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At the north of the San Francisco Bay Area, Sonoma County is one of the most recognizable wine countries in the New World. Yet it is difficult to pin down an identity for Sonoma wine. Is it the lean and pristine Pinot Noir and Chardonnay of the Sonoma Coast, grown within a stone’s throw of the Pacific Ocean? Or is it their satisfying and singular counterparts found in the Russian River Valley? Or perhaps Sonoma should best be known for its treasured centenarian Zinfandel vineyards, found in patches across the county, or for its structured, savory Cabernet Sauvignon and velvety Merlot.
Of course, Sonoma is all these things and more, and its diversity continues growing as young producers experiment with new varieties and expand the region’s stylistic spectrum. Still, Sonoma can be confusing. The county’s 18 American Viticultural Areas (AVAs) intersect to create a labyrinthine system that is rarely intuitive. Sonoma’s top grape varieties yield wildly divergent results in the hands of winemakers across its 1,800-square-mile expanse. In many regards, Sonoma fits inside one county the entire breadth of the California wine industry.
This guide will explore Sonoma County as well as the other counties of the North Coast: Mendocino County, Lake County, and Solano County. (Napa County is addressed in a separate expert guide.) Despite their proximity, these counties likewise vary in climate and terroir, and their exciting potential is only just being realized.
It is believed that Sonoma County has been inhabited for at least 10,000 years. Three primary Native American tribes were present in the area prior to European arrival: the Coast Miwok, the Wappo, and the Kashaya Pomo. The Miwok settled near Bodega Bay, and their first documented encounter with Europeans comes from 1579, noted by Chaplain Fletcher, who was aboard a ship of Sir Francis Drake. The Pomo were just north, near what become Fort Ross, while the Wappo lived to the interior, also occupying the Napa Valley. Before European settlement, an estimated 5,000 Native Americans populated Sonoma. When the Europeans arrived, Mexican land grant holders forced many of them into work as laborers. While Native American populations are still found in Sonoma, their numbers have steeply declined.
The Russians beat the Spanish and Mexicans to Sonoma County, landing at Bodega Bay and constructing Fort Ross in 1812. This became the most southern outpost of the Russian-American Fur Company, an operation that descended down the West Coast from its headquarters in Alaska and made use of Native Alaskans and the Indigenous peoples of Sonoma as sources of labor. Beyond fur trapping, the Russians are also credited with planting the first grapevines in Sonoma County. Their initial efforts at Fort Ross, unsurprisingly, failed—and it would be another century and a half before coastal viticulture took hold in Sonoma. The Russians found greater success further inland, and in 1836, Igor Chernykh planted the first vineyard in what is today the Russian River Valley. The Russians’ stay in Sonoma, however, was short lived; they sold Fort Ross in 1841 and retreated to Alaska.
In 1823, Father José Altimira and his Franciscan brothers established the Mission San Francisco de Solano at the center of what would become downtown Sonoma. San Francisco Solano was the last of the 21 missions built along the California Coast, an endeavor that began in San Diego in 1769. It was also the only mission built after Mexico gained independence from Spain. Viticulture was important to the Franciscans—who, further south, introduced vinifera to California. They primarily cultivated Mission, also known as Criolla Chica or País in South America and Listán Prieto on the Canary Islands, which they vinified into a sweet fortified wine called Angelica. A vineyard was planted at San Francisco Solano, though winegrowing there is less documented than at the other missions.
In 1835, at the order of Governor José Figueroa, General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, who would later become a prolific grapegrower, arrived in Sonoma to secularize the San Francisco Solano mission and organize a town in its immediate surroundings. Several of Sonoma’s early winegrowing efforts were tied to land grants deeded to American pioneers by the Mexican government. One such example was Rancho Sotoyome, awarded to Cyrus Alexander—the first to plant grapes in his namesake Alexander Valley. Mexican governance of California, however, was brief. Despite being outnumbered roughly 20 to 1, the American settlers (there were only around 500 in California) organized in the late spring of 1846 to gain control of the territory. On June 14, a small group, led by William B. Ide, arrested Vallejo at his Sonoma home and declared the independent Bear Flag Republic, using as its symbol a white flag decorated with a star and a grizzly bear—not unlike California’s state flag today. American military forces, under Commodore John D. Sloat, seized control of the situation by July 9, claiming California for the United States. In 1850, California was the 31st state admitted to the Union.
