{"id":2240,"date":"2022-11-30T15:24:04","date_gmt":"2022-11-30T15:24:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=2240"},"modified":"2022-11-30T21:18:13","modified_gmt":"2022-11-30T21:18:13","slug":"parking-picnics-and-bathrooms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=2240","title":{"rendered":"Parking, Picnics and Restrooms"},"content":{"rendered":"

In our travels, we have often experienced the excitement of discovering a new winery or a new wine that we had never heard of.\u00a0 In general, we enjoy the beauty of the architecture of many wineries and the sight of endless vineyards never fails to thrill us.\u00a0 Sadly, these wonders can be undermined when a winery doesn\u2019t take care of some basic amenities.<\/p>\n

The first of these is parking facilities.\u00a0 If we are visiting in the autumn and winter months, we don\u2019t care as much if the only parking spots available are in the bright sun.\u00a0 But if we\u2019re in Wine Country in July or August, we really appreciate a spot that\u2019s shaded from the sun by a wall or some trees.<\/p>\n

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For one thing, we are likely to have some bottles we have previously bought sitting in the car.\u00a0 We don\u2019t want them to be cooked.\u00a0 Here are a few tips.\u00a0 Pick up a simple Styrofoam cooler at a drug store or grocery.\u00a0 If you happen to have a mini fridge in your hotel room, buy a few ice packs and put them in the cooler.\u00a0 You can also buy a Styrofoam\u00a0shipping\u00a0box from the first winery you visit and put your new bottles in it.\u00a0 Keep it inside the car, not the trunk.\u00a0 Add bottles as you buy them.\u00a0 At the end of the day when you get back to your hotel, bring the bottles with you, leaving the Styrofoam box in the trunk for the next day.\u00a0 (Of course, if you\u2019re tasting near your home, just use the cooler you take on picnics or camping.)<\/p>\n

If you don\u2019t have a cooler, put any bottles you buy on the floor in front of the rear seats or under the front ones.\u00a0 This isn\u2019t a perfect solution, but it\u2019s better than leaving your newly bought wine in the full sunshine.\u00a0 This is good practice even in the cooler months, when wine can still heat up in a closed car in the sun.<\/p>\n

We love picnics and often dine al fresco<\/em> back home.\u00a0 A picnic lunch near the vines, with a newly bought bottle of a cool and refreshing Sauvignon Blanc is one of the best ways to maximize the pleasure of a day in Wine Country.\u00a0 But some proprietors don\u2019t like the mess and the critters that show up to share a meal with their visitors.\u00a0 In some jurisdictions, the local elders limit or deny licenses for picnic grounds.<\/p>\n

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Picnicking at Frank Family Vineyards.<\/em><\/p>\n

For example, only those wineries that predated Napa County\u2019s restrictions are allowed to have facilities for picnics.\u00a0 Perhaps the best known is V. Satui, in St. Helena, which has a fine delicatessen as well as wines that they produce.\u00a0 Others with picnic grounds that we have enjoyed in Napa Valley are Rutherford Hill and Frank Family<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The wineries in Sonoma County are not so restricted.\u00a0 We particularly recommend Dry Creek<\/a>, Preston<\/a> and Chateau St. Jean.\u00a0 In Europe, picnicking isn\u2019t frequently encountered at the ch\u00e2teaux and domaines.\u00a0\u00a0 But nobody cares if you bring a blanket and make yourself at home by the side of a vineyard or in a churchyard.<\/p>\n

Finally, we expect any public location, especially one that serves liquids as a business, to have clean, well-lit restrooms.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0We don\u2019t insist on showplaces right out of Architectural Digest<\/em>, but there\u2019s no excuse for not keeping them clean and tidy.\u00a0 Nothing can spoil a tasting visit like a dirty john.\u00a0 We won\u2019t name names, but they know who they are.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In our travels, we have often experienced the excitement of discovering a new winery or a new wine that we had never heard of.\u00a0 In general, we enjoy the beauty of the architecture of many wineries and the sight of endless vineyards never fails to thrill us.\u00a0 Sadly, these wonders can be undermined when a … Continue reading Parking, Picnics and Restrooms<\/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":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2240"}],"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=2240"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2240\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2246,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2240\/revisions\/2246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}