Napa's Sparkling Wine Houses: Domaine Carneros, Chandon, Mumm Napa & Schramsberg Caves

Seasoned Napa Valley visitors follow a classic golden rule: make your first morning appointment of the day at one of the valley's four legendary Sparkling Wine Houses. Starting with crisp, refreshing bubbles awakens your palate before afternoon reds, and in the cool southern Los Carneros AVA (where morning marine breezes off San Pablo Bay keep temperatures 5°C cooler than up-valley, ideal for delicate Pinot Noir and Chardonnay), you can sip sparkling wine produced by the exact same Méthode Traditionnelle used in Champagne, France.

1. Southern & Central Sparkling Icons: Domaine Carneros & Chandon

1. Domaine Carneros (1240 Duhig Rd, Napa, 10 Mins West of Downtown): founded in 1987 by Claude Taittinger of France's Champagne Taittinger. Climb the sweeping stone staircase to a glass conservatory or umbrella-shaded terrace overlooking 400 acres of organic Carneros hills, where servers bring curated flights of Ultra Brut, Late Disgorged Le Rêve and Pinot Noir with optional Tsar Nicoulai caviar and cheese plates (advance reservation required, maximum group size of 6).
2. Chandon (1 California Dr, Yountville): established in 1973 by Moët & Chandon as the first French-owned sparkling wine venture in America. Set in a wooded oak park right next to the Yountville Veterans Home, Chandon's indoor-outdoor garden terraces offer sparkling flights, Chandon Garden Spritz cocktails and wood-fired pizzas.

2. Silverado Trail & Calistoga Caves: Mumm Napa & Schramsberg

3. Mumm Napa (8445 Silverado Trail, Rutherford): founded by Champagne Mumm on the scenic Silverado Trail. Sip Brut Prestige and DVX on the oak-shaded veranda looking across the valley vines, and walk upstairs for free into the Fine Art Photography Gallery displaying a permanent museum collection of 27 original signed prints by Ansel Adams (including The Tetons and the Snake River and Half Dome).
4. Schramsberg Vineyards (1400 Schramsberg Rd, Calistoga): founded in 1862 by Jacob Schram (immortalised by Robert Louis Stevenson in 1880's The Silverado Squatters) and revived in 1965 by Jack and Jamie Davies, whose 1969 Blanc de Blancs was served at the historic 1972 'Toast to Peace' banquet in Beijing and at the White House by every US President since. Walk by lantern-light through 3.2 kilometres of moss-covered 19th-century underground caves stacked with 2.5 million bottles undergoing hand-riddling.