The 1849 Gold Rush moved a large American population west, with an estimated over 300,000 hopefuls traveling to the Sierras with the dream of getting rich quick in California. Several immigrant communities—French, English, Scottish, German, and Danish—reached the West Coast, and after trying their hands at panning for gold, many came to Sonoma, in some cases bringing their wine traditions from the Old World. Among them was the Hungarian-born serial entrepreneur Agoston Haraszthy. In 1949, he traveled with his family from Wisconsin to California. Instead of searching for gold, however, he looked south to San Diego, where he became the first county sheriff and built the area’s first prison. He also planted grapevines, a lifelong interest he had pursued in the Midwest.
In 1855, Haraszthy first laid eyes on the Buena Vista property in the Sonoma Valley, just east of the town of Sonoma. He bought 560 acres in 1857, and in the following year, he acquired an additional 4,000 neighboring acres. Only 12 acres of vineyard were planted at what may have already been known as Buena Vista at the time of Haraszthy’s purchase. While the state wine industry was still largely concentrated to the south, Haraszthy’s plantings made Buena Vista the second largest vineyard in California by the end of 1858. Further, California in this era was still planted mostly to Mission, a high-cropping grape with little character when made into a dry wine. To improve quality, Haraszthy brought back 100,000 vine cuttings from a trip to Europe in 1862. Among them were hundreds of grape varieties believed to be new to California—including Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc. While most of his trial plantings failed, Haraszthy’s early efforts were unmatched in diversifying the California wine industry. Haraszthy disappeared mysteriously in 1869, and legend suggests he was eaten by alligators, as he was last known to have visited an alligator-infested river. Buena Vista remains California’s oldest winery in operation, today owned by Jean-Charles Boisset.
Buena Vista spurred exponential growth in the Sonoma wine industry and was quickly joined in 1858 by the nearby Gundlach-Bundschu, which remains in family hands. In 1862, Isaac De Turk established his Belle Mount winery in the Bennett Valley, and in 1869, Georges Bloch brought Zinfandel home to the Dry Creek Valley. While poorly documented, Chinese labor was essential to California vineyards and cellars at the time, until the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 halted Chinese immigration to the United States. Haraszthy hired Chinese workers at Buena Vista, despite racist criticisms he faced at the time for providing them with employment.
Later immigrant waves in the 1880s brought large Italian populations, whose culture deeply impacted the blossoming Sonoma wine industry. Several Italian families, arriving during the second half of the 19th century, remain important to Sonoma wine, including the Martinelli, Rafanelli, Pedroncelli, and Foppiano families. The Italian Swiss Colony, founded in 1881 at Sonoma’s far north in the Piedmont-inspired town of Asti, would later become the world’s largest winery. By 1910, it grew to an annual capacity of more than 14 million gallons, with more than three million dollars of stock.
Phylloxera was first identified in California in 1873 at Buena Vista, igniting a widespread viticultural crisis that required most of the state to be replanted on the resistant Saint George rootstock. By 1880, over 600 Sonoma vineyard acres had succumbed to phylloxera. New vineyards were planted, many of them to Zinfandel and heritage field blends, and several of these remain in production today.
More detrimental to the Sonoma wine industry was Prohibition. A decades-long temperance movement in the United States led to the ratification of the 18th Amendment in 1919, which would take effect the following year, banning the “manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors.” Surprisingly, Prohibition had some benefits for wine. A loophole in the Volstead Act, the law enforcing Prohibition, allowed each household to ferment 200 gallons of wine at home each year. California vineyard acreage nearly doubled between 1920 and 1927, from 300,000 to 577,000 acres. The price of California wine grapes also rose—from between $9.50 to $30 per ton in the 1910s to as high as $375 by 1924. Still, Prohibition brought unprecedented challenges to Sonoma’s wine economy. Some wineries held on by transitioning to cooking or sacramental wines (both also legal exceptions), while others relied on grape sales for home fermentation across the country. Others still ripped out their vines in favor of crops such as apples and prunes, or for grazing pastures for livestock. At the onset of Prohibition, there were 256 wineries in Sonoma County; upon its 1933 repeal, less than 50 remained.
