While driving up and down the storied wine roads of Napa Valley, visitors and locals have often wished for a calmer, more intimate way to travel and engage with the stunning landscape. It seems something is missed when you’re just racing through at freeway speeds and waiting at traffic lights. Well, the folks at Olabisi Winery and Vine Trail Adventures seem to have found a way to make it happen. Longtime Napa Valley winemaker and cycling enthusiast, Ted Osborne, leads cyclists on bespoke journeys through the vineyards.
These rides started at his family’s Olabisi Winery tasting room in downtown Calistoga and headed off on an adventure that took cyclists through the varied topography and microclimates that define wine country. Drawing from over 30 years of winemaking and vineyard experience, from four continents, Ted painted a picture of what it’s like to live and work in the storied Napa Valley. Anytime riders had a question about what was going on in this or that vineyard, they just pulled off the path, and Mr. Osborne would explain in as little or as much detail as they desired. By the time their journey was through, they’d get some fresh air and exercise, but really, it seems the main attraction is the unique visual feast for the senses that one experiences from a bike. So vivid and viscerally engaging that it sparked their curiosity as well as their thirst for knowledge, and wine.