Everyone seems to want to be in Wine Country during harvest, the most exciting and beautiful time of the year. There’s a buoyant energy at wineries now, as well as new tasting experiences and tours, many of which take place in the middle of the crush action. Wine writer Virginie Boone recommends these wineries for late summer and fall visits; they are open to the public, typically from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Contact the individual tasting room to confirm.

Anaba, 60 Bonneau Road, Sonoma, 707-996-4188, anabawines.com. In the heart of windy Carneros, Anaba welcomes tasters to enjoy its restored farmhouse and remarkable Rhone-variety wines, in addition to vineyard-designated Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays. A good spot for picnics, Anaba offers a wine education experience called Beyond the Label, during which each of its wines is explored in detail; there is also a Salon Tasting of flights of wines.

Benziger Family Winery, 1883 London Ranch Road, Glen Ellen, 707-935-4527, benziger.com. The great folks at Benziger now offer a seated Pinot Noir Experience, a chance to enjoy a guided flight of the winery’s top-notch, cool-climate de Coelo and Signaterra Pinot Noirs with paired bites. The cost is $50 per person, and the experience happens daily at 10:30 a.m. and 2 p.m.; advance reservations are required

Black Stallion Winery, 4089 Silverado Trail, Napa, 707-227-3250, blackstallionwinery.com. Posh and hospitable, Black Stallion offers luxury and comfort in equal measure, with plenty of outdoor seating to enjoy the winery’s Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay, and stellar bottlings of Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon.

Charles Krug-Peter Mondavi Sr. Family Vineyards, 2800 Main St., St. Helena, 707-967-2200, charleskrug.com. Charles Krug, where Peter and Robert Mondavi got their winemaking start, remains an impressive blend of old and new, and its epic Redwood Cellar is an airy place to taste. The Sauvignon Blancs are bright and crisp, the Cabernet Sauvignons elegant. Visitors can enjoy myriad tasting options and tours, and can take a bottle of wine to enjoy on the Great Lawn.

Chimney Rock, 5350 Silverado Trail, Napa, 800-257-2641, chimneyrock.com. Take a 90-minute Tomahawk Vineyard tour and sip winemaker Elizabeth Vianna’s Cabernet Sauvignon while listening to discussions on viticulture and winemaking. Gourmet cheeses provide nourishment ($125/person). Tours leave daily at 10 a.m.; reserve early.

DeLoach Vineyards, 1791 Olivet Road, Santa Rosa, 707-755-3309, deloachvineyards.com. The visitor experience at DeLoach is always a good one, but owner Jean-Charles Boisset can’t help but continue to up the ante, accentuating the celebration of nature here and the bounty of Biodynamic farming, as he has done at Raymond Vineyards in Napa Valley. This time of year, take part in the MFS Blending Experience, a chance to play with Pinot Noir; it’s offered daily by appointment, at 10:30 a.m. or 1:30 p.m.

Frank Family Vineyards, 1091 Larkmead Lane, Calistoga, 800-574-9463, frankfamilyvineyards.com. Frank Family is a popular Napa Valley stop because of its friendly gardens, picnic spots and affordable tasting fees: $20 for a tasting of four wines, from sparkling to Cabernet Sauvignon and Petite Sirah. It also happens to inhabit a historic site, the one-time Larkmead Winery, third-oldest in the valley.

Geyser Peak Winery, 2306 Magnolia Drive, Healdsburg, 707-857-2500, geyserpeakwinery.com. A new home for the timeless winery, Geyser Peak is near downtown Healdsburg; visitors can walk or bike to the new digs. Premier tastings start at $10, reserve tastings at $15, and summertime picnic options and seated wine and cheese pairing packages (by reservation) are available to guests.

Grgich Hills Estate, 1829 St. Helena Highway, Rutherford, 800-532-3057, grgich.com. The mighty Grgich Hills, a wonderful producer of Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon, offers a slew of fine visitor experiences, from barrel tasting every Friday at 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., to seated wine tastings with cheese ($40); a rustic vineyard adventure ($125); and grape stomping ($30, Labor Day to Halloween). On any day, the staff will also order box lunches for visitors to enjoy on the grounds.

Hall Wines, 401 St. Helena Highway, St. Helena, 707-967-2626, hallwines.com. Home to the gigantic silver bunny sculpture, Hall celebrates wine and art, offering the chance to breeze through its winery enjoying works of modern art and sculptures while sampling its exceptionally high-quality wines. Hall also runs a winery in Rutherford that’s more off the beaten track and can be visited too, by appointment, for tours and tastings.

Hamel Family Wines, 15401 Sonoma Highway, Sonoma, 707-996-5800, hamelfamilywines.com. So new that the winery, estate house and wines caves are still under construction, Hamel makes Bordeaux-style wines from four Sonoma Valley estate vineyards. Martha McClellan of Levy & McClellan and Checkerboard Vineyards – and a former associate winemaker at Harlan Estate – makes the wines.