The passage of the 21st Amendment brought an end to Prohibition in 1933. World War II blockaded the easy importation of European wines, providing relief to the struggling American wine industry. Winegrowing in Sonoma, however, was slow to recover. Among the early varieties to break through in the post-Prohibition era were Pinot Noir and Chardonnay—today the county’s two most planted grapes. At Hanzell on Moon Mountain, Ambassador James Zellerbach developed his Pinot Noir and Chardonnay vines in the early 1950s. Hanzell’s Ambassador’s Block, dating to 1953, remains the oldest continually producing vineyard in North America for both varieties. Pinot Noir spread north to the Russian River Valley in the 1960s and ’70s through the work of such figures as Joseph Swan and Joe Rochioli Jr.
In 1976, British wine merchant Steven Spurrier organized the Judgement of Paris in France, pitting the best California Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay wines against classics from Bordeaux and Burgundy. The event effectively put California (and the New World) on the global wine map when Napa’s Stag’s Leap Cellars and Chateau Montelena trounced the French in the red and white competitions. While described more often as a triumph for the Napa Valley, Montelena’s winning 1973 Chardonnay was, in fact, composed of nearly three-quarters Sonoma fruit.
Around this time, winegrowers returned to the western reaches of the Sonoma Coast, an area believed impossible for viticulture since the 19th-century failures there. Instead, however, the far Sonoma Coast became, and for many continues to be, the county’s next great frontier, especially in its suitability to Burgundian varieties. Michael Bohan was first, in 1972 near Fort Ross, but his initial efforts went toward Zinfandel before he followed up with cooler-climate grapes. Daniel Schoenfeld established Wild Hog Vineyards in 1977, and in 1980, David Hirsch planted his family estate, also in what is today Fort Ross-Seaview AVA. Though David would eventually create his own label, the Hirsch Vineyard achieved early acclaim through venerated buyers—including Littorai, Williams Selyem, and Kistler—that bottled vineyard-designate wines from the site.
The northeastern corridor of Sonoma also witnessed increased activity in these years. In 1972, David Stare founded Dry Creek Vineyard, championing Sauvignon Blanc in the region. Next door in the Alexander Valley, Robert Young, Rodney Strong, and Tom Jordan advocated for premium Cabernet Sauvignon in the 1960s and ’70s. Beringer, and later Peter Michael, felt similarly about Cabernet’s potential in Knights Valley. In 1981, Sonoma’s first AVA was awarded to Sonoma Valley, with several others following in 1983.
The turn of the millennium marked a stylistic shift in California wine. Critic Robert Parker rose to prominence in the 1980s through his publication The Wine Advocate, where he popularized the 100-point evaluation system and amassed a global consumer following. Many chased a style they believed appealed to Parker’s palate—ripe, extracted, and “hedonistic”—to achieve high scores. Widely associated with Bordeaux, the so-called Parkerization phenomenon is most associated with Bordeaux varieties, but it impacted wines made from Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and effectively every other grape. Helen Turley’s Marcassin brand and its rich Pinot Noir and Chardonnay wines, for example, achieved cult status not dissimilar to that of many Cabernet projects in the Napa Valley.
For white wine, Kendall Jackson (along with Rombauer in Napa) reimagined Chardonnay from California. Instead of leaning into the Burgundian ethos fostered by Hanzell and Joseph Swan, Jackson Family created a wholly new style for the variety. Its Kendall-Jackson Vintner’s Reserve, first debuted in the 1980s, was bottled off-dry, finished with unfermented Gewürztraminer must. The Gewürztraminer’s aromatic lift complemented the buttery decadence of the wine. Its massive success redefined the global perception of California Chardonnay, and Jackson Family quickly became one of the most important forces in Sonoma wine. Some California Chardonnay producers still lament the difficulty of shaking that stereotype when trying to convert members of the Anything But Chardonnay (or ABC) crowd, which rejected the Kendall-Jackson style and erroneously came to equate all Chardonnay, especially California Chardonnay, with this profile.
