Wine Tour; Mendocino, CA

This will more than likely be of no use to you-- but I am not understanding how you could go to some poofy wine tasting country and be a connosieur of underground hip-hop and penis jokes. How do make the leap from interesting(underground hip hop) to boring and stereo-yuppoid-typical terminal-ennui-inducing wine tasting. In California, where there is no there there, no less.

Alas, I don't know the Mendocino wineries, just some of the Napa/Sonoma ones. I'll check the list on google, in case I've heard of some of them.

Anyway, have a great time...

Completely useless. Next, please.

I haven't been up to Mendocino either, but late October should be
pretty cold, damp and foggy up there. Cozy times for you and the love interest, I am certain.

Well, you will have a car, so I suggest: be adventurous and explore
the surroundings on your own. I have heard nothing but disappointing
reviews from these touristy wine tours, and it ain't cheap either, Mister!

So my suggestion would be: drive by the wineries, buy several bottles
of wine there, get some baguette, good cheese and go back to your cozy
B & B and start tasting....

I take it back, I forgot Hopland is in Mendocino County. I like Hopland, have stopped there many times. Have driven by the wineries on the Hopland Trail a zillion times. Only one I've stopped at was Fetzer, which I enjoy and have since gone back to, but wouldn't call it a bloated American tourist experience.

I looked at the list on some website naming wineries on the Mendocino Trail and they all looked like fun. As I like sparkling wine somewhat less than non sparkling, personally I might skip the Scharffenberger, but that might be the most polished place. (Don't trust me, I didn't look up the websites of those wineries.)

Trying to remember if that solar design place is in Hopland or Willits. Not that that is what you want to do, but as long as I'm thinking about it, I'll look it up. In a way, it's another kind of very California experience. You can alway say to each other, oh, that's the solar design place as you drive on by.

Also, personally, I might go look at the winery in the old Hopland High School. They've some bocce courts..

So, it seems to me that what you pick will be particular to you two and what you like.

Also, you might not like the wine or the ambiance at one or the other places, and want to just spit it in the jar and move on.

dude... when she sees that chevy cobalt she'll get so hot and wet there'll be no time for wine tastings....

Yep, the Solar Living Institute is in Hopland.
http://www.solarliving.org/display.asp?catid=50&pageid=37

I never went through the whole thing, just went a bit through the garden area and the shop for a short time.


I guess I have two things to warn you about. One is the Bluebird Cafe, which is on 101 in Hopland. It's nifty. I like it and the people, but finally decided I hated the food. Now, I still went there after deciding I hated the food, because of the people and the place. But I started trading off by also sometimes going to the sorta yuppie dining establishment across the street and down a bit, on the corner. Nice salad + glass of wine.

And the other is that I've never been to Fort Bragg on the coast, well, neither have I been to Mendocino, but I've heard several times about a turnoff road to Bragg from 101 which is a never ending twist ride. I suspect you aren't going to Mendicino by that route, but I mention it just in case.

Does anyone remember the AbFab episode where Edi and Patsy
went wine tasting?

Priceless

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6r_JnGUexsw

I'm not sure about the weather, CJane, not having lived in or been to Mendocino. But up around Eureka-Arcata (E/Arc airport was built, I heard, as a test airport for fog) October and early November were among the best days re clarity. And then again sometimes not. Or perhaps I already misremember.

I never minded the fog going through the redwoods in Humboldt though. Not the scary kind you can get in the central valley with all the car crashes. I think they call that Tule fog. Up north it was, to me, more lilting. I've done a bunch of paintings re that from my photos, in that I find all that dreamy beautiful.

Hilarious, er, if they don't drive. Thus the spittoons.

We didn't, for years, have many official vacations as such. Sometimes we just took five days and drove north from Los Angeles. That would often land us in the Santa Barbara/Santa Inez wine area, or around Paso Robles, another thicket of vineyards. We did get used to tasting and spitting, and once in a while drinking a little bit. That turned out to be useful, because we saw more places and it wasn't always the first or second we liked best. I like little wineries, with individual charms, such as the ones in the Mendocino list seem to be.

I might make a bet that the ones along 101 are less idiosyncratic than the ones listed on the Mendocino trail. But that's just a guess.

We did that too, and I like the area around Santa Barbara/ Santa Inez
very much. It's so beautiful and so typical Californian, in my book.

Gargamel, heads-up for a pm

Sort of shared memories, of whatever years. The land, the light, contentment.