40 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.

Barbara Bestor's sleek white design for record producer Kashy Khaledi's glass-and-metal tasting space evokes mid-century modern architecture and the era and wine-making style predating the Napa Valley's rise to prominence. Bordeaux grapes are the focus in wines that include a Sauvignon Blanc and Sémillon blend, Cabernet Franc (also a rosé of the same), and Cabernet Sauvignon. With a label designer also responsible for a Jay-Z album cover and interiors recalling the Mad Men Palm Springs story arc, the pitch seems unabashedly to millennials, but the wines, low in alcohol and with high acidity (helpful with aging), enchant connoisseurs of all stripes.   A pairing with cheeses and a family-style lunch with a seasonally changing menu demonstrate how food-friendly the A&D wines are.

Regenerative organic and biodynamic farming is a core priority of this forward-thinking winery devoted to wines from Italian grapes. Names like Vermentino, Sangiovese, Barbera, and Primitivo may ring a bell, but the revelations here include the Falanghina and Fiano whites and Sagrantino, a lush yet earthy wine that’s as pleasingly complex as a Bordeaux red. There’s also Pinot Nero (Pinot Noir in Italian). All wine tastings involve oils from olives grown on-site (one session explores only the oils), but for a total immersion, consider the experience that starts with a tour past olive trees and into a fruit, vegetable, and flower garden over to the pigpen.

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.

Since decamping for California, Hoosier winemaker Erik Miller, who named his winery after his Indiana hometown, has raked in awards for his single-vineyard Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Grenache, Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon, and a few other wines. Fans of the Pauline's Vineyard Grenache Rosé snag most of the supply within weeks of release. Some guests sit amid the potted plants fronting the industrial-parklike production facility, though the banter in the main tasting area, high rows of oak aging barrels its focal point, lures many inside. (The adjacent room for club members is a veritable party even midweek on some summer days.) Make an appointment if possible; call for same-day visits.

Founded in 1895 but planted with grapes even before that by San Francisco's free-spirited Lillie Hitchcock Coit, Larkmead was named by her for the meadowlarks that once flitted upvalley. The 115-acre vineyard's diverse soils represent a microcosm of the entire Napa Valley, contributing to the luxuriant complexity of the Merlot-based Firebelle Bordeaux blend and the collector-worthy Solari Cabernet Sauvignon. The intuitive artistry underlying the wines also plays out in the hospitality building’s barn-chic design, the chalk pastels and other works by Kate Solari Baker, whose parents purchased Larkmead in 1948, and the colorful gardens her daughter, Ann, created. Most tastings begin with a brief tour passing by the 3-acre Research Block devoted to alternative grape types and viticultural techniques to cope with climate change, a long-standing concern.

Master brewer Nile Zacherle opened this pint-sized tap house to showcase the barrel-aged, unfiltered, naturally carbonated lagers and ales he and his wife, Whitney Fisher, produce. Both winemakers at ultrapremium labels, they apply the same concepts of terroir (how climate, geology, and other factors influence wines) to their hops, barley, and water sources, providing the information about each brew. With more than a dozen beers on tap or in bottle, there’s a style for most tastes. Mad Fritz also sells “origin coffee” and serves espresso on-site. Check the website or call to reserve a tour of Mad Fritz’s St. Helena brewery.

The estate's name means "our view," and you'll likely deem the perspective magnificent wherever you taste. The Russian River Valley sprawls below the Block 23 Terrace tasting area; egrets and otters cavort in the Lakeshore Pavilion, where other experiences unfold; and Mt. St. Helena looms eastward at The Summit, the 710-acre property's highest point. Chardonnays and Rhône-style reds are two strengths, and there's a vibrant Pinot Noir. The best of the Rhônes, the GSM (Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre), comes from the slice of Notre Vue in the Chalk Hill AVA (the rest is Russian River Valley).

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.

Ridge stands tall among local wineries, and not merely because its 1971 Monte Bello Cabernet Sauvignon rated second-highest among California reds competing with French ones at the Judgment of Paris blind tasting of 1976. The winery built its reputation on Cabernets and Zinfandels of unusual depth and complexity, but you'll also find Rhône-grape blends. Single-vineyard estate wines, such as the Lytton Springs Zinfandel from fruit grown steps away, are the focus of tastings. You can sit outside in good weather, taking in views of rolling vineyard hills while you sip. The educational Century Tour & Library Tasting begins with a spin around the property in an electric cart.

