8 Best Sonoma Wineries: The Ones You Need to Know
Check out these Fantastic Sonoma Wineries, only 90 minutes from San Francisco
We’ve lived in Sonoma County, California twice and absolutely loved it. It’s only 1 1/2 hours north of San Francisco, has spectacular farm-to-table food, redwood forests, coastal hikes and spectacular sunsets. It’s a wonderful off the beaten path travel destination. But perhaps most importanly, it’s home to phenomenal Sonoma wineries — some of the country’s best. We’ve tasted at dozens of wineries in this area, and here are our top picks for Sonoma County wineries.
Sonoma has many hidden gem wineries, like Bohème’s Stuller Vineyard. Photo: Sasha Lezhnev, all rights reserved
A Bit About Wineries in Sonoma
🍷 Sonoma is home to America’s first Pinot Noir winery, the Buena Vista Winery from 1850. It’s also California’s second-oldest winery (the first being in Santa Cruz). The Russian River Valley is America’s oldest Pinot Noir producing region, where winemakers put Pinot Noir on the map for the United States and the New World as a whole, and there are over 200 wineries there now.
🍷 We’re focusing on the Russian River Valley wineries here. But within Sonoma there is also:
🍷 Alexander Valley, famous for Cabernet Sauvignon and home to the famous Silver Oak Cellars.
🍷 The town of Healdsburg, which has many wine tasting rooms, focused mainly on fuller bodied wines.
🍷 Dry Creek Valley, which is most known for Zinfandels and fuller-bodied wines. Dry Creek Road is at the center of the wine tasting there.
🎥 Movie director Francis Ford Coppola has his winery in north Sonoma in Geyserville.
💰 Save money: We hate expensive tasting fees, especially since they normally don’t correlate to better tasting wines. So we’ve focused on wineries where there are no or low tasting fees, or your fees are waived with a 1-2 bottle purchase.
Wine grapes during harvest. Photo: Sasha Lezhnev, all rights reserved
Why Sonoma Wineries and not Napa?
If you’re in the San Francisco Bay Area and thinking of going to wine country for the day, the first place that probably comes to mind is Napa Valley. Here are 5 reasons why you should consider the Sonoma wineries instead:
💲It’s cheaper — Who wants to pay $75 for tasting 5 wines? Not us. Wine tasting fees at Sonoma wineries are 1/3 to 1/2 of what they are in Napa Valley for the most part. Not in all cases, but generally.
🍷 The wines are actually better (in our humble opinion) — Napa wines these days are often over extracted, over oaked, and heavy on alcohol. By contrast, wines at Sonoma wineries—Pinots, Syrahs, and even Cabs—often have more of a focus on showcasing the terroir (like the cool Pacific Ocean fog) rather than simply adding oak or bumping up the alcohol in the wines.
👫You get a more personal experience — instead of the huge, crowded tasting rooms in Napa, you can often meet and chat with the winemakers themselves at Sonoma wineries, especially West Sonoma.
🏖 You’re on the coast — Spend some time tasting wine and some time hiking or walking the beach! The best wineries in West Sonoma/the Russian River Valley are only 30 minutes from several magical beaches on the Sonoma coast. Read more in our California hidden gems blog.
🌲 The redwoods — Combine your wine tasting at Sonoma wineries with a walk among the giants. Sonoma has beautiful parks with redwood trees that we highly recommend visiting, e.g. Armstrong Redwoods State Park.
🍷 We’re focusing here on wineries in West Sonoma County, which is the more relaxed and down-to-earth side of Sonoma, centered around Sebastopol, Bodega Bay, Occidental, and Guerneville. Here are some of the best Sonoma wineries we encountered from our time living there on two separate occasions.
🔥 If you prefer a guided tour & don’t want to drive, this is a good one. They pick you up from San Francisco, you stop at the Golden Gate Bridge, do a few wine tastings in Sonoma and have lunch, and stop in Sausalito on the way back.
