Napa’s next-door neighbor is wine country’s best kept secret
Virtually unknown, the Suisun Valley borders Napa to the east, sharing geography and sunlight. The similarities stop there.
I’m told there’s a lot to love about Napa, but if there is, I haven’t found it. The rustic wine country I always hope to find seems gated behind sky-high fees and overbearing tour guides, stuck in traffic behind streams of limos and buses, or too far over a well-manicured lawn to bother.
I do, however, love a good day of wine tasting in the California sun.
To reconcile the two, I head to the Suisun Valley, an unpretentious little AVA. Suisun sits on Napa’s eastern border, but feels a million miles away. I first discovered this little-known wine country nook quite by accident, when a wrong turn off the highway took me down a long, narrow road and left me at a sculpture garden in a vineyard. With zebras. In subsequent — and intentional — trips, the region has proven genuine, friendly, and blissfully traffic-free.
If you’re worried that “rustic” and “unpretentious” are code for bad, fret not. While the Suisun Valley’s wineries are less polished, they still produce delicious wines — and they’re becoming more sophisticated by the year. Here are a few of my favorite stops:
Suisun Valley Wine Cooperative — Staffed by local winemakers and growers, this friendly tasting room pours wines from five family-owned wineries. Tasting is free.
Winterhawk Winery — The big draw here is the weekly Saturday afternoon wine tasting party. For $10, enjoy live music and dancing, oven-fired pizza, tasting and a glass of whichever wine’s your fave.
Ledgewood Creek Winery — More free tasting, more good folks. What more could you ask for?
Il Fiorello Olive Oil — First thing’s first: The olive press at this place looks like an Italian race car. The oils and balsamic reductions are impressive, too. Stop in to taste and get the story of the husband and wife team who planted the groves out back.
Wooden Valley Winery — Ask any local for a recommendation and they’ll send you here. This award-winning winery is probably the area’s best known, and for good reason. The family motto is “Only drink what you like, not what someone says you should like.” Take that, Napa.
You want to go, right? Here’s more info to help you plan your trip.