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.

Robert and Laura Schermeister, the husband and wife behind this winery known for aromatic, densely flavored single-vineyard wines, conduct tastings in a small space within a historic Glen Ellen building or on a nearby patio facing Sonoma Creek. Robert makes vegan-friendly unfiltered wines that include a Viognier white, an intriguing Bordeaux-blend rosé, and Grenache, Pinot Noir, Syrah, and Cabernet Sauvignon reds, intervening as little as possible once fermentation (with native, not commercial, yeasts) begins. Either Robert or Laura, perhaps both, will conduct your tasting. Their romance began after he charmed her over a bottle of his Pinot Noir.   It's best to make an appointment because this highly regarded winery with a small annual output temporarily closes when the wines run out.

For a glimpse of the Napa Valley before things got precious, head up Spring Mountain to the vineyard Stu Smith purchased in 1970 and still farms. His low-tech winery is a family affair: brother Charlie has made Smith-Madrone's critically acclaimed wines for more than four decades, and son Sam is Charlie's assistant. Blissfully informal outdoor tours and tastings of Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Riesling wines take place by appointment three days a week, starting at the weather-worn no-frills redwood barn where Charlie makes the wines. He mostly lets the grapes do the talking, but profound wisdom underlies his restraint: these food-friendly wines are marvels of acidity, minerality, and flavor.  The view across the valley to Howell Mountain is often fantastic.

The sought-after consultant Thomas Rivers Brown oversees the collector-quality Cabernets of this winery on Diamond Mountain's northern slope. The Voir Dire Cabernet Sauvignon (one owner practices law), the luxury brand's layered and silky flagship, comes from the property's oldest vines. Younger plantings produce fruit for the friskier Hawk's Prey Cab and mellifluous Merlot, with Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, and Syrah wines coming from a high-elevation estate in Sonoma County's Moon Mountain District. Tastings, some involving food, are held in a red replica barn with Mt. St. Helena views; Brown and on-site winemaker Andy Jones ply their craft inside a contemporary high-tech facility nearby. Two restored structures, one a schoolhouse, date to the 19th century. Appointments, always required, are best booked a week or more ahead.

Superior estate Chardonnay, dry Riesling, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinot Noir, and the Malbec-heavy Dragon's Tooth blend are the trademarks of this family-run winery founded in 1968. To find out how well Trefethen wines age, book a reserve tasting, which includes pours of limited-release wines and one or two older vintages. The terra-cotta-color historic winery on-site, built in 1886, was designed with a gravity-flow system, with the third story for crushing, the second for fermenting the resulting juice, and the first for aging. The wooden building is now the main tasting room. The early-1900s Arts and Crafts–style Villa, situated amid gardens, hosts Taste the Estate, whose food pairings include ingredients from the on-site culinary garden. All visits require a reservation.

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.

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.

From a distance the modern minimalist architecture of Artesa blends harmoniously with the surrounding Carneros landscape, but up close its pools, fountains, and large outdoor sculptures make their own impression. Chardonnay and Pinot Noir from estate and sourced grapes predominate, but the winery also produces Albariño and sparkling wine, plus heavier reds including Cabernet Sauvignon and Tempranillo. You can sample them, sometimes paired with food, while enjoying views of estate and neighboring vineyards and, on a clear day, San Francisco.

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.

At more than 1,300 acres (one of Sonoma County's largest estates), this is the most prominent winery of the Russian River Valley AVA’s Chalk Hill sub-appellation. Most guests taste on the châteaulike production facility's terrace, basking in views of woodsy, vineyard-studded hills. Although even in summer you might detect Pacific breezes, the estate, which has 15 separate microclimates, isn't cool enough for Pinot Noir, so the winery grows it on land nearer the ocean. About half the Chalk Hill property's 300 vineyard acres are devoted to Chardonnay, with Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon, a few other Bordeaux grapes (the Malbec makes a delicious powerful wine), and Syrah also planted.

