As Sonomans and visitors find more reasons to enjoy sparkling wine, producers are responding to the increased demand by using old-is-new-again ways to put bubbles into the bottle quicker, at lower prices and in more diverse and interesting styles.
A number of Sonoma wineries long ago mastered the time-consuming techniques for making sparklers that mirror the quality and depth of true Champagne, which relies on chardonnay and pinot noir for the base wines and a secondary fermentation in the bottle, called méthode champenoise.
In the 1980s, Gloria Ferrer Caves & Vineyards, Iron Horse Vineyards, J Vineyards & Winery and Piper Sonoma joined Korbel Champagne Cellars (established 100 years earlier) as power players in the sparkling wine scene in Sonoma, turning sunny California fruit into wines with brioche and toasty aromas and flavors, a fine bead of tiny bubbles and crackling acidity.
Yet wines made with less-intensive methods, and using nontraditional grape varieties, have burst upon the scene.
There are pétillant naturels, or pét-nats for short, which are bottled while still undergoing a first fermentation and closed with a crown cap instead of a cork. The French call this process méthode ancestral, with the yeast staying in contact with the wine until the cap is removed. Out gushes a fruity, slightly creamy and easy-to-drink sparkler that lacks the complexity of Champagne-like wines, yet is crowd-pleasing in its simplicity.
Some wineries are applying the charmat method to carbonate their wines in large steel tanks, adding carbon dioxide to create the bubbles. Like pét-nats, these fizzies are all about the fruit, nonfussy yet satisfying, ready to enjoy soon after bottling and typically costing half as much as méthode champenoise sparkling wines. (In deference to Champagne houses’ demands that the term champenoise be used only for Champagne, many U.S. producers now label their sparkling wines as méthode traditionnelle.) Grapes including zinfandel, syrah, malbec and gewürztraminer are showing up in Sonoma wines made with méthode traditionnelle, thus expanding the aromas and flavors of sparklers beyond the characteristics of chardonnay and pinot noir.
Lucas Meeker, winemaker for his family’s Meeker Vineyards in Healdsburg, is one of Sonoma’s “mad professors” experimenting with the various ways bubbly can be made.
“Pét-nats are definitely trendy right now,” he said. “First, the bottle-soon-drink-soon nature of pét-nat goes hand in hand with the rise of natural wine. It’s also a method that can heighten less-explored grapes and regions that might struggle to get the tannin, ripeness or climate necessary to make more traditional wines.
“I think the reason people are drinking pét-nat is the same reason why I ended up making it after years of eyeing up traditional method. Traditional sparkling wine is expensive to make and drink. When you bring the investment cost down from a production side, winemakers like me are excited to start pushing the boundaries and doing new things, like sparkling verdelho, or even twists on old things, like our sparkling Russian River Valley pinot noir. It makes for an influx of new, exciting options of sparkling wines at accessible prices, which are not designed to age but instead reward drinkers who embrace the new, the exciting or the ephemeral.”
Meeker currently offers two pét-nats, Pop Punk #1 and Pop Punk #2. The grapes are pressed, fermented in a tank, then bottled so the residual sugar in the fruit interacts with the yeast, creating carbon dioxide (bubbles) and alcohol.
“The primary goal with the Pop Punk series is to make sparkling wine accessible, fun and straightforward — both for the consumer and for us,” Meeker said. “One of the biggest cost buckets in sparkling wine is riddling and disgorging. By skipping that step and asking consumers … to save them and us money by accepting some cloudiness (in the wine) seems to be a much easier ask now than it used to be.”
Meeker is not alone in this quest to create sparkling wines without the equipment, time investment and expense of méthode traditionnelle bottlings, which are admittedly more complex and age-worthy than pét-nats and charmat-produced bubblies. Others are turning dark-red grapes into fine sparklers using Champagne methods.
Here are a handful of unusual-suspect wineries leaving tradition behind in the pursuit of more diverse and delicious sparkling wines.
Amista owners Mike and Vicky Farrow had their hearts set on producing sparkling wine when they bought what is now called Morningsong Vineyards in 1999. They added syrah to the chardonnay vines, purchased cabernet sauvignon and zinfandel grapes from others and released their first wines in 2005. Three years later, they launched their sparkling syrah, a relatively bold move in Sonoma yet a long-established tradition in Australia, where they turn syrah grapes into sparkling shiraz. So besotted with sparkling wine were the Farrows that they created the Amista Sparkling Friends wine club in 2014.
Winemaker Ashley Herzberg bottles a wide array of méthode traditionnelle wines for this Dry Creek Valley winery, in addition to still (table) wines. Grenache, chardonnay (called blanc de blancs), syrah, mourvèdre (labeled as mataro) and a blend called Fusion (chardonnay, grenache and syrah) are fizzes with fine depth and precision. They sell for approximately $46 a bottle.
