On February 24, 2008 we went on an interesting excursion out of San Francisco: an ecologically friendly bio-diesel powered van from Incredible Adventures whisked us off to the outlying areas north of San Francisco. After our first stop at Muir Woods to admire the giant redwoods we embarked on our tour to wine country. Through the rain we drove north into the Sonoma Valley, one of the two world-famous wine-making areas north of San Francisco. The other, even more famous wine-making area, is the adjacent Napa Valley.The Sonoma Valley is actually the birthplace of the Californian wine industry and encompasses 13,000 acres of parkland. Before lunch we stopped at two wineries, Roche and Homewood Wineries, where we got to taste a whole variety of red and white wines and even some local olives and olive oils. For lunch we stopped off on the main square of Sonoma where my friend and I grabbed a tasty lunch at the Basque Café.After lunch we headed into the Castle Winery just off Sonoma's main square that surprised us with a sweet sherry and a delicious sherry chocolate sauce. Our last stop on this excursion were the Gloria Ferrer Caves and Vineyards which produce world-class award-winning sparkling wines as well as Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. The Ferrer family's involvement with sparkling wine goes back several centuries in Catalonia, Spain, and their most famous product is Freixenet, a world famous sparkling wine made according to the méthode champenoise.Properly educated about wine and definitely in a much lighter mood after all these tastings, we started heading back to the city. The atmosphere in the van was downright giggly. Michelle stopped at a lookout point overlooking the northern terminus of the bridge which provided us with an excellent view, despite the cold winds and the grey and rainy skies.At the end of our excursion, we got conveniently dropped off on the doorsteps of our hotel, the Queen Anne, and after recovering for a bit, we took the 22 bus and went for a nice dinner to Tangerine SF, a beautiful restaurant that features Pan Asian cuisine, located in the SoMa district of San Francisco. After a great filling dinner and a long conversation with the owners Steve and Sean we walked all the way back to our hotel on Fillmore Street, a pleasant 45 minute walk through beautiful Victorian neighbourhoods.
On February 24, 2008 we went on an interesting excursion out of San Francisco: an ecologically friendly bio-diesel powered van from Incredible Adventures whisked us off to the outlying areas north of San Francisco. After our first stop at Muir Woods to admire the giant redwoods we embarked on our tour to wine country. Through the rain we drove north into the Sonoma Valley, one of the two world-famous wine-making areas north of San Francisco. The other, even more famous wine-making area, is the adjacent Napa Valley.The Sonoma Valley is actually the birthplace of the Californian wine industry and encompasses 13,000 acres of parkland. Before lunch we stopped at two wineries, Roche and Homewood Wineries, where we got to taste a whole variety of red and white wines and even some local olives and olive oils. For lunch we stopped off on the main square of Sonoma where my friend and I grabbed a tasty lunch at the Basque Café.After lunch we headed into the Castle Winery just off Sonoma's main square that surprised us with a sweet sherry and a delicious sherry chocolate sauce. Our last stop on this excursion were the Gloria Ferrer Caves and Vineyards which produce world-class award-winning sparkling wines as well as Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. The Ferrer family's involvement with sparkling wine goes back several centuries in Catalonia, Spain, and their most famous product is Freixenet, a world famous sparkling wine made according to the méthode champenoise.Properly educated about wine and definitely in a much lighter mood after all these tastings, we started heading back to the city. The atmosphere in the van was downright giggly. Michelle stopped at a lookout point overlooking the northern terminus of the bridge which provided us with an excellent view, despite the cold winds and the grey and rainy skies.At the end of our excursion, we got conveniently dropped off on the doorsteps of our hotel, the Queen Anne, and after recovering for a bit, we took the 22 bus and went for a nice dinner to Tangerine SF, a beautiful restaurant that features Pan Asian cuisine, located in the SoMa district of San Francisco. After a great filling dinner and a long conversation with the owners Steve and Sean we walked all the way back to our hotel on Fillmore Street, a pleasant 45 minute walk through beautiful Victorian neighbourhoods.