J Vineyards & Winery, 11447 Old Redwood Highway, Healdsburg, 707-431-5400, jwine.com. A glass of bubbly is always a good thing, and this is a well-appointed spot at which to have one, as well as taste J’s Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays. But don’t miss having a sip of Pinot Gris, among its most popular, hot-weather-perfect wines. The J Bubble Room pairs wines with exquisite, locally sourced dishes; chef Erik Johnson is a huge proponent of sourcing locally.

Jordan Vineyard & Winery, 1474 Alexander Valley Road, Healdsburg, 800-654-1213, jordanwinery.com. By appointment, Jordan welcomes visitors for walking tours through its beautiful compound, which includes estate gardens where executive chef Todd Knoll sources a cornucopia of produce for winery meals. Tours and seated tastings are held Monday through Saturday throughout the year.

Littorai, 788 Gold Ridge Road, Sebastopol, 707-823-9586, littorai.com. Nestled in the cool Sebastopol Hills, Littorai offers two tasting options, both by appointment only. The first is a Single Vineyard Tasting of vineyard-designated Pinot Noir and Chardonnay ($25); the second is a tour of the Pivot Estate Vineyard, farmed Biodynamically, followed by a tasting ($40). Littorai winemaker Ted Lemon is among California’s finest winemakers and respected throughout the world.

Markham Vineyards, 2812 St. Helena Highway, St. Helena, 707-963-5292, markhamvineyards.com. Situated in one of the oldest stone buildings in Napa Valley, Markham makes a wide range of wines and offers a taste of four (Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon) in its daily Rock & Roll Tasting ($15). The on-site art gallery features the work of music photographer Baron Wolman, with lots of shots from Woodstock and the time he spent shooting for Rolling Stone magazine.

Monticello Vineyards, 4242 Big Ranch Road, Napa, 707-253-2802, corleyfamilynapavalley.com. Come to the Corley family’s Napa winery and sit down to a Jefferson House Reserve Tasting ($30) held in the Jefferson House Reserve Room or on the terrace. Dig deep into single-vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, or sign up to be winemaker for a day ($90), with a two-hour blending session and walk through the vineyards that ends with a tasting of more wines.

Murphy-Goode Winery, 20 Matheson St., Healdsburg, 800-499-7644, murphygoodewinery.com. Recently refreshed, the Murphy-Goode tasting room feels like a remodeled barn, with ample room to relax, play shuffleboard or linger on the back porch. It also houses a vintage photo booth for taking funny pictures in between sips of wine.

Navarro Vineyards and Winery, 5601 Highway 128, Philo, 800-537-9463, navarrowine.com. The wide selection of crisp white wines and bright, mellow reds is worth the drive to Philo in Anderson Valley, where Navarro’s homey picnic grounds inspire taking one’s time. Plenty of picnic goodies are stocked in the tasting room, including co-owner Sarah Cahn Bennett’s fine farmstead goat cheeses, made down the road at Pennyroyal Farms. Tours into the vineyard are led twice a day, by appointment.

Odette Estate, 5998 Silverado Trail, Napa, 707-224-7533, odettewinery.com. PlumpJack’s latest endeavor, Odette Estate, is open daily by appointment for tasting and hosts its popular Secret Cinema movie night Oct. 19. Beginning at 5:30 p.m., it’s a night of food, wine and an old-fashioned drive-in movie ($60/car). The movie is announced the week of the event (that’s the secret part); dressing up is encouraged and Gott’s Food Truck is on hand for the hungry.

Patz & Hall’s Sonoma House, 21200 Eighth St. East, Sonoma, 877-265-6700, patzhall.com. In a well-appointed house in the Carneros region, this chic tasting spot highlights all the delights of Patz & Hall, a specialist in single-vineyard Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Taste four wines for $25 with truffle nuts, or sit down for a discussion and tasting of six wines with meticulously prepared mini-meals ($50). Chances are the day will start off with a glass of bubbly to open the palate. Recently added is the Terrace Tasting, an intimate tableside tasting of single-vineyard wines with local cheese ($40).

Phillips Hill Winery, 5101 Highway 128, Philo, 707-895-2209, phillipshill.com. Newly opened in Anderson Valley, Phillips Hill resides in a two-story, restored apple-drying barn where tastings are held overlooking the nearby creek. French cheeses and charcuterie are served from the on-site commercial kitchen, a nice accompaniment to the elegant Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Gewürztraminer made here.

Quintessa, 1601 Silverado Trail, Rutherford, 707-286-2730, quintessa.com. Quintessa has recently built three lovely pavilions overlooking its Dragon’s Hill vineyard block. There, visitors (by appointment) are invited to enjoy a 90-minute immersion into the winery’s Cabernet Sauvignon, from barrel samples highlighting the estate’s 26 distinct vineyard blocks to rare library wines, all paired with local cheeses. The experience lasts 90 minutes and costs $125/person.

