Wine country in California is just the way you imagine it. Wavy hills of vines, Italian-inspired wineries with those inner garden courtyards, chic sophisticated people driving European cars, and lots and lots of wine. Everywhere. So I won't spend much time describing what you can already imagine.

Our experience in Sonoma was atypical from the typical wine-tasting visit only in its speed. The concierge at our hotel had loaded us up with coupons for free wine-tastings. Usually these cost $5-$15, so we had no qualms prostituting our palates to blatant adversiting. We pointed "Ron Davis" down Route 12 and began to hit wineries one after the other. We only had until noon before we had to head south to Monterrey, so sniff 'em, swirl 'em, and sink 'em. I should admit that in general, I find the term "wine snob" to be more accurate than most other semi-derogatory stereotypes. Some people, like those tourists we ran across in a lot of these places, take wine way to seriously. I enjoy a good food-wine pairing as much as Joe Go Hungry, and have learned enough to make me dangerous, but to swirl and swish until I get hot flashes trying to extract "hints of raspberry" out of what is essentially a complex fruit juice goes too far. It's sufficient to know a good wine when you get one.

And yet, the culture is beguiling. Several of the wine tasting "baristas" had devoted their entire lives to the study of vinticulture. One young man my age told me about the wine "tasting and marketing degree" he had just earned in Australia over the last two years. He was visibly excited as he poured out his schpiel about the winery's Merlot. It tasted, well, like a Merlot. The other end of the barista spectrum was the elderly retired breed working part-time dishing up stories about the wines as they poured. Their knowledge of the industry was deep and we learned the most hanging over the counter listening to them.

In the end, three wines stand out from the trip. The first, a Pinot Grigio from J Vineyards that we had enjoyed with our dinner the night before. It was grassy, light and refreshing -- a very unusual white Pinot. The other was at a Monterrey winery named Bargetto. I was already a fan of their Pinot Grigio but then the barista poured the Gewurtztraminer for me -- fantastic! Also light and crisp, this time with hints of grapefruit. Finally, our last stop of the wine-tasting day was at Valley of the Moon winery where we sampled, among others, their Cuvee -- a blend of several red grapes. Dry and smooth, this was a great pairing for a grill-out for example.

We stopped drinking before my driving was affected and began heading southward to Monterrey, our final stop before home.