The Farrows converted many of their 20 vineyard acres to Rhone Valley varieties, including grenache and mourvèdre; those grapes go into Herzberg’s sparkling, still and dessert wines, showing off the versatility of red grapes in making a range of styles.
3320 Dry Creek Road, Healdsburg, 707-431-9200, amistavineyards.com
Rack & Riddle co-founder Rebecca Faust and her sisters, Cynthia Faust and Sharon Cohn, created Breathless Wines to honor their mother, Martha Jane Faust, who died of a rare respiratory condition — but not before teaching her daughters the joy of each breath taken. Unofficial fourth sister, Penny Gadd-Coster, is their winemaker, as an offshoot of her duties as director of winemaking at Rack & Riddle.
The Breathless méthode champenoise sparklers are fresh and lively with rich fruit flavors balanced by crisp acidity. My favorite, the Breathless NV Sonoma County Brut ($27), is an excellent value: a beautifully balanced blend of chardonnay and pinot noir with red berry, citrus and tropical fruit notes and a subtle yeastiness. There is also a blanc de noir and sparkling rosé, each fruity yet refined.
A fledgling brand, created in 2012, Breathless is making rapid strides in the quality of its wines and also in its range. Three sparklers debuted in 2021: single-vineyard designates from the Robledo Vineyard in Sonoma (two blanc de noirs) and the McMinn Vineyard in Russian River Valley (blanc de blancs). Each is $39.
499 Moore Lane, Healdsburg, 707-395-7300, breathlesswines.com
Michael Cruse and his family moved from San Francisco to Petaluma when Michael was 10. He studied biochemistry at UC Berkeley, got a lab job at Sutter Home in Napa Valley and worked in the cellar at Starmont in Carneros before starting his own Cruse Wine Co. in a Petaluma industrial space.
Cruse’s Ultramarine méthode traditionnelle sparkling wines made a big splash with younger and adventurous drinkers. They are iconoclastic, scarce and made by hand in every step. Prices have soared beyond $100, thanks to the “cult” status Ultramarine has achieved. Cruse looks to single vineyards, such as the Charles Heintz Vineyard on the Sonoma Coast, to showcase site personality rather than regional blends, which are the foundations of most Champagnes and California sparkling wines.
Cruse expanded his bubbly lineup to include pét-nats such as Ricci Vineyard Carneros Sparkling St. Laurent ($32) and Deming Vineyard Napa Valley Sparkling Valdiguié ($35). They are exuberantly fruity with a chalky texture and mouth-filling generosity. The cool kids embrace them.
“I got into (sparkling wine production) because it is difficult to do and I appreciated the challenge,” Cruse said. “But as I learned the craft, I realized that it was an exceptional way to tell the story of terroir and that, in California, we haven’t been particularly good at it. Or put a different way, most of the sparkling wine in California has been built on the Champagne large-house models and not the grower model of expressing one little plot of land. So that’s where my interest lies.”
707-789-6423, crusewineco.com, ultramarinewines.com
Randy Pitts’ family has grown wine grapes in the Russian River Valley since 1976. In 2000, he assumed the farming responsibilities at the 9-acre ranch and began making zinfandel from the ranch. Pitts’ sparkling wine program began in 2003 with gewürztraminer, the lone white grape grown on the estate.
Over the next decade, Harvest Moon added small lots of sparkling pinot noir rosé, chardonnay, zinfandel and a red sparkling blend made from pinot noir and zinfandel. The gewürztraminer is the shining star: racy, spicy and dry on the palate, with hints of apple and honeysuckle. The sparkling wines, produced by the traditional method, range in price from $48 to $50. Nearly all the grapes are grown on the estate on Olivet Road, in the Russian River Valley. For still-wine fans, there are several zinfandels, gewürztraminers and pinot noirs.
2198 Olivet Road, Santa Rosa, 707-573-8711, harvestmoonwinery.com
Charlie Meeker, who died earlier this year, and his wife, Molly, founded Meeker Vineyard in 1977 in Dry Creek Valley. They launched their wine brand in 1984 with zinfandel, cabernet sauvignon and chardonnay as their chief varietals. Charlie was in the movie business at the time, working as an attorney, film producer and eventually president of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. After retirement, he immersed himself in grapegrowing and winemaking, with Molly as captain of the ship.
