California Wine Country Tours

Wine Country and Redwoods Escape One-Day Tour. California’s Wine Country is known around the world for producing some of the best wines, and it is begins less than an hour away from San Francisco. Wine Country is one of the most popular destinations for tourists from around the world and locals from the Bay Area as well. Our Muir Woods and Wine Country tour combines the best of nature and culture, starting the day with a short drive across the Golden Gate Bridge and over the Marin Headlands into Muir Woods National Monument. You will spend about an hour communing with the Coast Redwoods, the world’s tallest tree species, and then continue north into Sonoma’s Wine Country, where you will spend a relaxing afternoon enjoying the product of another California wonder, Wine! We will spend about 45 to 60 minutes at each of 3 small, boutique wineries in southern Sonoma County, the birthplace of the California wine industry back in the 1850’s. And we’ll make sure you have an opportunity to get a tasty lunch while we’re there, too! We select the wineries for price, presentation, scenery, and service, so you get a well rounded introduction to wine and the Wine Country.

Napa Valley Wine Tours. Napa Valley is where wine comes from to some people, and there is a lot to choose from – almost 400 wineries! We offer a variety of tours that will show you the sights, give you background about the area’s history and the winemaking process, and bring you to the tasting rooms of great wineries that represent the wide range of grape “varietals” growing in Napa Valley and beyond. If you like Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Syrah, Zinfandel, and more of the 100’s of varieties from around the world, you’ll most likely find them here. Some of the most famous names in American Wine have their home addresses in the towns along the Napa Valley Highway, and we offer several different tours to meet various needs and budgets, from economy to private charter.

Sonoma Valley Wine Tours. Sonoma Valley is where the wine industry started in California, and where California the state started, for that matter. There are over 250 wineries to choose from in Sonoma County, but we’ve done our research and picked out a few that will give a well-rounded experience in Wine Country. We offer a variety of tours that will show you the sights, give you background about the winemaking process and the area’s history, and bring you to the tasting rooms of great wineries that represent the wide range of grape “varietals” growing in Sonoma Valley and beyond. Some of the most famous names in American Wine have their home addresses in the towns along the Sonoma Highway, and we offer several different tours to meet various budgets, from economy to private charter. And our most popular tour combines the best of Sonoma Valley with a morning walk in the spectacular Muir Woods, one of the last old growth forests of the Coastal Redwood Sequoias, the tallest trees in the world – a perfect blend of nature and culture in one great day.

California Wine Country Tours. We also offer tours that will take you to see and taste the best of both Napa and Sonoma Valleys. Distance and travel time dictate that we don’t get too far away from San Francisco when we go to both valleys in one day, so our time is spent in the southern reaches of both, in the Carneros Region, one of the officially designated American Viticultural Areas, known for fine Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grapes. But don’t worry, the wineries there truck grapes in from the other regions so they also offer great Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot, Zinfandel, Syrah, and Cabernet Sauvignon wines, among others. The rolling hills striped with neat rows of grape vines in the Carneros offer some of the most picturesque views of Callifornia’s Wine Country, and this is the way to see them!

Sausalito Wine Country Tours. Sausalito is a picturesque little "Mediterranean-style" town with great views of San Francisco and the Bay, and lots of shops and restaurants, and a few small hotels. For those who choose to get away from the hustle and bustle of San Francisco, Sausalito is a quiet alternative. But to get from there to California's famous Wine Country, you might find that you need someone like us to take you there. Instead of driving yourself around to tasting rooms with a lap full of maps, you can choose an Extranomical Tour with an experienced guide to show you the sights, find the good wines and food, and most importantly, a sober driver to keep you out of the slammer! We'll pick you up at your Sausalito hotel and drop you off at the end of a great day of wine tasting and sightseeing in plenty of time to take a nap before dinner, if that suits you. Click away and choose from the different tour packages that we offer with Sausalito as your departure point.

Wine Country Charters. Extranomical Adventures is pleased to offer wine country tours that are tailor-made to fit your personal interests and needs. Private charters allow you the freedom to request what you want. There are hundreds of wineries to choose from and a variety of other options that can include lunch and/or dinner, a combo trip of Muir Woods with Wine Country and over night packages. These charters are ideal for families, private parties or business groups. Please call 1-866-231-3752 for further information and to discuss your needs.

California Wine Country Tour Special Offers. Extranomical Adventures is pleased to offer special discounted California wine country tours, luxury California Wine Country tours, and combination California wine country tours. San Francisco Hotel and tour packages available.

