The best advice for planning great times in Wine Country!

It’s time to head to wine country!

Let’s talk about planning the trip!

I am assuming that if you don’t live in an area that is surrounded by wineries and vineyards and great food to go with it, you want to visit one.

If you do live in such an area, lucky you! You still may want to travel to a different wine country area.

By the way, not every area that has wineries is wine country. I’m talking about you Connecticut and Rhode Island. In so many other areas, it is so many wineries, not enough time.

From one of our trips to Sonoma.

But wait, there’s more.

Let’s talk about visiting wine country in general. There are a few things you should think about before you go:

Do you want to go it alone or join a wine group? There are many groups available should that be your choice. We have always gone it alone, because I like the flexibility. Many people prefer a group because they may want a little structure.

Will you hire a driver? The advantage to a driver is that you can drink freely and not worry about it.

The disadvantage of a driver is that you can drink so freely that you don’t remember what you drank. We have friends who had no idea how many wine clubs they had joined until the bills started coming in. One bill was so large they wondered if they had bought a piano by accident.

Do you want to just taste wine? Do you want to see the winery and the vineyards? Just to clarify, a winery is where they make the wines, and the vineyards are where they grow the grapes. Some wineries grow their own grapes, and may have multiple vineyards. Look at my post ( Hint: click at the words my post) of the top 20 wines from what was my wine gallery. You will see examples of this. Some wineries buy their grapes. Many times they buy from multiple vineyards.

Do you want to sit down with the vintner? I have a friend who wants to hear everything about the winery, and the history behind it. He loves the stories.

Rockpile Vineyard in Sonoma.

It is not easy to get to.

If you plan to go all in and see the wineries and vineyards, know that this takes a lot of time. The wineries and vineyards may be far from a town. If you like the idea, though, just do one or two a day.

If you are not really into the whole process, and you really don’t care about malolactic fermentation and punching down the grapes, head to the tasting rooms.

Many wineries have tasting rooms in a town, in addition to tasting at the winery. Some wineries offer multiple experiences that you can choose from. Some wineries offer food to eat along with the wine, and some have complete restaurants.

This is the dream! Eating in the vineyard.

There are nuts and bolts issues too, like reservations and days open. This is worth investigating so you don’t get disappointed. You may also want to look into the prices of the wines. I, personally, try go to wineries where prices are not exorbitant. If, however, they have a fun meal with matching wines, I’ll just enjoy the experience. Decide what you want out of the adventure.

Then there is the issue of buying wine. If you are within driving distance of what I keep referring to as wine country, then buying wine and bringing it home is easy. I’m jealous.

If you live a plane ride away, things get trickier. Even shipping wine home can be a problem, depending on where you live. There are so many different rules for each state. If your state has reciprocity with the state you are visiting, you can have the winery ship it directly to you. I have overheard people asking for wine to be sent to friends in a nearby state so they can pick it up from them.

If you live in Canada, enjoy the wine where you are tasting it. I have heard that it is insanely hard to bring back any.

You may ask, why am I buying wine that I can get at my wine store at home? Many great wineries are small, and do not distribute across the country. Some wineries have such limited production, you are given an allotment of how much you can buy.

If you’re visiting a huge commercial winery, the kind where buses are parked delivering people to the winery, there probably is no need to buy wine and send it home. Some of these visits can be fun, but I don’t think there is any advantage to buying the wine there.

I mentioned above about joining multiple wine clubs while away. Some wines are sold only to club members. Club membership differs among the wineries, but they all require you to receive a certain amount of shipments in a year. Each winery offers special additional perks year round. While we joined several wine clubs when we went to Sonoma, we could not take advantage of any of the year round events because we don’t live nearby. This is something to think about before joining. It made me sad to receive emails about what I was missing.

Remember when I said, wait there’s more.

This is some more. There is even more, but you get the point.

I have been to Sonoma and Napa multiple times. To clarify, both Sonoma and Napa are names of towns, and names of the region. There is Sonoma Valley and Northern Sonoma County, too. Sonoma County is almost double the size of Napa.

I strongly suggest that if you want to go to both, note that it is not a straight shot between them. Learn from my mistakes! It is Sonoma Valley and Napa Valley. There is a mountain in between them.

My next trip is to Central Coast California. I will probably be visiting Paso Robles, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Solvang and maybe Malibu. Yep, Malibu has wineries too. My next post will be about planning where we will go there. Not sure how we can go wrong. I can’t believe I jinxed myself that way.

Regardless, planning should be fun.

Wine is fun and wine travel even more so!