Red Car Wine, 8400 Graton Road, Sebastopol, 707-829-8500, redcarwine.com. Red Car makes some of Sonoma’s most exciting cool-climate wines, from crisp Chardonnays to nicely rendered Pinot Noirs and Syrahs. The whimsical labels alone are worth the trip.

Robert Biale Vineyards, 4038 Big Ranch Road, Napa, 707-257-7555, biale.com. A producer of truly elegant vineyard-designated Zinfandel and Petite Sirah, Biale works with a wide range of historic vineyards throughout Napa and Sonoma. Enjoy the outdoor patio and ponder the views of the surrounding vineyards as you taste through a lineup of fine wines, including the winery’s signature Black Chicken Napa Valley Zin, an ode to bootlegging in Prohibition days.

Rodney Strong Vineyards, 11455 Old Redwood Highway, Healdsburg, 800-678-4763, rodneystrong.com. For a comprehensive taste of Sonoma County with expansive views of vines, look no further than Rodney Strong, which offers an estate wine tasting daily as well as the option to try single-vineyard and reserve wines. From its Alexander Valley Cabernets to Davis Bynum Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays, there’s a lot to like here. Outdoor picnics are also in order, daily on the winery’s lawn or vineyard terrace, with picnic items for purchase inside.

Roederer Estate, 4501 Highway 128, Philo, 707-895-2288, roederestate.com. Take a tour ($6) of the Anderson Valley home of Roederer Estate and see how some of America’s best sparkling wines are made, then sit on the balcony and breathe in the cool coastal air. Picnics for two ($25) can be ordered ahead.

Rutherford Hill Winery, 200 Rutherford Hill Road, Rutherford, 707-963-1871, rutherfordhill.com. Tasting flights and cave tours happen daily at Rutherford Hill, a lovely tasting room with beautiful views of Napa Valley. But take advantage of the Saturday Blend Your Own Merlot Seminar if you can, a two-hour session that includes wine tasting and a cave tour, followed by the chance to blend, bottle and label a wine of one’s own ($105/person).

Schramsberg Vineyards, 1400 Schramsberg Road, Calistoga, 800-877-3623, schramsberg.com. Among the first in California to specialize in sparkling wine, Schramsberg occupies hallowed, historic ground and is home to the oldest hillside vineyards in Napa Valley and some of the first caves dug for storing and aging wine. Take a tour by appointment, and don’t miss the Mirabelle Brut Rosé and other gorgeous sparklers before moving on to taste the J. Davies Estate Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir.

Seghesio Family Vineyards, 700 Grove St., Healdsburg, 707-433-3579, seghesio.com. Through mid-October, this mighty Zinfandel producer operates Cafe La Brezza, a place to gather and enjoy small plates of Mediterranean-inspired, seasonally sourced foods such as oven-roasted shrimp, white bean salad and ribs with wines by the glass.

Silverado Vineyards, 6121 Silverado Trail, Napa, 707-257-1770, silveradovineyards.com. Perched atop a hill off the Silverado Trail, this is a quiet place to visit and enjoy terrace views, plus many tasting options on offer. The Saddleblock Tasting is a good one this time of year; it includes a tour of the Saddleblock vineyard with wines and appetizers ($75/person). Limited to four guests.

Tasting Room on the Green, 9050 Windsor Road, Windsor, 707-687-5089. A partnership of Deux Amis and Mutt Lynch wineries, this dog-friendly spot pours Zinfandel, Petite Sirah and a red blend called Ducks a Miss, made by Deux Amis winemaker Phyllis Zouzounis. Mutt Lynch wines include Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot and a limited series of vineyard-designate wines under the Man’s Best Friend imprimatur.

VJB Vineyards & Cellars, 60 Shaw Ave., Kenwood, 707-833-2300, vjbcellars.com. In an Italian-inspired, courtyard-centered villa in the heart of Sonoma Valley, VJB serves steamy coffee and pastries in the morning; panini, pasta and pizza during the day; and samples of its Italian-inspired wines. The winery also stocks co-proprietor Maria Belmonte’s line of sauces, pestos and tapenades, and houses a shop for gelato and specialty chocolates.

