Sonoma/Napa Awards! Best Napa Winery You’ve Never Heard of: Schweiger Vineyards
This secluded little winery has some prime-time land tucked up on Spring Mountain from which they produce a wonderful Cabernet, a bordeaux blend called “dedication”, and a port, among others. Their tastings are by appointment only as are all of the Spring Mountain wineries (although we were able to schedule our appointment about 90 minutes in advance) and they have a locked gate out front to ensure that you do have an appointment. Strictly family owned and operated since inception, the staff here is minimal but really friendly and knowledgeable. One little tricky bit about scheduling a tasting and tour here is that they will inform you on the phone that there is a $25 tasting fee per person (kinda steep! Like the mountain, ha!). What they don’t tell you is that they likely won’t mention this fee at any time during the tasting and will waive the fees if anything is purchased (their sauv. blanc is $25/btl 
). I have a strong feeling that you will leave with something a little more substantial than the sauv. blanc if you visit. We brought home a bottle of their Cabernet which is their flagship and what most of their vineyard is planted to ($59/btl).
The views are spectacular and they bump elbows with a few great names like Pride Mountain, Barnett, and Keenan in this tucked away corner of Napa Valley. Our tasting consisted of approx. 6 wines, including a library wine tasting of their 04′ Cab. which the pourer brought out at the mere question, “Is there anything else we can taste?” (I love that question, works almost every time). They also have a group of winery dogs (I think there were 5) which were very friendly and were seen romping through the grapes at various times during our tour and tasting. If you can’t make it to the winery, their website does allow direct ordering of their wines as their distribution doesn’t make it too far out of California.
I’ve been doing some research on Napa wineries and PlumpJack seems to have a few great options.
My boyfriend & I made our first trip to California in Oct. w/ Napa as a starting point for the 12 day trip. Our very first tasting was at Schweiger – the host (James) and the other couple at the tasting were impressed that we started there having never been to Napa before. What a wonderful beginning to our trip and of course I was head over heals in love with Schweiger since it was “my first.” My bf isn’t a wine lover like me, but has a new-found appreciation for what it takes to make wine, and has also learned to ENJOY great wine! The couple at our tasting taught us a couple very important things, such as tasting wines you wouldn’t typically have access to where you live – then ship it home! I haven’t unpacked any of our wines yet, TRYING to hold on to them for a bit before we dig in, but it’s hard. I was so happy to find your blog and to read you also enjoyed a place you never heard of! Schweiger was very memorable. When you go back to Napa again, you must go to Jericho Canyon in Calistoga. Also off the beaten path and a beautiful hillside vineyard. We had a private tour and cave tasting with Phil Gift and he was a wonderful host. Thanks for your post!
You know, that story sounds very familiar. . . I would almost swear we were that other couple as we had a very similar experience! We were there in October, it was the first winery visit for the other couple at the tasting (and their first trip to Napa), and we spoke of the wonders of buying wines inaccessible in our respective home states. . .hmmm. Thanks so much for reading and I will certainly put Jericho Canyon on our must visit list! Stay tuned for more recommendations for Napa and Sonoma destinations and have a Happy Thanksgiving!