23 Best Sights in Napa and Sonoma, California

Aesthete may well be the best place in Sonoma County to sample wines this serious for such a modest fee. Adorable rescue animals it’s okay to feed, a cherished creekside sipping area, and the staff's earnest hospitality provide additional incentives to drop by. But the celebrated winemaker, Jesse Katz, constructs the Sauvignon Blancs, Pinot Noirs, and Bordeaux reds with such elegance that all distractions fade away during tastings. The estate Drystack Vineyard in the Bennett Valley AVA flies under the radar, but maybe not for long: a recent barrel-aged Sauvignon Blanc from the site scored a 97 from a top reviewer, high for a California wine from this grape. The Pinot Noirs are more full-bodied than many of their Sonoma County peers yet still refined.

Here's your best opportunity in the western Wine Country to wander amid Sequoia sempervirens, also known as coast redwood trees. The oldest example in this 805-acre state park, the Colonel Armstrong Tree, is thought to be more than 1,400 years old. A half mile from the parking lot, the tree is easily accessible, and you can hike a long way into the forest before things get too hilly. During hot summer days, Armstrong Redwoods's tall trees help the park keep its cool.

Fans of Snoopy and Charlie Brown will love this museum dedicated to the late Charles M. Schulz, who lived his last three decades in Santa Rosa. Permanent installations include a re-creation of the cartoonist's studio, and temporary exhibits often focus on a particular theme in his work. Children and adults can take a stab at creating cartoons in the Education Room.

The same West County Goldridge sandy loam soil that produces world-class wine grapes does the same for the 20 apple varieties in this cidery's 3½-acre certified-organic orchard. Topics at tastings include the regenerative farming practices the owners believe yield healthier fruit. The dry (as in not sweet) ciders crafted here might contain the juice of several apple types or only one, with herbs, spices, oak aging, or particular yeasts employed to enhance texture, flavor, and vibrancy. The tank area doubles as the tasting room (reservations recommended); picnic tables are just outside. Ethic also produces two apple brandies and always has a nonalcoholic alternative available.

The pleasures are pastoral and intellectual at author Jack London's Beauty Ranch, where 30-plus miles of trails skirt vineyards and meander through firs, redwoods, oaks, and madrones. The House of Happy Walls Museum displays manuscripts and personal artifacts detailing London's travels, literary passions, humanitarian and conservation efforts, and promotion of organic farming. London and his second wife, Charmian, whose equally compelling story the museum also documents, spent two years constructing their dream home, Wolf House, but it burned down in 1913, days before they were scheduled to move in. The remaining stone walls and fireplaces provide a sense of the building's grand scale. Also worth a peek is the posh pigsty, based on the writer's agricultural research, that neighbors and a newspaper columnist derided as the Pig Palace.

Two guys who met while on Sonoma State University's rowing team opened this craft brewery, named for a rugged redwood-lined road in West Sonoma County. It's worth the 10-mile drive south from Santa Rosa to Rohnert Park, where enthusiastic staffers pour beers from kettle sours and a Czech-style pilsner to a rye IPA and an oatmeal-milk stout. Old Caz ferments smaller specialty brews at its family- and pet-friendly indoor-outdoor brewpub but makes most of its beers at a production facility nearby.  The kitchen opens for weekday lunch; diverse food trucks appear for dinner on weekdays and all day on weekends.

Ryan and Megan Glaab, the husband and wife owner-winemakers behind Ryme, make a Pinot Noir, a Cabernet Franc, and a Cabernet Sauvignon, but the real story here is their quest to craft food-friendly wines from unsung white (Fiano, Greco, Ribolla Gialla) and red (Aglianico, Frappato) Italian grapes. The Glaabs also make "His" and "Hers" Vermentinos in wildly different styles. That they source fruit from respected vineyards and keep prices low is a credit to their talent and ingenuity. A weathered board-and-batten structure attached to their cinder block winery serves as a tasting room, though good weather finds most guests sipping in the shade of the front patio’s arbor.