In 2011, Jasmine Hirsch of her family’s eponymous estate in Fort Ross-Seaview and sommelier and Santa Barbara winemaker Rajat Parr launched the influential organization In Pursuit of Balance (IPOB). Widely perceived as a reaction to the decadent winemaking of the Parker era, the project began focused on Pinot Noir and later grew to include Chardonnay. With an eye toward Burgundy, IPOB aimed to foster a dialogue around ripeness and what some saw as heavy-handed winemaking in California viniculture. The membership group included some of Sonoma’s most heralded brands, such as Hanzell, Littorai, Failla, Cobb, Ceritas, Red Car, and, of course, Hirsch. Its assertions drew controversy, with detractors criticizing the organization for oversimplifying the concept of balance and suggesting that the wines of some of IPOB’s members weren’t restrained or balanced either—that they were instead under-ripe. Others perceived the organization as snobbish for discrediting styles of wine that are widely beloved by consumers.
IPOB dissolved in 2016, but the organization’s legacy can still be felt. Even beyond the group’s members, a new generation of exciting projects has expanded the conversation of “balance” far beyond Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, championing Sonoma’s old vines and heritage winemaking styles and also turning to more esoteric grapes. Like all parts of the wine world, Sonoma also has producers that identify as natural winemakers, favoring low intervention and immediate drinkability. Sonoma’s old guard, too, remains strong. Recently, several of the county’s most decorated wineries have changed hands throughout high-profile acquisitions, including Merry Edwards to Maisons Marques & Domaines, Williams Selyem to Burgundy’s Domaine Faiveley, and Kosta Browne to Duckhorn.
Today, Sonoma faces new and unprecedented challenges. The 2012 vintage commenced a succession of drought years that forced winegrowers to rethink many irrigation practices. Since 2017, wildfires have been an annual reality for California wine country. The 2017 fires were particularly destructive for Sonoma, ravaging the city of Santa Rosa and displacing many in the wine community whose homes were lost. In 2020, fires came alarmingly early. The LNU Lightning Complex decimated much of the Sonoma crop, beginning in August and affecting grapes with smoke taint weeks before harvest. How Sonoma winegrowers chooses to address viticulture in a changing climate will greatly define this next chapter in the region’s wine history.
At about 1,800 square miles, Sonoma is one of the most important wine-producing counties in California, itself the leading producer of wine in the United States with more than 80% of wine by volume. Sonoma has nearly 59,000 acres of vineyards, or 6% of the county. Roughly 12.5% of California’s total 469,000 acres are dedicated to wine grapes. Still, only around 6% of California wine comes from Sonoma County, likely a factor of lower yields when compared to volume-focused regions in the Central Valley. While several major players are important to the Sonoma wine industry, of Sonoma’s 1,800 grapegrowers, 80% own less than 100 acres of vineyards, and of 500 wineries, 70% produce less than 60 cases. Wine grapes are, by far, Sonoma’s most lucrative agricultural product, with the 2019 grape harvest valued at over $650 million. Wine tourism, too, is an important economic driver for the county, contributing $1.2 billion annually.
While wine grapes are far and away Sonoma’s most important agricultural product, the county is rich in farmlands, growing fruit, vegetables, grains, and cut flowers and producing dairy, eggs, poultry, and meat as well. Fruit orchards, and particularly apples, are a multi-million-dollar business. Gravenstein apples, concentrated around the town of Sebastopol, are one delicacy, used mainly for cooking, apple sauce, and apple cider.
Sonoma has a healthy beer culture as well. Before Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, hops were prominently featured across the Russian River Valley’s landscape. More than 30 craft breweries operate in Sonoma County today. Russian River Brewing Company has earned a particularly passionate following for its explosively hoppy IPAs Pliny the Elder and Pliny the Younger.
One of nine counties that comprise the San Francisco Bay Area, Sonoma County is in Northern California. Its southern edge is a short 30-minute drive from San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge. To the north, Sonoma is bordered by Mendocino County; to the east, Lake and Napa Counties; and to the south, Marin County and the San Pablo Bay. To the west, Sonoma meets the Pacific Ocean, which offers a maritime influence that significantly affects viticulture. Approximately half a million residents populate Sonoma County, which includes Santa Rosa, Rohnert Park, Windsor, Healdsburg, Petaluma, Sebastopol, and the city of Sonoma, among others.
The San Andreas Fault and its subsystems run north to south through Sonoma County. Accordingly, earthquakes regularly rattle the area, and the faults’ presence has defined the geological history of Sonoma over the past several million years. While at one period most of Sonoma lay underwater, the subduction of the Pacific Plate beneath the North American Plate created a ripple of mountain ranges and the valleys between them. The furthest east is the Mayacamas range, which divides Sonoma and Napa Counties. Its highest mountain, Mount Saint Helena, is shared with Napa and Lake Counties. Despite common misconceptions, Mount Saint Helena is not a volcano, and the volcanic material found in Sonoma County likely derives from eruptions further north, in Lake County. A series of additional ridgelines, all part of the Coast Ranges, continue toward the ocean.
