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As many of you know I have a passion for wine and one of the things I said I would do during my trip was to visit wineries on the way. In this sprit I booked myself onto a wine tour of the Sonoma valley (Napa's little sister). The tour was made up off Myself, a family from Texas with a dad who only drank beer, Two Irish girls who were dong a similar trip, A young couple from Ohio, A guy from phoenix who never spoke and The group I refereed to as the Florida golden girls (if you ever saw the TV show you'd understand why). The fist stop was at the famous redwoods of Muir Woods. We stopped here for an hour to take in the scale of the trees and to walk among them and see some of the wildlife. I managed to get some shots of very friendly deer and the Golden girls apparently saw an otter by the stream. As we got further up the valley we spotted what looked like an eagle but I was too slow to get it on camera. After this we made our way to the first winery. It was a small independently owned by the Landen family. They also had a ranch on site where Tom our tour guide claimed Seabiscut was trained. We got to taste 10 different wines of varying quality and variety. All of them were pretty good but my favourite had to be their Pinot Noir. At the other end of the scale there was there blended wine which is best described as rough. After a few photo opportunities we headed off to Sonoma town for some lunch. There were plenty of options available for eating but I opted for the Monterey Jack Cheese companies burger topped with Pesto flavoured cheese (tasted better than it sounds) I then took the opportunity to Visit the wine co-op in the centre of Sonoma. For $5 you get to taste 10 different wines from a number of small independent wineries. I was even lucky enough to sample a £75 bottle of wine as the owner had just been in and sampled it himself. After lunch we headed to one of the larger wineries, the Buna Vista. We got to taste there Pinot Noir but to taste anything else would cost $15 so me and the Irish Girls decided to opt out as the first wine wasn't that special anyway. We then moved onto the Jacuzzi (yes the ones that make the baths) Winery. You got a choice of 5 wines to taste for $5 the pick of the bunch had to be there Primitivo wine. If I didn't have to watch the weight on my backpack I would have brought a case. The winery itself was also something special. It was a Tuscan style villa sitting in fields of Vines. The final destination was The Sebastiani Vineyard. On the recommendation of Tom we ordered a few different bottles of there sparkling wine between us to share on the terrace looking over the vines. It was the perfect end to a perfect day. There was however a bonus on the journey back. As we were about to go over the golden gate bridge Tom took a side road up onto the cliff tops above. San Francisco bay had finally delved its famous fog which gave me a great photo opportunity. I think its one of a few classical scenes you can see around the world.
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