When to Come to Wine Country, Crush in Wine Country can be a Crush!
Every time of year in Sonoma and Napa is beautiful, it’s just made that way, and many locals prefer the verdant green of winter when the rain transforms the hills. It is so green and misty that you would think you were in Ireland, if the emerald isles grew grapes that is.
Right now we are on the verge of the busiest time of the year, crush, when the grapes come in. Wine country is different from most tourist destinations because it has three levels of economic production, First and foremost it is farm country, where the main crop is wine grapes, although Sonoma produces the full gamut of agricultural bounty too. On top of that is the wine making, and remember you don’t have to own vineyards to have a winery, you just need to know where to buy grapes. Then on top of that is hospitality and tourism.
Many areas would be happy to have the amount of tourism that this area enjoys by itself, when you add the three together there is a tremendous depth of productivity here. Even with all of that activity ‘crush’ is a bit like the story of Brigadoon, the town that wakes up once a year, because for much of the year this is a relatively quiet place, but when the grapes come in watch out.
In most tourist areas in the north when September arrives the rides shut and the hotels settle in with a skeleton staff. In wine country we get busier! Every year at this time people complain about the service in restaurant and hotels and even at the wineries. That’s because the staff, which is never large and has running full tilt since June, suddenly realizes that it’s about to get busier, and stay that way until sometime in November.
So yes, they may bobble a plate or forget a reservation because they were taking a deep breath and looking to heaven for strength. Be nice to them anyway! There are very few people working here and they enjoy what they do, but this time of the year always catches them a little by surprise, no matter how many times they experience it.
Yes, I admit it, crush is the best time to come to wine country because you see the wine being made but keep in mind that other people had the same idea and your hosts just want everyone to play nicely together.
Ralph & Lahni de Amicis are authors of the Amicis Winery Guides (Find them on Amazon), and owners of Amicis Tours which does both group and private excursions. They are authors of over twenty books on health, design, business and travel. Their iPhone Apps, The Napa Valley Wine Tour, and The Sonoma Winery Tour are a tour guides approach to these beautiful area, complete with 1000’s of photos and insights. Their articles and products can be found on the sites http://www.amicistours.com and http://www.spaceandtime.com. Their Apps can be found at http://www.sutromedia.com/apps.html
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