San Francisco - Alison Bing [213]
Information
Sonoma Valley Visitors Bureau (707-996-1090; www.sonomavalley.com; 453 1st St E; 9am-5pm) Arranges accommodations (no fee) and offers walking-tour maps and festival and event info.
Wineries
More casual and less commercial than Napa, Sonoma Valley has 70 wineries clustered around Hwy 12 – and unlike Napa, most welcome picnicking. Down a country road from downtown, Gundlach-Bundschu ( 707-938-5277; www.gunbun.com; 2000 Denmark St) is a solar-powered castle perched above a reclaimed-water lake producing legendary tempranillo. GunBun also runs nearby Bartholomew Park Winery ( 707-939-3026; www.bartpark.com; 1000 Vineyard Lane; tasting $5-10, museum & park entry free; tasting room & museum 11am-4:30pm), a 400-acre preserve with vineyards originally cultivated in 1857 and now certified-organic, yielding citrus-sunshine sauvignon blanc and smoky-midnight merlot.
Picnic like a rock star at BR Cohn (707-938-4064; www.brcohn.com; 15000 Sonoma Hwy; tasting $10, applicable to purchase; 10am-5pm), whose founder Bruce Cohn managed ’70s superband the Doobie Brothers before moving onto organic olive oils, his Doobie Red Bordeaux blend, and throwing an annual November benefit concert amid the vineyards and olive groves. Another maverick is Demeter-certified biodynamic behemoth Benziger ( 800-989-8890; www.benziger.com; 1883 London Ranch Rd, Glen Ellen; tasting $10-15, tram tour adult incl tasting/under 21 $15/5; 10am-5pm; ), where educational tram tours explain environmentally savvy, esoteric winegrowing methods that yield sensational truffled-cranberry cabs.
West off Hwy 12, many of Sonoma Valley’s best buys await at Wellington (800-816-9463; www.wellingtonvineyards.com; 11600 Dunbar Rd, Glen Ellen; tastings $5; 10am-5pm), where under $30 gets you hazelnutty white port or award-winning, white-peppery zins produced by 100-year-old vines that miraculously survived Prohibition. Swerve off Hwy 12 near Kenwood to Kaz Winery ( 707-833-2536; www.kazwinery.com; 233 Adobe Canyon Rd, Kenwood; tasting $5-10, applicable to purchase; 11am-5pm Fri-Mon), where members of the Kasmier family proudly serve offbeat, organically grown wines like Nebbiolo blush port and cabernet franc on the barrel-top bar in the barn.
Sights & Activities
Downtown Sonoma was once the capital of a rogue nation, and though Sonoma Plaza looks stately with its stone mission revival City Hall (1906–08), it gets plenty lively during balmy summer nights and spring–fall farmers markets ( 9am-noon Fri, 5:30-8pm Tue Apr-Oct). See where Sonoma settlers surprised Mexican soldiers in 1850 and declared an independent Bear Flag Republic at the Adobe Barracks ( 707-935-6832; www.parks.ca.gov; 20 E Spain St; adult/child under 17yr $2/free, entry fee covers same-day admission to Mission Solano; 10am-5pm; ). Across the street, adobe Mission Solano San Francisco ( 707-938-9560; 114 E Spain St; adult/child under 17yr $2/free, entry fee covers same-day admission to Adobe Barracks; 10am-5pm; ) was founded in 1823 and once included 10,000 acres farmed by 900 conscripted Native Californian workers; the East Spain St wing remains largely intact, with a reconstructed chapel.
Northwest of downtown Napa is Morton’s Warm Springs ( 707-833-5511; 1651 Warm Springs Rd; admission adult/child under 3yr/senior & child $8/free/7, reserved picnic & BBQ sites per person $11; 10am-6pm Sat & Sun May & Sep-Oct, to 6pm Tue-Sun Jun-Aug), long believed to have healing properties by native Wappo, with three geothermal mineral pools, hiking trails, volleyball nets and BBQ facilities. For true decadence, Kenwood Inn & Spa (707-833-1293; www.kenwoodinn.com; 10400 Sonoma Hwy, Kenwood; r incl breakfast $400-495; ) offers complimentary bubbly with ‘vinotherapy’ antioxidant red-wine body wraps ($175 for 80 minutes) that go straight to your head. Spa treatments start from $125.
Obey the call of the wild