1. Ana’S Cantina
City: St. Helena, CA
Category: Nightlife
Telephone: (707) 963-4921
Address: 1205 Main Street
Description: This tropical-themed Mexican restaurant heats up from 9:30 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. most Fridays and Saturdays, with a stream of bands that run from Latin-Mediterranean to jazz to rock to reggae. Wednesday and Sunday are karaoke nights; Thursday is open-mic night.
2. Cameo Cinema
City: St. Helena, CA
Category: Nightlife
Telephone: (707) 963-9779
Address: 1340 Main Street
3. Raymond Vineyards
City: St. Helena, CA
Category: Nightlife
Telephone: (707) 963-3141, (800) 525-2659
Address: 849 Zinfandel Lane
Description: Raymond has a strong reputation for Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon, though it also bottles Sauvignon Blanc and Merlot. It produces under three distinct brands: Amberhill, R Collection, and Raymond Napa Valley Reserve. Raymond also bottles two late-harvest dessert wines: a Chardonnay and a Sauvignon Blanc. The winery’s Napa Valley vineyards are supplemented by a large Chardonnay plot in Monterey County, on the Central Coast.
City: St. Helena, CA
Category: Nightlife
Address: 401 St. Helena Highway S.
5. Milat Vineyards
City: St. Helena, CA
Category: Nightlife
Telephone: (707) 963-0758, (800) 54-MILAT
Address: 1091 St. Helena Highway S.
Description: This is an intimate, family-run winery, 2 miles south of St. Helena. The Milats have been growing and selling grapes to Napa Valley wineries since 1949, and in 1986 they finally decided to affix their own label. Milat bottles Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc, Merlot, Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon, a Port-style wine called Zivio, and a chocolate Port sauce, selling the bulk of their production from the tasting room.
6. V. Sattui Winery
City: St. Helena, CA
Category: Nightlife
Telephone: (707) 963-7774, (800) 799-2337
Address: 1111 White Lane
Description: If you have made a few trips to Napa Valley, you probably know V. Sattui as the place with all the picnickers. It’s a favorite for itinerant eaters, primarily because of an ample, shady picnic area and well-stocked deli featuring homemade items. The current wine list is immense, with two Chardonnays, two Johannisberg Rieslings, two Zinfandels, four Cabernet Sauvignons, and many others—all of them sold exclusively at the winery, online, and by mail order. In 2007, V. Sattui received the Golden Winery Award in the California State Fair Wine Competition, proclaiming it the top winery in California for number of medals won. Of the 28 wines it entered in the contest, 23 won awards.
7. Whitehall Lane Winery
City: St. Helena, CA
Category: Nightlife
Telephone: (707) 963-9454, (800) 963-9454
Address: 1563 St. Helena Highway S.
Description: As wineries go, this one is a youngster in Napa Valley. The Leonardini family of San Francisco purchased Whitehall Lane Winery from foreign investors in 1993 and brought in new equipment, a new barrel program, and plans for expanding production and acquiring vineyards. It now produces award-winning Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon. There’s even an orange muscat dessert wine, Belmuscato.
8. Heitz Wine Cellars
City: St. Helena, CA
Category: Nightlife
Telephone: (707) 963-3542
Address: 436 St. Helena Highway S.
Description: The winery you visit is not the current Heitz facility, but rather the original facility Joe and Alice Heitz opened in 1961. The winery built its reputation on Chardonnay, though now it is known more for its Cabernet Sauvignon. Three special Cabs are vineyard designated: Martha’s Vineyard (near Oakville), Bella Oaks Vineyard, and Trailside Vineyard (both near Rutherford). Heitz also makes Zinfandel and a Grignolino, a light red—and Port, too.
9. Prager Winery & Port Works
City: St. Helena, CA
Category: Nightlife
Telephone: (707) 963-7678, (800) 969-7678
Address: 1281 Lewelling Lane
Description: Prager makes Chardonnay and Cabernet but is really known for its Port, which accounts for about 85 percent of production. One of the top sellers is the Royal Escort Port, produced from Petite Sirah grapes. Prager’s facilities are inside an old carriage house, part of the John Thomann Winery and Distillery, constructed in 1865. The intimate tasting room is closed on Sunday.