Baci Cafe & Wine Bar, 336 Healdsburg Ave., Healdsburg, 707-433-8111, bacicafeandwinebar.com. Classic Italian dishes, many of them from the northern part of Italy, are expertly prepared by Shari Sarabi, who is originally from Iran but cooks as though he’s from Milan. A large wood-fired oven turns out some of the best pizza in Sonoma County. The sauce Bolognese is the real thing, and there’s tiramisu and panna cotta for dessert. The wine list features wines from Italy and from around Healdsburg. Reviewed 12/1/13. $$$

Backyard, 6566 Front St., Forestville, 707-820-8445, backyardforestville.com. The farmers, ranchers and/or fisherfolk who produce just about every ingredient in every item on the menu are listed by name, and they’re almost all from Sonoma County, and right around Forestville. This is great in-season, locally produced food, ably handled in the kitchen. The wines are local, too. When the place fills up, it gets loud, and the service can be spotty, but the good locavore cooking helps smooth the rough spots. Reviewed 12/9/12. $$-$$$

Belly: Left Coast Kitchen & Taproom, 523 Fourth St., Santa Rosa, 707-526-5787, belly707.com. Belly raises the bar for gastropubs in the North Bay, with wonderfully flavorful renditions of staples such as pizza, burgers, steak, barbecued pulled pork, crab cakes, salads and more. Chef Gray Rollin has been tour chef for many popular music acts, and you can imagine band members appreciating his way with comfort food. Two dozen beers on tap and 26 more by the bottle present extensive choices for ways to wet and whet your whistle. Reviewed 4/28/13. $-$$

Bravas Bar de Tapas, 420 Center St., Healdsburg, 707-433-7700, starkrestaurants.com. Owners Mark and Terri Stark traveled to Spain and fell in love with the wine-loving, snack-munching, pal-schmoozing culture of the tapas bar scene there. So they brought it back home to join their four other Sonoma County restaurants. The backyard of the pre-war house that’s home to Bravas is transformed into an alfresco venue for tapas-style conviviality. The snacks are extraordinarily diverse and delicious. Scads of Spanish and local wines and sangrias await. Reviewed 12/16/12. $$-$$$$

Café Citti, 9049 Sonoma Highway, Kenwood, 707-833-2690, cafecitti.com. Luca and Linda Citti found the key to success when they started their trattoria in Kenwood a couple decades ago: forget fancy trappings and serve really good Italian food at reasonable prices. It worked and Café Citti has been thrilling taste buds ever since. The basics — lasagna, tortellini or ravioli in brodo, rotisserie chicken, cannoli, tiramisu — are all here and done beautifully. It’s the kind of hole in the wall that visitors to Italy write home about. Reviewed 10/28/12. $$.

Canneti Roadhouse, 6675 Front St., Forestville, 707-887-2232, cannetirestaurant.com. Canneti Roadhouse primarily serves Tuscan food that chef and owner Francesco Torre learned to love as a child in Italy. That means a local version of the Mediterranean diet, with lots of fresh vegetables, olive oil, bread and meat (especially game). A four-course seasonal tasting menu is a good bet, and each course can be paired with wine. During clement weather, there’s alfresco dining out back. Reviewed 5/26/13. $$$-$$$$

Chef Patrick’s, 16337 Main St., Guerneville, 707-869-9161, chefpatricks.com. Although the food is billed as California-French, it also includes lots of Italian dishes. And since Chef Patrick is Vietnamese, there’s a Southeast Asian accent to some of his cooking. His many influences do not result in chaos, but rather in a refined cuisine that includes fish, fowl and beefy favorites. He likes to amp up the flavor profile of popular dishes like beef ragu, which is all to the good. Reviewed 2/10/13. $$-$$$

Diavola Pizzeria and Salumeria, 21021 Geyserville Ave., Geyserville, 707-814-0111, diavolapizzeria.com. Chef and owner Dino Bugica spent years learning about real Italian food from his real Italian family and by living and working in Italy. It shows in his house-made salamis, authentic pizzas, pasta dishes, entrees and desserts. The salami and cheese appetizer is not to be missed. Diavola is a magnet for food lovers to sleepy, out-of-the-way Geyserville, and deservedly so. Reviewed 5/11/14. $$-$$$$

Dry Creek Kitchen, 317 Healdsburg Ave., Healdsburg, 707-431-0330, charliepalmer.com. This is Healdsburg’s classiest restaurant and one of its best. The cooking is international-Californian, meaning lots of fresh local ingredients handled with sophistication, such as scallops en croute with a black truffle sauce, and house-smoked Liberty duck breast with a confit of duck leg meat and pork belly joining it on the plate. The pastry chef does excellent work with intricate delicacies. There’s a wine list of more than 500 wines, all of them from Sonoma County, and there is no corkage fee if you bring a Sonoma County wine of your own. All this glamour is not inexpensive, so be prepared.
Reviewed 6/1/14. $$$$

Flavor Bistro, 96 Old Courthouse Square, Santa Rosa, 707-573-9600, flavorbistro.com. In its friendly, unpretentious way, Flavor Bistro is a shining example of Sonoma County’s enviable food scene. There is a great wine list, house-made pastas and pizzas, meats and vegetables from local organic farms, breakfast most days and lunch and dinner every day, and best of all, modest prices on most dishes. All this makes Flavor the go-to place for locals (and wise visitors). Reviewed 12/8/13. $-$$$$