Their son Lucas joined the winery full-time in 2007 and has, since then, added an experimental excitement to the brand. He’s become a master grenache maker and blender of Rhone Valley red grape varieties, introduced a white verdelho from Contra Costa County and numerous rosés and continued his father’s efforts in making zinfandel and merlot. Pop Punk, the two pét-nats he produces — a rosé ($34) and a verdelho ($29) — add a youthful vibe to this Dry Creek Valley winery, which has one foot in traditional winemaking and another in sky’s-the-limit thinking.
Meeker recently moved its tasting room to its winery in Healdsburg, after earthquake retrofitting construction at its former Geyserville space made continuing there impossible.
5 Fitch Street, Healdsburg, 707-431-2148, meekerwine.com
Ned Hill, proprietor of La Prenda Vineyard Management, farms multiple sites within Sonoma Valley. A few years ago, he began producing wines from his clients’ grapes and selling them under the Sonoma Collection and La Prenda labels. In March, he released the Sonoma Collection 2020 Carneros Pétillant-Naturel sparkling wine ($28), a blend of chardonnay grapes from the Hi Vista Vineyard and pinot noir from La Prenda’s Vineburg Ranch. Winemaker Mike Cox, formerly of Schug Winery, made the 2020 pét-nat, which is dry and refreshing, with low alcohol yet with a robust character from the yeast that comes alive when the crown cap is removed.
“The pét-nat 2020 came about sitting around with Ned Hill and Guido Murnig, our sales director,” Cox said. “We had played about with sparkling wines and wanted to produce something fun to mark the end of 2020. Ned has always been very encouraging, and so I ran with it. We actually ended up splitting the lot and are going to produce a méthode traditionnelle as well from this.”
There is also a charmat-method La Prenda 2019 Sonoma Coast Brut Rosé ($20) of pinot noir, a generously fruity, fizzy wine with less yeast character — and at half the price — of méthode traditionnelle sparklers.
Hill’s wines can be purchased online and at several local markets and wine shops. According to Cox, the pét-nat is sold at Broadway Market and Sonoma’s Best, both in Sonoma.
707-935-6445, sonomacollectionwine.com
Click through the above gallery for our editor’s picks for Sonoma County’s best hikes, with hallmark views of vineyards, oak woodlands and stunning coastal bluffs.
Auro restaurant at the Four Seasons Resort and Residences in Calistoga has been named one of Esquire magazine’s Best New Restaurants in America, 2023. Authors of the Nov. 28 article noted 50 restaurants across the country for their “radical authenticity” and “raw honesty.”
“While there’s no shortage of places in Wine Country that will give you the luxe tasting-menu treatment, Auro, helmed by chef Rogelio Garcia, does so with precision and California ease,” wrote Kevin Sintumuang, one of four writers contributing to the article. Two hundred restaurants were tested by the authors from coast to coast.
Auro won its first Michelin star in July, and Garcia, 37, is truly Napa Valley’s phenom of the moment. He’s garnered accolades for his fresh versions of hyperlocal Wine Country cuisine. The restaurant has been featured in the Robb Report, Forbes Magazine, San Francisco Chronicle and The Press Democrat in recent months.
Garcia is no newcomer to fine dining. He’s a Napa native who started his culinary journey at age 15 as a dishwasher and moved up through the ranks of Cyrus, the French Laundry, the now-closed Commissary in San Francisco and others. He is also executive chef of Truss, the Four Seasons’ upscale casual restaurant.
Last year, Animo in Sonoma made Esquire’s list of best new restaurants in America. In 2021, the magazine named Valley Bar + Bottle in Sonoma one of the best bars in America.
Auro, 400 Silverado Trail N., Calistoga. 707-709-2100, auronapavalley.com
Hold on to your Santa hat! Miracle, the bedazzling cocktail pop-up at Brewster’s Beer Garden in Petaluma, is back with a bevy of new drinks to satisfy even the grumpiest elf.
Also returning is Sippin’ Santa, a cheeky Tiki-inspired cocktail pop-up at the Flamingo Resort’s Lazeaway Club in Santa Rosa.
Launched in 2014, Miracle was dreamed up by New York bar owner Greg Boehm, with Sippin’ Santa introduced the following year. Together, the pop-ups partner with nearly 200 locations around the world to bring kitschy holiday cheer to the masses.
While Boehm and his hospitality company, Cocktail Kingdom, provide the holiday-themed cocktail recipes and general guidelines, each participating location is responsible for the decorations and setup.
This year, it took the Brewster’s team about three weeks to transform the beer garden into a glittering wonderland, resplendent with twinkly lights, a life-size gingerbread house, a towering Christmas tree and a gift shop selling cocktails to-go and limited-edition glassware.
“This year, we added a ton more lights and expanded the decorations, so I definitely think it’s our best year yet,” said Mike Goebel, owner of Brewster’s, who’s hosting Miracle for the fifth time. “I love seeing the excitement on people’s faces when they enter the space. The energy and magic is infectious and such a joy to be around.”