Bohème’s Pinot Noirs make it one of the best wineries in Sonoma. Photo: Sasha Lezhnev, all rights reserved
Bohème Winery: Arguably the Best Sonoma Winery for Pinot Noir
Tiny Bohème winery in Occidental produces some of the best pinot noirs in the world, and they have a charming tasting room to try them in to boot. It’s a real hidden gem Sonoma winery. A group of us wine enthusiasts blind tasted top Pinots in the Russian River Valley and other parts of California (notably Sta. Rita Hills), and Bohème’s top wines came out on top. Frequently in the shop, winemaker Kurt Beitler has a joie de vivre, is passionate about his winemaking and travel, and is a joy to talk to. This is one of the best wineries in Sonoma and a hidden gem to boot.
🍷 Both the white and red wines were excellent. Our highlights were the Taylor Ridge Chardonnay (which had a Chablis-like elegance and finish; the Taylor Ridge Pinot Noir (which had an ethereal, bright feeling from the Sonoma Coast terroir.
🍷 The star wine for us was the Stuller Vineyard Pinot Noir. It was maybe the best pinot we tasted in all of Sonoma’s Russian River Valley—full bodied, well balanced, and beautiful fruit.
The vineyards at Boheme winery at sunset, one of the best Sonoma wineries. Photo by Sasha Lezhnev, all rights reserved.
Kurt takes a lot of time with the vineyards himself and does essentially organic farming. The vineyards are very close to Occidental, and Kurt lives right around there.
Details: The lovely wood-filled, living room-like tasting room is in downtown Occidental. No appointment is needed. Even better, there isn’t some exorbitant tasting fee.
🔥 Hot tip: The outstanding restaurant across the street, Hazel, has Bohème’s Chardonnay on the menu. Even better, go there on Thursdays and get free corkage for Bohème or wine from any of the other Sonoma wineries. We ate there many times & loved it.
Scherrer is one of the best wineries in Sonoma to visit. Taste at Region Wine Bar. Photo: Sasha Lezhnev, all rights reserved
2. Scherrer Winery: The Sonoma Winery to Know
Scherrer was maybe the best wine tasting we’ve done in our lives. It’s definitely one of the best wineries in Sonoma. The winemaker Fred Scherrer does everything himself and knows IT ALL about Pinot Noir and many other grapes. He comes from a wine grape growing family from Alexander Valley, he is unpretentious, and is incredibly dedicated to the wines.
🍷 Highlights: Scherrer’s Pinots are out of this world, but he also makes a huge variety of wines. One of the best wines we’ve ever tasted in our lives is his Hallberg Vineyard Pinot Noir (both 2018 and 19), and the one that both Fred and his wife Judi sipped on after a wine dinner we attended with them. But many others were fantastic as well, e.g. the elegant Sasha Syrah (haha for me), the Gewurztraminer (surprise), Old Vines Zinfandel, and Cabernet Sauvignon from his own family estate were the outstanding wines for us.
🔥 Hot tip: The best way to taste Scherrer’s wines is actually at Region wine bar in Sebastopol (see below) or at one of the Scherrer open houses in April, August, and mid-November.
🍷 Region (see below) always has a few Scherrer wines on tap, but also Fred and Judi do a week-long tasting of many more of their wines at Region twice a year, including a special dinner that you can sign up for. We did all of the above, and they were all well worth it to taste Fred’s many wines. See the timing here.
If none of those line up for your schedule, you can try making an appointment at Scherrer, but they’re extremely short staffed, so it’s not easy to get. The winery in the Sebastopol area.
Region wine tasting bar in Sebastopol, Sonoma County is probably the best wine bar we’ve ever been to. Photo: Region.
3. Region: Taste from the Best Wineries in Sonoma without Having to Trek to All of Them
Region, a humble yet incredible place to try wines from the best Sonoma wineries, is a maybe the best wine bar we’ve ever been to in the world. We went probably a dozen times. It’s in the middle of one of the world’s best wine regions, and it’s focused on local wines, particularly small wineries.
