Tour the Wine Country
Wine Country Blog
- Dessert Wines Will Be Great This Year
- A Just Right Harvest
- The Vineyards are Buzzing with Activity!
- Labor Day in San Francisco Wine Country
Current Napa Valley Weather
- Temp: 66°F
- Clouds: clear skies
Enjoyed the stop in Sonoma on the Muir Woods & Wine Country tour but it was too short. LOVED Muir Woods and the Golden Gate Bridge stop. Of course we had a perfect day with
gorgeous weather that really made photo’s worth taking.
Wine Country & Redwoods Van Tour
Wine Country History and Information
The Wine Making Process
Grape Growing in the Napa and Sonoma Valleys
Grapevines weather season after season, giving us the gift of their sweet fruit each autumn. Once planted, brand new vines will take between 3 and 5 years to yield fruit capable of making decent wine. These same vines can remain productive for well over 100 years. The older the vines get, the lower the yield, but the fruit they produce typically has more concentrated flavors and is rich in complexity and character.
Grape Crushing and De-stemming
Once picked by vineyard workers and collected into bins, grape clusters are transferred to the De-stemmer/Crusher. This machine will separate and discard the stems (which contain bitter and unwanted flavors) and then lightly crush the grapes into a pulpy mass of juice, skins and seeds called “must.”
Fermentation of Grapes into Wine
Fermentation is the process whereby yeast converts natural sugars in the wine grapes into alcohol. In the traditional French style of wine making, naturally occurring yeast on the wine grape skins are used in fermentation. In the California Wine Country, winemakers typically add certain types of cultured yeast, which bring control and consistency to the fermentation process.
The Aging Process
The oak barrel is extremely important in the aging process because it imparts certain flavors and characteristics to the wine. Some white wines, notably Chardonnay, and most red wines are aged in oak barrels for approximately 6 to 18 months depending on type of grape, style of wine, and preference of the winemaker.
The Bottling of California Wines
There are several different types (shapes) of bottles that tend to correspond with wine style. The two most common are Bordeaux for red wines – a straight slender bottle with high shoulders and a deep “punt� – and Burgundy for white wines and red wines – shorter and more squat with a gentle taper to the neck. The “punt� is the indentation at the bottom of a bottle that makes it easier to turn on the rack in the cellar.
San Francisco Wine Country Information
Springtime in Northern California’s Wine Country
Spring temperatures are typically mild and the rolling hills of the California Wine Country still have their lush green winter colors, making it a beautiful time to visit and take a Napa and Sonoma Valley winery tour.
Summer in Northern California’s Wine Country
The young, green grape clusters of spring will hang and ripen through the summer months. Early in the summer, all wine grapes are green. It is not until July that red wine grapes begin to take on their red-burgundy to purple-blue hues and white wine grapes go from bright apple green to pearly translucent.
Autumn in the Northern California Wine Country
Depending on the weather, grape type, wine style and region, harvest can begin as early as mid-August. At the beginning of harvest time, winemakers will regularly walk the vines, randomly checking grapes for ripeness. Deciding when to pick can be one of the most nerve-racking decisions of the year.
Winter in Northern California’s Wine Country
Winter is a period of little activity in the vineyards of the California wine country, making it ideal for more in-depth, intimate California wine tasting tours. The Napa and Sonoma Valleys experience cooler temperatures and heavy rains during the winter months.
San Francisco Wine Country History
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.
1920 – 1933: Prohibition and the California Wine Country
After the setbacks of the phylloxera outbreak, the Napa Valley and Sonoma Wine Country were quick to rebound. By the turn of the century, the California wine country was going strong and the quality of Californian wine was steadily improving. There were between 600 – 700 wineries statewide and California vineyard acreage was on the rise. Then in 1920, true disaster struck when the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was passed prohibiting the manufacture, sale, and distribution of alcohol.
1930 - 1960: California Wine Country’s Recovery from Prohibition
Post-prohibition recovery was long and slow in the California wine country. California wineries that opened shortly after its end in 1933 focused mainly on bulk rather than fine California wine production. California developed a reputation as a jug and table wine producing region. Long gone were the days when the California wine country sought to compete with the best wines of Europe.
1976 – Present: The Paris Tasting and Beyond
By the early 1970s California’s reputation for making fine wine had improved somewhat, but only serious wine enthusiasts were taking notice. In 1976, a friendly wine tasting competition was arraigned in France called “The Paris Tasting.� The intent was to compare French wines with some of their upstart California wine rivals. By all accounts, the French fully expected to dominate the competition and re-assert their dominance in wine making. There seemed to be a wide spread belief amongst the French wineries that there could be only one outcome to such a head to head competition. The taste test would be blind and presided over by a panel of expert French wine judges.