Cycling trips through the Italian wine country inspired Gary Erickson and Kit Crawford, best known for the Clif energy bar, to establish a Howell Mountain winery and certified organic farm whose bounty they share at two valley-floor spaces. Sessions at the Main Street tasting room center on current releases paired with small bites. A block west at the Enoteca Private Tasting Salon ( 1334 Vidovich Ave.), the culinary team prepares bites for the elevated Cima experience. The estate Cabernet Sauvignons featured at the Enoteca tastings, which include the splendid Pane e Vino lunch, show winemaker Laura Barrett at her most nuanced, but she crafts whites, a Grenache rosé, and reds for all palates.

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.

The maverick wineries sharing this exposed-brick tasting space a few storefronts south of Sonoma Plaza produce reasonably priced low-intervention wines and ciders. Northern California vineyards and orchards farmed sustainably or regeneratively supply most of the fruit. An intentionally communal spot to learn about the natural wine movement that eschews commercial fermentation and aging techniques, it feels more coffee shop than wine bar, so much so that you’re apt to find a local tapping away on a laptop at one of the well-spaced wooden tables.

Old-timers recall the superb apples grown at 115-acre Hallberg Ranch, since 2000 an elite Pinot Noir vineyard. Winery founder Brice Jones coveted this land for its temperate climate and layer of Goldridge sandy loam soil atop a bed of Sebastopol clay loam. Along with dry-farming (no irrigation), this soil combination forces vine roots to work hard to obtain water, yielding berries concentrated with flavor. Less than 10 miles from Hallberg, the winery farms the 30-acre estate Pinot Hill Vineyard, whose wines are often denser and more complex. Hosts at the ranch's contemporary tasting room pour Pinots, a Pinot Noir Blanc, and a Pinot rosé, retracting its floor-to-ceiling windows in good weather to create an extended open-air space steps from the vines.

The large retractable windows of this boutique winery's barnlike tasting space open up to views of Cabernet Sauvignon vines—in fine weather, guests on the outdoor deck can practically touch them. Goosecross makes two Chardonnays and a Pinot Noir from Carneros fruit, but the soul of this cordial operation is its 12-acre State Lane Vineyard, planted with red Bordeaux grapes. A Cabernet Sauvignon and a Merlot from State Lane are the stars, along with the Holly's Block 100% Cab and the Aeros blend of the vineyard's best blocks. The last two aren't always poured, but the intentionally big Branta red wine or a Tempranillo tempered by Viognier usually is. Appointments are advised for weekend visits.

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.

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.

These days owned by Heineken International, Lagunitas began as a craft brewery in Marin County in 1993 before moving to Petaluma in 1994. In addition to its large facility, the home of "hop-forward" IPAs operates a taproom, the Schwag Shop for gifts, and a beer garden. Guides leading the brewery tour, which includes a beer flight, provide an irreverent version of the company's rise to international acclaim.

A 100-point score for its Lot No. 1 Cabernet Sauvignon and a snappy renovation of the original 1933 winery added 21st-century luster to this operation whose namesake was a founding Napa Valley Vintners member. Established well before the valley's preoccupation with Cabernet Sauvignon took hold, Martini, owned for more than two decades by E&J Gallo, also makes Sauvignon Blanc, Bordeaux-style red blends, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Malbec, Muscat, Petite Sirah, Zinfandel, and dessert wines. A basic tasting includes a few of these. The more comprehensive Heritage Tasting of small-lot wines is highly recommended, with or without the optional food pairing. Fun fact: 10 of the St. Helena AVA acres the winery occupies cost Louis M. $3,000 (total) in 1933.

Undulating vineyard hills front this longtime Chardonnay and Pinot Noir producer's steel, wood, and heavy-on-the-glass tasting space. Moments after you've arrived and a host has offered a glass of wine, you'll already feel transported into a genteel realm. With fruit from renowned sources—25-plus for the Chardonnays, 20-plus for the Pinots—the wine-making team downplays the oak and other tricks of the trade, letting the vineyard settings, grape clones, and vintage do the talking. Seated tastings, inside or on balcony terraces with views across the Russian River Valley, are by appointment, but walk-ins are usually accommodated.