This year, Miracle at Brewster’s is offering an array of new cocktails, including Rudolph’s Replacement, The Krampus, and Marshmallows & Unicorns. Several fan favorites will also return, like the Christmapolitan and Christmas Cricket.
“Lots of extended families and friends choose to gather with us for their holiday celebrations, which is very gratifying to see,” Goebel said. “Everywhere I look people are smiling, laughing and making memories. It’s truly amazing.”
Joann Spiegel, cocktail developer and vice president of Miracle, said the company solicits feedback from bartenders who poured last year’s cocktails to improve the menu each year.
“Typically, we roll over some of the bestsellers, then balance the menu with new recipes inspired by Christmas traditions from around the world,” Spiegel said. “As our partner list grows, it allows us to dive into the traditions of new states and countries. It’s a well of inspiration that will never run dry.”
This year, Spiegel’s favorite cocktail is the new Carol Barrel, a tropical-inspired sipper with Irish whiskey, banana liqueur, rum, Guinness punch, lime and chocolate bitters.
“Think Irish whiskey kissed with the flavors of a tropical Christmas,” Spiegel said. “As it mellows out over the ice, it gets better with every sip. I could drink it all night long.”
At the Flamingo Resort’s Lazeaway Club, Sippin’ Santa is making its second annual appearance with its own share of kitsch and 10 Tiki-inspired cocktails.
Benson Wang, managing partner at the Flamingo and co-founder/CEO of Palm House Hospitality, said the laid-back vibe of Sippin’ Santa aligns perfectly with the Lazeaway Club’s escapism ethos.
“The tropical-holiday theme is a great fit for the Lazeaway because we’re all about relaxation and recharging,” Wang said. “Sippin’ Santa is a great way for people to be festive, let loose and have fun. You don’t need to plan — you just show up. We need that more than ever in our lives right now with all going on in the world.”
Wang said it took his team about two weeks to transform the space into a twinkling Tiki wonderland with “miles of lights,” while the overall vision was planned months in advance.
A special pupu (appetizer) and cocktail-pairing menu will be available, along with six new cocktails and four returning favorites.
If you really want to jingle all the way, book an overnight stay in the Flamingo’s Santa Suite ($750/night), a festive hotel suite complete with crackling fireplace, twinkly lights, a Christmas tree, priority reservations at Sippin’ Santa and more.
“The whole idea behind the Flamingo is about transporting you to a different space so you can escape and relax,” Wang said. “We want people to come to Sippin’ Santa to celebrate and have fun. There’s a lot of healing and value in just that.”
Miracle at Brewsters Beer Garden: 229 Water St., Petaluma, 707-981-8330, brewstersbeergarden.com. Through Jan. 2.
Sippin’ Santa at Lazeaway Club, Flamingo Resort: 2777 Fourth St., Santa Rosa, 707-545-8530, flamingoresort.com. Through Jan. 8.
A visit to Sonoma Wine Country doesn’t have to break the bank. You can fill your belly at inexpensive restaurants, spend the night at chic and affordable hotels and, perhaps most importantly, enjoy free or cheap wine tastings.
From quaint small town tasting rooms to sprawling wine gardens, Sonoma County offers wine sipping opportunities that will please your palate as well as your pocketbook. Click through the above gallery to discover wineries where you can taste wine for free or cheap ($20 and less).
Tina Caputo, Sarah Doyle and Linda Murphy contributed to this article.
Given Healdsburg’s status as the epicenter of Sonoma County’s swankiest food and drink, Evan and Jade Hufford, along with their business partner Ryan Knowles, were surprised the town didn’t have a wine bar. There were plenty of wine tasting rooms, innovative cocktail bars, a live music-fueled pub, and multiple beer gardens. But a wine bar? Not since Bergamot Alley closed in 2018.
“Guests would frequently ask us if there was a wine bar in town, somewhere they could go for a late-night glass of Champagne,” says Evan Hufford, the former wine director at three-Michelin starred SingleThread. “For a long time, the answer was ‘no.’ To be honest, we wanted a wine bar, too, a place we could go to enjoy a glass after work. So we decided to open one ourselves.”
Maison is open until 2 a.m. Friday to Tuesday and caters to a broad range of wine lovers. Old World selections focus on the Champagne and Burgundy regions of France, Germany, and Austria, and appear alongside elegant, nuanced favorites from the California coast. There is also a selection of old-vintage California wines, sourced at auction and from private collectors and sold by the ounce, an approach that gives more people the chance to experience these rare wines.
