We are planning a trip though CA wine country - we have eight days and wondered if someone could recommend a specific area, vineyards/tastings or an itinerary in general. We are wine drinkers, but only starting to educate our palates!! Thanks for your help.

Wow eight days in the wine country. You'll sure be able to do quite a bit. You don't say what time of year you'll be coming. Make sure you spend time in both the Napa and Sonoma areas. Depending on the time of year yo might want to schedule the weekdays in Napa and the weekend in the Sonoma Valley. There's lots to see in both. Are you interested in activities other than tasting because there are spas and mineral springs in these areas too?

Niksa, if you've not searched Fodors yet, I suggest you do so. There have been many, many identical questions ... take a look at the answers and I believe you'll find a lot to aid you. Ciao

The ladies at the tourist center in Sonoma recommended we visit the Benzingers Winery..still family owned and we did.. What we missed was a visit to I think Cohen's..not for their wine but the newest and hippest product from wine country...olive oil.. in the little town whose name Ihave forgotten there is a shop that grinds the olives and they have oil tastings..next door in the winery I bought two bottles of port...absolutely wonderful..

If you've got 8 days you can visit both Napa and Sonoma valleys. There's a Wine Country Access book that you might want to buy as long as you'll be there for that long. Happy tasting.

I would recommend the Yountville area for b&b's. Try Maison Fleurie. Two wineries I thought unusual & fun (not to mention good wine)!- Niebaum Coppola- neat movie memorabilia and great overlooking views, and Schramsberg champagne house- only winery to riddle bottles by hand. Interesting, uncrowded tour. Enjoy.

Laurie, I've always wanted to stay at Maison Fleurie. Have you stayed there? What can you tell me?

Yes, we stayed there for a week on our honeymoon. It was amazing. We had the carriage house which was very private. Breakfasts were wonderful, every afternoon there are cocktails and appetizers and each night new gourmet cookies tempt you from the cookie jar! Beautiful grounds. The place is filled with teddy bears and one came home with us. The concierge was excellent in booking our dinner and balloon ride reservations. Feel free to email me, I have all my wine country trip info saved in a scrapbook, I'd be happy to pull up specifics for you!

Thanks so much Laurie. I appreciate your response. i'm keeping your email handy for our next weekend away from the darlings!

Thanks for your suggestions - I have tried doing a search as one person suggested, but for some reason the "search" on this website has not been functional on my PC for a few weeks now, though it works fine on others. We will be going late September..thanks again!

You're going to the wine country in late Sept? I hope you have reservations. That is the time of year known as the crush. It's VERY busy there then and to top it off there is a golf tournament there then. Start getting your plans together!

Niksa:
Contact The Visitors and Convention folks for Sonoma County and for Napa County. You will get loads of "up-to-now" information and other goodies.
Next put your search engine to work on wineries and B&B's in the above areas.

We are avid wine collectors and with the great amount of time that you have you can do a lot of "damage".(Thats a good thing.)

Enjoy Your Trip and, as stated above, you need to have your reservations for dinners and lodgings like yesterday.
Sept. is also a HUGE month for very LARGE and expensive weddings where folks "buy the town" so to speak. We married in Sonoma in Sept. nearly a decade ago and tied up 3 great wineries(closed them)for private tastings and other "treats" and we "shut down" 1 excellent restaurant for our luncheon(closed it as well).

Enjoy Your Travels
Oaktown