An unexpected bit of wilderness in the Wine Country, this preserve with African wildlife covers 400 acres. Begin your visit with a stroll around enclosures housing lemurs, cheetahs, giraffes, and rare birds like the brightly colored scarlet ibis. Next, climb with your guide onto open-air vehicles that spend about two hours combing the expansive property, where more than 80 species—including gazelles, cape buffalo, antelope, wildebeests, and zebras—inhabit the hillsides. If you'd like to extend your stay, "glamping” in Botswana-made tent cabins is available.

For her passion project, sixth-generation vintner Katie Bundschu, also involved in her family's historic Gundlach Bundschu winery, focuses on wines made from organic grapes grown in other family-owned, predominantly Sonoma County vineyards. Most of the wines are old-style field blends in which different types of grapes from the same vineyard are fermented and aged together rather than separately, as is more common these days. A recent vintage of the Makeshift red—Zinfandel, Petite Sirah, and Souzao, a Portuguese grape—hints at the experimentation going on here. You can sample the wines at a garden estate whose grape-growing history dates back nearly as far as the Bundschu family's.

Occupying the 1840s homestead of Cyrus Alexander, the valley’s namesake, this winery known for the widely distributed Sin Zin produces wines from Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, and a few more grapes. Tastings are old-Sonoma low-key; book Experience Cabernet Sauvignon to sample the Bordeaux-style blend Cyrus and other Cabs. Twice-daily free tours pass by the production facility and through caves dug deep into a nearby hillside. Daily vineyard hikes focusing on the land and the winery's history conclude with a box lunch and tasting.

Krystle and Jason Jorgensen make small-batch rye, single-malt whiskey, gin, peach liqueur, apple brandy, and candy-cap bitters in an industrial park distillery 2 miles north of Healdsburg Plaza. The rye derives its overlapping flavors from its "mash bill" of rye and malted barley aged in heavily charred American oak barrels that add further layers of spice and complexity. The Jorgensens pride themselves on crafting their spirits entirely on-site, from grain milling through bottling, a process they describe enthusiastically at their apothecarylike tasting room.

Other wineries purchase about 90% of the grapes the Balletto family grows on 800-plus acres, with the remainder destined for its own label's wines. The house style—light on the oak, high in acidity, and low in alcohol content—yields food-friendly wines. Sipping Pinot Gris, rosé of Pinot Noir, or a brut rosé sparkler on the outdoor patio can feel transcendent on a warm day, though the Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs steal the show. The winery also makes Gewürztraminer, Sauvignon Blanc, Syrah, and Zinfandel.

The reputation of this winery whose name means "friends" in French rests on its Chardonnays, Pinot Noirs, and Syrahs. Copain occupies an enviable slope in Northern Sonoma County—one that begs guests to sit, sip, and take in the Russian River Valley view—but for years most of its wines derived from grapes grown in hillside vineyards near the coast in Monterey and Mendocino counties. Since the winery's purchase by Jackson Family Wines, fruit from the Russian River Valley and Sonoma Coast has joined the mix.

Doug Hill farms grapes for prominent Napa wineries, but at the urging of his son, Ryan, the family began bottling its own Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and other wines. Crafted by Alison Doran, a protégé of the late Napa winemaker André Tchelistcheff, these are refined reds you can sample, along with whites that include Albariño and Chardonnay, on a 7½-acre estate. Alfresco tastings take advantage of classic valley views—vineyards and the board-and-batten winery building up close, the Mayacamas Mountains farther west. Appointment-only visits are limited to a few guests per day, but the family also operates a tasting salon less than a mile away in downtown Yountville. Ask about seasonal tours (with tasting) of a "secret garden" that grows produce for The French Laundry and other top restaurants.

