WIGGLING - WEAVING

Based on friends’ recommendations, personal taste, location, and descriptions from Frommer’s, I have decided on the following wineries. I wanted to make some notes to help me remember the plusses. When I present the information to my husband and the couple we are traveling with, I want to excite them about the choices.



I have marked the wineries on maps on Sonoma and Napa. Based on the locations, it looks like we’ll travel the full length of both and will be able to enjoy all the landscape! That was pure luck. I had only picked 2 wineries that were in Sonoma, so I looked back at some descriptions and found the Landmark Vinyards. We own a John Deere implement store, so when I saw the Deere name, I read further. Sounds like a good find. We’ll even get to play bocce if we want (yes, they give lessons).

My resources of friends, Frommers travel book, websites, and travel brochures have been very helpful. As far as reliable sources, I trust my friends recommendations, they know what I like and I know what they like. I felt that the Frommers travel book was non-biased. In the forward, it said that they want to know if you were disappointed in any recommendations. The author is from San Francisco and seems to know the area very well. She writes for travel magazines, fashion magazines and has written a book. Her descriptions are very candid - some negative, some positive. I used the brochures to locate the wineries and read some descriptions. Since the businesses in the brochure pay to be pubished in the guide, they would be less reliable in evaluating the tours, tastings and product.

This part of my research has been the “exploration” and “formulation” and “collection” stages in the ISP. The process has “hopped” around between these stages. After deciding the questions and locating information sources I then read to become more informed, which created more questions. The feelings that Kulthau explains in these stages were on target with me. As soon as I marked the wineries on the map, I felt huge relief. I have enough information about the wine country, what to expect, and now enough information about the wineries to know that this trip will be memorable. Now, to make appointments and find the hotel.

Resourses Used
Book:
Lankert, Erika. Frommer's Portable California Wine Country. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.,
eBooks.com International LLC. Retrieved February 9, 2007
<http://www.ebooks.com/>

Travel Brochures:
The Best of the Wine Country. Vol: 1 Summer 2006 – 2007. (Brochure). Dayguide
Publishing. San Francisco, CA

Winery Map. 2006 Official Sonoma Valley Visitors Bureau Edition, Sonoma Valley
Real Wine Country. Sonoma, CA

General Websites :
http://www.bestofthewinecountry.com/
http://www.sonomavalley.com/
http://www.winecountry.com/
http://www.cakebread.com/
http://www.sonoma.com/
http://www.backroads.com/
http://www.napavalley.com/
http://www.napasonoma.com/

**Invaluable resources – email correspondence with friend Peggy
Phone and personal conversations with friends Mike and Carol