What’s a trip to Northern Cali without a trip to wine country? Thankfully Steve was pretty accurate in his weather prediction and we ended up spending the perfect day driving up to Sonoma & Napa with blue skies and warmer weather.
There were just too many vineyards on our list, and many of them closed pretty early. We made a list, narrowed it down (many were just WAY too expensive, while others just didn’t sound as interesting), planned it out on a map to make the most of the day, and stopped by as many as we had the energy and daylight for. We ended up going to quite a number of really great places, one place that we could’ve done without, and weren’t able to make it to 2 of the vineyards that we really wanted to try (because they closed before we could get there). We’re not upset though – we actually ran out of steam even before we arrived at the last vineyard and seriously considered stopping early. We can save those 2 for the next trip?
The drive was *gorgeous*. GORGEOUS. I have lots of photos that I need to sort through to post here (I’ll have to narrow it down or you’ll be scrolling forever through probably more than a hundred photos!). We drove up to the Dry Creek and Russian River Valleys first. The vineyards here have a much better atmosphere in our opinion than in Napa. You have a nice, scenic drive from vineyard to vineyard (Steve would have pictured roads like those somewhere in Europe – not in California), where Napa has a very “commercial” feel. You drive down the road and it seems as though the majority of the vineyards are all name brands and they have tasting rooms right there next to the street. Feels more like a tourist trap. Next time we’re going to stick more toward the Dry Creek & Russian River Valleys. 
After the first leg, we stopped at a little country “general store” which made awesome sandwiches. Headed out through the hills and the canopied roads east to Calistoga to visit Chateau Montelena. A few months ago we watched the movie “Bottle Shock” simply because we were bored and found it available for streaming from Netflix. Cute movie too! We couldn’t resist going to see the place and trying the wines for ourselves. We’re not Chardonnay people at all – but they make a damn good Chardonnay. We’re very glad that we took the time to stop by. I’d gladly visit Chateau Montelena again.
Pretty much the rest of our tastings were out in Napa. The final vineyard was actually off of the main drag and what felt like through the wilderness off the map somewhere. Eventually the “road” opened up to a very nice vineyard (with their own art collection/museum).
All in all it was a great tour. Including the 2 bottles of wine that we picked up in San Francisco the day before, we ended up buying 9 bottles!
