Wine Country north of San Francisco

[klr650goldwing]

Can anyone recommend some nice wineries out in the country north of San Francisco? We don't know that area at all. On this trip we'll see the giant General Sherman Sequoia tree, Yosemite NP, San Francisco and north of there some. Not sure how far we'll go north of that area yet. DW wants to see the wine country and take a tour or two.

[Yosemite_Sam1]

Get into a nice campground in Sebastopol, it's the nicest city out there, and sign up on a 4 to 5 star wine tasting tour.

Then when sober, take your own road trip to the area. It's beautiful with charming downtown in their cities.

Yup, can be crowded on weekends.

[dedmiston]

It's not all doom & gloom like older_fossil implies. And yes, I prefer the Paso Robles wineries, but that's just because I went to university there and it's sentimental. I have tons of great childhood memories from the Napa Valley as a kid too when my broke parents would drag us around wine tasting. It used to be free back then, so it was a great way to learn what you like. It was free too when my then-girlfriend-now-wife would go tasting in Paso Robles when we were students, which is how we learned what we liked.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with the Napa & Sonoma valleys, and the crowds shouldn't be that big of a deal. The cost for tasting can be high some places, but not prohibitive and you're on vacation so live a little.

[older_fossil]

Just be prepared for crowds and high prices. If it were us, for wine we'd rather spend time in the Paso Robles area in mid state or further south in the Santa Ynez Valley.

Art