I know there have been some mega threads on this, but none are very recent. Wife and I are taking a quick Tues-Fri trip at the end of the month. Wondering about thoughts on Sonoma vs Napa and places to stay. Also any must see vineyards. TIA

We went a few years ago and stayed in Healdsburg from a few recommendations on this board. Loved it. Great small town square with very good restaurants. Liked it that it was smaller and not overly commercialized. Could almost throw rocks and hit a winery but we liked Lambert Bridge, Twomey, Jordan, Dry Creek, Mauritson, and Alexander Valley ( wine cave tour).

We started visiting Sonoma 10+ years ago because "they" said it was less snooty than Napa. We've continued to go back. No idea if the comparison is true but we've enjoyed it so much that we'll do tastings in Napa but stay in Sonoma.

Lodging: We love the Lodge at Bodega Bay, H2hotel in Healdsburg, The Ruse in Healdsburg (was known as Honor Mansion when we went).

Wineries:

• We've been members of Mauritson for over 10 years. Particularly love their Rockpile wines.
• There are several tasting rooms on the square in Healdsburg
• Silver Oak (they have a location in Sonoma)
• Ridge Vineyards
• Rodney Strong
• Lambert Bridge
• Matrix Winery
• Fritz
• Wilson
• Korbel

We're not wine snobs. We enjoy the atmosphere at a winery as much as the juice.

Highly recommend hiring a driver for a day. Go with their recommendations.

For the first trip, we did both Sonoma and Napa. We stayed in the town of Sonoma and did vineyards around Sonoma/Glen Ellen/Kenwood a couple days and then Napa/Yountville/Rutherford a couple of days. Some of the group preferred the smaller, more laid back family-ish vineyards in Sonoma and some preferred the flashier, fancier, corporate vineyards in Yountville.

Of all the ones we visited, Hamel Family in Sonoma was our favorite experience. We also recommend starting with a "sparkling house" in the mornings, as for most folks a glass of sparkling wine goes down easier in the morning than a bold red wine. Gloria/Ferrer/Domaine Carneros/Chandon/Mumm. JCB tasting room in Yountville was wild and different.

We didn't do Healdsburg/Calistoga/North parts, but we have friends who say they prefer to go further north in either valley.

We've been once, right before covid started, did att pro am at pebble and mostly Napa. If you aren't a wine snob you can't really go wrong.

It was the off-season, so reservations weren't required, which was really nice. While we enjoy wine, we also try something new each time so there was no winery we had to go to. My wife is indecisive, so I just picked one as our first stop that was one of the gorgeous stone castles, then from there we literally chose by which ones looked cool to us property wise which led to a hilarious conclusion.

We ended up at rombauer because it's on an steep hill and as we pulled up, realized they had only valet parking so we were like ****, this may be above our league, luckily it was end of day so we didn't have to valet and just walked in. They were out of tastings, but said we could grab a glass at the counter and enjoy the sunset as they had amazing outdoor seating overlooking the valley. So we get to the counter and we order cabs, our preferred drink and the guy was confused, and said everyone comes for their Chardonnay, and we were like meh, we'll still do the cab, we don't love whites. So he ask how we ended up there and we told him it looked cool to drive up the hill they were on. He had absolutely no clue how to respond to that, as he had never encountered someone blindly driving around before clearly. So he gave us a tasting of their Chardonnay insisting we couldn't stop by without trying it. As we chatted, we ended up getting a full tasting from this guy for free as he was having too much fun talking to us/teaching us about their brand since I doubt he ever gets to do that at the outdoor bar counter we were at. We felt obligated to splurge and got their fanciest bottle of cab since we had already got 4+ free drinks, but it was great and we all had fun. Sometimes it pays to be clueless (we were also like 28/30).

Check out River's End in Jenner for a place to stay for all or part of the trip. On a bluff overlooking the ocean with no cell service, etc...and a very good restaurant as part of the property. Nothing super fancy, but million dollar views where the Russian River hits the coast.

Winery - Passalacqua outside of Healdsburg in Dry Creek Valley. Great cabs and zins. Will need a tasting appointment though. Probably our favorite winery in the US.

And we will go back to Sonoma every couple of years, but skip Napa. Small biz vs Big biz to us.

Not sure if you're into hotel points or anything like that, but ALILA Napa can be booked on Hyatt Points and is one of the fanciest places I've seen. We are going in September and the concierge there has been amazing for helping to organize tastings, dinner reservations, etc.

There used to be an Aggie Owned winery in Coombsville* that had amazing wines and would do free tastings if you told them you were an Aggie (Italics), but it has since been bought out. Thompson 31Fifty is another Aggie owned winery in Sonoma, can't vouch for their wines yet as we won't get to try them until our next trip in Sept. but from my email correspondence they are super nice and small/family owned and run. You might try emailing them and seeing if they will be open when you are there.

autograph marriott in the town of sonoma is really nice.. walkable to some restaurants on the square also. Good jump off point into both valleys.

pro tip - fly to Sacramento if flight times are reasonable. airport is smaller than Love field and super easy to get in and out of.

Rutherford Farms

and if you like oysters, check out Hog Island Oyster Company in the farmers market in Napa

We did a Napa tour a couple years ago with these guys in a vintage VW bus. They also do Sonoma.

https://www.westwinetours.com/

Cruising through the valley with the radio on and the windows down was a awesome way to get around. They had an awesome lunch served at one of the stops.

Highly recommend

Ag_07 said:

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We did a Napa tour a couple years ago with these guys in a vintage VW bus. They also do Sonoma.

https://www.westwinetours.com/

Cruising through the valley with the radio on and the windows down was a awesome way to get around. They had an awesome lunch served at one of the stops.

Highly recommend

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Bookmarked

We did the Russian river valley in Sonoma county about 12 years ago - absolutely beautiful. Like the Shire. Plan time to just drive around the mountains and vineyards. Toured at Korbel and saw redwoods at Armstrong Woods State Park. We stayed in Santa Rosa.

Love the drive up the Russian River. Also went to Armstrong to avoid the crowds and headache of doing Muir Woods, 100% recommend. Get there early and parking is free and park is essentially empty. Another day trip I recommend is the drive out to Bodega Bay and/or Point Reyes. Both offer excellent views and hiking.

The folks at Korbel are so friendly and welcoming! Tastings are free if you're military! I choose not to spend much time in Napa when I'm in the area because I love the smaller towns, like Healdsburg and Calistoga. But my favorite winery and one that I'm a member of is Merriam Vineyards, south of Healdsburg on HWY 101. Excellent service and great wine!

Edit to say I didn't see the timeline of this thread before posting. Oops! Hopefully it's helpful for someone going soon!