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The
road less traveled in California’s
Wine Country
By
Lauren Nelson
Online Forty-Niner
Staff writer
For years, Californians have tried to understand
the rivalry separating northern and southern
California. Whether the winner is Southern
California with it’s plush beaches
and beautiful people, or Northern California
for its tree hugging hippies and beautiful
coastlines, both regions share one often
forgotten gem: the wine country that extends
from Ventura County to Napa Valley.
Santa Barbara and Napa are known for their
vineyards, bed and breakfasts, and wine
tasting, but few people know about the hundreds
of small vineyards and wineries in between
that many believe are turning the rest of
California into one huge vineyard, much
like Napa.
Hollywood recently profited from the California
wine country with the award-winning film,
“Sideways,” which took two bachelors
on a road trip to discover the state’s
vast wine land. Though the men failed to
find relaxation in lying to the locals and
dodging responsibility, it is not the average
person’s story of a visit to wine
country.
Driving up the coast along Highway 101,
most of California may look like a boring
place. However, the locals might say otherwise.
They fear driving into Los Angeles with
bustling freeways, foliage-free property
and structures that look like a Legos commercial.
Wine country provides the perfect solitary
place. It is perfect for ridding the leftover
stress of finals, financial aid worries
and the pang of rush and business, especially
since most cell phones won’t get reception.
Once past Santa Barbara, the towns of Solvang,
Los Olivos, Buellton, Pismo Beach, Paso
Robles, Soledad, Salinas and Monterey provide
the college road tripper or vacationing
family with less than conventional stops.
The wine country provides many dust- and
mosquito-packed opportunities to pull off
of the freeway for a chance to literally
watch life drive by. Speeding past the other
cars, with only the radio blaring static
between a collaboration of stations, trying
to make it to the ultimate wine tasting
experience in Napa, the brown tree-scattered
hills, rows of grapevines and truck trails
seem simple and meaningless from afar, yet
mysterious as they dare you to discover
them up close.
It seems a romantic, almost movie-like idea
to wander down the aisles of grape bushes
at sunset without a care to be had. However,
a real honesty and appreciation is gained
after realizing the easy tread is not as
refined. While patches of vineyards near
popular wineries are kept up for public
view, most vineyards are not, leaving it
up to the people to use their imaginations
and willingness to endure mud and scratches.
An assortment of grasses and weeds are sometimes
waist high, and being tasted by mosquitoes
at sunset is part of the experience. The
grapes are not always sweet and fresh; sometimes
they are shriveled or non-existent.
However, once you’ve reached a top
of a hill, come to an edge of a cliff, or
climbed the infamous oak tree at the end
of a row, it’s impossible not to find
beauty in the endless land that has yet
to be industrialized. The humming of flying
bugs, crickets’ purrs and coyotes’
howls become less and less annoying and
frightful as the noise of the freeway gets
farther and farther away.
Several out-of-the ordinary stops to picnic
in an open vineyard or to take photographs
of moss-covered trees make the trip to the
ultimate wine country, Napa, an even more
eye opening road trip. The later days of
wine tasting at Francis Ford Coppola’s
winery, Baringer, or Robert Mundabi wineries
can be all the more appreciated once you
immerse yourself in the beauty and open
land where the wine starts.
Fact
• Napa has only been a wine country
for maybe the last 100 years. It’s
a hot celebrity getaway.
Food • Wines and
gourmet galore
Activity • Wine tasting,
exploring
Hot Spot • Sneaking
into the pool of Meadow Wood Resort, where
anyone who is anyone has a membership.
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