WINE COUNTRY UNCHARTED

Raise your hand if you knew this rugged Northern California coast was home to wineries and vineyards that rival some of the state’s more talked about wine producing counties. My hand is down. This was a totally uncharted part of the state for me. I frequent San Francisco and actually lived nearby when I was a child, but this was my first experience of this beauty of a county. I was such a newbie that I really kept saying “Mendo-cito,” a melding of where I had been in southern California and where I was about to explore. Their site talks about its residents as being fun-loving misfits, mavericks and makers and it encourages visitors to find their happy. I ventured up the coast, after spending time in San Francisco, to see what there was to see. Wending my