Enjoy Napa Valley, California In The Off-Season With So Many Options, A Visit To The Napa Valley Can Be Geared To Suit Any Pocketbook

You can enjoy the Napa Valley like a bottle of fine wine - on your own terms.

In the off seasons, fall and winter, the valley has a different combination of scents and tastes, textures and colors. Savor them on their own, or combine them with a hot-air balloon ride, a trip to the spa or a stroll through some shops.

All you need for a wine-country trip is a long weekend, a low-cost airline ticket to San Francisco and a rental car (the Bay Area from Spokane can be as little as $200, round trip, for two people).

From Napa, at the south end of the valley, communities and wineries unroll along Highway 29: Yountville, Rutherford, St. Helena and, at the northern end, Calistoga. Under a chilly blue sky, trees and outcroppings stud the valley floor and surrounding hills, and the landscape is tied together by grape vines. In the stillness, you’ll catch the scent of clean air against the damp, rich earth.

During winter weekends, the valley is quiet, but reservations are suggested for lodging. Choices - for every style and pocketbook - range from bed and breakfasts to a fourstar resort, antique-filled hotels to motor inns to rustic cabin retreats.

The shorter days give you more time to relax in restaurants, doing nothing more than enjoying dinner. If you’re set on a dining experience - such as the three-hour, five-course prix-fixe dinner at the French Laundry - do make reservations several weeks ahead. This Yountville restaurant, like Terra, Tra Vigne (the restaurant at Domaine Chandon), and others, have steady clienteles.

On your way to dinner, you’ll pass the Napa Valley Wine Train, which makes leisurely lunch, dinner and brunch runs through the valley.

Make lunch spontaneous. Pick a restaurant in between wineries or take out picnic food fit for a gourmet.

Wine tasting can be uncomplicated, too. Sampling wines is as easy as driving along Highway 29, the Silverado Trail or the roads that connect them. Most wineries have tastings. A few are by appointment, but in most cases you only need walk in and pay a $3-$5 tasting fee. In return, you’ll add to your collection of wine glasses or get a discount on purchases.

Like the wines, each winery has its own character. Several stand out because they offer experiences in addition to the wine.

The Hess Collection winery, outside Napa, houses a contemporary-art collection (just beyond the flaming-typewriter artwork). Wines are offered at an elegant but unpretentious tasting bar, where trained docents serve you.

At the opposite end of the valley, at Chateau Montelena, you’ll want to save time to picnic under an island pagoda in the garden lake. (The ducks and swans don’t need an invitation.)

Along the way, you’ll get some ideas for new wineries to try. When a tour guide at Chateau Montelena tells visitors that a former winemaker left to start Grgich Hills, you might want to see how that winery’s chardonnay compares. On another tour, you’ll learn that Frog’s Leap was started by a former employee of Stag’s Leap vineyards.

As you taste, you can collect some good suggestions from winery staffers for meals and other activities. You also can swap ideas with other visitors.

Or consider heading north out of Calistoga to Robert Louis Stevenson State Park. Or from Highway 29, take the Oakville Grade west. There are no turnoffs to stop and enjoy the views, but the hairpin curves provide glimpses. You’ll drop down into the Sonoma Valley, where you can drive past farms and pastures full of horses to Jack London State Historical Park.

Two companies offer horseback rides. For adventure, you can arrange a hot-air balloon or glider ride.

Back on the ground, it would be a shame to leave without a massage or a wrap. Calistoga has walk-in spas, and many motels provide these services for guests.

MEMO: See sidebar that ran with this story under the headline: If you go to the Napa Valley