Winegrowers in Sonoma are quick to note that their county has more soil types than the whole of France. Sonoma soils generally reflect some combination of marine history—due to the land’s long submersion beneath the Pacifica—and volcanic matter, coming from tectonic activity and eruptions. Overall, the land is more granitic to the west of the San Andreas Fault and more diverse to the east. Select soil series are frequently discussed in Sonoma County. The Franciscan Complex blends the sandy ocean floor deposits with a variety of rock types, mixed at the subduction zone, while the Sonoma Volcanics include the ash deposits from further north and cooled lava, eroded over the years. The Wilson Grove Formation features purer uplifted marine sandstone. The fine-grained Goldridge soil is found along the Wilson Grove Formation and is particularly prized among producers of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. The reddish Altamont soil is also part of Wilson Grove and has greater clay content.
Due to the county’s size, generalizing about climate in Sonoma is difficult. According to the Winkler Index, portions of the West Sonoma Coast fall under Zone I, while northern inland regions such as the Alexander Valley qualify as Zone III. Most simply put, the county grows warmer as one approaches its northeastern corner and cooler toward the ocean and the Marin border. While the Pacific coastline stretches 60 miles to Sonoma’s west, the maritime influence can be felt much further inland. A break in the mountain ranges and a small shoreline Sonoma shares with the San Pablo Bay—a shallow estuary branched off from the San Francisco Bay—allow for the meteorological phenomenon known as the Petaluma Gap (also the name of an AVA). Hot air from California’s Central Valley suctions in cold Pacific winds. These currents accelerate and funnel toward the San Pablo Bay, creating cool, windswept, and marginal conditions for vineyard land in its path. Coastal fogs also moderate temperatures throughout Sonoma County. Many appellations are affected by an inversion layer, in which cold air settles toward the ground, which is opposite typical conditions, where temperatures decrease with elevation.
Like the rest of the United States, Sonoma County follows the American Viticultural Area (AVA) scheme administered by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB). These appellations are merely bounded areas and do not specify any viticultural requirements. Sonoma’s first AVA, Sonoma Valley, was awarded in 1981, and most of the county’s appellations were codified by the end of the 1980s. Today, Sonoma has 18 AVAs (a handful shared with neighboring counties), the most recent being the Petaluma Gap, established in 2017. Several more are in development, with a West Sonoma Coast AVA likely to be approved soon. In addition, Sonoma County falls under the large umbrella North Coast AVA, which also encompasses Napa, Solano, Mendocino, Lake, and Marin Counties. Wines blended across these county lines might choose to use this AVA, often considered more premium than a wine simply labeled as California.
Sonoma is one of the most complex appellation systems in the United States, with a mosaic of nested appellations and overlapping boundaries. A wine from Green Valley, for example, could be labeled under four different Sonoma AVAs: Green Valley, Russian River Valley, Sonoma Coast, or Northern Sonoma (or North Coast). The TTB generally demands that proposed AVAs do not overlap with existing AVAs. Yet some critics have questioned the efficacy of the AVA system more broadly when so many AVAs, often determined by arbitrary political rather than natural boundaries, can exist in a relatively confined area—including some that have garnered little consumer recognition. Many wineries choose not to label their wines with newer AVAs, instead opting for larger but better-established regions.
In 2014, Sonoma County Winegrowers (known more formally as the Sonoma County Winegrape Commission) debuted an ambitious program with the goal of becoming the first entirely sustainable wine region in the United States by 2019. To achieve Sonoma County Sustainable recognition, a vineyard must be certified from one of four bodies: Fish Friendly Farming, California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance (also known as Certified Sustainable), Lodi Rules, or Sustainability in Practice (SIP). By 2019, 99% of Sonoma County vineyards achieved this milestone. The project focuses on not only environmental sustainability but also social and economic practices such as water management, packaging, labor practices, and light and noise reduction.
Sonoma County Sustainable wines can be identified by a logo that reads “Sustainably Farmed Grapes” and requires that 85% of the grapes come from Sonoma County and 85% from a vineyard certified by any of the four organizations. Consumers can download an app that creates an augmented reality experience when pointed at the logo.
