Frog’s Leap Winery
8815 Conn Creek Rd, Rutherford, CA 94573
Website: http://www.frogsleap.com/
One word immediately comes to mind when I think about Frog’s Leap – “FUN”. The owners of this winery clearly have a sense of humor. The winery’s motto is “Time’s Fun When You’re Having Flies”. There is a story behind the name of the winery. The “Frog” part of the name comes from the fact that the winery is founded on a historical property that used to be a commercial frog farm in the late 1800s. The second half of the name is a play on “Stag’s Leap” from when winemaker John Williams borrowed grapes from Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars in 1981 to make a batch of wine at the “Frog Farm”. Hence, they created the name Frog’s Leap. The frog theme runs throughout the winery.
The big red barn at Frog’s Leap Winery
Frog’s Leap is located off of Conn Creek Road in Rutherford between Highway 29 and the Silverado Trail. The first thing that visitors see when driving up to the winery is the big Red Barn and vineyards out in front of it. The Red Barn is one of the historic Napa Valley ghost wineries built in 1884 as the Adamson Winery. The Williams family and current owners of Frog’s Leap renovated the barn in 1994 and turned it into a state of the art winemaking facility. The winery is surrounded by 40 acres of estate vineyards. To the left of the barn is the Vineyard House and welcome center. Between the two buildings on the back side of the barn is a courtyard with seating areas right next to the vineyard where visitors can relax and take everything in.
Everything about this winery is laid back and it offers a little something for everyone, from the casual guests to more serious wine drinkers. When my husband and I visited the place was very popular. At that time, back in 2012, we were able to walk in without reservations. Now reservations are required for tours and tastings. I suspect that may be because of their popularity. There is a small path from the parking lot that leads directly to the Vineyard House. When we walked inside, we were confused by where we needed to go for a wine tasting. Straight ahead of us inside the Vineyard House was a lounge area that looked like someone’s living room with a cozy couch and chandelier overhead. To the left was a private room with big leather chairs. Off to the right was another room that looked like a dining area with a long table set up for seated tastings and glass doors leading outside. Outside on the wrap-around porch are additional tables where people can do a tasting looking out on the vineyards. We missed the small room immediately to the right of the entrance where we were supposed to select our tasting option.
Frog’s Leap outdoor seating area near the vineyards
Since the place was very busy and we didn’t immediately see a staff member, my husband and I roamed around trying to figure out where to go. We headed outside to the courtyard and saw some people sitting on the top floor of the barn drinking wine. We headed in that direction next, walking through the barn past fermentation tanks, up the stairs to the second floor. There were chairs set up at both ends with an open window looking out at the vineyards on both sides. The views from atop the barn are beautiful! It was February and a little chilly with the wide open windows but there were small heaters set up to keep guests comfortable. In the middle was a small tasting bar. The girl behind the bar informed us that we needed to go back to the Vineyard House and pay for a tasting to get a glass before we could try anything. Then we trekked back to the entrance, paid for our tasting, and went back to the barn. It was a bit frustrating and we learned a lesson should we return again.
As we were roaming around the property, we noticed that there were so many places to sit and relax. There are 3 different tasting options – an indoor seated tasting in the Vineyard House, a Garden tasting in one of the various areas around the property or in the Big Red Barn, or a tour and tasting. If the weather is nice, I would recommend heading outside and grabbing a seat looking out on the vineyards on either side of the property. Despite the very casual atmosphere, the winery takes their wines seriously, and I enjoyed them. It’s a winery I would recommend visiting
View of the Stags Leap district from Frog’s Leap Winery
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