The beauty of northern California´s wine country awaits...
San Francisco Wine Country Tours specializes in providing our customers with unique wine country experiences. Our carefully designed daily tours include boutique wineries that are “off the beaten path” and not regularly visited by tourists, as well as some of the best known wine makers in the world, including Mondavi, Kendall, Sutter Home, Sterling, Korbel, Glen Ellen, Gallo, Kendall-Jackson, and others.*
We also offer individualized chartered tours that can provide you with a wine country expert tour guide, transportation, and even special “behind-the-scenes” access to some wineries. Contact us online for pricing and availability. You can also call and speak to one of our San Francisco-based customer service representatives at (866) 231-3752.
Visit our online reservations form and start your San Francisco Wine Country adventure today! We look forward to sharing our knowledge and love of the Napa and Sonoma Valleys with you.
* Subject to seasonal availability.
Tour the Wine Country
- Wine Country Lovers Tour
The Wine Country Lover’s Tour will take you deep into California’s Wine country. You will go to both Sonoma and Napa valleys with visits of four to six spectacular boutique wineries that are less frequented by tourists. This trip will provide the opportunity to sample wines from various regions such as Kenwood, Glen Ellen, Rutherford, St. Helen and Yountville. This is perfect tour for true wine connoisseurs and those that want to discover incredible California wines.
- Wine Country Bus Tour
Wine Country One-Day Tours by Bus. On our Wine Country tour you will explore Napa and Sonoma, which lie about 1½ hours north of San Francisco. The Wine Country tour starts at 9:00 AM and after crossing the Bridge we head toward the Sonoma Valley Wine Country where we spend the morning visiting wineries specializing in Pinot Noir & Chardonnay wines. At noon you can have lunch at the Sonoma plaza, try delicious cheese at Sonoma cheese factory and explore the old historical town. In the afternoon we drive to the Napa Valley wine country where you have the chance to tour a winery & taste more wine.
- Wine Country & Redwoods Van Tour
The California Wine Country is less than an hour’s drive away from San Francisco and it is one of the most beautiful and popular sightseeing opportunities when visiting San Francisco. On our tour you will enjoy the morning exploring the spectacular Redwood Sequoia trees at Muir Woods, then relax in the afternoon while your tour guide introduces you to the California Wine Country. All our wine tasting is complimentary and you will even have a chance to try 5-10 delicious wines at each winery! This tour is ideal for both the first time wine taster and those with a prized wine cellar full of fine wines.
Wine Country Tours Adventure Blog
Read all about our latest adventures on our blog, written by our expert wine country tour guides.
Dessert Wines Will Be Great This Year
The early rains have been followed with spectacular warm summer-like weather, so the late harvests will be sweet enough to make some great dessert wines again this year.
A Just Right Harvest
Nature has done a superb job of not screwing it up this year, and the harvest is humming right along.
The Vineyards are Buzzing with Activity!
The vineyards are buzzing with activity as the early grapes are being picked, and every day sees truckloads of grapes moving from This Vineyard to That Crushpad at the Other Winery!
Wine Country History and Information
1769-1834: The California Mission Period
The California Wine Country is centered around the picturesque and historic town of Sonoma. In 1823, the site where the heart of the town now stands was selected for the 21st and final California Mission. The chain of missions of Alta California had begun as a project of Franciscan Father Junipero Serra, under the auspices of the Spanish crown in 1769. The idea was to build a chain of missions and presidios starting in San Diego and extending north up the coast of California. The Franciscans would convert and baptize Native Americans at their mission churches then set them to work on the vast mission plantations. The missions created a foothold in the new untamed land, which helped to promote exploration, settlement and colonization, thus legitimizing Spain’s tenuous hold on the attractive territory.
1834-1845: The Secularization of Sonoma
By 1834 Altimira’s mission and vineyards were thriving, but the political winds of change spelled doom for the old mission system. The Mexican government decided to secularize the missions and sent a military detachment under the command of a young Mariano Vallejo to Sonoma to take control of the Mission properties and establish a town. Vallejo built barracks, surveyed a town square and started doling out land grants to settlers. He also took some of the mission’s vines and planted them on his own property. Vallejo would become one of the California wine country’s first private winemakers. Several of Vallejo’s early land grants were to American settlers.
1850-1860: General Vallejo & Count Haraszthy
The California Wine Country and California wine making of the immediate post-gold-rush period would probably have remained an informal affair had it not been for the efforts of a flamboyant Hungarian immigrant named “Count” Agoston Haraszthy. Haraszthy - considered the “Father of the California Wine Industry,” became friends with General Vallejo (Haraszthy’s two sons would marry two of Vallejo’s daughters in a grand double wedding) and the two even had a good-natured rivalry over who could produce the best wines. It was Haraszthy who started the first commercial California winery, Buena Vista, which is still in operation today near the town of Sonoma.
Additional Articles
- 1920 – 1933: Prohibition and the California Wine Country
- 1930 - 1960: California Wine Country’s Recovery from Prohibition
- 1976 – Present: The Paris Tasting and Beyond
- Autumn in the Northern California Wine Country
- Fermentation of Grapes into Wine
- Grape Crushing and De-stemming
- Grape Growing in the Napa and Sonoma Valleys
- Springtime in Northern California’s Wine Country
- Summer in Northern California’s Wine Country
- The Aging Process
- The Bottling of California Wines
- Winter in Northern California’s Wine Country
Current Napa Valley Weather
- Temp: 73°F
- Clouds: clear skies