In 2012, my husband and I got to take a bucket list trip to California wine country. Everyone immediately thinks about Napa when California comes up in discussion, but you should really consider exploring the other towns in the area if you are making such a trip. We found Napa to be much more pretentious, more expensive, and less accessible in general, but I'll discuss that in my post about our day there. THIS post is to rave about the Sonoma area!
We decided on a group tour in Sonoma and approached this with some hesitation - would we like the people we were with? Would it be more overwhelming and less personal this way? Our experience was that both of these were a resounding no. This may not be the case for every group tour there (and I suspect it isn't), but we were pleasantly surprised to learn there was only one other family on our large and comfortable bus - an older couple and their daughter - and we all got along just fine.
We spent the day with Platypus Tours and our lovely guide, Ken, who has lived in Sonoma for over 30 years. He had an absolute wealth of information about the area itself, how grapes are grown here, and the wine business - I don't remember a question he couldn't answer. He discussed with each of us our taste in wines and developed a plan for the day. One of the great things about being on a tour, especially in CA, is that you can get access to places you wouldn't be able to otherwise. We didn't select any wineries in Sonoma specifically, but I wasn't disappointed by any.
A note on wine tasting for those who might not have done this before: purchase of at least 1 bottle is not required but is usually expected. In Napa and Sonoma, many places would advertise that the tasting fee (here it is generally in the $15-25 range) would be waived if a bottle was purchased. If you are looking at wineries on your own to go to, you might want to take this and the average price of wine into consideration. You may also want to ask if the tasting fee is waived on purchase as it is not always stated.
Before we started wine tasting, we were told we must prepare, and headed to Wine Country Chocolates (for the obvious). Ken had a lot of great suggestions and even brought out ideas of pairings throughout the day. You can't leave this place without making a purchase :)
Our first winery stop, and probably my least favorite of this day's wineries, was Landmark Winery. We learned quickly that there are several winemakers that have estate vines, meaning they grow some or all of their own grapes on property, and others that use grapes from several different vineyards to make their wines. Landmark is one of the later, and I found that the visit there was not quite as interesting as the others for that reason. We learned about their wines but didn't learn a whole lot about their process with the grapes (my favorite part :) ). The grounds were beautiful with several good photo ops and their wines were good as well.
Our second stop of the day was Loxton, one of our favorites of the entire trip. This is an extremely small, very personal winery. Another benefit of a tour is that they can often dictate who does your tasting - this can make a huge difference! We did ours with Chris Loxton, owner and winemaker. He is a second generation winemaker from Australia and obviously has a huge passion for what he does. Such a nice guy.
One huge tip for any wine tasting experience: talk to and engage your tasting host. They love what they do and most love to talk about it. Not only will this get you so much more information about the wines and winemaking, it often naps you extra tastes of things not on the normal menu! Here it was a special port :)
We had a little time before our next appointment, so Ken look us on a little side trip for an olive oil and balsamic tasting. Now I like olive oil as much as the next person, but doing shots of it?? Not really my favorite. And they really look down on just soaking it up with bread :) We did find some fantastic flavors here - might be worth a stop if you're interested! Figone's was filled with lots of options and very nice people.
It was then that we headed up Moon Mountain. Ken was sweet enough to warn any of us who got carsick that they might want to move to the front of the van for this part, and I gratefully climbed in the front seat - he wasn't wrong! It was a bit of a tense drive, but we got there safely and saw this...
At the top lies Mountain Terraces Vineyard, and it is truly spectacular. This is the home of Akoma Zoume wines. The vineyard itself is breathtaking and you can see all the way to San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge on a clear day, as we had. Gloria Schaefer, one of the owners, did our tasting and she was a blast. Great wines in the best location you can imagine.
Gloria in her element
Our final destination of the day, one I don't have any photographic evidence of, was the tasting room of Ty Caton and Michael Muscardini. A tasting room is definitely a different experience than seeing the wineries themselves, so it's not for everyone, but you can still taste quite a few wines (usually more than at the winery) and learn quite a bit about them, depending on the skill of your host. The adorable George at Caton and Muscardini knows just about everything about wine, and he loved to share. We were able to try about 15 different wines here, which left us more than thankful to be done with wine for the afternoon! Napa and Sonoma have lots of tasting rooms, and they make a great pre-dinner stop or a fill in if you have some extra time.
One important thing to remember about visiting California wine country is that you have to make provisions to get your wines home! If you are flying, you will want to be sure you purchase a box that can be checked. Often the wineries or tasting rooms offer these for sale to accommodate guests - check with your tasting hosts or tour guides for tips. You don't want to be running around looking for something at the last minute when the wineries are very easy places to pick these things up! Plus, then you have an idea of the number of bottles you are able to purchase. Many wineries also offer shipping to your home, depending on whether your state allows this (check in advance!)
