The sensual impact of a vacation in the wine country is hard to beat. Hot days, cold nights, good food and meandering drives under blue skies between vineyards and wineries that range from the manicured to the seemingly long-ago abandoned.

Punctuating it all are hours spent nose in glass, asking yourself and fellow travelers, "What is this that I'm tasting, how do I describe it, and why do I find this style of wine pleasurable, or maybe best avoided?" Truly a journey of all the senses.

Fortunately for wine lovers living in Japan, California's two premier wine regions, the Sonoma and Napa valleys, lie just an hour's drive north of San Francisco, making them an ideal holiday for those looking to escape for a week, or even for business travelers who would like to sneak in a jet-lag breaking stopover on the way back from New York.