Frommer's Portable California Wine Country

I'm planning a trip to wine country and needed some information, not an encyclopedia's worth. This was concise and will be handy to take with me. It is laid out geographically which will make it that much easier to see the wineries that I want to see.

We're not what you'd consider wine snobs and bought this book for the good excuse of checking out wine country which is just a short drive away. It's nice they included restaurants. After all the tasting stops it made our outing complete and we drove home totally content as well as sober.

This small book (only 172 pages) is perfect for planning your next Sonoma/Napa visit. In fact, although I have been many times to Napa, I wanted a new place to stay with a fireplace and jacuzzi bath and privacy. I found a great place in the book called Cottage Grove Inn - with 2 Frommers stars. Because it is so portable, not all the wineries are listed, so if what you need is a listing of all wineries this may not be your book. However, if you need to find the best in hotels and dining experiences as well as some of the best wineries to discover for yourself, then this little jewel is perfect.

I used this book to plan a short weekend trip to Napa Valley from Los Angeles. This book packed with all sorts of great information for each different wine country city (napa, yountville, etc) from best types of hotels for every budget, nearby attractions, spas, picnic spots, restaurants, etc. And of course a concise review and rating of the wineries in each city. I found myself taking the bag out of my bag during the trip to read up on different wineries and attractions I wanted to visit.It is very small and compact so it's easy to take with you too.

There's a lot of detail packed into this small guide. I liked the winery reviews because they outline what kind of experience each winery offers along with the basics about their history and wines. And restaurant reviews were frank and on the money.