If you find yourself on a day off in wine territory, and believe me it’s not just France or California anymore. You can get a great afternoon buzz on a nice summer day by traveling to different wineries. In case this is a new experience for you, you may want to get a designated driver, as most wineries aren’t exactly walking distance.

Next you simply go from winery to winery trying different kinds of wine for free (In most places). Most Wineries will pour about a ¼ of a glass starting with the white moving through to their Cabernet or port wine. You do mix the white and the red, which can cause a nasty headache. Solution? Try one or the other. You may want to take some fresh bread or crackers with you as we found 3 out of 5 didn’t have any. This will clean your palette after all these different tastes.

The smaller wineries seem to be the best ones to go to. Normally they don’t get distributed outside their county. Many restaurants won’t serve them either, I guess they just won’t sell. They are a lot more eager to please and sell you the known bottles.

Long Island even boasts a wine region as does Michigan and the area of Woodstock has some as well, (works really well the next time you have a day of in Poughkeepsie). Our trip was in the Paso Robles, CA area. You may know this area if you ever did a gig at the Paso Robles Mid-State Fair. Most people will remember the 100 + degree temperature. But don’t forget it’s a dry heat. We tried 5 different wineries which took us about 2 hours. There was only one place that charged us, which was only 1 dollar. I haven’t tried the Napa valley before, but some friends told me that a lot of places charge $5 just to try their wine. This just makes no sense to me. You would think that they would want you to buy their wine. God bless America as my friend John would always say.

We tried Castoro Cellars, Grey Wolf, Dark Star, Wildhorse, and Dover Canyon. My favorite was Dover Canyon, maybe because it was our last stop and anything tastes good at that point. Grey Wolf, Dark Star and Dover Canyon were the small wineries. Wildhorse which is now available nationwide is a killer wine. The Pinot Noir and Cabernet are brilliant. A bottle will run you about $17. Cellars left a lot to be desired. The bottle goes for about the same price as the Wildhorse and is nowhere near the same spice and flavor. Another good one to try is the J. Lohr cabernet which is also available nationwide.

There is a wine club you can join for $55 with Dover Canyon. They will send you 6 bottles of their new vintage. 3 in the fall and 3 in the spring. Man they’re good

Save your per diem for other important aspects as opposed to spending it on booze. It's even better than raiding the bus cooler; I highly recommend it.

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