There’s also a strong selection of sake by the bottle and glass, including several paired with cheese—an unlikely but surprisingly delicious accompaniment. Doralice Handal, formely of the Cheese Shop of Healdsburg, is sourcing cheeses for Maison. Other accompaniments include caviar with potato crisps and crème fraîche, smoked oysters, and salumi.
Evan Hufford acknowledges it will take a little time to fill Maison’s cellar with the 800 to 1,000 wines they hope to carry. For now, the owners are happy to finally welcome guests through the door, especially those in the hospitality industry looking for a post-shift glass of wine. “There are some great bars in town, but none have the wine-forward vibe we were looking for,” Evan says. “We’re excited for Maison to fill that niche.”
210 Healdsburg Ave., Healdsburg. maisonwinebar.com
Many Sonoma County wineries are doing double duty these days, serving food alongside their fine wines. It’s a delicious trend that allows visitors to more fully savor the wines’ versatility with everything from potato chips to salmon en croûte dotted with fresh basil butter.
While wineries can’t serve full meals or let visitors choose which dishes to eat (due to regulations), some pull out all the stops, offering an experience that is pretty close to the real restaurant deal. When you’re feasting on food this good, it’s hard to tell the difference.
Here are a five wineries that go all-out with great dishes to accompany their wines.
For much of Jordan’s history, dining has been a members-only affair at the winery’s posh Healdsburg chateau. But with the arrival of new Executive Chef Daniel Beal, everyone can now enjoy a sumptuous meal. It remains an exclusive experience — a recent preview dinner was limited to 18 guests and priced at a whopping $395 per person.
But then, Beal is a big deal; he’s a former sous chef of Chicago’s renowned Alinea and San Francisco’s three-Michelin-starred Atelier Crenn. And his recent five-course French-modernist menu at Jordan was theatrical, paired with wines that included library selections like a 1976 Jordan Cabernet Sauvignon (the inaugural vintage).
The winery is now in the process of planning upcoming dining experiences, starting with special dinners such as a Starlight Supper on July 22, and a series of Parisian Pop-Up Dinners in August.
The menu changes with each theme (check the website for details). But the preview dinner offered an idea of what to expect with elaborate dishes like grilled Wagyu with black lentils and smoked aubergine, and golden mushroom risotto with beurre noisette, pine nuts and fresh shaved white truffle. French onion soup was a performance, really, poured tableside in a pottery bowl set with fluttering onion skin leaves.
1474 Alexander Valley Road, Healdsburg, 707-431-5250, jordanwinery.com
If you’re lucky enough to score a seat at one of this luxury property’s special dinners, you’re in for a memorable experience.
A newly redesigned dining room captures spectacular vineyard views, and the wines from director of winemaking Theresa Heredia are top-notch (Russian River Valley pinot noir in all its finery, from legendary vineyards such as Rochioli, Rochioli-Allen, Bacigalupi, Hallberg and Olivet Lane).
A recent menu featured fancy dishes, including Maine lobster with fennel, San Francisco halibut in brown butter with red kuri squash and comfy-cozy boeuf bourguignon.
10701 Westside Road, Healdsburg, 707-473-2918, garyfarrellwinery.com
This beautiful, garden-centric destination on Highway 12 is the stuff of Sonoma County dreams: a hip roadhouse setting, good wines on tap, craft cocktails and a creative, expertly crafted menu. Plus, it is so dog-friendly that canines get their own food choices, too, of basmati rice with seasonal veggies and optional toppings like Skuna Bay salmon or Petaluma chicken.
Humans can dig into pleasing, full-flavored plates like smoked and glazed pork belly with grilled hen of the woods mushrooms, pistachio pesto, burrata, radicchio salsa verde and pretty nasturtium flowers; or a delightful fried hand pie stuffed with sweet potato, cremini mushrooms, carrots, potato and butternut squash in housemade butter pastry.
On April 1, Kivelstadt Cellars and Winegarten will change name to Bloom Carneros. With the new name comes a new dinner menu. Stay tuned for more details.
22900 Broadway, Sonoma, 707-938-7001, kivelstadtcellars.com, bloomcarneros.com
The 1842 Vallejo-Castenada Adobe, a breathtakingly beautiful hacienda-turned-tasting salon, has been painstakingly renovated. It glows with tile floors, hand-painted murals and antique porcelain pieces found on the site.
A new food and wine tasting experience, launched last fall, is equally impressive. Chefs James Nobel and Abri Chavira create a lavish platter to go with fine wines; a recent feast included tomato plum gazpacho of green tomato, green plum, cucumber and pickled peppers, followed by a salad of Liberty Duck prosciutto, creamy La Tur cheese, figs, pomegranate and Marcona almonds. Then it was on to a tart of pâte brisée topped in leek custard and foraged wild mushrooms, and a scoop of kibbeh nayeh (Lebanese nayah) of grass-fed chateaubriand, endive, black garlic aioli and pine nuts.