Forchetta/Bastoni, 6948 Sebastopol Ave., Sebastopol, 707-829-9500, forchettabastoni.com. This review focuses on Bastoni, which serves Southeast Asian street food, with lots of noodles, chicken and rice with spicy hot sauce, salads, curries, and of course, a very good banh mi sandwich. Prices are moderate and there’s lots from which to choose. The full bar is one of Sebastopol’s top spots for get-togethers and friendly fun.
Reviewed 9/22/13. $$

the girl & the fig, 110 West Spain St., Sonoma, 707-933-3000, thegirlandthefig.com. The food has never been better at this successful restaurant since proprietor Sondra Bernstein and executive chef John Toulze expanded their repertoire during world travels. The wines are all from Rhone grape varieties from the U.S., France and Spain. The full-flavored menu goes perfectly with the French country theme. Duck confit, steak frites, wild flounder meuniere, pastis-scented mussels — there’s so much to like. Reviewed 2/17/13. $$-$$$

Il Posto, 4211 Solano Ave., Napa, 707-251-8600, ilpostonapa.com. An excellent neighborhood restaurant that has the best characteristics of all good Italian places: The pastas are made from scratch, care is taken to respect the ingredients, and the food appeals to folks of all ages. There’s pizza, of course, and it’s good, especially with the house-made sausage on top. A big wine list enhances classic chicken and veal dishes, cioppino and great desserts. Reviewed 5/4/14. $$-$$$

Jack and Tony’s Restaurant and Whisky Bar, 115 Fourth St., Santa Rosa, 707-526-4347, jackandtonys.com. Jack and Tony’s has the best whisky bar in the North Bay, with more than 300 selections from around the world, from rough to smooth, cheap to very expensive, and with nuances to satisfy any palate. The restaurant serves crowd-pleasing dishes such as steaks, grilled ahi tuna, sage-stuffed roasted chicken and braised lamb shank. Do not miss the butterscotch pudding, which is made with real Scotch and butter. Reviewed 1/13/13. $$$-$$$$

John Ash & Co., 4330 Barnes Road, Santa Rosa, 707-527-7687, vintnersinn.com. John Ash & Co. remains the most soigné restaurant in Sonoma County, and the Pat Kuleto-designed “Front Room” is the comfiest watering hole imaginable. Chef Thomas Schmidt keeps the restaurant’s reputation for fine food burnished bright, using fresh, local and seasonal ingredients whenever possible. After all, it was this place that invented Wine Country cuisine. It’s perfect for celebrations of any kind. Reviewed 2/3/13. $$$-$$$$

Monti’s Rotisserie & Bar, 714 Village Court, Montgomery Village, Santa Rosa, 707-568-4404, starkrestaurants.com. A centrally located site in Montgomery Village makes Monti’s a fine choice for lunches, after-work get-togethers and dinners, when the wood-fired rotisserie is lit and turns out specials of the day, including roast leg of lamb, baby back ribs, prime rib, Liberty duck and veal roast. The restaurant includes an oyster and seafood bar, pizzas, salads, pastas and a long list of specialty drinks mixed by the gregarious bar staff. Reviewed 2/12/12. $$$-$$$$.

Olive & Vine, 14301 Arnold Drive, Glen Ellen, 707-996-9152, oliveandvinerestaurant.com. Glen Ellen’s reputation as a stop for fine restaurants got a huge boost when Catherine Venturini and John Burdick opened Olive & Vine in Jack London Village. She and her chef de cuisine, Julie Warner, do an exceptional job exalting local and organic ingredients in their versions of Sonoma cuisine. The menu changes seasonally, but just about everything is worth a return visit. Reviewed 5/20/12. $$$-$$$$.

Pamposh Restaurant, 52 Mission Circle, Suite 110, Santa Rosa; 707-538-3367, pamposhrestaurant.com. This small but mighty Indian restaurant occupies a nondescript corner of the Mission Circle Shopping Center, but the food is anything but nondescript. It’s full-on Indian and Kashmiri cooking, with lamb, chicken, and vegetable curries; a signature dish of lamb in an apricot and coconut sauce; marinated and flash-cooked tandoori chicken; house-made yogurt drinks; perfect creamed spinach and soft cheese; and much more. Highly recommended. Reviewed 7/21/13. $$

630 Park Steakhouse at the Graton Resort and Casino, 630 Park Court, Rohnert Park; 707-588-7115, gratonresortcasino.com. Here’s your big-time casino-style steakhouse. Your 42-ounce prime T-bone for two is $120, your own 20-ounce rib-eye is $54, and filet mignons start at $43 for the “petite.” The meat is as terrific as the prices, and the kitchen also serves up chicken and seafood, like the 28-ounce Northern Australian lobster tail for $149. Side dishes of vegetables, potatoes, and comfort foods like mac and cheese run around $10 extra, each. Ah, g’wan. You only live once. Reviewed 12/29/13. $$$$

Partake by K-J, 241 Healdsburg Ave., Healdsburg; 707-433-6000, partakebykj.com. Here’s something different. Sixteen of Kendall-Jackson wines are paired with small plates designed for the food to show off the wine and the wine to show off the food. There are also three “tastings” that include a cheese and wine pairing for $25, a five-course vegetarian food and wine tasting for $35, and a five-course chef’s tasting that culminates with K-J’s Trace Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon paired with seasonal meats such as lamb loin. Reviewed 10/13/13.

