Ronnie Negus: Three Tips for Your Novice Napa Valley Wine-

Tasting Tour

● Ronnie Negus, perhaps best known as one of the cast members on The Real Housewives of Vancouver, also owns a ranch and winery in Napa Valley, California.

● Here she provides her top three tips for a first-time tour of Napa Valley wineries.

● With a multitude of wineries, Napa Valley is a veritable paradise for wine enthusiasts and can be a wonderful introduction for those who enjoy wine at their home but are neophytes to full tastings.

1. Plan ahead: While you may wish to stop at a winery or two on a whim, do your research and plan the majority of your visits.

● Also, try to schedule your tastings to focus on light, simple wines earlier in your touring day before moving on to the more full-bodied complex varieties, so that your palette can best appreciate the range of tastes.

2. Learn the proper protocol for tasting. The steps of tasting - placing the wine to your nose to sample the bouquet and swirling the wine in the glass to aerate the wine - are important in order to savor a wine’s best qualities.

3. Consider private tastings. Many wineries offer private, limited, or exclusive tastings. While these cost more than traditional tasting tours, they offer a more intimate tasting experience and a chance to learn more about the winery.