Laird Family Estate — Attraction in Napa Valley AVA

This was our very first stop on our first-ever trip to Wine Country, and it set the bar incredibly high!

I agonized over researching where to visit for months. Here's what I was looking for: A small winery where I couldn't easily find their wines in a store, beautiful grounds with a great laid-back vibe, and a reasonable price point on both bottles and tastings. Laird Family fit the bill. The owner, Ken Laird, is a big name in grape growing throughout Napa Valley, but only keeps around 2% of his grapes to produce wine, so their wines here are something of a hidden gem.

Our host was Andrew, and he was phenomenal. Knowledgeable but incredibly friendly, funny, and made us feel so welcome. His style of telling us about the wines made it so approachable! We learned so much but in a conversational way.

We did a red-only tasting and a mixed tasting, and brought picnic supplies. We primarily sat at the bar indoors, but ordered individual glasses and went outside, then purchased a bottle of the Jillian's red blend to take as well. We genuinely loved all the wines! In fact, we nearly joined the club, but since it was our first winery we thought we better take it slow. However, we will be hoping out of our way to stop in again on our next visit in June. The grounds are also gorgeous and you get an up-close peek at the winemaking process as you sit outside.

HIGHLY...

Don't waste your time! We had friends come in from out of town to have a fabulous wine tasting day experience. We only had reservations for Cake Bread (which is required) but no reservations for Domaine Chandon and Laird (as the website says no reservations are required). We were treated like royalty at Domaine Chandon but when we got to Laird we were IMMEDIATELY turned off. There was no one to greet you! You have to walk around and ask someone for help! Then we were told that for party's of 6 and more you need to make reservations. We had 8 of us but 2 DD's. They still would not accomodate! We then asked if we could split our party in two - NOPE! What it came down to was the fact that they did not have enough staff to help us! WHAT??? It is Labor Day Weekend and you do not have the staff! They truly acted like they could not be bothered which is why I will never go...

Absolutely loved this place, we had the best server who was very friendly and informative of the wines, with a great atmosphere, we went on a rainy day but our server was amazing, brought us blankets turned on the heater and did everything to make sure we were warm and comfortable along with our dogs, she had her own dog named king which might have been why she was so amazing with our beloved pups. We went to other nearby wineries but didn't experience nearly as high quality of service and friendliness as Laird winery. One thing that stood out to me was other wineries used the same glass for different flights of wine?????? Where Laird used specific glasses for each wine. Don't even know how that's a thing I should have to mention. Overall Laird was my favorite by...