Monterey County is already renowned for great golf (Pebble Beach), books (John Steinbeck) and cars (Concours d'Elegance). Now you can add incredible wine to the list of premium draws the region boasts.Wine Enthusiast magazine recently named Monterey County as one of the world's top 10 wine destinations — ahead of the Napa Valley and on par with legendary wine regions like Rioja in Spain, Australia's Hunter Valley and the Stellenbosch region of South Africa. With a heritage of growing grapes and making wine dating back to 18th-century Franciscan friars who established missions in the region, Monterey County certainly has the pedigree. It's got the numbers, too — 175 vineyards within a two-hour drive of historic Cannery Row in Monterey. These growing regions produce 42 different varietals, an incredible array of wine given the size of the area.But it's not just about numbers. Monterey also produces high-quality wines, especially when it comes to Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Morgan Twelve Clones Pinot Noir and Morgan Metallico Un-Oaked Chardonnay are two of the locals that have made Wine Spectator magazine's list of the world's top 100 wines in recent years.

Monterey County is able to create such a wide variety of outstanding wines because of its unique geography. Offshore lies a huge undersea chasm that locals call the “Blue Grand Canyon.” The deep, cold water generates much of the region's microclimate: moderate temperatures coupled with an arid growing season that together facilitate slow, ripening of the grapes. This creates a "thermal rainbow" along the 90-mile Salinas River Valley, where most of the vineyards are located. During any given day, the north and south end of the Monterey wine country can vary in temperature by as much as 40 degrees. Toss in differences in soil, wind and moisture, and you get conditions suitable to grow a wide variety of wine grapes. And not only are the region's wines great on the palate, but reaching the vineyards is a breeze compared to the long slog to Napa and Sonoma.A five-hour drive north of Los Angeles, the Monterey wine region makes for an ideal weekend getaway from the Southland, the perfect place to sip wine and sup on fine, locally sourced cuisine.

So much so, that you just might find yourself calling in “sick” on Monday morning.  Steve Heimoff, once West Coast editor at Wine Enthusiast, wrote that superior food, drink and activities, along with drop-dead gorgeous scenery like Big Sur, the 17-Mile Drive and Carmel-by-the-Sea, make the area an incredible place to visit. best wine during pregnancy"Monterey has diverse draws for wine-oriented visitors. places to buy wine in chicagoGlamorous resorts dot the county, featuring world-class cuisine, stellar local wines and full spas that pamper with style." bc wine tour contestStart your journey at A Taste of Monterey, a regional wine bar, wine shop and bistro in Monterey’s Cannery Row. wine and food buses

Located in a vintage 1918 sardine cannery that's straight out of a Steinbeck novel, the tasting room features wines from 95 local vineyards. Not only that, but the new bistro boasts tables overlooking Monterey Bay and features local dishes like Monterey crab dip and Salinas Valley greens salad. best wine expensiveAfter that it's time to hit the road. wine for 60 guestsThe closest wine region to Monterey is the lush Carmel Valley, about 30 minutes inland and tucked into the north end of the Santa Lucia Mountains. what's the best red wine kitNestled in the valley are eight wineries including praiseworthy Galante and Talbott. best wine to buy at targetThe latter features a tasting room that doubles as vintage motorcycle museum. best fonts for wine labels

The valley is also home to the posh Bernardus Lodge and its hot new dining venue, Lucia Restaurant.The River Road Wine Trail starts just south of Salinas, meandering along the western side of the Salinas River Valley. It features wineries from three distinct growing regions: Monterey, Arroyo Seco and the Santa Lucia Highlands. Don’t miss Odonata Wines in the north, Scheid Vineyards in the south, and the highly regarded Pessagno Winery. Looking for a breezy way to experience a wine tasting without ever getting in a car? Carmel’s Wine Walk by-the-Sea is an easy way to get the most of what the region offers. As you stroll down Ocean Avenue, you’ll find nine distinctive tasting rooms, each featuring flights of flagship varietals and their best vintages. Feeling peckish after all those tastes? Ask anyone pouring for a recommendation or even to make a reservation at the best nearby restaurants.—Joe Yogerst, Tribune Content Solutions Today in Gear: April 28, 2017 Great Slip-On Shoes for Summer