🍷 In downtown Sebastopol, Region has 50+ wines for sampling in one of those push-button machines (see the photo). Honestly this is a great way to sample wines from all over Sonoma before you visit wineries, so you can see what you want to try more of or decide which wineries you want to visit.
🍷 The best Sonoma wineries for us at Region were Scherrer (their Russian River Valley Pinot Noir) and Viluko (their Cabernet Sauvignon). We had the Viluko with steak later, which was phenomenal, and the tannins were well resolved.
🔥 Hot tip:
Region is located in the Barlow, a fantastic complex in Sebastopol that has some of the best quality eating and drinking anywhere. There are several great restaurants, a fantastic coffee shop, an excellent bakery, a beer brewery, an organic grocery store, and more. You can spend a whole day just there, literally. Highlights for us are:
Taylor Lane Organic Coffee, excellent espresso drinks.
Fern Bar restaurant/cocktail bar. Both the food and cocktails are top notch and creative.
Wm Cofield Cheesemakers, delicious locally made cheese (to pair with all that wine).
🔥 Hot tip 2: Region organizes high quality wine dinners with winemakers that pair their wines with different courses. We did one and recommend it. See the schedule here.
Details: No appointment needed. Wine bar in downtown Sebastopol, down the street from Pax.
🍷 Region rotates its wine list every few months (which is amazing), so by the time you get there there’ll be a new batch!
Pax winery/wine bar in Sebastopol, one of the best Sonoma wineries. Photo: Sasha Lezhnev, all rights reserved
4. Pax Wines: Spectacular Tasting Room, One of the Best Wineries in Sonoma
Winemaker Pax Mahle regularly gets very high scores on his wines, including the epic 100 point 2016 Hillsides Syrah from Antonio Galloni. Pax specializes in excellent Northern Rhône-style, low-alcohol Syrah wines.
Part of what makes Pax one of the best Sonoma wineries is that it’s located in a hip bar with low lighting and leather furniture in downtown Sebastopol. They even have an arcade game (at a winery!), and it’s very kid-friendly. We went back here a few times because of the quality wines and the relaxed vibe. Another of the best wineries in Sonoma, and a hidden gem.
🍷 Pax had its 2021 Hillsides Syrah release when we were there, and it was spectacular. We tasted it side by side with the 2018, and we both thought it was better.
🍷 The Armagh single vineyard Syrah was also spectacular, and you can get older vintages. It’s a good place to buy a bottle or two and enjoy some or all of it at the bar.
Details: No appointment needed. Wine bar in downtown Sebastopol, down the street from Region.
🔥 Hot tip: They have a variety of flights available, but the best deal in our humble opinions is to buy a bottle of one of their good wines and just sip it with friends at the tasting room. It comes out to be much cheaper than just small tastings that way, and you can take home whatever you don’t finish.
Pinot Noir vineyards in the Russian River Valley, some of the oldest in the country and that make the best Sonoma wineries. Photo: Sasha Lezhnev, all rights reserved
5. Paul Mathew Vineyards: One of the Best Wineries in Sonoma for Pinot Noir
Paul Mathew makes some of the best Pinot Noirs around, and we highly recommend their winery in Graton, a charming tiny town in Sonoma County. This is a personal experience where you get to meet and talk to the actual winemakers, a far more interesting experience than just interacting with a tasting room staffer. It’s a husband and wife team, Mat and Barb Gustafson, and it’s one of the best Sonoma wineries.
🍷 They make excellent single vineyard Pinots sourced from just a few miles nearby in West Sonoma County. Our favorite was the 2018 TNT Vineyard Pinot Noir, but you may have a different one. Their Syrah and Dolcetto were also excellent.
Details: Appointment recommended (best to call ahead) but not required. Tasting room in downtown Graton. Open Thursday to Sunday. $40 fee but waived with the purchase of 2 bottles, which seemed reasonable to us.
🔥 Hot tips and hidden gems:
The restaurant Willow Wood is next door to Paul Mathew & is awesome for brunch, with farm-to-table food. You may want to time your wine tasting for just after brunch there.
