Frog's Leap

Vines in California

Our Private Wine Tasting awaits in California

Barrels in California

Tasting at Duckhorn

Sonoma Hotel, California

California

7 - 13 March 2010, 13 - 19 March 2011

The wine world owes so much to California; the idea of varietal wines, of the ‘boutique winery’, of scientific site selection, indeed the whole idea of ‘the new world’. On this wine tour of California you’ll taste top wines in private tastings at top wineries and meet some of the people who keep this region famous.

We stay one night in San Francisco then have chosen two extremely attractive Californian country houses as our bases, one a four star and one a five star. Our first is in the Adobe town of Sonoma with it's Spanish flavour and large town square, surrounded by cafes, delis, boutique stores and restaurants. To explore Napa, we move on to the fun town of Calistoga. This has a long wide street, with a hint of the wild-west about it. There are mud baths, a geyser that they jokingly call "old faithful", a traditional pub, several great restaurants and small independent shops.

This is, of course, spring-time in California and as such we should expect temperatures around a very pleasant 17 degrees and as this is not the main tourist season, everything will be quieter than in the high season months, so a good time to go.

We explore the wineries of Sonoma with Iron Horse, the excellent sparkling wine producer in the Russian River area. We enjoy lunch with Marimar Torres who set up the Torres operation here. Just to the south in the cool Carneros, we visit Saintsbury who make world class Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. To the north we visit the remote Anderson Valley where Louis Roederer opened the Roederer Estate in the 1980s, the New York times rates the wines as the best sparkling wines outside of Champagne.

Based in St Helena, Duckhorn were the first to be acclaimed for Merlot. Margaret Duckhorn meets us and we have lunch with her and her lovely wines. Duckhorn has done startlingly good things with Pinot Noir.

Delia Viader invites us to taste her range, which includes bio-dynamic Cabernet Franc and Syrah wine. At the Heitz family ranch, we see why their single vineyard Cabernet Sauvignons, such as ‘Martha’s’, are the stuff of legends.

On the last day we taste at Frog’s Leap where winemaker John Williams pokes fun at obsessive regulations, for instance by putting “open at other end” on the bottom of his bottles! It’s not all jokes, he makes lovely text-book Rutherford Cabernet. On the last day we drop you in San Francisco in time for lunch and you can either stay on or fly home from here.

It is easy to visit the ‘wine tasting stations’ in Napa on your own but this experience is not dissimilar to that shown in Sideways – basic tastings standing at the counter talking to those in the shop. However on an Arblaster & Clarke Wine Tour you’ll taste top wines in private tastings at top wineries and meet some of the people who keep this region famous.

NB: As there are so many flight options available we have not included the flights to San Francisco. We are happy to assist with the booking and talk to you about which airlines operate this route. There are some great flight deals on offer at the moment so early booking is recommended.

Extend your holiday

Stay on in San Francisco, Four Star hotel in Union Square £95 per person per night (based on shared twin/double room) or £190 per person per night (Double for Sole Occupancy).

For any skiers - do remember that Lake Tahoe is just a short drive and we are able to book you into a wonderful winery owned hotel before or after the trip in case you want to combine ski-ing with your wine tour!

You can also take a train down the length of California's coast on the Coast Starlight. There is fantastic scenery, with dramatic snow-covered peaks of Mount Shasta, lush forests, fertile valleys and long stretches of Pacific Ocean shoreline. This route connects Sacramento, the San Francisco Bay area, Santa Barbara and Los Angeles and even travels north to Oregon and Washington for the Cascade Range and other great cities such as Portland and Seattle. Please call for details.