{"id":778,"date":"2017-10-30T22:05:48","date_gmt":"2017-10-30T22:05:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=778"},"modified":"2017-11-01T19:48:51","modified_gmt":"2017-11-01T19:48:51","slug":"traveling-around-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=778","title":{"rendered":"Traveling Around California"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here\u2019s a really bad idea: drive all over California visiting one wine tasting region after the other.\u00a0 \u00a0It could be tiring and after a while, you can\u2019t remember what you tasted and where.\u00a0 We did it and the reason we did it wasn\u2019t wine tasting; Steve had a client that wanted him to visit all of its offices around the state and we just took advantage of being there to taste each region\u2019s wines.\u00a0 We\u2019re not going to present a travelogue here, but we will offer tips on how to take the most advantage of your travels in California if this ever happens to you.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Plan your route before you go.<\/strong>\u00a0 California is famous for its road system, so take advantage of it.\u00a0 Figure out how you want to go, with help from tools like Google Maps.\u00a0 (What did we do before we had it, anyway?)\u00a0 But beware of Google Maps navigation when you\u2019re driving.\u00a0 California is also famous for its traffic jams, so it may take you longer than you thought (always add an hour, says Lucie) and you may be taken on an obscure route just to avoid a five-minute tie-up.\u00a0 You will probably be on some unfamiliar highways to begin with; taking a detour into the back roads of farming regions is a great way to get really, really lost.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Find out about the wineries in the areas you\u2019ll be going to.<\/strong>\u00a0 There are world famous wine growing regions in California.\u00a0 And then there are some that aren\u2019t that good and may not have the terroir to achieve much in the future, either.\u00a0 On the other hand, there may be some little gems hidden away in wine growing regions you\u2019ve never heard of.\u00a0 But how to find them?\u00a0 Just looking up the region on the Web will usually get you a list of wineries that are members of the local vinicultural association, but that will tell you that they\u2019re all wonderful, even if they aren\u2019t.\u00a0 Look up reviews; the San Jose <em>Mercury<\/em>, the Los Angeles <em>Times<\/em> and the San Francisco <em>Chronicle<\/em> usually offer pretty good guidance.\u00a0 The reviews on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wine-searcher.com\">www.wine-searcher.com<\/a> are also good sources of information, although you do need to go through wineries one at a time.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/lake_county.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-779 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/lake_county-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"575\" height=\"431\" srcset=\"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/lake_county-300x225.jpg 300w, http:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/lake_county-768x576.jpg 768w, http:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/lake_county-1024x768.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/lake_county.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 575px) 100vw, 575px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Lake County in springtime.\u00a0 Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.<\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Keep your expectations in check.<\/strong>\u00a0 Overall, most of the wineries in most of the unknown regions you might find along your way might not make very good wine. \u00a0Of course, tastes vary, and you could well find something that appeals to you at an obscure winery.\u00a0 Just \u201cappeals to you\u201d and not \u201cbowls you over\u201d may be the best you\u2019re going to get, so don\u2019t be disappointed.\u00a0 Let\u2019s face it, <a href=\"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=716\">Santa Clara<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=301\">Temecula<\/a> aren\u2019t Napa and Sonoma.\u00a0 It might be more of a downer if a certain wine growing region were a destination, but if they\u2019re something to do because you\u2019re in the area, enjoy what you can and chalk the rest up to experience. It always feel good anyway to be in a Wine Country.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Find out where to eat.<\/strong>\u00a0 A general rule is that where you can taste wine, you can find great restaurants.\u00a0 But general rules, like all others, are made to be broken. Do not expect to see restaurants amongst the wineries; there are usually none at all.\u00a0 \u00a0There are some regions where it\u2019s tough to find a restaurant or a deli to get a decent sandwich, much less a fine meal.\u00a0 So when you get off the freeway, either use the app &#8220;PCS Places&#8221; and search for restaurants around, or ask at the first gas station or drug store you see where you can get something to eat, something you must do if you\u2019re going to take on a bit of alcohol. \u00a0(While you\u2019re there, buy a bag of pretzels or chips, it might be a life saver!) You\u2019ll be glad you asked and saved yourself miles of driving. Here\u2019s a tip: there are a lot of people of Mexican descent in California and a lot of Mexican restaurants all over the state.\u00a0 Even in the middle of nowhere, you often can find some good Mexican food, like we did in Central Valley.\u00a0 We bought lunch from a Mexican food truck and it was delicious.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here\u2019s a really bad idea: drive all over California visiting one wine tasting region after the other.\u00a0 \u00a0It could be tiring and after a while, you can\u2019t remember what you tasted and where.\u00a0 We did it and the reason we did it wasn\u2019t wine tasting; Steve had a client that wanted him to visit all &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=778\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Traveling Around California<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=778"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":794,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778\/revisions\/794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}