Vacationing is meant to be relaxing, but not boring. Wine touring fulfills that beautifully, but it can be demanding in odd ways. Often, after a day of touring my guests are surprised by how tired they are, so I explain that wine tasting is hard work, but somebody has to do it!
First, it involves plenty of walking; wineries are located at the heart of farms, big, spacious places, and the distance from the parking to the tasting bar can be far. Then, wineries are spread around wine country, so it requires driving down winding, unfamiliar roads and that can wear you out. Doing this with alcohol in the systems just adds to that. Having a driver that brings you safely door to door helps minimize the fatigue.
Alcohol tires you out, in a very nice way, but drinking little bits during the course of a day just repeats the process. The body has to process the alcohol through the liver and kidneys, but diluting it with water is the best way to make that easy on yourself. If you taste all day and shun the H20 then don’t be surprised when you fall asleep before dinner.
Speaking of dinner, if you are going to drink you have to eat, and wine country is home to great restaurants, famous for their fresh ingredients and enthusiastic approaches. The last thing you want to do after a day of tasting is drive a long way to dinner down dark, winding country roads, and then drive back after sharing a bottle of wine. That sounds stressful, and vacations are about relaxing.
The hardest thing for people to do these days is to not be up and running every minute of every day. To maintain your physical health and emotional and mental sanity you need to disengage. Allow yourself the luxury of relaxing, of not being in challenging situations and antagonistic relationships. Of not forcing yourself to drive down dark, unfamiliar roads simply because someone you told you that was the peak dining experience. Believe us, Sonoma and Napa are filled with great restaurants and wineries and the ones nearby are probably as good as the ones farther away, especially if a short walk, instead of a night time drive, gets you there relaxed.
This is why we recommend that visitors stay walking distance to their dinner restaurant: Downtown Sonoma, Napa, Yountville, Glen Ellen, St. Helena, Healdsburg or Calistoga. In our Wine Tour Guide books and Smart Phone Apps we offer articles and listings to guide you in choosing the best place to hang your hat in wine country.
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