On February 24, 2008 we went on an interesting excursion out of San Francisco: an ecologically friendly bio-diesel powered van from Incredible Adventures whisked us off to the outlying areas north of San Francisco. After our first stop at Muir Woods to admire the giant redwoods we embarked on our tour to wine country. Through the rain we drove north into the Sonoma Valley, one of the two world-famous wine-making areas north of San Francisco. The other, even more famous wine-making area, is the adjacent Napa Valley. The Sonoma Valley is actually the birthplace of the Californian wine industry and encompasses 13000 acres of parkland. Before lunch we stopped at two wineries, Roche and Homewood Wineries, where we got to taste a whole variety of red and white wines and even some local olives and olive oils. For lunch we stopped off on the main square of Sonoma where my friend and I grabbed a tasty lunch at the Basque Café. After lunch we headed into the Castle Winery just off Sonoma’s main square that surprised us with a sweet sherry and a delicious sherry chocolate sauce. Our last stop on this excursion were the Gloria Ferrer Caves and Vineyards which produce world-class award-winning sparkling wines as well as Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. The Ferrer family’s involvement with sparkling wine goes back several centuries in Catalonia, Spain, and their most famous product is Freixenet, a world famous sparkling wine made according to the méthode champenoise. Properly educated about …

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