Winery hotels & vineyard stays in Sonoma County

Sonoma County is roughly twice the size of Napa and considerably less formal about it. Pacific fog pushing up the Russian River and through the Petaluma Gap gives the county its cool-climate signature — Pinot Noir and Chardonnay — while warmer inland valleys hold on to Zinfandel from vines planted before Prohibition. Stays lean rural: farm inns, vineyard cottages, and small estates where the winemaker pours.

Nineteen AVAs cover the county, and they behave like different regions rather than variations on one. Russian River Valley and the Sonoma Coast are cold and fog-bound, producing some of the most sought-after Pinot Noir in the country. Dry Creek Valley is the Zinfandel heartland, with head-trained old vines that predate 1919. Alexander Valley runs warm enough for serious Cabernet, and Carneros straddles the Napa line at the bay's cool edge. Sonoma is also where wine tourism in California started: the town of Sonoma's plaza was the site of the 1846 Bear Flag Revolt, and Buena Vista, founded 1857, is the state's oldest commercial winery. Unlike Napa, plenty of Sonoma cellar doors still take walk-ins, tasting fees are lower, and the county pairs easily with the redwoods at Armstrong Grove and the coast at Bodega Bay. Harvest runs August through October.