If you're planning a trip to California wine country, there are many resources available that can make your trip fun and enjoyable. Many self-planning guides are available for visitors to complement the wine tasting experience and make for a pleasurable adventure. Family wineries in Sonoma Valley, Napa Valley, Santa Barbara, and Medocino area vineyards, just to name a few, offer a variety of options, such as walking vineyard tours, wine tasting seminars, and retail stores that offer endless selections of wine and wine related products!
A tour of California wine country can be enjoyed by many means, since drinking and driving is not encouraged, visitors can make their way by limo, bus, jeep, carriage, train, plane, and even by hot air balloon! Many tour packages are available and can accommodate any travelers? desires and pocketbooks. Tours of select counties, such as, the wildly popular Sonoma and Napa valley tours, can be combined with lunch or dinner, a mystery theater, mountain biking, or overnight resort and spa accommodations. Vacations can be booked online and be made as unique or as carefree as you'd like. Some tour operators even offer surprise packages that combine a little bit of everything for those visitors that desire an element of the unknown! Many packages can also be revised on a whim so you don't miss a thing, and of course, you can always visit again!
To find the tours that interest you most, you may begin by searching by destination, most popular tours, or by what activities various vineyards offer. There are many excellent on-line guides available, with stunning photographs of California vineyards, travel recommendations, and historic information. California wine country is vast and statewide, with different offerings throughout the year. The weather can also be a factor, and you may want to check ahead of time with tour operators or the specific vineyards you would like to visit, as to what they recommend to ensure that your trip is memorable for all the right reasons!
The possibilities are endless and can be as unique as you want. If a romantic getaway is what you're looking for, then possibly a quaint bed and breakfast surrounded by panoramic vineyard views would be just the ticket! It is also possible to fit in other attractions as well, depending on the area you plan on visiting. Many of the most popular tours fill up quickly, so do your research and book well in advance. With whatever amount of time and money you have available, there is a unique experience awaiting you in California wine country!
Northern California Wine Country
For all wine lovers, a trip to San Francisco should also consist of day trip to some of the fine vineyards that are in driving distance of the city. Many of these vineyards have charter packages available that will pick you up and bring you on a tour through the vineyard and allow you to sample their wines and then take you back, no worrying about drinking too much and then driving.
The wines that are available in the Sonoma Valley and Napa Valley of California have been known to change the minds people who claim that they don't have a taste for wine. The vast majority of the wines here are fine quality and are specially selected to show the level of quality that these vineyards have to offer. Whether you are an experienced wine taster or not doesn't matter, you will receive an excellent education about how the wine is made as well as be informed of all the different varieties available in the area.
If you aren't the tourist type and don't want to take one of the chartered bus tours you can also check into the smaller and more intimate option of an SUV tour. Granted, a tour like this will be much more expensive than the bus tours, but if you have the money to spend they are well worth the price just for the level of personal attention that you receive and the piece of mind that someone else is driving instead of you. You will also be able to take in some of the smaller independent wineries that don't make themselves available to the larger bus tours. If you think you may want to try this type of tour, plan ahead at least a week because they do not have the flexibility of filling empty seats that they larger charters have.
When you are going to a vineyard or winery for a tasting experience there are some things you will want to keep in mind to make the visit as enjoyable as possible. One of the things that many people don't think about is wearing fragrances. Don't wear any perfumes or other scents as these will interfere with the taste and fragrance of the wine. Also, to avoid warming the wine you want to hold the wine by the stem. To cleanse the palate you should have some crackers or plain bread that you can eat between tastings.
A visit to the California Wine Country will give you a great education about all of the varieties of wines and the regions they come from as well as the differences between them all which will be fascinating even if you have never had a glass of wine in your life.
Both Robert Fore & Gregg Hall are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
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