Weekly Travel Feature

Exploring The Wine Country of Northern California

Prepared by Harold Stephens
Travel Correspondent for Thai Airways International

   I won’t argue that Californian wines are as fine as French, or that Australian wines are as good as both.

   Nor am I one who advocates that red wine goes with meat and white with fish and fowl. I have listened to the experts talk and have been invited to wine tasting seminars. I have given thought to words like "body" and “bouquet,” “fragrance" and “aroma,” colour" and “warmth.”

   When it comes to learning something about wines, I really get annoyed when I read some of the advice the so called experts give. I recently picked up a magazine with an article on “Know your wines.” The author wrote with authority and told his readers they should master all the names, learn about body and aroma and, after doing so, they would then be able to impress their friends with what they know. How ridiculous. Are we being taught to drink wine to enjoy it or to impress others?

   There is only one basic rule we have to know about wine, and that is, if you like it, drink it. If you don't, stick with Pepsi or Coke or whatever. The taste of wine is purely personal. Drink red with whatever you enjoy having it with: meat, fish, or poultry. Taste is all that matters.

    All this came into focus recently when I visited the wine country in northern California. I had a map of wineries that offered free wine tasting, more than a hundred, and I set out to discover California wine.

   I drank wine in small wineries with sagging ceilings and in grand European-style chateau. What impressed me was that at no time was l told that I should drink red or white, dry or sweet, mountain red or rose.

   “Try this, maybe you'll like it,” was the general tone of those who did the pouring. I found many wines that I liked, some of which I bought directly from the wineries at rock-bottom prices.

   I won't go into the merits of Californian wines, for it only leads to arguments, but I will tell you how to enjoy sampling wine across California. My only advice is to take someone along who can drive and doesn’t drink. The driving while drunk laws in California are tough.

   What you will need is a good wine-country map. All wineries and state tourist offices will have them for sale for a dollar or two.

    For those who are interested, I suggest taking a tour through the wine country north of San Francisco, through the principal wine-producing valleys of Napa and Sonoma. California has many wine regions, each boasting a proud array of fine wines, but the vineyards of the Napa and the Sonoma valleys are the state's most productive. For miles, wineries dot the verdant slopes of the valleys.

   The reason for their success as wine producers is purely geographical. The Mayacamas Mountains shield Napa and Sonoma vineyards from chilly coastal winds and rise above the layers of thick, cool fog that drifts most mornings into the valleys. Hills, carpeted with meticulously groomed vineyards, undulate toward the valley floors.

   Only a few hours from San Francisco, the Napa Valley is a world away in time. Where grapevines flourish, subdivisions do not. There are no neon signs, no billboards and no fast-food outlets. Only an occasional genteel sign marks the advent of a winery, park or town on State Highway 29. Some of California's finest wines are produced here and sold only at their home winery.

    Here, also, are restaurants and motels within average budgets and with attractions other than wine tasting.

    To attract customers, the ranchers and tourist departments have arranged low-cost activities from horseback riding and hiking to picnicking and motorcycle racing. At one lake there's sailing, water skiing, fishing and camping.

   The neighbouring valleys of Napa and Sonoma, taken together, make a fine driving tour for a three-day leave or just a wakened.

   As your wine map will show, there are more than 100 wineries in Napa Valley alone but wine experts advise that no more than three should be visited in one day. They also advise wine tasters to limit themselves to one type of wine, white, red or rose, during a single tour. It’s impossible, so they say to assess wines adequately if the palate must skip from one type to another.

   All wineries have a salesroom. Sometimes they offer discontinued stock at bargain prices. At any rate few visitors go home without buying at least a couple of bottles.

   Television has done much to promote California wines. For television soap-opera fans around the world, the symbol of the California wine country has become the palatial home known as Falcon Crest—and the television series by the same name.

   Falcon Crest—the place and not the TV show–– actually does exist, although in real life it's called Spring Mountain Winery, just off Highway 29. It no longer offers wine tasting, nor does it sell wine, but for US$4 you can take a tour. Surrounded by lovely vineyards, Spring Mountain attracts many visitors undoubtedly drawn by the “Falcon Crest" connection.