Sustainable farming is the big story at this family-run winery. When offered, the absorbing Eco-Tour and Tasting focuses on the Honig family's environmentally friendly farming and production methods, which include using biodiesel to fuel the tractors, monitoring water use in the vineyard and winery, and generating power with solar panels. Bluebirds, hawks, and owls patrol for insects, rodents, and other pests. Known for Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Sauvignon, the Honigs also make rosé of Cabernet and late-harvest Sauvignon Blanc. All tastings are by appointment; call ahead for last-minute availability.

This boutique winery's guests discover why "wind to wine" is the Petaluma Gap AVA's slogan. The steady Pacific Ocean and San Pablo Bay breezes that mitigate the midday heat give the grapes thick "sailor's skin," heightening their tannins and flavor, says Ana Keller, whose parents began planting vineyards here in 1989 on former dairy fields. Tastings of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Syrah wines usually take place alfresco on a stone terrace shaded by umbrellas and flowering pear trees. On most days, a few dozen cars collected by winery founder Arturo Keller are on display.

The visitor center at Matanzas Creek sets itself apart with an understated Japanese aesthetic, extending to a tranquil fountain and a vast field of lavender. The winery makes Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Merlot, Pinot Noir, and Cabernet Sauvignon wines under the Matanzas Creek name, and four equally well-regarded bottlings—a Bordeaux red blend, a Pinot Noir, a Chardonnay, and a Sauvignon Blanc—bearing the Journey label. The winery, owned by Jackson Family Wines, encourages guests to enjoy a picnic on the property. Hosts waive the table fee with a wine purchase. Weekend reservations are a good idea.  From late June to mid-August, blooming lavender perfumes the air.

Rick and Amber Moshin produce single-vineyard Pinot Noirs on a hillside property across Westside Road from the Russian River. Tours of their four-tier, gravity-flow winery focus on its efficient layout and Rick's penchant for harvesting grapes before many of his neighbors. Picking early preserves acidity, which he believes helps his wines pair well with food. In the tasting room and outside, guests sip Pinot Noirs along with Vermentino, Grenache, and other wines.

The long driveway at homespun Preston, flanked by vineyards and punctuated by the occasional olive tree, winds down to farmhouses encircling a large, shady yard. Year-round, a small shop near the tasting room sells olive oil, organic produce, homemade sourdough bread, and other items grown or made on-site. Only estate organic grapes—Sauvignon Blanc, Barbera, Petite Sirah, Grenache, Viognier, Zinfandel, and several others—go into the wines here. Tastings and tables for bring-your-own picnics on the lawn require a reservation. Call ahead for same-day visits.

Walt Disney animator Ben Sharpsteen, who retired to Calistoga, founded this old-school but compelling museum whose centerpiece is a diorama depicting the Calistoga Hot Springs Resort during its 19th-century heyday. A restored cottage from the resort, moved to this site, sits next door to the museum but is entered through it. Other exhibits survey life in Calistoga through the decades and author Robert Louis Stevenson's time here in 1880. 

An aerial gondola whisks guests up a 300-foot hill to a whitewashed Greek Mediterranean–style winery with sweeping Napa Valley views. A self-guided tour allows guests to delve into the wine-making process. Or not. On a sunny day, the valley vistas can be mighty distracting. Sterling, which released its first vintage in 1969, makes waves for its Cabernet Sauvignons, like the top-of-the-line Iridium and another from Diamond Mountain; Chardonnays, a crowd-pleasing Malvasia Blanca, and sparkling wines are among the lighter bottlings. For a more fulfilling visit, choose a tasting of upper-tier wines.

Chardonnays and Cabernet Sauvignons from estate-grown grapes are the specialties of this slightly off-the-beaten-path winery whose tasting room and production facility occupy a stained-redwood former barn. Standout wines include the Summit Chardonnay and the Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, the latter from Stuhlmuller's oldest vines. Other wines to look for are the Estate Zinfandel and the Block Twelve Cabernet Sauvignon from 2½ acres planted in the 1980s. Some tastings take place in a room adjoining the aging cellar, but in good weather you can sip outdoors on a patio near the vines.  Picnickers are welcome at this family- and dog-friendly winery.