Sonoma County has unique attractions for wine lovers: an enormous variety of, well, varietals; beautiful scenery; great restaurants; and of course some very fine wines. But earlier in our years of wine tasting, Sonoma County was often viewed as simply an adjunct to its more “refined” neighbor across the Mayacamas range.
Chateau St. Jean. Photo courtesy of Sonoma County Tourism.
Whenever we wanted to visit Sonoma County, we would take a day out of a trip to Napa Valley and traveled across the Oakville Grade to the southern end, known today as Sonoma Valley. Our experience there was limited to the wineries right along Route 12 (Sonoma Highway) so that later on we could get back easily to the Napa side. That wasn’t very restrictive because there were some pretty good places to taste wine. A typical visit would start at B. R. Cohn, move on to Arrowood, then Kenwood and finish at Château St. Jean. (Come to think of it, that’s not a bad selection even today.)
But Russian River? Alexander Valley? Dry Creek? We seem to remember that we had heard of them, maybe, but we had no idea where they were or what they produced. Then, some time in the 1990’s, we thought we’d spend an entire trip in Sonoma County. Friends looked at us quizzically. “Why go there? Why not just stick with the good stuff in Napa?” they would say. Ever adventurous, we took off across the Golden Gate and along Route 101 only getting a little lost around the town of Sonoma.
The view across Dry Creek Valley.
Yes, we discovered all sorts of wonderful wines and wineries. There weren’t as many then but there were lots of well-established wineries, without any of the fancy-schmancy buildings and tasting rooms that were then being erected in Napa Valley. What some might have called rustic we interpreted as authentic. Instead of fighting the traffic on Napa’s Route 29, we were traveling along beautiful country roads, lined with vines.
However, there were some drawbacks. It was hard to find a meal. There were no restaurants at all along those country roads, and even on Route 101 all we could find were fast food joints. Hotels weren’t a problem; we stayed at the Hilton in Santa Rosa, now sadly lost to the 2017 fires. But as recently as the year 2000, we pulled into Healdsburg at midday and had trouble finding a restaurant where we could sit and enjoy lunch and a glass of wine.
Today, the best of Sonoma County is still there while the shortcomings have been eliminated. The scenery is till ravishing. There are quite a few wineries that make world-class wines. Chards, Cabs, Zins and Pinots to be sure, but also wineries that specialize in grapes native to the Rhône and to Italy, as well as California’s own Petite Sirah. And there is no longer any difficulty finding a good meal, we can assure you. In recent trips, we’ve dined excellently in Sonoma, Santa Rosa, Windsor and of course in Healdsburg, the culinary mecca of Sonoma County.
We miss a bit of the anything-goes nature of the Sonoma County of yesteryear. The rough edges have been knocked off, and there are some full-fledged palaces for tasting. But Sonoma County’s charm and quality have persisted and even improved, so there’s really no comp