On February 24, 2008 we went on an interesting excursion out of San Francisco: an ecologically friendly bio-diesel powered van from Incredible Adventures whisked us off to the outlying areas north of San Francisco. After our first stop at Muir Woods to admire the giant redwoods we embarked on our tour to wine country. Through the rain we drove north into the Sonoma Valley, one of the two world-famous wine-making areas north of San Francisco. The other, even more famous wine-making area, is the adjacent Napa Valley.The Sonoma Valley is actually the birthplace of the Californian wine industry and encompasses 13,000 acres of parkland. Before lunch we stopped at two wineries, Roche and Homewood Wineries, where we got to taste a whole variety of red and white wines and even some local olives and olive oils. For lunch we stopped off on the main square of Sonoma where my friend and I grabbed a tasty lunch at the Basque Café.After lunch we headed into the Castle Winery just off Sonoma's main square that surprised us with a sweet sherry and a delicious sherry chocolate sauce. Our last stop on this excursion were the Gloria Ferrer Caves and Vineyards which produce world-class award-winning sparkling wines as well as Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. The Ferrer family's involvement with sparkling wine goes back several centuries in Catalonia, Spain, and their most famous product is Freixenet, a world famous sparkling wine made according to the méthode champenoise.Properly educated about wine and definitely in a much lighter mood after all these tastings, we started heading back to the city. The atmosphere in the van was downright giggly. Michelle stopped at a lookout point overlooking the northern terminus of the bridge which provided us with an excellent view, despite the cold winds and the grey and rainy skies.At the end of our excursion, we got conveniently dropped off on the doorsteps of our hotel, the Queen Anne, and after recovering for a bit, we took the 22 bus and went for a nice dinner to Tangerine SF, a beautiful restaurant that features Pan Asian cuisine, located in the SoMa district of San Francisco. After a great filling dinner and a long conversation with the owners Steve and Sean we walked all the way back to our hotel on Fillmore Street, a pleasant 45 minute walk through beautiful Victorian neighbourhoods.
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On February 24, 2008 we went on an interesting excursion out of San Francisco: an ecologically friendly bio-diesel powered van from Incredible Adventures whisked us off to the outlying areas north of San Francisco. After our first stop at Muir Woods to admire the giant redwoods we embarked on our tour to wine country. Through the rain we drove north into the Sonoma Valley, one of the two world-famous wine-making areas north of San Francisco. The other, even more famous wine-making area, is the adjacent Napa Valley.The Sonoma Valley is actually the birthplace of the Californian wine industry and encompasses 13,000 acres of parkland. Before lunch we stopped at two wineries, Roche and Homewood Wineries, where we got to taste a whole variety of red and white wines and even some local olives and olive oils. For lunch we stopped off on the main square of Sonoma where my friend and I grabbed a tasty lunch at the Basque Café.After lunch we headed into the Castle Winery just off Sonoma's main square that surprised us with a sweet sherry and a delicious sherry chocolate sauce. Our last stop on this excursion were the Gloria Ferrer Caves and Vineyards which produce world-class award-winning sparkling wines as well as Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. The Ferrer family's involvement with sparkling wine goes back several centuries in Catalonia, Spain, and their most famous product is Freixenet, a world famous sparkling wine made according to the méthode champenoise.Properly educated about wine and definitely in a much lighter mood after all these tastings, we started heading back to the city. The atmosphere in the van was downright giggly. Michelle stopped at a lookout point overlooking the northern terminus of the bridge which provided us with an excellent view, despite the cold winds and the grey and rainy skies.At the end of our excursion, we got conveniently dropped off on the doorsteps of our hotel, the Queen Anne, and after recovering for a bit, we took the 22 bus and went for a nice dinner to Tangerine SF, a beautiful restaurant that features Pan Asian cuisine, located in the SoMa district of San Francisco. After a great filling dinner and a long conversation with the owners Steve and Sean we walked all the way back to our hotel on Fillmore Street, a pleasant 45 minute walk through beautiful Victorian neighbourhoods.
This video clip was taken on July 29, 2007 during my trip to Austria, my home country. My brother, sister-in-law, two friends and I drove to an area called "Südsteiermark" (Southern Styria). Styria is a province in southern Austria, located about 1.5 hours southwest of Vienna and immediately adjacent to Slovenia. The southwestern part of this province features rolling hills that are widely used to cultivate wine. The most famous wine variety in this area is called "Schilcher" and is a typical Styrian variety. We went hiking in the vineyards near Silberberg which actually features a vinticultural school. Excellent 360s views were to had from the "Kreuzkogelwarte", the lookout tower on the Kreuzkogel hill. We even saw the vineyard of famous Austrian tennis player Thomas Muster who hails from the nearby town of Leibnitz. Then we went into one of the local country restaurants for a well-deserved lunch of Austrian "Backhendl" -- Austrian fried chicken. I am actually a travel writer who loves to explore international destinations as well as my chosen home town of Toronto. On Youtube you will find hundreds of video clips from a wide variety of destinations. Feel free to check out some of my 700+ articles and interviews on http//www.travelandtransitions.com. My personal travel stories are located at http://www.travelandtransition .com/stories_photos.htm and my Austrian travel articles will be published in the next few weeks. Also, my FREE travel ebooks containing stories from my trips to destinations such as Sicily, Havana, Mexico City, New York City, Chicago, Florida, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Vancouver, Halifax and many others are available right now at http://www.travelandtransition .com/ebooks.html.
