Thursday, December 10, 2009

California Tidbit Thursday - Napa & Sonoma Valleys



You hear about Napa all the time - it's the hub of the California wine industry. In fact, some of the best California wines come from Napa. I've been to Napa on several occasions (it's been awhile) but I've always enjoyed my trips up there. For me, I find Napa and Sonoma very romantic. Traveling down the roads, visiting wineries, that's fun to me.

Napa is quaint, mostly rural, with goregeous views of the landscape. But what makes it so special? Because of it's unique climate, it's a perfect place to grow and harvest grapes for wines. In fact, the movie, "Bottle Shock," is a great movie about the California wine area and how Napa & Sonoma counties came to gain "respectability" in the wine world. I highly recommend seeing it, especially if you're a wine person.


Napa is a little cooler than Sonoma county. Napa Valley is widely considered one of the top American Viticultural Areas in California, and all of the United States. Robert Mondavi is probably one of the best known wine growers in Napa. His wine is world famous. I had a chance to go to the Mondavi winery and it's something special.


Napa Valley even has it's own website: http://www.napavalley.com/.

My favorite wines are the Cabinet Savingion's from this area. I much prefer reds. I also enjoy a good pinot and merlot. If you're ever up in the San Franscisco area, Napa and Sonoma counties are you're less than 30 minutes away from some of the best wineries in the US.

Info from this article came from Wikipedia.

2 comments:

  1. I love Napa. I was there this summer, toured several vineyards and now appreciate good wines even more than I did before. It's a lovely place--one of those places I'd be worth waiting tables in if I could live there.

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  2. Steph, someday I'm going to visit California! One of the few states I haven't yet.

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