Underwoood Bar & Bistro, the cocktail bar/restaurant across the street, is fantastic as well, and where many winemakers go for a drink. So you could time a tasting at Paul Mathew for just before a trip to Underwood…
Sonoma wine tasting at Cattleya in Santa Rosa, a hidden gem. Photo: Sasha Lezhnev, all rights reserved
6. Cattleya/Lucia Winery: One of the Sonoma Wineries You Don’t Want to Miss
Tasting at Cattleya Wines is a wonderful wine tasting experience, in particular because Margaret the tasting room manager takes a lot of time with you to guide you through the tasting. This is one of our favorite wineries to visit in Sonoma.
🍷 Bibiana Gonzalez, the winemaker from Colombia, is married to a winemaker in the famous Pisoni family, Gary Pisoni’s son Jeff. Bibiana and Jeff collaborate on some wines, which is extra special. So you can taste both her wines and Lucia’s. Off the beaten wine travel at its best!
🍷 You get to taste a number of wines here, and the fee is waived with any purchase, which is great. The highlight wines for us were the Shared Notes Sauvignon Blanc (by Bibiana and Jeff), the Cattleya No1 Pinot Noir, and the Lucia Soberanes Vineyard Chardonnay.
Details: Appointment needed in advance. $75 fee but waived with any purchase, which we thought was reasonable. It’s located in an office complex in Santa Rosa but it’s a lovely tasting room.
7. Carol Shelton: Excellent Sonoma winery for full bodied wines
Taste from an award-winning woman winemaker
Innovative, very accessible, and affordable, Carol Shelton Winery is a pleasure to taste at. Carol is a well known winemaker who became famous for her single vineyard Zinfandels, but she makes many other wines as well, some of which we preferred to the Zins.
She’s one of the most famous woman winemakers in Sonoma and has won several awards. The staff is also very friendly and happy to give you tips about other places to visit in the area.
🍷 We enjoyed the Zinfandels but the wines we loved the most were the Coquille Blanc, a white Rhône blend, and the “Blue Tooth” Alicante Bouschet, a Bordeaux-like Portuguese blend. Blue Tooth goes very well with steaks.
Details: Appointment preferred, but it’s normally easy to get. Small fee - $20 - but it’s waived with any purchase. Located in an office complex in Santa Rosa.
Joseph Swan, a hidden gem, is set among wonderful rolling hill vineyards. Photo: Sasha Lezhnev, all rights reserved.
8. Joseph Swan: Burgundian Style Wines at this Gorgeous Sonoma Winery
Delicious Burgundian style wines and Rhône style wines, gorgeous vineyards.
Enjoy French wine, particularly from Burgundy or the Rhône Valley? Check out Joseph Swan, a tiny old school estate winery set amid gorgeous rolling hills near Sebastopol. Swan makes elegant wines in a Burgundy/Rhône Valley style (and that’s us saying it, not them) that are high in acid and have long, lingering finishes. It’s a hidden travel gem for wine tasting.
Feel like you’re in France. The tasting room is a simple one right inside the winery next to the barrels themselves and just inside from their estate vineyard. So the whole thing feels like you’re in France, honestly.
🍷 The highlight wines for us were the Pinots and Syrahs, in particular the Trenton Estate Pinot Noir and Trenton Estate Syrah, both of which really had a complexity and depth of flavor and could be aged.
Details: Appointment needed, but normally easy to get. Tasting room at the winery. Unfortunately, the fee is only waived with a 6-bottle purchase, which we hope they will change.
Did we miss any of the best Sonoma wineries? Send in your tip.
Hi! We’re Sasha & Megnote
We’ve traveled to 50 countries on 5 continents & have been full-time travelers for the past 2 years with our now 5-year-old son. He now teaches us how to skateboard…
We got engaged in Bolivia, started a nonprofit in Uganda, and love outdoor adventures (& a good pisco sour).
We’re writing the book Travel More, Spend Less to help people get to full-time travel.
We’re passionate about finding hidden travel gems & off the beaten path destinations, and we want to share our tips with you. Come explore with us!