Carmel Valley, California – A Travel Blog

by Julie Tetel Andresen | February 19, 2019 |

It’s not a hardship waking up to sunrise in Carmel Valley, California. The title image is what’s right outside my bedroom window.

Just a few days after moving into One City Center I went to visit my sister and brother-in-law who live in Carmel Valley. I’ve written about the area before in a series of blogs: Carmel, Salinas, and Monterey.

This time around we explored Carmel Valley Village and surroundings. This wine press on the sidewalk gives you a hint to what the main activity in town might be.

It was a wet day. I liked the atmospherics of the rain. Californians love to see their water reservoirs fill up after years of drought

Carmel Valley Village: Wine Tasting and More Wine Tasting

Vineyards lace the countryside. It makes sense to have one place – namely, the village – where you can do one-stop wine tasting.

You have the Holman Ranch tasting room:

Further down the road into the valley, you have the Holman Ranch which looks like this:

Back in town and next to the Holman room, you have:

Around the corner from Boekenoogen’s there’s:

Go a few more steps and you come upon:

After Testarossa, there’s Bernardus:

And these are only the beginning. You’re spoiled for choice, as the saying goes.

I just looked up how many wine tasting rooms there are in the village. The Chamber of Commerce lists 21.

Of course you have to eat something, so we chose Cafe Rustica.

Mostly people eat outside. This day, of course, everyone was inside. It’s a cozy space with great atmosphere

And in case you want to do something else … you can visit Moto Talbott, the motorcycle museum. Maybe?

It features 170 motorcycles from 16 countries. Its founder, Robb Talbott, is best known as the owner of Talbott Vineyards

What’s this museum doing in the middle of a town of tasting rooms? I had to read up on it to discover that the valley road is apparently great for motorcycles. Okay, now that I’ve been up and down it a number of times, I can see the appeal of the twists and turns and ups and down.

Carmel Valley: Land of Plenty

Drew and Myra Goodman founded Earthbound Farms in 1984. They were the first to produce organic vegetables on an industrial scale. They have a Farm Stand on the valley road not far from the junction with U.S. 1.

As for produce: one picture, a thousand words, and all that:

Organic Satsuma Mandarins and Organic Meyer Lemons at the Carmel Valley Market

Carmel Valley: Panetta Road

An interesting sign appears along the road to the town:

The Panetta family has been in the valley for a few generations. Until recently they grew almond trees. One of the Panettas, namely, Leon (b. 1938), is likely the most illustrious denizen of the whole valley.

Leon and his dog Bravo on his farm in the valley

Plenty of famous people live in the valley (Clint Eastwood comes to mind) but none has Panetta’s long and distinguished record of public service. Among many other positions he has held, he was White House Chief of staff to President Clinton and was the Director of the CIA under President Obama who oversaw the operation that brought down Osama bin Laden.