mustard Festival in the early spring. Come visit us in the off periods and you'll find far fewer people and have much more time to chat with winery staff.
The valley is beautiful all year long, just different from season to season. The wine and food are always delicious.
Winter tends to be the quietest time of the year in the Napa Valley, although February and March are now lost to the Mustard Festival (www.mustardfestival.org). This festival was initiated because restaurants and lodging facilities weren't getting enough business during the slow months. (It also meant they had to lay off staff during this time.) This is a beautiful season with mustard flowers in the vineyards and early-blooming trees. The quietest time is November, December and January—except over the Christmas holidays. It's easier then to get a room reservation and, who knows, you may even be able to get a reservation at the French Laundry. Many hotels and bed and breakfast inns offer lower rates from November through March. Summer is very busy, as are September and October during "Crush."
See also our Books page.
Napa Valley Book, The: The Insider's Guide for Visitors and Residents - The most comprehensive book available on the Napa Valley.
Food Lover's Companion to the Napa Valley, The: Where to Eat, Cook, and Shop in the Wine Country Plus 50 Irresistible Recipes - Food, food and more food.
Ghost Wineries of Napa Valley - Historical wineries of the valley.
Hidden Napa Valley - Excellent photographs.
Napa: The Story of an American Eden and the more recent The Far Side of Eden: New Money, Old Land, and the Battle for Napa Valley - Land use and the political battles of the valley.
Napa Valley: A View from Above - The view that only birds, balloonists and people who own this book can see.
Napa Valley Style - The architecture of the Napa Valley.
Napa Valley: The Land, the Wine, the People - From an award-winning National Geographic photographer.
Napa Valley: The Ultimate Winery Guide - Coffee table book on the valley.
Vine to Wine - Beautiful photographs by a local valley admirer.
Wine Country Architecture and Interiors - Now you know how to design your home the wine country way.
Napa Life - Local writer Paul Franson's excellent website on touring and enjoying the Napa Valley. Paul also publishes a highly recommended weekly newsletter (subscription only) with the latest insider information.
