A New Favorite Wine Destination - Sonoma

Laurie and I recently returned from a 10-day wine tasting vacation in Sonoma, and we agree – Sonoma is our new favorite wine destination! And that’s saying something, given our frequent forays into Napa Valley, our retirement celebration trip to the Willamette Valley in Oregon, and other favorite wine destinations like Monterey/Caramel Valley, and Virginia wine country! So, what makes Sonoma so great? Read on to find out!  

Wine tasting at Paul Hobbs Winery

Sonoma County encompasses almost 2,000 square miles of land and water. It consists of 19 different federally recognized AVAs, or American Viticultural Areas, each of which have their own unique climate, topography, and soil conditions that influence the style of wines produced there.

The 19 different AVAs in Sonoma County

Laurie and I chose Sonoma as our destination for our recent wine country getaway to escape the heat and humidity of summer in Sarasota. While we have visited neighboring Napa Valley on multiple occasions (I think our visit count to Napa is eight now!), we had only skirted the eastern edge of Sonoma with short visits to Carneros and Sonoma Square in Sonoma Valley. Our love of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir drove us to explore Sonoma more fully, and we weren’t disappointed in the least! We chose Russian River Valley as our base for our Sonoma vacation for two reasons: First, it’s the sweet spot for some of the best Chardonnay and Pinot Noir wines produced in the world; and second, it’s centrally located and perfect for exploring other wine regions in the county.

In the end, we made our way to 8 of the 19 Sonoma County AVAs – Petaluma Gap, Green Valley, Russian River Valley, Chalk Hill, Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma Coast, Fountain Grove District, and West Sonoma Coast. We visited 15 wineries and tasted 120 different wines from 25 different California AVAs overall, and from 14 of the 19 Sonoma AVAs. As part of our tastings, we sampled 28 different Chardonnays, 31 Pinot Noirs, 12 sparkling wines, 5 Rose's, 10 Cabernet Sauvignons, 5 Zinfandels, and various amounts of 11 other grape varieties. Yes, we kept plenty busy drinking wine!!!

Wine tasting at Kistler Vineyards in the Russian River Valley

So, what makes Sonoma so great as a wine growing region? Here are my takeaways from almost two weeks spent exploring this beautiful wine country:

• Sonoma maintains a rural and rustic character, but is also modern and trendy at the same time. Whenever I visit wine country, I’m always reminded that all wine growing regions are, at their core, rural areas that focus on agriculture and farming. You’d hardly notice that when driving through Napa Valley, but Sonoma is still dotted with small one-street towns with corner grocery stores and rustic local eateries. Roads are winding and cut through forests, mountains, river valleys, and hillsides. Wineries are miles apart from each other. At the same time though, there are modern, upscale features in Sonoma that include high-end wineries with beautifully apointed tasting rooms, luxury resorts and smaller boutique inns, high-end restaurants owned by Michelin-starred chefs, and modern, trendy towns like Healdsburg that draw crowds every day of the week. We loved the dicotomy of eating at a local breakfast joint that has been around for over 50 years, and then staying at a new, modern luxury resort and enjoying an elegant dinner paired with some of the finest wines from the region that evening.

Dinner at the Farmhouse Inn Restaurant

• The weather in Sonoma is absolutely sublime! While Laurie and I did our homework by researching the weather in Sonoma and trying to pack accordingly, we misjudged how cool mornings and evenings would be, and how long that cool weather remained in the morning. Morning lows were in the low 50’s, while daytime highs were in the 70’s throughout our trip, with not a stitch of humidity of course! The clouds and fog would hang on until late morning when the blue skies and sunshine arrived to quickly warm things up.  It was the perfect antidote to the oppressive heat and humidity of Florida in June – next time we’ll pack a few more sweatshirts!

Warming up by the firepit on our deck at Montage Healdsburg Resort

• Sonoma is incredibly diverse and fascinating, geographically speaking. One of the greatest things about Sonoma is that you can experience vastly different climates simply by driving 30 minutes in one direction or another. During out visit, we hiked in a redwood forest, traversed mountains on our way to visit the rugged Pacific Coast, wound our way on country roads following the Russian River, and drove through dry and hot valley floors. The region is absolutely breathtaking in it’s beauty and diversity. It’s also a peaceful, quiet and relaxing place filled with friendly and welcoming locals.

Redwoods in the Armstrong Redwood Forest, and Bodega Head on the Pacific Coast

• The quality of the wines produced in Sonoma is consistently outstanding. Tasting 120 wines over the course of 10 days provides a solid base for understanding a region’s wines and their regional characteristics. Two things struck me about the Sonoma wines we tasted. First, generally speaking, the wines were stunning in terms of quality and character – well-balanced, expertly crafted, and absolutely delicious. Second, the wines were incredibly diverse and unique, courtesy of the diverse geography of the region. So, a Pinot Noir from the Russian River Valley was elegant, light, and fruity while a Pinot from Carneros was more lush and rich in style, with earthy notes and lighter acidity. It was a fantastic educational experience for me, and I have a much greater appreciation now for the varied styles and subtleties of these wines based on the AVAs in which they were grown.

Chardonnay grapes on the vine at Small Vines Winery

• The winery tasting experiences were high-end, first-class events. We also found that everything in Sonoma is expensive, including the wine tastings hosted by the wineries. But the tastings were well worth the cost, given not only the quality of the wines, but also the elegance and attention to detail devoted to the tastings by the wineries. While we had a number of tastings that were free, courtesy of the inn we stayed at (more about that in my next blog!), most of them ran $75 to $100 per person, with our most expensive being $200 per person. But those prices got you a expertly curated tasting in a private room or private space on a terrace or balcony, with a dedicated staff member (or owner, depending on the winery!) well-versed in the details of each wine personally attending to your tasting. Also, each tasting lasted about 90 minutes, with some going 2 hours or more. Most tastings included paired bites to go with the wines, or a nice cheese and charcuterie board with local meats, cheeses, pates, and other goodies. And invariably, once they realized how much we appreciated great wines, they just kept pouring additional wines for us to try (including reserve and library wines that sell for upwards of $300 or more per bottle) that we would never be able to taste elsewhere.

Enjoying a welcome glass of sparkling wine at Paul Hobbs Winery

Now that you are familiar with Sonoma and what makes it such a unique and fantastic place to visit, I’ll switch gears next week and talk about our favorite things about Sonoma that made our vacation so special! Until then, go out and get yourself a nice Sonoma Chardonnay or Pinot Noir and enjoy!!