{"id":1665,"date":"2020-10-30T18:02:44","date_gmt":"2020-10-30T18:02:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=1665"},"modified":"2020-10-30T18:50:30","modified_gmt":"2020-10-30T18:50:30","slug":"contrasts-in-places-to-visit-california-and-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=1665","title":{"rendered":"Contrasts in Places to Visit: California and Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Places to Visit feature in Power Tasting<\/em> is about the other things to do when you\u2019re making a trip to somewhere in Wine Country.\u00a0 Since most of our wine tasting experience (and maybe that of our readers) is in California and in Europe, we thought we\u2019d compare the two in terms of non-wine visiting.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of Patch.com.<\/em><\/p>\n

Woody Guthrie sang that \u201cCalifornia is a Garden of Eden, a Paradise to live in and see\u201d.\u00a0 He went on to say less positive things, but let\u2019s leave it there because it\u2019s true.\u00a0 The Golden State has it all: sandy beaches, rocky coastline, desert, mountains, farmland and cities.\u00a0 It is also unquestionably the source of the finest wines made in the United States, which makes it the premier American destination for wine tasting.\u00a0 And it has lovely places to visit that aren\u2019t about wine.\u00a0 There are great cities, ski resorts, and charming towns that speak to American history.\u00a0 We love it and travel there often.\u00a0 But for places to visit, it\u2019s not Europe.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Reims Cathedral in Champagne.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Now, as noted elsewhere<\/a> in this issue, Europe is a big place with a lot of locations where wine is made.\u00a0 Perhaps somewhere in Europe there is an area where they make wine but there is nothing else of interest.\u00a0 Perhaps, but we doubt it.\u00a0 In our experience, everywhere wine is made, there is a cathedral or a church worth visiting somewhere nearby.\u00a0 There is a caf\u00e9 with delicious coffee and pastries.\u00a0 There is a market somewhere in the area almost every day.\u00a0 And there are a few millennia of history.<\/p>\n

Somewhere around the vineyards \u2013 sometimes in the vineyards themselves \u2013 a battle was fought.\u00a0 Particularly in France, there is a monument to the glorious fallen heroes of each village.\u00a0 We have always found it moving to read the names and visit the local cemetery to see those same names echoed over decades and centuries.\u00a0 The same names are now also over the butcher shop and the bakery.\u00a0 And on the labels of the wines made there.<\/p>\n

In many of the places where wine is made there are castles to see from the road and to visit.\u00a0 In many cases, the descendants of the nobles who built the castles still live there while others now are used as bed-and-breakfasts.\u00a0 Or both.\u00a0 We once had the experience in the Dordogne of sleeping in an 11th<\/sup> century castle and having breakfast served to us by the Count himself!<\/p>\n

The overall point of this comparison is that wine tasting in California is primarily about wine. Almost anywhere you can taste wine in Europe you can experience something else that is wonderful.\u00a0 Even in places where everyone you see is in the wine business, one way or another, they have lives and histories that transcend wine.\u00a0 The place is in their stones and in their bones.\u00a0 So if you\u2019re fortunate enough to go wine tasting in Europe, make sure to immerse yourself in the places and people and try to share their lives as much as is possible for a visitor.\u00a0 If for no other reason, it will give you a special appreciation for their wines that you can\u2019t get any other way.<\/p>\n

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The Places to Visit feature in Power Tasting is about the other things to do when you\u2019re making a trip to somewhere in Wine Country.\u00a0 Since most of our wine tasting experience (and maybe that of our readers) is in California and in Europe, we thought we\u2019d compare the two in terms of non-wine visiting. … Continue reading Contrasts in Places to Visit: California and Europe<\/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":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1665"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1665"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1665\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1685,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1665\/revisions\/1685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}