3 Wine Regions Of California You Might Want To Visit

If you love wine, then you might enjoy taking a wine tasting trip to one of the California wine regions. California is home to many distinct wine regions. These regions are generally broken down into 4 large subsets: North Coast, Central Coast, Central Valley and South Coast. Within each are smaller regions.

When you visit a wine region, you spend time visiting the different wineries within a particular area. There are more than enough wineries in each region to fill a whole vacation.

Many people hire a limo service like Ambassador Limousine for these kinds of tours. You will be tasting wine all day, so you don't want to drive yourself around in a rented car. A limousine is much easier. You won't have to worry about drinking wine and driving, and you also don't have to worry about finding the different wineries.

Here are 3 popular regions you might enjoy.

Sonoma Valley (North Coast)

This is the most famous of all the California wine regions. It was where the first wineries were started in the early 1800s. The area is located north of San Francisco. There are over 400 wineries located in Sonoma.

One of the things that makes Sonoma unique is its geographic location. The valley is protected from the cool air and humidity of the Pacific Ocean by the Sonoma mountain range. This makes the terroir unique amongst California wine regions. Some of the popular wine varietals in the region include Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir.

Santa Ynez Valley (Central Coast)

If you're appreciation of wine owes some small part to the book or movie Sideways, then you might want to visit the Santa Ynez Valley. This is where the movie was set.

Santa Ynez Valley is located in the Santa Barbara region of California. There are over 70 wineries in the area. This is an excellent place to spend a weekend. You can have a limo service take you from Santa Barbara and then spend the next few days visiting the wineries.

Temecula Valley (Southern Coast)

The Temecula Valley wine region is located in Southern California. The area is a few hours away from San Diego. The area is hotter and drier than northern wine regions. It also doesn't have the protection from humid air that places like Sonoma have. This makes it bad for some wines like Pinot Noir, but excellent for others, such as Merlot, Zinfandel, and Sauvignon Blanc.