Riccardo’s Restaurant and Bar, 2700 Yulupa Ave., Suite 7, Santa Rosa, 707-545-7696, ricardossantarosa.com. The main feature of Riccardo’s is the long bar where Bennett Valley-ites like to meet and chat. The food is good American grub, better than the fare at the previous incarnation at this spot, John Barleycorn’s. Big sandwiches include a Reuben, top-notch garden burger and grilled cheese. Entrees include a tender rib-eye steak, brick chicken and salmon. Reviewed 5/18/14. $$-$$$

Rustic: Francis’s Favorites, 300 Via Archimedes, Geyserville, 707-857-1485, franciscoppolawinery.com. Francis Ford Coppola needs no introduction, but at his restaurant-winery-resort-watering hole in Geyserville, you’ll get one anyway. The restaurant, called “Rustic, Francis’s Favorites,” features the Italian foods of his childhood, plus adult loves such as an Argentine grill serving big portions of beef with chimichurri sauce. The wine list is mostly from Coppola’s winery, and that’s OK. A wood-burning oven makes wonderful pizzas.
Reviewed 11/10/13. $-$$$$

Shige Sushi Japanese Kitchen, 8235 Old Redwood Highway, Cotati, 707-795-9753, shige-sushi.com. A small but cozy room in the heart of Cotati has a big surprise for lovers of Japanese food. The appetizers alone are worth the trip — albacore with thin rounds of jalapeño peppers, poke salad, fried chicken karaage — and much more, all well-prepared by chef Shigekazu Mori. Reviewed 3/10/13. $$

Terrapin Creek, 1580 Eastshore Road, Bodega Bay, 707-875-2700, terrapincreekcafe.com. Owners Andrew Truong and Liya Lin have fashioned one of the most charming restaurants in Wine Country, and the cooking is a shining example of locally sourced ingredients used in refined and thoughtful dishes that never fail to please. Simple soups and salads come to life. Entrees are rich and bold, such as lamb sugo over pappardelle and glazed baby back ribs. The cooking is pure Californian with a hint of French and Asian. Highly recommended. Reviewed 3/24/13. $$$$

Wild Goat Bistro, 6 Petaluma Blvd. N., Petaluma, 707-658-1156, wildgoatbistro.com. This small bistro tucked in the back of the Great Petaluma Mill specializes in Neapolitan-style pizza, and that means perfectly made and with crackling thin crusts. But there’s lots more to like, mostly dishes with an Italian flair, including local lamb ragu over pappardelle. The salads are organic, the foods made locally by artisans, and the meats are nitrate-free. A good wine list helps out. Reviewed 3/3/13. $$-$$$

Woodfour Brewing Company, 6780 Depot Street, Sebastopol, 707-823-3144, woodfourbrewing.com. Just what you want in a restaurant: something new and different. The brewery in The Barlow center makes a range of unique beers and ales, and has a cupboard full of bottled beers from all over the world. The food is as ingenious as the beers and beautifully displayed on the plates. It shows great creativity on the part of the chefs as they turn unlikely ingredients into exceptionally delicious dishes. Reviewed 9/8/13. $$

Long before most of us wake up, a small army of unsung heroes scurries around wineries like ants, climbing ladders to do punch-downs, shoveling pomace out of tanks and prepping the crush pad for the arrival of new grapes, all while guzzling coffee and trying to stay awake.

Meet the warm body otherwise known as the Harvest Intern: That wide-eyed, gullible lackey enslaved by dreams of one day becoming a winemaker, supported by a measly $15 an hour and somehow still alive come November.

“I’d say ‘grunt’ is a good name for interns,” said Andrea Moore, a wine retailer who left her husband behind in Columbus, Ohio, for two months to work the 2013 harvest at Moshin Vineyards outside Healdsburg in the Russian River Valley.

“A marathon is the best way to describe it,” added Brad Schroeder, an aspiring winemaker who has interned in three harvests, at Harvest Moon Estate & Winery (Santa Rosa), Williams Selyem Winery (Healdsburg) and Grant Burge Wines (Australia). “It’s kind of like an uphill race and from there you just fall back down the hill.”

For Sebastian Zutant, a Washington, D.C., sommelier who came out on a lark to work the 2006 harvest at DeLoach Vineyards in Santa Rosa, “It was like going to boot camp. It’s definitely the most intense thing I’ve ever done in my life.”