Winery Tour Stops
Each of our tours is slightly different in the number and locations of wineries visited, and on some tours we can respond to your requests. In our thousands of trips to Wine Country, we have compiled a list of wineries that range from very to small to very large, from Mom and Pop, to conglomerates, from brand new up-and-comers to brands that were household names 50 years ago. California’s Wine Country is almost the whole state, and some perfectly good wineries are well outside of the radius that would make for a one day trip. We have come up with a list of wineries that are within a reasonable distance, have good wine, are friendly and do a good presentation, and have other attractions, such as nice scenery, interesting history, or other attractions. Our list of wineries might change slightly from time to time, as we discover new gems, or someone’s staff or business policy changes. At this time, here is our list of wineries that we have visited on a regular basis. Keep in mind we won’t visit all of these on a single tour. This is just to give you an idea where we MIGHT end up when you travel with us. These are our “friends”, so to speak.

View a list of California Wineries that are possible stops on our various tours.

The Golden Gate Bridge
During our Wine Country Tours we cross one of the most famous landmarks in the world, the Golden Gate Bridge. We found a less frequently visited viewpoint to get one of the most spectacular views of the Golden Gate Bridge and the City of San Francisco that makes for incredible photo opportunities.

California Wine Country
California has approximately 1400 wineries with almost every county represented, even San Francisco! Many great grapes are produced in other regions, like Mendocino, San Luis Obispo, Monterey, and the Central Valley. However, almost half of California’s wineries are concentrated in Napa and Sonoma counties, within 100 miles from San Francisco. Nature and history have blessed this region with a variety of soil types, terrains, micro-climates, and the influx of European winemaking talent to develop into a world-class wine-producing industry – not once but twice! Starting in 1857 in Sonoma, the region saw 50 years of growth and profit and a wave of tourist activity unrivaled almost anywhere in the U.S. at the time. The twin perils of the Great 1906 earthquake and Prohibition (of alcohol) from 1919 to 1933 put a majority of winemakers out of business and the industry into a depression from THE Great Depression until the 1970’s. The modern era began in 1976 (see Napa Valley) and the present day can be seen as the Second Golden Age of California Winemaking. There are about 650 wineries located in Napa and Sonoma counties, representing some of the most famous brands in the U.S., and even the world, and so constitute what many people call “THE Wine Country”. You can get great wines farther away from San Francisco, but it takes more time (and money) to get there. Our California Wine Tours give you the biggest bang for your travel bucks by giving you a great California Wine Country Experience in one great day.

Napa Valley
Napa Valley was a few years behind its neighbor Sonoma Valley in the 1850’s and when the tourists started coming into the Wine Country in large numbers, they were in Sonoma, largely ignoring Napa Valley, which was just a place with a lot of vines. Both valleys became quiet and relatively empty from 1906 until the 1970’s. The roles became reversed and Napa Valley became a household name (in households where they read Wine Spectator, anyway) after a 1976 Bicentennial Contest between California and French wines, where the upstart Americans shocked everyone by winning 2 First Place ribbons – both from Napa Valley - and 14 out of the top 20 places. That notoriety jump-started a successful promotional campaign that soon overshadowed all other “neighborhoods” in the American wine business, and now the word “Napa” is synonymous with “Wine” in many people’s minds. It’s not that it is NOT true, but it is most certainly not the whole truth about wine in America, or specifically California. Some of the facts are that it is farther away from San Francisco and time spent on the road is time NOT spent tasting wine, the average price of a bottle or a tasting flight is higher, and the average nose behind the counter is also pointed a little higher, if you get my drift. Some of the most famous names in American Wine have their home addresses in the towns along the Napa Valley Highway, and it’s still a great place to go, but there are very few complimentary tasting rooms in Napa Valley, and when pressed for time, Sonoma is closer to San Francisco, and has lots of great wine to taste.

Sonoma County and Valley
Sonoma County is one of California's premier wine-making regions, yet it has remained relatively untouched by tourists compared to its more popular neighbor, Napa Valley (only 5-10 miles east). It is said that Sonoma Valley gets its name from the Miwok Native American Indians. The Miwok named it the valley of "many moons" - while walking through the Sonoma Valley and the Mayacamas Mountains, the moon was said to rise seven times.

In the 1850’s, it was Sonoma Valley residents who solved the imported vine disease problem by widely adopting the practice of grafting onto native (resistant) root stock. Hungarian immigrant Agoston Haraszthy basically invented large scale, industrial wine-making, and Sonoma became the epicenter for a huge new wine industry and therefore became a popular tourist destination for locals from San Francisco and visitors from around the world.

Sonoma Valley's currently more famous neighbor, Napa Valley, remained the “outback” for about 50 years. Both valleys became “ghost towns” after the Great Earthquake of 1906, followed by Prohibition (of alcohol!) from 1919 to 1933. You could say the Great Depression continued well into the 1970’s for this part of the world (see Napa Valley). Declared National Historic Landmarks, the downtown Sonoma Plaza and the San Francisco Solano de Sonoma Mission (1823) are at the heart of this renowned wine producing region. Sonoma Valley is located in the much larger Sonoma County, which also includes the equally renowned Healdsburg region, the Alexander Valley, Russian River, and other well-known Appellations.