Eat, drink and take a scenic vineyard hike

<p>On the face of it, driving around eating and wine tasting is a good way to feel loopy and bloated even if the vineyard views take one's breath away. But throw in a robust walk in the morning and another walk in the afternoon, and leisurely stops along the way for food and wine feel positively earned.</p><p>This is a concept long ago perfected in Europe, but in car-obsessed, once wine-averse America, not so much. Most visitors to Napa, Sonoma or Mendocino would walk from their car to a tasting room, maybe step through a vineyard or cellar tour and that's about it.</p><p>There are now other options, thanks to a few savvy trekking companies sensing the need out there for people to combine a love of wine and food with a need to get their circulation flowing.</p><p>"We just think you see the world a different way when you walk it," said Sheila Taylor, who along with two partners, Greg and May Guerrazzi, started Wine Country Trekking two years ago in Glen Ellen.</p><p>"We share a passion for great food and wine, in addition to hiking," added Greg Guerrazzi.</p><p>They took their inspiration from inn-to-inn hiking holidays they had each taken in England and New Zealand, crafting a similar experience for people interested in coming to Wine Country, with an emphasis on food and wine and no tour groups, no buses.</p><p>Instead, visitors get a self-guided itinerary with custom maps and trail notes. Arrangements are then made for tramps through vineyards, mountains and towns with stops at private estate wineries for tastings, reservations for only the finest restaurants and luxurious accommodation overnight. Even the luggage is privately chauffeured around.</p><p>"It's for baby boomers like us," Taylor said, "who still want an active vacation but no longer want to rough it."</p><p>They've also found their three-day excursions -- the Sonoma Valley Wine Tasting Trek and Napa Valley Wine Tasting Trek -- fit exactly into people's decidedly un-European desire to take short vacations, over a long weekend, say.</p><p>"We also found that some people wanted less hiking, more wine," Taylor admitted with a laugh.</p><p>Working within the challenges of these regions -- Napa doesn't have a lot of designated open space, for example -- Wine Country Trekking negotiates with landowners to get access for hikers to walk through their properties. If the itinerary includes a stop for a taste or two, even better. Ideally, the roads and vineyard tracks that are trekked are otherwise inaccessible to the public, making for a special peek into the area that most folks don't ever get to see. An average day covers six to eight miles.</p><p>"We look at local, small family-owned wineries that we like and work with them to get them on our route," Taylor explained.</p><p>The high season for such treks is May through October with July and August the height of the high, because though it can get hot here, those are the months most people end up taking their vacations. Taylor and the Guerrazzis, who walk every inch of the routes they compose, sometimes opt to send trekkers on side streets with shade instead of vineyards in full sun during the day, as long as the feel of the vineyard remains.</p><p>Most trekkers, they say, are from out of state, attracted to Napa and Sonoma's reputation for fine food, great wine and visceral outdoor beauty. Canadians and Europeans have also signed on. Despite Taylor's suspicion that eating, drinking and hiking would be of particular interest to baby boomers, a much wider range have taken her treks -- "everything from a 70-year-old couple to honeymooners, father-son, mother-daughter, lots of anniversaries and newlyweds," she adds.</p><p>And what they want most is to visit Sonoma Valley, though in fairness, the Napa Valley trek has only recently launched. (They also offer excursions from San Francisco to Mount Tamalpais.)</p><p>The highlights over the three days in Sonoma Valley include a hike on the Overlook Trail starting near the Sonoma Town Square all the way to Ravenswood Winery, followed by a private wine-and-cheese pairing at nearby Sebastiani Vineyards and Winery. The second day anchors on a beautiful hike behind Bartholomew Park Winery, also near Sonoma, that ends with a private tasting at Gundlach-Bundschu. Day three centers in and around Glen Ellen, with tasting at such hard-to-visit spots as Robert Hunter Winery and the night spent at the ultra-luxurious Gaige House Inn.</p><p>Kathleen Brough of Edmonton, Canada, celebrated her first anniversary with husband John earlier this year on the Sonoma Valley trek.</p><p>"The views afforded by the trekking were stunning," Brough wrote in an e-mail describing the experience. "While all three days had their highlights, our favorite day was the third, when we got to visit the smaller family vineyards and wineries -- Hunter Farms, the Little Vineyard and AHH Wineries. Especially wonderful was being joined by Mr. and Mrs. Hunter to taste their lovely wine in their beautiful garden. We have been telling people that this is the way to see Sonoma."</p><p>In Napa, the three days kick off in Yountville and Oakville, with special tastings at Opus One and Silver Oak. Transported to St. Helena for day two, a day of hiking among the redwoods of Bothe-Napa Valley State Park is bookended with tastings at Stony Hill and Schramsberg. Trekking ends in Calistoga, with a visit to the new and very agreeable Solage Calistoga within sight of Mount St. Helena.</p><p>Montana-based Zephyr Wine Adventures offers guided vineyard walking in between big meals and pours of wines, with a five-day itinerary in Sonoma its first foray into California Wine Country. The company has heretofore planned trips to wine regions around the world, from Chile and Argentina to Burgundy and South Africa.</p><p>"People want to do a vineyard walk instead of just going to a winery, driving and tasting," said Allan Wright, Zephyr's founder. "We're trying to provide an active vacation and give people more in-depth exposure to an area and its wine."</p><p>To that end, it has partnered with the likes of Jim Murphy, a longtime grape grower in the Alexander Valley, to accompany hikers on part of their treks. Time has also been spent walking at Michel-Schlumberger Winery in Dry Creek Valley, Rodney Strong's Rockaway Vineyards, Murphy-Goode Winery, Sausal Winery in Alexander Valley and in the remote Rockpile appellation north of Lake Sonoma.</p><p>Working with Sonoma County Vintners and the Sonoma Grapegrowers Commission, Zephyr's Sonoma Vineyard Walks trip criss-crosses six of Sonoma County's appellations, down to the Cherryblock vineyards of Sebastiani and through Jack London State Park. Options vary from two to eight miles of hiking a day.</p><p>"Our ideal way to go into a winery is to meet with the winemaker or grower or owner and walk through the vineyards with them," Wright said. "Then taste the wines in the field. People are learning and getting a workout."</p><p>Virginie Boone is a freelance wine writer based in Sonoma County. She can be reached at virginieboone@yahoo.com or visit wineabout. pressdemocrat.com.</p>