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1st observation of San Francisco is that everybody runs!! Tour Started at Market street main business area where Aprox 8000 people work. The old Street cars come from all over the world inc England. The Ferry building was built in 1890 and was main entrance to city before bridges built. In 1906 it was the only building to survive the earthquake. We drove through broadway where I ventured last night which used to have all the famous dance and Jazz halls, the street is now full of gentle men's clubs!! 30000 Chinese people live within 24 blocks of this area. The earthquake in 1906 caused a huge fire destroying the city. To try and save 15% of the city the police decided to use the beautiful wooden Victorian houses to use a fire block. They went into the houses and told residents they had 2 hours to vacate their homes, they pumped the houses with black powder and successfully stopped the fire. Golden gate built in 1930s Art Deco design towers 750 ft high and 220ft above the water the bridge moves 13ft to left and right in the wind...amazing engineering structure made with cables!! Ooh I am on it!! Can see Alcatraz to my left where I am going tomorrow...wow. Napa valley has Italian heritage. Sonoma valley is where wine making started . Sonoma - 17 miles long and 10 miles wide. 6% of wine grown here. Napa - 30 miles long and 5 miles wide. Only 4 % of wine grown here the best grapes and wines! The soil still have volcanic. Grapes harvested end aug-nov starting with Savingnon blancs. Sugar content measured in BRIX which is the amount of sugar in the grape, if you divide that by 2 it is the % of alcohol in the grapes. They then have 48 hours to harvest the grapes at night due to the climate an skin on grapes harder as cool so less damage. Then taken to the winery and placed on a machine called a crusher where on a belt the damaged ones are removed and rocks/stones etc Grapes then goes through de stemmer which knocks grapes off the stems and sorts grapes by size and colour. To get juice out of the grape (white wine) put in a bladder press and put in tanks with yeast. Yeast eats sugar and fermentation takes place. It is then aged in stainless steel tanks for aprox a year. White wine inexpensive to make. Red wine - the colour comes from the skin so the whole grape goes into the fermentation tanks. Depending how dark you want the wine depends how long skin stays on the wine. After process they then go into oak barrels. The wine maker chooses the wood and then air dry the wood for the barrels and the wood is toasted to different stages over a fire to create the flavour. In barrels for up to 3 1/2 years for tanning. Red much more expensive due to this process. Some of the wines today are not retailed. Robert Mondavi vineyard - recently sold for 1.5 billion! 1st winery to have tours an tasting. Famous for Sauvignon blanc vines 17 years old. Hand picked grapes here during harvest with top end wines. The brother 95 and 99yrs and Mrs Mondavi still alive..wine is good for you!! Mario Andretti used to be a race car driver in Italy and when he retired he decided he wants to make wine. This winery produces Italian style wine. Makes me think about Ask...miss you guys!! Manage a trios! - bit tipsy for a commentary now :-) but great wine at affordable prices. No idea what the last one was called.........GREAT day!!!
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