Note that this is a strictly by-appointment experience ($110), and it helps to call at least a week in advance.
143 West Spain St., Sonoma, 707-996-3328, threestickswines.com.
The 100-acre Sebastopol property is gorgeous, with lavish gardens, quaint barns and views of the Russian River Valley and Laguna de Santa Rosa. Reserve the Lynmar Estate’s Collectors Lunch Pairing ($200) and feast on estate-grown ingredients like fruits, vegetables, herbs and eggs, to complement the cool-climate chardonnay and pinot noir.
Bites from Chef David Frakes feature seasonal signatures such as warm popcorn drizzled in estate olive oil and a flurry of bliss raspberry-viola salt; followed by sandia con tajin or chile-Persian lime dusted watermelon with blistered stone fruit slaw, wonton crisp, shiso vinaigrette and coriander oil. The next course might be grilled garden toast of Nightingale seeded sourdough, herbed chevre, fresh-plucked vegetables and black garlic-date vinaigrette.
To finish: An exquisite chocolate cake garnished with bright magenta, sweet-nutty flavored amaranth plant; or a slab of warm mountain honey tea cake decorated with olive oil ice cream, pistachio dukkah and candied nagano lumquat.
3909 Frei Road, Sebastopol, 707-829-3374, lynmarestate.com.
Add these vineyards, tasting rooms and winery patios to your list of places to explore in 2023. Click through the above gallery for 12 best Sonoma County wineries for first-time visitors.
Weary, somewhat bleary of the spin-sniff-sip-swallow-or-spit wine tasting experience? These Sonoma and Napa wineries offer a little something extra to pair with your cabernet.
Medieval fortresses and parterre gardens, swimming pools and outdoor art galleries, riding horses and trolleys — there’s plenty of reason to venture outside the tasting room on your next Wine Country trip.
French, Italian and Spanish accents abound at Sonoma and Napa wineries, so a visit to Walter Schug’s German-styled winery in Carneros is as refreshing as a trocken riesling.
Schug, who died in 2015 at age 80, grew up at Staatsweingut Assmannshausen in Germany’s Rhine Valley. Bit by the winegrowing bug, he eventually made his way to Napa Valley, as winemaker for Joseph Phelps Winery. In 1983, he founded his own winery estate yard in Sonoma Carneros, the production facility and tasting room designed with the peaked roof and timber framing typical in the Rhine. All the original winemaking equipment came from Germany and some of it remains, most strikingly the 669-gallon wood oval aging casks, some of them elaborately carved.
Riesling is no longer in the Schug repertoire, the grape not ideally suited to Sonoma’s sunny climate. Instead, Schug took the pinot noir (spatburgunder) route, adding chardonnay, cabernet sauvignon and other varietals to the mix. His children continue the business, with German-American Johannes Scheid the winemaker.
The Cave Tour & Tasting Experience ($75) includes a walk around the property and through the production area and caves, followed by a seated tasting of current-release and Heritage Reserve wines, served with snacks.
602 Bonneau Road, Sonoma, 707-939-9363, schugwinery.com
Wineries have long been places for visitors to view art and photography on the walls of tasting rooms. Sculptures welcome guests at estate entrances and within sight of tasters.
Now, Donum has taken artistic displays well beyond the usual, dotting its 200-acre Carneros estate with 50-some large-scale, open-air sculptures from artists including Ai Weiwei, Keith Haring, Subodh Gupta and Doug Aitken. Adding to the high-end artistry: the tasting area designed by Danish architect David Thulstrup, known for his interior design of world-class Noma restaurant in Copenhagen.
The basic way to enjoy Donum is to book its Carneros Experience ($95), which includes a walking tour of the estate and tastes of its rosé, chardonnay and pinot noir. The Explore Experience ($175) is a two-hour, all-terrain-vehicle tour of the estate and tasting of wines served with seasonal bites and, of course, views of the artwork.
24500 Ramal Road, Sonoma, 707-732-2200, thedonumestate.com
Founded in 1857 by Agoston Haraszthy, Buena Vista is the second-oldest winery in California and is often referred to as the oldest premium winery in the state. (The oldest winery in California is D’Agostini Winery, which was founded in 1856.)
Haraszthy, a vivacious and eccentric pioneer, immigrated from Europe in 1840 in search of the good life. Following in the footsteps of the forty-niners, he found the perfect terroir for “purple gold” and, as the self-proclaimed “Count of Buena Vista,” he established a reputation as an experimental vintner, a shrewd businessman and a flamboyant evangelist. (He died as he had lived — dramatically — in an alligator-infested river in the jungles of Nicaragua.)