   A good place to start a Napa tour is at one of the large wineries where you will get an overview of the wine-making process. Beringer Vineyards, among the valley's oldest, is a good choice. Visitors start at Beringer's Rhine House, a mid-l9th century home, continue through channels built in 1876 by Chinese labourers, and end their tour with a taste of Beringer wines.

   Other good choices are the Christian Brothers, Inglenook Cellars, and the Franciscan Winery/Freemark Abbey complex with its candle making shop. These older wineries offer tours, tasting and museums as well.

   One of the most spectacular of Napa wineries is Sterling's, at the head of the valley just south of Calistoga. A chair lift ($4 per person; children go free) ascends to the winery where there's a view of the entire valley. The building itself is stark white, designed like a Moorish castle, and bells chime from its tower at the quarter-hour. Following a comprehensive self-guided tour, guests arrive at the summit in a large wine-tasting room where they can sample wine and marvel at the panorama below.

    While many of Napa's wineries are old and well established, others are quite new and less imposing. For a more personal look at wine making, you might find these smaller operations—like Rutherford, Cuvaison or Napa Creek—more interesting.

   The best way to drive through Napa Valley is to go north on 29 to Calistoga and, from there, return on the parallel Silverado Trail, which winds through forests, vineyards and meadows. This route is ideal for bicycle tours. Tourist offices offer a free information sheet on touring the wineries by bike.

   The little crossroads that link Silverado Trail with Highway 29 offer some of the best scenery around. Secluded and little-travelled, they burrow through vineyards, cross tiny bridges and meander under leafy arches of trees. Also along Silverado Trail are small wineries where you can eat a picnic lunch, buying fixings at one of the excellent delicatessens in the valley. Besides shady picnic areas maintained by wineries, parks dot the entire valley.

   Calistoga is probably the nicest town in the Napa Valley, tranquil and uncommercialised. You'll find reasonably priced motels and cottages with private bathrooms, TV and swimming pools. And Calistoga's restaurants offer a selection of menus in every price range. Calistoga is also the home of famous Calistoga bottled water and hot spring. Many people come here to take a mud bath, mineral water soak, sauna and massage.

   Napa Valley's neighbour is historic Sonoma. It's the cradle of California's history and comes as a surprise to many visitors, for here at the beautifully landscaped plaza in the heart of the city of Sonoma, the flags of five foreign countries once flew—Spain, Britain, Russia, the Mexican Empire and the Mexican Republic, followed by the California Republic and finally the U.S.A.

   Sonoma’s historic section is probably the best preserved in the state. Along its perimeter is an old mansion, founded in 1823 and now displaying historic relics. Just across the street is the old barracks erected by the Spanish. Then along the streets bordering the plaza are General Vallejo's adobe home, the Swiss Hotel and the Nash-Patton Adobe. The Blue Wing Inn was once a stopping place for Kit Carson, Ulysses S. Grant, "Fighting Joe" Hooker and the legendary California bandit Joaquin Murietta.

    Just a few steps behind the plaza is the Sonoma Depot Museum, displaying interior scenes of the 1880s, with mannequins in period clothing. The Rand Room is for railroad buffs. Many appealing little shops and restaurants are also around the plaza and, fortunately, as in the Napa Valley, commercialism is underplayed.

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

Q. Mr. Stephens, The Tourism Authority of Thailand is inviting fun-loving couples to participate in a competition in which the top prize-winner receives US$10,000, a holiday package to Thailand worth US$3,000, a Blackberry and a Handycam video camera.

The winning couple will be selected by a process of online voting, and the voters themselves will be eligible to win a holiday package valued at US$1,500, a Blackberry, a Handycam video camera and a spa voucher.

Interested contestants have to apply as couples, regardless of their relationship. Five enthusiastic couples will be chosen, and dispatched on a fully-paid, five-day itinerary to the five Thai destinations, one couple per destination. All their costs will be taken care of by the TAT, including air travel from their home countries. Contact E-mail: prdiv3@tat.or.th ––Governor, TAT

A. I will make the announcement. Thank you. ––HS

Harold Stephens
Bangkok
E-mail: ROH Weekly Travel (booking@inet.co.th)

Note: The article is the personal view of the writer and does not necessarily reflect the view of Thai Airways International Public Company Limited.