While they may labor behind the scenes, interns play a huge role in each wine grape harvest. From late August to early November, hundreds of them flood into Sonoma to do the scut work so vital to producing quality wine.

In the hierarchy of winery fiefdoms, the intern falls far below full-time staff and even seasonal grape pickers on the pay scale. Many are fresh college graduates, but it’s not uncommon to find 30- and 40-somethings in between jobs and looking for adventure.

As the 2014 harvest ramps up to its peak, here’s a look at the self-imposed three-month sentence of hard labor, through the eyes of the intern.

EARLY WARNING SIGNS

Back in May, when wineries started posting jobs for harvest interns on UC Davis’ VENjobs website (wineserver.ucdavis.edu/careers/venjobs), telltale statements such as “No previous cellar and harvest work required” should have been ample warning. Other postings include, “Must be able to handle long hours, 5-7 days a week, be able to lift heavy loads and climb ladders.” Some, like Pott Wines in Napa Valley, tried to have a sense of humor about it. Its “Super Sexy Culty Pants Wine Internship” promised “extra groovy, mega luxurious swimming pools and movie stars.”

“For people who have never worked a harvest before, I try to warn them and gauge whether they’re gonna last,” said Katie Carter, assistant winemaker at DeLoach and a former intern who’s now in charge of hiring the intern crew every harvest. “The last thing I want is to hire someone and they leave after three weeks.”

INITIATIONS

“There are usually one or two interns in the beginning who can’t stop asking, ‘When are the grapes gonna come in? I need my hours,’” said Shane Finley, winemaker at Lynmar Estate in Sebastopol, who interned at Copain in the Russian River Valley, Torbreck in the Barossa Valley in Australia and Domaine Pierre Gaillard in the Côte-Rotie of France. Now in charge of his own intern crews, Finley said, “I try to tell them, ‘Don’t worry, they’ll be here soon enough.’ And then they’re usually the ones who, when it starts getting crazy, say, ‘I need a day off. This is way too much.’”

Once the grapes start coming in, “There’s a first time where you put the boots on and dig out 6.5 tons of Pinot Noir [pomace] out of the tank, Moore explained. “When you do it the first time at Moshin, they take a photo of you to capture the moment.”

At DeLoach, Carter sees a familiar expression on interns at the beginning of every harvest. “Everybody’s got to dig out their first tank. You gotta suit up and get in the tank and everybody has this petrified and slightly excited look on their face.”

THE ROUTINE

When the intern is not cleaning and recleaning all the equipment, he or she is sorting grapes as they come in, something Zutant remembers as “a terrible experience — your hands rattle for like six hours afterward.”

Punch-downs require them to climb atop the fermentation tank, armed with a “a big, potato masher punch-down stick,” as Carter called it, and physically push down with all their body weight to break up and submerge the cap of seeds and skins that has risen to the top.

“You could do 20 punch-downs a day or 50 a day, it all depends on the winery,” noted Schroeder.

For Moore, “Sometimes trying to get through that cap was nearly impossible. I cried, literally I cried, it was that hard.”

Then there are the pump-overs, where the fermenting juice from the bottom of the tank is pumped back over the top cap to recirculate the mix. Later, after the juice is removed from the tank, a lucky intern gets to shovel several tons of pomace (seeds, skins and stems) out of the tank to make way for the next batch of grapes.

But it’s the cleaning that can really get monotonous — and hot.

“Cleaning the press was the most miserable process,” said Hardy Wallace, wine-blogger-turned-winemaker who made a splash in 2009 when he won the Murphy-Goode Winery international search for a “wine country lifestyle correspondent.” He now has his own Dirty and Rowdy Family Wines label, but to learn the ropes he interned at Failla Winery in Napa Valley in 2010 and Salinia Wine Company in the Russian River Valley in 2011.

“You have these tiny little brushes and you’re trying to get every little grape seed out of the press,” Wallace said. “You’re using hot water and you’re inside the press, which has been baking in the sun. It’s like a ‘Looney Tunes’ steam bath and you’re inside it. You more or less start talking in tongues.”

As the grind continues through 10- to 12-hour days, with only one day off a week, “Everybody gets a little zombie-like at some point,” Carter said. “The more tired people get, the more risk there is of falling into a vat or getting run over by a forklift or getting electrocuted. There’s a lot that can happen if you’re not watching out.”

UNFORGETTABLE MOMENTS

“I remember at Torbreck in Australia, working 21 hours straight and going through 45 tons of grapes,” Finley said. “The last four hours, from midnight to 4 in the morning, we were drinking instant coffee and shots of vodka just trying to get it done. We’re outside and it starts misting and we’re standing there in rain jackets. It’s pitch-black. We’re in the middle of the Barossa (Valley) and there are no lights and it just looks like a total wasteland. All we had was this standup light, like you get at Home Depot, and you’d drive off into the darkness in the forklift to get the grape bins. I thought I was going to fall asleep and run into something. At some point, your body just starts to shut down.”

