Wine Time

Today I am to spend the day in Wine Country – Sonoma Valley and Napa Valley. They are both situated on the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge about 1 hours drive. I’m sussing out the area via another tour to last the whole day. The tour folk I am spending the day with are largely retiree’s. Rock on. The day was going to be a struggle thanks to the heat wave with no air conditioning, which meant that I didn’t sleep at all.

After an hour’s drive in the bus we got to our first winery. It was in Sonoma Valley and called Viansa Winery & Italian Marketplace. The tour would be taking us to smaller wineries as we are told the larger wineries don’t like big group of tours coming through particularly if they end up not buying anything, whereas the smaller wineries are happy for the business. Viansa stands for Vicky and Sam’s, as they were the original owners. Sonoma Valley and Napa Valley are famous for their wineries due to the region having a very Mediterranean climate, making it perfect for growing grapses. I figured a winery tour should be interesting for me considering I rarely drink wine, and am more accustomed to enjoying a nice cold beer than a wine. Viansa wine cannot be purchased in stores and is only available online to make it more exclusive. When i get there, the winery is beautiful. They have copied from the Italian, and it is evident everywhere. It’s a popular spot for weddings and I can see why it would be. So I tried the three wines they had on offer. They were nice but I didn’t really know what I was comparing them too! We didn’t get much insight into how wine is made, this stop was much more about people trying to sell us wine.

After the first winery, we headed to Sonoma Valley Square to grab some lunch. Once there, I munched own the free cheese at The Cheese Factory, and then sat down to a sambo at a small café. Sonoma Valley is the home to the last Mission in California and the mission, the barracks, and Vallejo’s home are still there for public viewing. After about 45 minutes we head off for our afternoon of two more wineries before we got back into San Francisco.

The next winery on the tour was the Madonna Estate. By this time I was tired from not sleeping the night before and had ANOTHER headache coming on. So instead of sampling more wine I just hung out in the gardens outside of the winery. It wasn’t a very exciting winery and I don’t think I missed all that much. It was much too nice just lying on the grass! The last winery of the day was the Kirkland Ranch Winery. It was the largest of the wineries, but an oddly themed estate. It was basically styled like a cowboy ranch, which didn’t quite gel with the idea of a winery. It is run by two brothers and has been in the family for several decades. I tried a small amount of wine, but nothing interested me enough to buy some to take home.

The tour guide informed us that we were to start our journey back to San Fran, and I have to admit, I was relieved. I wasn’t feeling that well and whilst I found the day interesting, I might have enjoyed a beer tour more. I got back to the hotel and I had planned to catch up with a friend of a friend but felt so crook I ended up trying to get some sleep. I felt worse and worse over the night and was close to getting myself to a doctor, but had hoped that if I eventually got to sleep it would wear off (what I thought was food poisoning) and I’d be ok for tomorrow.

What I learnt about today in San Francisco:

• Most wineries really just want to sell you their ‘wine club’ so all you drinks is their wine.
• Sonoma Valley is home to the Bear Republic history
• It’s not fun to feel like rubbish overseas!

A view of the Golden Gate Bridge from my bus on the way to the wineries.

The front of the Viansa Winery. Even though i didn't love the tour, I'm glad i checked out Wine country and can tick it off my list.

My wine to taste at the Viansa Winery. It was ok....

The view from Viansa Winery. Just fabulous.

The last Mission in Sonoma Valley Square.

A shot from the Kirkland Ranch Winery.