Planning your visit to Sonoma "County"? This might help.

Travel, Wine Tourism, and Restaurants Forum
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A couple questions:

Are we making a list of all wineries, or a list of recommended wineries? I’m looking at the list of Sonoma Valley tasting rooms, and can’t help but think that this doesn’t answer the question of: “I’m visiting Sonoma Valley, what wineries should I visit?”

Maybe break down by geographical location of the tasting room, with some comments on varietal specialization, AVAs from which they pull grapes, and general style?

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Larry,

It was starting out as just that but when Paul dumped his list of Sonoma Valley Wineries on me I thought about it. Just as everyone cannot afford The French Laundry, tastes in wine vary greatly and not everyone here agrees on every recommendation. Therefor I conceded and decided to compile a list that is more complete.

Right now I am trying to break down by AVA and then geographically by town, district, street so that folks can plan tastings in a particular area. My current listings are showing tasting room locations if the room is in another location than the winery itself. I will eventually link back to the winery website so folks have all the info. Perhaps they have a free day without a car and need to stay in a restricted area. This might help. I welcome Berserkers to add their thoughts on their favorites, either via this thread or PM, and I will then add the notes to each Winery listing.

This is a big task that will take time to morph but i think it could be valuable moving forward. [cheers.gif]

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Awesome, Brian. Very useful information. Thanks for putting this together.

Cheers,
Doug

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In order to shrink the size of the OP what do you think about me putting the winery listings in a spoiler alert format under each AVA heading? That way people can expand an area if they want but not have to scroll through it if not. Thoughts?

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Wow! Awesome Brian! Thanks!

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Sonoma is a very special place, very different to visit than Napa. Great thread!

1 Like
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FIFY!

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I understand Brian, but people can pull a list of wineries from all kinds of resources. We have a focused group here that are probably looking for a geekier experience, no? OTOH “recommending” wineries can be a dicey proposition so the list has to be inclusive i.e. We don’t want to get into the business of judging a winery to be not worthy. Maybe there’s a middle ground where we can provide additional info on a winery, in terms of style of wine, and the more “berserker approved” the winery is, the more info they’ll have?

Really the list has to be somewhat unfocused. Here’s the typical use case:

Them: “I’m hitting Sonoma, what wineries should I visit?”
Us: “Sonoma is a big place, where will you be?”
Them: “Not sure.” or “I’ll be at ABC for a day and XYX for two more.”
Us: “What kind of wines do you like?”

…so, I guess the list should be large and inclusive, but allow someone to drill down to specifics if they have answers to those two questions.

Also, and this is perhaps a daunting task for a thread (better suited for a wiki article?) but I think we eventually expand to include other activities like food, hiking, kid-friendly activities, etc.

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BTW

Dry Creek Valley:
Ridge Lytton Springs

Alexender Valley:
Seghesio?

1 Like
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Just to add have a visa signature card for free tastings and discounts. http://www.sonomawine.com/visa-signature-perks/vs-winery-guide

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Awesome post/thread Brian! [thankyou.gif] This is indeed an undertaking and timely for me. I am in the midst of planning a trip with another couple over Memorial Day weekend and have been building our agenda without this great reference.

One thing we considered in mapping out our days there was the varietal focus of each, so when we pulled together the producer list we wanted to visit we wanted some variation, but also to start with lighter varietals, ending with the heavier so as to not crush our palettes by late afternoon. To that end, it might be useful to add after each producer some indicator of what they are “known for” or focus on. For example, we will visit Ridge (zin, cab) later in the day and MacPhail (pinot) earlier in the day with maybe Copain (pinot, syrah) in between. Obviously, driving times are important and your breakdown of specific areas will help greatly in that (do wish there were people to hire by the day to drive us, though) - maybe that’s another thread.

Look forward to everyone’s collective input on this and will be sure to contribute when we return with thoughts on each of our visits. As of now, we are trying to fit in Selyem, Copain, Ridge, Papapietro, Roadhouse, Joseph Swan, Cofarro, Zichichi, Rochioli, MacPhail, Seghesio, Lynmar and Bella. Pretty ambitious agenda, but think we’ll struggle through :wink:

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Thanks for the input Chris! Moving forward I’d like to incorporate all of your suggestions.

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thanks for this. We stayed in Guerneville-a funky place. Interesting that the pot store is next to the brewery-your choice of buzz.

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I think it would be useful to board members to list members that are in the business (ITB). ie Mike Carlisle (Carlisle), John Holdredge (Holdredge), and Craig Haserot (Sojourn). Visiting with winemakers that are members here is a lot of fun.

For example:

Sojourn in Sonoma (on the square).
Holdredge in Healdsburg.

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Thank you. Well done.

I understand that some areas of the “true” Sonoma Coast are difficult or time consuming to visit. Hirsch Vineyards is one that comes to mind. Once there, however, it is supposed to be incredibly beautiful. (Plus for me, being a fan of Hirsch wines, it may be worth the time needed in order to visit).

Any suggestions on those “difficult to reach” areas of the Sonoma Coast or, as Yankees might sometimes say, “Can’t get there from here.”

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It is. If you go, make it the only place you schedule to visit that day. The property is naturally stunning and the wines are spectacular. Ross Cobb is doing amazing things there.

You may have time left to able to hit some places on your way back to where you are staying, but leave it open.

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Wow Brian.

I bow down to your superior knowledge and organizational skills.

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Thanks. I do enjoy the estate wines, as well as what WS and Littorai do with their fruit. Haven’t yet had a Siduri-Hirsch though.
Since it is a bit of a drive, just trying to get a sense of whether it is worth the effort. Thanks for the input.

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I took my teenage daughters ziplining this past Monday, and we had a blast. The place is “in the middle of nowhere” aka Occidental, and is tucked away. The course offers 7 zipline tracks, with the highest 200 feet up, and the longest is 800 feet. There were 7 of us in the party and had 2 guides with us. One guide went first, and the other last. They take care in making sure you are secured, and were very friendly, helpful and fun. The trip takes exactly 2.5 hours to complete. I highly recommend this experience.

The contact information is:

Sonoma Canopy Tours
6250 Bohemian Hwy,
Occidental CA, 95465
www.sonomacanopytours.com
info@sonomacanopytours.com
888-494-7868

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Great stuff (mentioned it in the OP [highfive.gif] ), this is the kind of feedback that goes along way towards making this a valuable thread. Thanks for sharing!