The legend of Haraszthy and his winery is now recreated by Buena Vista owner Jean-Charles Boisset, a modern-day version of the eccentric count. The best way to get a taste of the winery’s history (and some wine) is to reserve the Barrel Tasting & Winery Tour ($50), which takes visitors on a stroll through the winery grounds and into the Champagne Cellar for a taste of current release wines. Next, the tour continues into the wine caves where guests can sample wine from the barrel.
18000 Old Winery Road, Sonoma, 800-926-1266, buenavistawinery.com
They say, “don’t drink and drive,” but can you drink and ride?
At Triple Creek Horse Outfit in Glen Ellen, the riding is sensibly taken care of before the drinking. And what a ride it is. Triple Creek offers guided horseback tours at Jack London State Historic Park in the magical Valley of the Moon. The park features fine riding trails through Jack and Charmian London’s Beauty Ranch, which wind around acres of vineyards, through open oak woodlands and under shady groves of majestic redwoods.
All Triple Creek Horse Outfit rides include a complimentary wine tasting at nearby VJB Cellars in Kenwood. The winery also has a gourmet Italian deli and sells wood-fired pizza, gelato and more. Private rides (one hour to two hours) are $145 to $225 per rider. Questions are best addressed via email at triplecrik@gmail.com. Bookings can be made online.
2400 London Ranch Road, Glen Ellen, 707-888-0034, triplecreekhorseoutfit.com
Matanzas Creek Winery in Bennett Valley has been a haven for wine enthusiasts and lavender-lovers since 1991. Guests to the winery can sip sauvignon blanc on a terrace overlooking fields of lilac and amethyst; the soothingly seductive perfumes wafting in the breeze to the hum of bees shifting busily among the blossoms.
The end of June/beginning of July is prime lavender season at Matanzas Creek Winery. The fields are organically farmed and are cut, bundled and hung to barn dry after reaching full bloom. Then the dried blossoms are used in culinary, bath, body and home products sold in the winery’s lavender market.
Tastings (from $35) are by appointment. Picnic tables (with bottle service) can be reserved for two hours ($25 on weekdays; $50 on weekends). Bocce courts can be rented for two hours daily ($20 per person).
6097 Bennett Valley Road, Santa Rosa, 707-528-6464, matanzascreek.com
Of the more than 400 wineries that call Sonoma County home, the grand estates have a knack for getting all the attention. But when you make the turn onto the retired tractor-lined driveway at Chenoweth Wines, it’s the unpretentious setting that makes you happy you’ve arrived.
With 800 acres of land, from redwoods to vineyards, the Chenoweth estate offers plenty to see. But it’s how you get to see it — buckled into an all-terrain vehicle — that adds even more bragging rights to a busy day of wine tasting.
ATV tours ($125 per person) take about 1 1/2 hours and traverse the Chenoweth ranch, redwood grove and vineyards and make stops for wine tasting outdoors. At tour’s end, guests can stay and enjoy their own picnic in the redwood grove. Tours are limited to eight guests and can be booked by calling 707-829-3367 or emailing joinus@chenowethwines.com.
5550 Harrison Grade Road, Sebastopol, 707-331-2734, chenowethwines.com
The historic Vallejo-Casteñada Adobe is the longest occupied residence in Sonoma and one of the town’s few remaining buildings from California’s Mexican period.
Constructed in 1842 by Captain Salvador Vallejo (the infamous brother of General Mariano Vallejo), the adobe has been carefully restored by Three Sticks owners Bill and Eva Price, who now house a private tasting room for their Three Sticks wine label in the historic building.
Visitors can tour the adobe and take in its history while tasting a flight of pinots and chardonnays ($65) or finish the experience with a food and wine pairing prepared in partnership with the celebrated chefs at El Dorado Kitchen.
New this season is the Oysters & Chardonnay pairing ($95) that includes a flight of three single vineyard chardonnays and half a dozen oysters on the half shell (three types of oysters). Guests get to learn about terroir (how environmental factors like soil, topography and climate impact the wine) and merroir (how the bivalves’ marine surroundings influence their flavor).
143 W. Spain St., Sonoma, 707-996-3328, threestickswines.com
Lack a designated driver? Think limousine tours are for tourists? Biking and wining a precarious pair? The Sonoma Valley Wine Trolley might just be what you’re looking for.
Built from the blueprints of an 1890s San Francisco cable car, the trolley safely trundles wine enthusiasts on a six-hour ride through Sonoma Valley.
