Recently in Mendocino Category

By Courtney Cochran

The drive is just three hours north of San Francisco, but it might as well be a century back in time. Sometimes called "The Lost Coast" since it was largely cut off from the modern world until the mid Nineteenth Century, Mendocino's hauntingly romantic North Coast is home today to long stretches of pristine wilderness, a host of welcoming inns and B&Bs, renowned restaurants and - yes - wineries and tasting rooms that make the most of this spectacular stretch of California coastline. 

Our suggested itinerary takes you northwards on Highway 1 from the town of Mendocino to just north of historic Fort Bragg, and includes a midday pit stop for lunch.  And while the majority of Mendocino's more than 50 wineries are to be found further inland, the coast is where you'll find California's only oceanside winery as well as a handful of tasting rooms in coastal towns fit to bursting with Victorian-era charm and architecture.  But take note: In keeping with the slow pace of the region, the dramatic cliffs and myriad turns along winding Highway 1 make travel here slow by necessity.  Happily, it's a region that welcomes lingering, something you'll find all too easy to do once you get there. 

By Robert P. Farmer
Of California's many options for wine-touring, few match Mendocino for its bucolic aesthetic and for the drama of its natural beauty. Meandering through the verdant hills, twisting along the highways and byways, visitors are presented with a protracted display of wooded hillsides and expansive grassy, sheep-dotted meadows. And stretching toward the coast, the terrain gets steeper, more mountainous, until finally giving way to the never-ending stretch of blue that is the Pacific Ocean.

Mendocino County is unique among California's wine regions for many reasons, not the least of which is its wines. The climate is rainier in these parts, and the moisture combines with rich volcanic Anderson Valley soil to produce outstanding Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays along side unexpected but equally capable Riesling and Gewürtztraminer. There are several great wineries to be discovered along Hwy. 101 in Mendocino County, and more flanking the state routes that serve as tributaries to the Highway.

By Courtney Cochran

Sixteen miles long and home to some two dozen wineries, Mendocino's Anderson Valley is fast becoming known as one of the best kept secrets in Northern California wine touring.  Thanks to its unique east-west orientation, the valley - situated in southern Mendocino County - channels crisp air from the nearby Pacific to its dramatic Redwood-lined vineyards, which produce some of the state's most sought-after Pinot Noir and sparkling wines.  

Even better, Mendocino wineries' trademark laid-back attitude and easy hospitality means that visitors to the valley just two hours north of San Francisco are treated like old friends, and tasting fees are often free or rightly reasonable.