Building an itinerary for Aug. Sonoma/Napa trip -- looking for help

[dananne]

Eng -- I'm sure this will degenerate into incoherent rambling, but I'll try to explain so that I may be able to take advantage of your advice. In Napa, I'd like to find some smaller, out-of-the-way places, and the places I picked so far, like Bouchaine and ZD, make wines we really like (Pinots, in those cases). We also would like to visit places that make different stuff that we wouldn't get to taste everyday (such as Petite Sirah, Refrosco, Charbono, etc.). It's not that I'm opposed to the words "large," "corporate," or "Cab," though I suppose it may look that way. Frankly, having never been out there, I just don't know where to go in Napa. Over in Sonoma, I can think to myself, "I love Martinelli wines, so I'll visit." In Napa, there are many places I've heard of, but really have no intention of visiting (like Sutter Home and Opus One, to name two, though for differing reasons), but I may be way off base with my assumptions. Maybe I'd love Opus One, who knows? I might even think Sutter Home was the greatest winery in the history of the world after a visit (though I'll go out on a limb and say probably not). What I do know, however, is unless we may be buying something, Anne had better have some stellar views or something to justify the stop [img]http://wines.com/ubb/smile.gif[/img]

So, to try and sum it up, we'd like to find the smaller, sorta hidden spots, places that make Pinots, places that do neat stuff with more rarely seen varieties, and/or places that offer wines that we would consider buying (to accommodate Anne's love of combining the pastimes of drinking and shopping at the same time [img]http://wines.com/ubb/smile.gif[/img]

And, yes, KC's posts have been very helpful. For example, I'd have never known about North Eagle Pottery or Ace in the Hole Cider Pub, two places that we're planning to visit.

I know you, too, have traveled the area, so I'd love any advice or suggestions, wine or other!