As you are leaving Napa, hugging the turns on the mountain road passing over into Sonoma county, a feeling of wistfulness comes over you. Beautifully kept vineyards, neat rows of vines, and in many places, traditionally cultivated rows of grapes. The vines, like a witch's hands, reach out from the ground up towards the sky. Colorful wild flowers carpet the ground between the rows; the vista is hilly and serene. Sonoma is family-run wineries, tasting rooms converted from old barns, heart-warming hospitality and excellent wine. Its seems almost odd that New World wine should come from such a traditional setting. The sight of its fifty and hundred year old vines is so alluring that I frequently pull over to the side of the road so I can take a closer look. …
Napa is a unique unparalleled part of the world where great wines are made. Their biggest strength is their Cabernet Sauvignon, but many other superb wines are made here as well. Located near the west coast, about an hour’s drive north of San Francisco is Napa Valley, North America’s biggest and most famous wine region. We drove up from Los Angeles, about a six-hour drive, 600 kilometers. Napa Valley lies between two mountains—most of the vineyards are found here, but there are a couple on the mountainside as well. The valley floor, an old riverbed, is full of sediments, while higher up the mountain, the earth has volcanic qualities. The differing soil is the reason why many of the wines from this area differ so greatly from one another though the vineyards perhaps lie only a few hundred meters apart. The wineries are found mostly in the northern part of Napa and can be approached from one of two roads, the 29 and the Silverado Trail. There are about 400 wineries in Napa; it would take quite a few months to visit every one of them. We succeeded in visiting twenty wineries in four days. At five wineries a day, that was an impressive feat. We tasted 118 wines in total...
Wine Tours 