The journey begins at Sonoma Plaza and then makes three stops at local wineries for private tasting experiences (the stops change with the seasons and include wineries such as Ravenswood, Imagery Estate, Paradise Ridge, Gloria Ferrer and B.R. Cohn).
Included in the package is a guide, a boxed lunch, views of the bucolic Wine Country landscape and plenty of bottled water. Daily Sonoma tours begin at 10:15 a.m. and end at 4:30 p.m. The tour is $125 and reservations can be made online. Tasting fees at the wineries range from $30 to $40 per person.
Bringing the kids on a wine tasting trip may not seem the best of ideas, that is unless you are destined for Francis Ford Coppola’s winery.
The famous filmmaker’s Geyserville estate is a wonderland with wine: film memorabilia (including Don Corleone’s desk from “The Godfather”) and Oscars are on display; its two swimming pools (3,600 square feet in total) are surrounded by chaise lounges, cabanas and bocce courts; and there is always plenty of wine for the adults.
Seated tastings on the terrace are $40. Bocce courts can be reserved 11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. Thursday-Monday. ($50 per person, plus tax; available for parties of eight to 24 guests).
Cabana reservations, which is the only way to access the pool, become available on the winery’s website in late spring. (The pool is typically open from mid-June to early October.) It is a popular place to be during summer in Wine Country, so make sure to make your cabana reservations early.
300 Via Archimedes, Geyserville, 707-857-1400, thefamilycoppola.com
Ever experienced a tulip emergency? Healdsburg’s Ferrari-Carano Vineyards and Winery has a tulip hotline set up in the late winter/early spring months for fans eager not to miss the winery’s 10,000 tulips in bloom.
The five-acre winery gardens also feature over 2,000 species of trees and shrubs, a variety of perennials and annuals (the tulips and daffodils take center stage in the spring), waterfalls that flow into fish-filled ponds and bronze sculptures from renowned artists Dennis Smith, Douglas Van Howd and Jane DeDecker.
The Italian/French parterre gardens accentuate classic geometric shapes. The enclosed garden at the front of Villa Fiore (the estate winery) has a parklike setting, its design more relaxed and its emphasis on color and texture.
Take in views of the gardens and surrounding vineyards from the winery’s Sycamore Grove terrace during the Wine & Brunch experience (10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Sundays; $85 per person).
The brunch includes a flight of reserve wines paired with a seasonal, Italian-inspired menu with dishes such as Prosciutto Benedict with roasted potato and estate garden greens; Yannis Sausage & Farm Fresh Egg Strata topped with Valley Ford Estero Gold Cheese; and TCHO Dark Chocolate Panna Cotta for dessert. Advance reservations and prepayments are required (reservations are refundable up to 72 hours prior to visit).
8761 Dry Creek Road, Healdsburg, 707-433-6700, ferrari-carano.com
It’s no surprise that some refer to Dario Sattui, a fourth generation vintner and the man behind Castello di Amorosa, as a modern-day Don Quixote.
Some 20 years ago, Sattui began a 15-year quest to build a medieval-style Tuscan castle in Napa Valley as a place to showcase his wines. The result: a 107-room, eight-level, 121,000-square-foot castle complete with drawbridge, secret passageways, torture chamber and tasting rooms.
Seated and standing tastings ($60 and $50) give visitors access to the two main levels of the castle via a self-guided tour (strategically posted QR codes make it easy to learn about the winery at your own pace).
The Diamond Estate Tour & Reserve Wine Tasting ($70) and the Cheese & Charcuterie Wine Pairing Tour ($85) include guided tours that take visitors through the two main levels and also into the production area, underground cellars, torture chamber and armory. Reservations required for all tastings.
4045 St Helena Highway, Calistoga, 707-967-6272, castellodiamorosa.com
A one-of-a-kind aerial tram glides you on a 360-degree scenic ride up a tree-covered hill to the winery. Debarking at the summit, visitors can then begin to explore the chalk-white stuccoed, many-verandaed winery. Its architectural inspiration? The Greek villages on the island of Mykonos where Sterling founder, Peter Newton, once lived.
High in the towers at Sterling Vineyards are eight bells that once hung in London’s Church of St. Dunstan’s-in-the-East. When the Anglican church, founded in the Saxon 10th century, was badly damaged by the Great Fire of 1666, it was repaired and a Christopher Wren steeple added. (St. Dunstan’s was much later mortally damaged during the London Blitz in 1941.)
The bells found their way to Calistoga in the 1970s and soon visitors can continue to enjoy the timelessness of their reverberations at Sterling Vineyards.
1111 W. Dunaweal Lane, Calistoga, 800-726-6136, sterlingvineyards.com
Linda Murphy and Dana Rebmann contributed to this article.