The Best Watches to Take into the Backcountry The Right Fixed Blade Knife Your 7 Essential Apps of 2017 Of all things, it was a gold rush that complicated New Zealand’s winemaking journey. Though British transplant and “father of New Zealand wine” James Busby brought vines to the country in the 1830s and and there were Roman Catholic missionary-run wineries by the 1850s, the discovery of gold in the 1860s swept up the attention — and land — of New Zealanders with a fury just as ferocious as the one Americans had experienced 10 years before in California. It took another hundred years before New Zealanders rediscovered that fruit-based treasure, and their winemaking didn’t gain international acclaim until the 1990s. But unlike the search for gold, it doesn’t look like peak wine will hit Kiwis any time soon. The opposite, in fact. New Zealand’s 11 wine regions are growing in popularity; wine is now one of the country’s top ten exports. Certainly sauvignon blanc, the country’s mainstay wine, is to thank for that.

But more exciting for wine drinkers worldwide is the growth of other styles — syrahs, chardonnays, reislings and especially pinot noirs — within vineyards that are focused on biodynamic, renewable growing. These are some of the best the Kiwis have to offer from both the North and South islands. Hawke’s Bay: Taizo Osawa, a Japanese civil engineer who loved wine, decided to travel to America, Australia and New Zealand to choose a place to start his own winery. He ended up at a sheep farm in Hawke’s Bay, on the east side of the North Island, where he planted his first vines in 2006. With the help of Rod McDonald, named New Zealand’s winemaker of the year in 2006, Osawa has established a fine winery with 11 varieties; the most renowned are their pinot noir (cherry, strawberry, brown spices) and chardonnay (bright and creamy). Hawkes Bay: Trinity Hill’s concrete compound-esque design have borne architectural awards, and the winery’s location in the former bed of the Ngaruroro River have borne it great wines.

It’s another of the Hawkes Bay’s biggest names, and packed with wine industry veterans producing a wide range of varietals that show the region’s great range. If you have to choose, go for a chardonnay, cab blend or syrah. Central Otago: Rippon is an unusual vineyard. It’s situated in the southernmost wine growing region in the world, Central Otago, and produces organic wines using biodynamic processes, which rejects chemical fertilizer and pesticides and relies on a holistic understanding of wine agriculture. Central Otago is known for its pinot noir, and Rippon makes some of the best, along with a bright riesling and an osteiner — a refreshing and rare varietal. Central Otago: In the quality of its pinot noir, the Burn Cottage Vineyard is very much like other Central Otago wineries, but its American owners’ heritage in Kansas farming and Colorado bar ownership is not. Nor was its decision to run entirely biodynamic in 1990; nor is its label artwork, which features characters from a Goethe poem and is reminiscent of American craft beer.

The 10-hectare vineyard is situated alongside a 20-hectare farm filled with highland cattle, sheep and an olive grove, all of which lend a hand for fertilizer. Marlborough: Its name comes from New Zealand’s most common sandstone, found aplenty by owners Kevin and Kimberly Judd in the soil of the vineyards where they source their grapes in Marlborough, where 73 percent of the country’s wine is produced. But the stony soil has borne great fruit, in particular the sauvignon blanc that was for so long synonymous with New Zealand wine; they also make a “wild sauvignon” using wild yeast that tastes of “thyme and toasted sesame”. Marlborough: Founder and winemaker John Belsham has what you’d call a resume: he learned wine in Bordeaux, then returned to his native New Zealand and fostered great winemaking (and wine consulting) for years before opening Foxes Island in 1992. What began with a single chardonnay vintage expanded to include the area’s biggest new star, pinot noir, which now takes up 70 percent of the vineyard’s plantings, and a top-rated reisling.

Marlborough: Hans and Therese Herzog were well-established winemakers in their native Switzerland before they decided to make the jump to New Zealand in 1990. Their pinot noir, merlot-cabernet sauvignon and Montepulciano are all rated five stars, which they credit to low-yield, non-interventional winemaking. Drink them in the winery’s Michelin-starred restaurant and bistro during an exorbitant but memorable three- or five-course dinner. Nelson: One of New Zealand’s smallest wine regions is also one of its most beautiful, nestled in the sunny, central north of the South Island. A day of driving gets visitors to most of the region’s best wineries — and Neudorf is a must. Its owners, Tim and Judy Finn, began work on their winery in 1978 and built the first structure (described as an “elegant shed”) by hand in 1980; today they host concerts in the backyard. High points at their cellar door store are the pinot noir (they say it’s on the “European edge” of New Zealand’s pinot’s) and a complex, subtle chardonnay that thrives in the gentle sunshine of the Nelson hills.