{"id":1922,"date":"2021-08-30T15:57:03","date_gmt":"2021-08-30T15:57:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=1922"},"modified":"2021-08-30T16:13:31","modified_gmt":"2021-08-30T16:13:31","slug":"visiting-sonoma-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=1922","title":{"rendered":"Visiting Sonoma County"},"content":{"rendered":"

For many bygone years, a wine tasting trip in California meant travelling to Napa Valley.\u00a0 Oh, we knew there were vineyards on the other side of the Mayacamas range in Sonoma County.\u00a0 And occasionally we\u2019d drive over the Oakville Grade and emerge on Route 12 in the Sonoma Valley region.\u00a0 We\u2019d visit a few nearby wineries and then scamper back to the familiarity of Napa Valley.\u00a0 No disrespect to Chateau St. Jean, B.R. Cohn or Arrowood (our most frequent Route 12 visits) but we were missing an awful lot of what Sonoma County has to offer the wine enthusiast.<\/p>\n

In the late \u201890\u2019s we decided to dedicate an entire trip to Sonoma County.\u00a0 It was very different then, much more rustic with simple wineries and not many places to eat.\u00a0 Even though the main road is a highway (Route 101), Sonoma County\u2019s Wine Country is vast.\u00a0 Not knowing where we were going nor what we liked, we spent a lot of time driving from one winery we had heard something about to another and wasting a lot of time getting from place to place.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The view in front of the Stonestreet winery in Alexander Valley.<\/em><\/p>\n

We\u2019ve learned that the smartest plan is to visit one region per day.\u00a0 Fortunately, there is a fairly consistent mapping of grape varietals with specific regions, so we have a good idea of the type of wine we\u2019d be trying each day.\u00a0 For example, Sonoma Valley was and is all about Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot and so are Chalk Hill and Alexander Valley.\u00a0 If you\u2019re a Pinot Noir fan, you should head straight to Russian River and Green Valley.\u00a0 And while you\u2019ll find Zinfandel everywhere, they specialize in it in Dry Creek and Rockpile.\u00a0 Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc are everywhere.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Old Zinfandel vines in Dry Creek Valley.<\/em><\/p>\n

There are three towns where you\u2019ll find most of the restaurants and hotels: Sonoma, Santa Rosa and Healdsburg.\u00a0 If you did nothing but visit the main squares in each, and sip in the tasting rooms there, you\u2019d have a pretty nice visit to Sonoma County.\u00a0 All the same, we recommend that you get out into the countryside.<\/p>\n

There are still plenty of wineries that are reminders of the way the county used to be.\u00a0 They\u2019re small, out of the way and their tasting rooms are nothing fancy.\u00a0 Some have wines that are probably not worth being on the top of your list, but we have chanced upon more than a few that have been favorites of ours for many years.\u00a0 It\u2019s a good idea occasionally to let serendipity be your guide and try some wines you\u2019ve never heard of.<\/p>\n

At the other extreme, there are quite a few wineries in Sonoma County that have deservedly great reputations and should be considered for your visit.\u00a0 Among these are Jordan<\/a>, Verit\u00e9, Rochioli<\/a>, Martinelli<\/a>, Ridge and Chalk Hill (including their Chardonnay). \u00a0Even before the pandemic, may of these were by appointment only, so check before you go.<\/p>\n

Sonoma County may have once been Napa Valley\u2019s little brother (at least in the opinion of the Napans).\u00a0 In no way is that true today.\u00a0 You can taste, dine, sleep and tour just as well in both these sectors of Wine Country.\u00a0 There are many similarities, which is why we term them both together as Napa\/Noma.\u00a0 But Sonoma has a distinct personality in its wine, geography and attitude.\u00a0 It\u2019s a destination in itself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For many bygone years, a wine tasting trip in California meant travelling to Napa Valley.\u00a0 Oh, we knew there were vineyards on the other side of the Mayacamas range in Sonoma County.\u00a0 And occasionally we\u2019d drive over the Oakville Grade and emerge on Route 12 in the Sonoma Valley region.\u00a0 We\u2019d visit a few nearby … Continue reading Visiting Sonoma County<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1922"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1922"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1922\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1931,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1922\/revisions\/1931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}