Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Getting from Winery to Winery
The most important tool for a day or week of wine tasting is a good map.
They're not too hard to find, since they're distributed at restaurants, winer-
ies, and anyplace tourists are likely to tread. Get one that has all the winer-
ies labeled, because sometimes a place is located off a main road and is only
easily locatable with help. Also look for a list of all the county's wineries,
because that way you can take stock of the smaller, family-run places that
may require you to phone ahead to visit. It's typical rivalry: Both regions pro-
duce their own maps, leaving off their neighbor completely. For Sonoma, my
favorite map for its ease of use is
The Official Visitors Map
put out by
Sonoma
County Tourism Bureau
(
%
800/576-6662; www.sonomacounty.com).
For
Napa, there are downloadable maps at
www.napavalley.org,
the site run by
the Napa Valley Conference & Visitors Bureau. Its office in Napa (1310 Napa
Town Center, Napa;
%
707/226-7459) is full of brochures. Don't believe at
first glance the prices for accommodations that are quoted on either of those
tourism sites. I usually find that, in reality, they're as much as 40% higher,
and in periods of leaner visitation, you can often talk innkeepers
down
off
the posted rates, too.
If you can't download maps before you arrive, don't fret, because they're
distributed widely and for free. Also check out the brochure
“Visitors Guide
from the Sonoma Valley Visitors Bureau” (453 1st St. E., Sonoma;
%
866/
996-1090; www.sonomavalley.com).
It lists winery after winery and their
entry policies and is published by Preiser Key; they want you to spend more
than $12 to have them mail you a booklet, but in truth, it's given away for
free all over the place once you arrive.
Besides that essential winery map, you'll also need discipline. It's easy
to get pretty drunk during a wine-tasting day, even if you think you're not
having much, which would only be your problem if you didn't have to also
drive a car. That's why all wineries keep a little spittoon on the bar that's
meant for you to use. Don't gulp down wine—taste it in little sips and, if
you want, spit it out. (Frankly, you'll rarely see anyone use the spittoons—
wineries take precautions not to over-serve you instead—but they're
there.) If you drink too much, which is unlikely given the small shots of
wine each place doles out, call
Vern's Taxi (
%
707/938-5885).
There are
companies in San Francisco that, for hundreds of dollars, will drive you
around the area in a limo, but coming here for just one day, as you'd have
to do including commute times, is no way to get to know it and to kick
back to enjoy the afternoon with a drink or meal, which is half the appeal.
Most of those programs only take you to the most touristy places,
although you can pay even more money to customize some tours. It seems
to me to be a high price to pay just to be able to drink, especially since
you can buy any wine you see for home consumption.