And then there are the nights when interns think they might actually die. “I inhaled the pure gas of the ozone machine and I literally threw up,” Schroeder recalled. “You’re thinking, ‘I’m gonna die, I’m gonna die.’ And everybody’s laughing at you. I’ll never forget that one.”

THE WALKING WOUNDED

Harvest is probably best measured by the toll it takes on the body, day after day, week after six-day week, punch-down after punch-down. The most common injury is carpal tunnel syndrome from overworking the hands.

“I ended up with carpal tunnel issues that still plague me to this day,” Finley said. “It got so bad that in the middle of harvest I had to go to the doctor. I would wake up in the middle of the night and it felt like someone was stabbing my shoulder. My arms would be asleep until the middle of the afternoon.”

His Aussie mates told him to shrug it off. “Everybody’s John Wayne down there and I was trying to do it, too, but the pain hurt so much I was almost throwing up. It was that bad.”

The doctor gave him heavy anti-inflammatory medication and braces to wear while he slept.

For Wallace, it got so bad that “In the middle of the night, both hands would fall completely asleep and you have no use of your fingers. I can remember having my alarm go off on my watch at 4 a.m. and my fingers on both hands are so numb I’m trying to turn it off with my chest because I have no use of my fingers.”

After Moore returned to Ohio, her fingers “were still swollen for months after I left the internship. I was really concerned about it. I couldn’t bend them the same. I wasn’t able to crack them, like actually make my knuckles crack, until February.”

Then there are the feet, which are constantly wet and sloshing through grape juice and water from hoses. Harvest veterans are loyal to waterproof boots, brands including Blundstone, Redback and Rossi. But there’s always the naïve intern who shows up in tennis shoes.

“I used to call it jungle foot,” Wallace said. “It’s like what happens when you hike for weeks in a wet climate. Everything starts falling off your feet — the skin and everything.”

While interning at Mulderbosch Vineyards in South Africa, Carter got a nasty case of athlete’s foot after wearing soggy hiking boots day after day. “I went to the pharmacy, but they’d never heard of ‘athlete’s foot.’ They had no idea what I was talking about. It was super embarrassing.”

THE HARVEST WEIGHT-LOSS DIET

“The girls love it because they end up losing like 15 pounds — everyone does,” Schroeder said. “I was easily eating like 3,000 calories a day, and I ended up losing like 7 pounds by the end of harvest.”

Wallace lost 18 pounds during the harvest of 2011. “A lot of that was from barrel rolling,” he said. You’re physically rolling 500-pound barrels for like four hours a day. I was exhausted, but in the best shape I’ve ever been in my life.”

Zutant lost around 15 pounds in 2006, which he attributes to “hauling hoses up ladders and doing punch-downs at 4 a.m. It was pretty brutal, but I was pretty ripped by the end of it.”

THE NICKNAMES

“When I was at Williams Selyem, the assistant winemaker came up to me on the first day and said, ‘You look like a Gary,’” Schroeder remembers. “I told him, ‘My name’s Brad,’ but that was it, my name was Gary for the rest of harvest. By the end, at least half of the people didn’t know my name was Brad.”

At Lynmar, Finley nicknamed an intern “One Speed” because “he never seemed to be able to go fast or slow, just one speed all the time.”

Said DeLoach’s Carter, “I found out halfway through one harvest they were all calling this one dude ‘Snake’ and another guy was ‘Biscuit.’ You never really find out why.”

GOING AWOL

“I’ve never seen it, but you always hear the stories of people just walking off the job and never coming back,” Wallace said. “That’s one of the cardinal sins in the wine business. Once harvest starts, you don’t quit until it’s over.”

But “every once in a while, you get someone who cracks,” Finley said.

In 2006, he had an intern who was an avid bow hunter and had been camping near a winery in Kenwood where grapes were being processed one day.

When the winery owner mentioned he was having a problem with deer on his property, “this guy just kind of lost it, and he took his bow and arrow into the woods to go after the deer,” Finley said. “He just needed a couple of days off, and then he came back.”

THE END IS NEAR

By the time the leaves start changing colors and the grapes are all picked in late October and early November, there’s nothing left to process and nothing left to clean. It’s time for the ceremonial dumping of the uniform.

“Pretty much all the clothes I took out there to work in, I threw away after it was over,” Moore said.

Then there’s usually a harvest party to celebrate. At DeLoach, after more than a thousand tons of grapes have been handled, a big party is thrown that involves a pool and barrel races.

“Afterward, you have this bond that you made it through something together,” Wallace said. “You’re like family.”

“One of the most gratifying things is at the end of the year to see how everybody’s come together,” added Lynmar’s Finley. “I hate to use the word fraternity, but it’s almost like you’re playing together on a sports team. You create that bond for life.”