This page brings together my wine travel stories from regions across California and around the world—places I’ve visited, walked through, and experienced one glass at a time.

I do a lot of wine tasting, but travel is what gives those wines their meaning. Visiting wine regions leaves a lasting imprint: the roads that wind through vineyards, the changing light over the course of a day, the conversations that unfold in tasting rooms and at kitchen tables. Long after the trip ends, a single glass from a place you’ve been can bring it all rushing back. As fellow wine blogger Marcy Gordon of Come For The Wine so perfectly puts it, “Nothing transports you back to a time and place better than a great wine. You literally pour a memory with every glass.”

Just as memorable as the wines are the landscapes themselves. Every wine region I’ve traveled to carries its own sense of place—rolling hills, rugged coastlines, mountain air, sun-baked valleys—and that natural beauty becomes inseparable from the wines made there. These are places meant to be experienced slowly, and revisited often, even if only in memory.

So pour yourself a glass and come along. These stories are as much about the journey as they are about the wine—snapshots of places that linger long after the last sip.

California Wine Regions

Livermore Valley

• No Reservations Wine Tasting – La Rochelle and Steven Kent Winery

Mendocino County

• Wine Tasting Along The Anderson Valley Wine Trail – Day One
• Wine Tasting Along The Anderson Valley Wine Trail – Day Two

Santa Cruz Mountains

• No Reservations Wine Tasting – Ridge Vineyards

Paso Robles

• No Reservations Wine Tasting in Paso Robles – Tablas Creek Vineyard
• Central Coast Wine Touring 2012- Paso Robles; Part One
• Central Coast Wine Touring 2012 – Paso Robles; Part Two

Santa Barbara

• Central Coast Wine Touring – Lompoc Wine Ghetto

Sonoma County

• My First Passport to Dry Creek Valley
• Highlights From My First Passport to Dry Creek Valley
• Recap of Passport to Dry Creek Valley 2013 – Day One
• Recap of Passport to Dry Creek Valley 2013 – Day Two
• No Reservations Wine Tasting – Joseph Phelps Freestone
• No Reservations Wine Tasting – Ridge Vineyards
• Wine Tasting Along The West Sonoma Coast

Urban Wineries

• Dashe Cellars; American Winery Guide
• Jeff Cohn Cellars: American Winery Guide
• Stage Left Cellars: American Winery Guide

IInternational Wine Travel

Portugal

• Enchanting Alentejo; A Wine Lover’s Paradise

Spain

• A Taste of Bodegas Contino

New Zealand

• Discover the exciting Martinborough wines of Wairarapa, New Zealand with John Penney – your qualified personal wine experience guide at Wineinsights.