{"id":243,"date":"2016-04-30T20:37:55","date_gmt":"2016-04-30T20:37:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=243"},"modified":"2016-04-30T20:42:44","modified_gmt":"2016-04-30T20:42:44","slug":"chalk-hill-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=243","title":{"rendered":"Chalk Hill Road"},"content":{"rendered":"

The reason to go wine tasting is to taste wine.\u00a0 Well, yeah, but it\u2019s not the only reason.\u00a0 For one thing, there\u2019s the scenery.\u00a0 We have found that virtually any place where grapes are grown for wine is beautiful, with rows of vines arrayed across a field or a hillside.\u00a0 For us city-dwellers, the only way we\u2019re going to see these sights is to drive there.\u00a0 And not all roads are created equal.<\/p>\n

Some are just ways to get from one grape-growing region to another.\u00a0 Highway 101, which runs through Sonoma County, is one of these.\u00a0 So is the Long island Expressway, which takes you to the North Fork vineyards.\u00a0 Others are the main roads that have numerous wineries on either side.\u00a0 The sight of one famous establishment after the other can be quite thrilling, like a wine shop with buildings instead of shelves.\u00a0 Napa Valley\u2019s Route 29 is such a road as is the Route du Vin in Burgundy\u2019s Cote d\u2019Or.\u00a0 If you are a fan of going wine tasting, as we are, you will definitely take these roads one day.<\/p>\n

And then there are the roads that are, in themselves, destinations.\u00a0 They\u2019re just gorgeous, aesthetic experiences when you\u2019re there.\u00a0 It\u2019s good to know that there are wineries and vineyards nearby but these roads are worth driving on just for the experience of seeing them.\u00a0\u00a0 One that we particularly like is Chalk Hill Road in Sonoma.\u00a0 Assuming you are coming from the aforementioned Route 101, take the Old Redwood Highway exit on the east side and go a short distance to Pleasant Avenue.\u00a0 Shortly thereafter, turn left on Chalk Hill Road.<\/p>\n

The road goes from Route 101 to Route 128, which will take you either to Knights Valley to the south or Alexander Valley to the north.\u00a0 There are wineries along the way to visit, but not many.\u00a0 They include some of Sonoma\u2019s finest, including the eponymous Chalk Hill, Verit\u00e9, and Lancaster.\u00a0 The drive will take you through forests, fields and hills, with virtually no houses or even wineries that you can see from the road.\u00a0 There are horses in some of those fields who like to take a run every now and again.\u00a0 It being California, the hills are usually a light tan, with clumps of trees and greenery to color the view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Pictures don\u2019t do Chalk Hill Road any justice.\u00a0 You need to see the dappling of shadow and sunlight as you drive along, feel the peacefulness of a country road with hardly any other drivers on it, hear the sound of nothing more than your car\u2026which almost but not quite spoils it.<\/p>\n

We recommend that you make your way there on a visit to Sonoma.\u00a0 You won\u2019t be disappointed by the wines you try (although you may be horrified by the tasting fees) and you will feel that you\u2019ve gotten more than wine from Wine Country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The reason to go wine tasting is to taste wine.\u00a0 Well, yeah, but it\u2019s not the only reason.\u00a0 For one thing, there\u2019s the scenery.\u00a0 We have found that virtually any place where grapes are grown for wine is beautiful, with rows of vines arrayed across a field or a hillside.\u00a0 For us city-dwellers, the only … Continue reading Chalk Hill Road<\/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":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243"}],"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=243"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":246,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243\/revisions\/246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}