10. Sutter Home Winery
City: St. Helena, CA
Category: Nightlife
Telephone: (707) 963-3104
Address: 277 St. Helena Highway S.
Description: What was once a small, family-run winery is now a gigantic family-run winery, thanks to unqualified marketing genius. The facilities date from 1874, the name from 1906, when the new Swiss-American co-owner named it after her father, John A. Sutter. Sutter Home has been owned by the Trincheros since 1947, and the family gets credit (or blame, depending on your outlook) for inventing White Zinfandel—which it originally called Oeil de Pedrix, “Eye of the Partridge”—in the 1970s. Sutter Home has numerous vineyards in Napa and Lake Counties but grows the bulk of its grapes in the Sacramento Valley, Sacramento Delta, and Sierra foothill regions. The company produces more than 10 varieties, including a regular Zinfandel, a White Merlot, and a White Cabernet Sauvignon.
11. Louis M. Martini Winery
City: St. Helena, CA
Category: Nightlife
Telephone: (707) 968-3361, (800) 321-WINE
Address: 254 St. Helena Highway S.
Description: Louis M. was an Italian immigrant, born near Genoa, who founded the L. M. Martini Grape Products Co. in Kingsburg, California, in 1922. The “Grand Old Man” built his Napa Valley winery 11 years later. Three generations of Martinis have led the winery. The winery makes primarily Cabernet Sauvignon but also a Petite Sirah, a Chardonnay, and Gnarly Vine Zinfandel. It also produces Moscato Amabile, which it’s been bottling for more than 70 years.
12. Merryvale Vineyards
City: St. Helena, CA
Category: Nightlife
Telephone: (707) 963-7777, (888) 963-0576
Address: 1000 Main Street
Description: Merryvale is hard to miss, as it sits in Sunny St. Helena. That’s not a reference to the town, but to the old winery that dates from the 1930s. The stolid stone structure took new life when it was founded as Merryvale by four partners (the same four who started San Francisco’s Pacific Union Realty) in 1983. The facility produces several varietals, including Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and a dessert wine called Antigua under two labels: Merryvale (10,000 cases annually) and Starmont (more than 90,000 cases). There are no tours, but Merryvale does offer wine component tasting seminars every Saturday and Sunday at 10:30 a.m. The cost is $20, and reservations are recommended.
13. Beringer Vineyards
City: St. Helena, CA
Category: Nightlife
Telephone: (707) 963-7115
Address: 2000 Main Street
Description: Just as you pass through the row of elms that forms a canopy over Highway 29 just north of St. Helena, what you’ll see to the west is Beringer, arguably the most majestic of all Napa Valley wineries. Beringer produces a half-dozen wines that vary from high quality to high volume. Three types of tours are offered, with staggered starting times, and prices ranging from $15 to $35 per person—tastings included. They include an excursion into the wine caves tunneled into the hillside. The winery’s Rhine House, the impressive structure that grabs your attention from the highway, is a preserved historical landmark built by Jacob and Frederick Beringer in 1876.
City: St. Helena, CA
Category: Nightlife
Address: 2800 Main Street
15. Markham Vineyards
City: St. Helena, CA
Category: Nightlife
Telephone: (707) 963-5292
Address: 2812 St. Helena Highway N.
Description: The fortress north of St. Helena, with its fountains and eucalyptus trees, has seen a lot of change in its 130-plus years. It was built of stone quarried from nearby Glass Mountain by Bordeaux immigrant and failed prospector Jean Laurent in 1874, but it was used for bulk wines until 1977. The tasting room is not in the old structure but rather in an addition on its north side. Markham’s Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Sauvignon Blanc, and Chardonnay make up the majority of production, with Zinfandel, Petite Sirah, Syrah, and Pinot Noir in more limited quantities.