The absolutely best advice for planning great times in Sonoma Wine Country
Welcome to Wine Country! So many wineries, not enough time!!
Here’s to great times in Sonoma!!
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I love wine country!
Not every area that has wineries is wine country, though.
Wine country is a place with a love of food and wine. It is in the mindset of the people. It is a way of thinking.
Every state in the United States has at least one winery. Every state! But they are not all wine country.
I am assuming that if you don’t live in an area that is surrounded by wineries and vineyards and great food to go with it, you want to visit one.
If you do live in such an area, lucky you! You still may want to travel to a different wine country area.
For choosing a “wine country”, I am totally Team Sonoma.
(Read on regardless of what wine country “team” you are on. Some of this advice will apply to any wine country region.)
Helpful hint:
First thing you are going to want to know: There is Sonoma (a town), Sonoma Valley (a region), and Sonoma County (the whole shebang).
For wine country, you want to talk about the whole shebang.
I am not talking about Napa. I strongly suggest you not do both Sonoma and Napa at the same time.
Napa also has a town, a region and a county. It is separated from Sonoma by mountains!! Unless you love driving mountain roads with no guard rails, keep to one county at a time.
Plan your trip based on how the roads go, not as the crow flies.
Sonoma County is WAY, WAY bigger than Napa!
Sonoma County covers over 1500 square miles. There are over 400 wineries! There are many, many tasting rooms! Don’t spread yourself too thin!!
Let’s get to the planning.
Planning should be fun! The choices can be overwhelming, but just seeing what is available can be exciting in itself.
Here are some things to ask yourself:
1. How much area do I want to cover?
With planning this trip, divide the area up. I strongly suggest you travel to these areas on different days:
Town of Sonoma, Glen Ellen, and Kenwood
Santa Rosa Area
Healdsburg Area
Towns of Sonoma, Glen Ellen and Kenwood have a lot of options!
Enlarge the picture and look around.
Both Santa Rosa itself, and areas west have an insane amount of options!
Some of the roads that head east-west are mountainous.
Healdsburg and Geyserville have an enormous amount of options
Find smaller maps to discover what is within each town. Healdsburg Square itself is beautiful, and can be a day in itself.
Refer to the maps for each region and see how many wineries there are in each. There are plenty to keep you busy.
Word to the wise: All maps are not equal. Some of the maps you pick up will only list the wineries that have paid to be there. Maps distributed by Sonoma County itself are usually more reliable. Those are the ones that I am showing.
HELPFUL HINT: Traveling north and south on the 101 is really quite fast. The east-west roads not so much. If you stay in Santa Rosa, you are very centrally located. It is a good choice if you want to explore multiple areas. However, still be aware of the mountain roads you may come across.
If mountains are involved, it is curvy!! Remember the no guard rail comment above. I have driven to Guerneville. If you love mountain roads, have at it. Be aware that cell service for your GPS can be very spotty.
2. How many days should I spend there, given that Sonoma County is really big?
The shorter the time, the less time you want to spend in the car. If you want to do biking between wineries, you need even more time. Sonoma County offers maps for popular bike routes. I can’t speak to that. I drove.
To decide how many days, add these questions to your list: Do I want to go the coastal area? How many regions do you want to visit? Are there any must see/drink at wineries? This will help determine how much time you need.
Do not rush through wineries and wine tastings. Leave time for conversations and fun. Leave time to savor.
3. Do you want to go it alone or join a wine group? There are many groups available should that be your choice. We have always gone it alone, because I like the flexibility. Many people prefer a group because they may want a little structure.
4. Will you hire a driver? The advantage to a driver is that you can drink freely and not worry about it.
The disadvantage of a driver is that you can drink so freely that you don’t remember what you drank. We have friends who had no idea how many wine clubs they had joined until the bills started coming in. One bill was so large they wondered if they had bought a piano by accident.
If you choose to forgo a driver, drink more than responsibly!! Share tastings. Hydrate! Eat something! Try to find tastings that offer food.
5. What experiences do you want?
Do you want to just taste wine? Do you want to see the winery and the vineyards?
Views of the vineyards are beautiful all across Sonoma County.
However, no one formally visits a vineyard that isn’t attached to a winery.
Do you want to see where the wine is made? (For actually watching the process, you will need to go at harvest time. )
Like I just did!!
In case you can’t go at harvest time…
Sorting grapes. The smaller wineries do the sorting by hand.
They are mogging, as some call it. They are removing Matter Other than Grapes. Farming and winemaking go hand in hand.
One type of bladder press machine used to gently press out the juice from the grapes.
None of the wineries I saw used feet, although that is gaining in popularity with natural wine makers.
The downside of going at harvest time is that there is less time for winemakers to meet with you. They are busy!! Also, there is more local traffic on the roads. Harvest time changes from year to year, and also among grape varieties.
Interesting to know: The majority of wineries in Sonoma do not have all the equipment to turn grapes into wine within their winery. Many use a custom crush set up. The equipment and resources are provided by the custom crush facility. Much of the equipment used for harvest is used for such a short period of time. It would be too large a financial capital investment to buy it.
YEP, wine is a business. Delicious as it is.
Even if you can’t go at harvest time, many wineries offer various “experiences” instead of just tastings. There are multiple price points with each.
Important clarification:
A winery is where they make the wines, and the vineyards are where they grow the grapes. Some wineries grow their own grapes, and may have multiple vineyards. Look at my post ( Hint: click at the words my post) on Top 20 insanely delicious wines from the wine gallery. You will see examples of this on that post. Some wineries buy their grapes. Many times they buy from multiple vineyards.
Tasting rooms may be at the winery or entirely separate. Some have both. If you head to Sonoma (town), Santa Rosa, and/or Healdsburg you will find plenty of tasting rooms within walking distance of each other.
If you just want a short winetasting experience, heading to tasting rooms gives you plenty of options. Don’t rush, though. This isn’t speed dating.
Traveling between wineries takes more time. HOWEVER, the experience provided at the winery may offer exponentially more wine country feel.
For the nitty-gritty details:
Find out what days the tasting room and wineries are open.
Do they need reservations? Some are not allowed to do walk-ins for some reason.
If I have a question, I always try to reach the winery or tasting room by phone. Old school. You should do the same. There is only so much a website can tell you.
For more detailed information on the whole visiting and tasting thing click, on the link from my post called: Incredibly Helpful Advice for Tasting in Wine Country or even closer to home.
I will be writing more posts on my visit to Sonoma Wine Country. I will be posting the links here when I do.
Meanwhile…
Decide what you want out of your adventures.
Leave time to savor the experience.
Remember to have fun!
Enjoy the planning!
Enjoy the Ride!
CHEERS!!
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Check out other wine travel posts by clicking on wine travel adventures or Sonoma either below or above.