On February 24, 2008 we went on an interesting excursion out of San Francisco: an ecologically friendly bio-diesel powered van from Incredible Adventures whisked us off to the outlying areas north of San Francisco. After our first stop at Muir Woods to admire the giant redwoods we embarked on our tour to wine country. Through the rain we drove north into the Sonoma Valley, one of the two world-famous wine-making areas north of San Francisco. The other, even more famous wine-making area, is the adjacent Napa Valley.The Sonoma Valley is actually the birthplace of the Californian wine industry and encompasses 13,000 acres of parkland. Before lunch we stopped at two wineries, Roche and Homewood Wineries, where we got to taste a whole variety of red and white wines and even some local olives and olive oils. For lunch we stopped off on the main square of Sonoma where my friend and I grabbed a tasty lunch at the Basque Café.After lunch we headed into the Castle Winery just off Sonoma's main square that surprised us with a sweet sherry and a delicious sherry chocolate sauce. Our last stop on this excursion were the Gloria Ferrer Caves and Vineyards which produce world-class award-winning sparkling wines as well as Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. The Ferrer family's involvement with sparkling wine goes back several centuries in Catalonia, Spain, and their most famous product is Freixenet, a world famous sparkling wine made according to the méthode champenoise.Properly educated about wine and definitely in a much lighter mood after all these tastings, we started heading back to the city. The atmosphere in the van was downright giggly. Michelle stopped at a lookout point overlooking the northern terminus of the bridge which provided us with an excellent view, despite the cold winds and the grey and rainy skies.At the end of our excursion, we got conveniently dropped off on the doorsteps of our hotel, the Queen Anne, and after recovering for a bit, we took the 22 bus and went for a nice dinner to Tangerine SF, a beautiful restaurant that features Pan Asian cuisine, located in the SoMa district of San Francisco. After a great filling dinner and a long conversation with the owners Steve and Sean we walked all the way back to our hotel on Fillmore Street, a pleasant 45 minute walk through beautiful Victorian neighbourhoods.
On February 24, 2008 we went on an interesting excursion out of San Francisco: an ecologically friendly bio-diesel powered van from Incredible Adventures whisked us off to the outlying areas north of San Francisco. After our first stop at Muir Woods to admire the giant redwoods we embarked on our tour to wine country. Through the rain we drove north into the Sonoma Valley, one of the two world-famous wine-making areas north of San Francisco. The other, even more famous wine-making area, is the adjacent Napa Valley.The Sonoma Valley is actually the birthplace of the Californian wine industry and encompasses 13,000 acres of parkland. Before lunch we stopped at two wineries, Roche and Homewood Wineries, where we got to taste a whole variety of red and white wines and even some local olives and olive oils. For lunch we stopped off on the main square of Sonoma where my friend and I grabbed a tasty lunch at the Basque Café.After lunch we headed into the Castle Winery just off Sonoma's main square that surprised us with a sweet sherry and a delicious sherry chocolate sauce. Our last stop on this excursion were the Gloria Ferrer Caves and Vineyards which produce world-class award-winning sparkling wines as well as Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. The Ferrer family's involvement with sparkling wine goes back several centuries in Catalonia, Spain, and their most famous product is Freixenet, a world famous sparkling wine made according to the méthode champenoise.Properly educated about wine and definitely in a much lighter mood after all these tastings, we started heading back to the city. The atmosphere in the van was downright giggly. Michelle stopped at a lookout point overlooking the northern terminus of the bridge which provided us with an excellent view, despite the cold winds and the grey and rainy skies.At the end of our excursion, we got conveniently dropped off on the doorsteps of our hotel, the Queen Anne, and after recovering for a bit, we took the 22 bus and went for a nice dinner to Tangerine SF, a beautiful restaurant that features Pan Asian cuisine, located in the SoMa district of San Francisco. After a great filling dinner and a long conversation with the owners Steve and Sean we walked all the way back to our hotel on Fillmore Street, a pleasant 45 minute walk through beautiful Victorian neighbourhoods.
Gilles de Chambure, MS brings a passion for Napa Valley wine and a diverse wine background to Meadowood. Through the wine education program, he shares his natural enthusiasm for and knowledge of wine and the essential role it plays in society. Relying on his multi-faceted, international wine background and engaging speaking style Gilles crafts innovative wine events, tastings and Napa Valley excursions with a lively, informative approach that will inspire wine lovers of all levels.