Since January 1, 2011, a local law has required all Sonoma wines to adhere to conjunctive labeling, where each bottle must list Sonoma County in addition to any more specific AVA. The Napa Valley has required similar conjunctive labeling practices since 1989. This legislation aimed to both strengthen the brand of Sonoma County by mandating its most illustrious bottles clearly state Sonoma on their labels and bolster recognition of lesser-known AVAs by tying them to the county. It seems these intentions have already been realized. A pair of studies conducted by Sonoma State University’s Wine Business Institute, one from 2008 before the introduction of conjunctive labeling and the other from 2016, showed increased brand awareness for Sonoma County at large and its AVAs. Certain smaller AVAs, such as Green Valley, nearly doubled their brand awareness in that timeframe.
Across its varied climates and soils, Sonoma winegrowers work with more than 60 grape varieties, a number that continues to grow as vintners and consumers consider less traditional cultivars. Even so, more than 92% of Sonoma’s acreage is dedicated to just seven grapes.
Chardonnay: Chardonnay leads Sonoma’s plantings, with nearly 16,000 acres and more than 25% of the county vineyard. Yet Chardonnay had a slow start in Sonoma County. Although University of California–Berkeley professor Eugene Hilgard references Chardonnay in his reports from the 1880s, and the variety grew at that time at John H. Drummond’s Kenwood Vineyard, Sonoma did not focus on premium Chardonnay until James Zellerbach planted it at Hanzell on Moon Mountain in the 1950s. Chardonnay from northern Sonoma also found acclaim, particularly fruit grown by Robert Young, who sold his Alexander Valley grapes to Richard Arrowood and Chateau St. Jean.
Chateau Montelena’s win at the 1976 Judgement of Paris roused more excitement for California and Sonoma Chardonnay. In the following decade, Kendall-Jackson and its Vintner’s Reserve Chardonnay introduced a wholly different expression. The style wars continue in Sonoma, and this, along with Chardonnay’s ubiquity across the county, has resulted in a tremendous diversity of styles. While leaner examples tend to be sourced from closer to the Pacific on the Sonoma Coast, both richness and restraint can be found in effectively every appellation. More important is the aesthetic camp of any given producer. What is globally, though too simplistically, called the California style of Chardonnay alludes to a more opulent approach. These wines are picked quite ripe and will almost universally undergo full malolactic fermentation. Top wines are fermented and aged in barrel, some new, with extended lees contact and frequent bâtonnage to emphasize texture and breadth.
The alternative approach will harvest early, leading to more acid-driven wines. Malolactic fermentation may still be performed, and while the wines might also see oak, typically less is new. In addition to table wines, Chardonnay is critical to Sonoma’s sparkling wine brands, which are found mostly in cooler areas such as Carneros and Green Valley. There, Chardonnay is bottled on its own for Blanc de Blancs or blended with the other classic Champagne varieties, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier.
Sauvignon Blanc: The only other white grape variety to exceed 1,000 acres in Sonoma is Sauvignon Blanc, which is planted across more than 2,500 acres. Sauvignon Blanc’s commercial history in California dates to the late 19th century. While Agoston Haraszthy tried but failed to cultivate Sauvignon Blanc at Buena Vista, Charles Wetmore found success in Livermore using cuttings from Château d’Yquem in 1882.
Sauvignon Blanc is often planted near its progeny, Cabernet Sauvignon, in the warmer corners of Sonoma. It is also found in the more fertile soils nearer the river in Dry Creek Valley, where David Stare of Dry Creek Vineyard first harvested it in the 1970s. But fresh and exciting examples hail from the county’s cooler areas, too, with several quality Sauvignon Blancs bottled in the Russian River Valley.
Prone to high vigor, Sauvignon Blanc exhibits more of its grassy, green pyrazinic flavors and aromas when it is cropped high. Much of Sonoma Sauvignon Blanc presents this profile, though more ambitious, riper, Bordelais-inspired styles are increasingly produced. These riper styles will commonly experience barrel fermentation or aging, or perhaps some portion in a concrete egg, as well as extended lees contact to impart greater texture. These wines are harvested riper, in many cases making use of the more aromatic Sauvignon Musqué clones. They may also include a portion of Sémillon, though this practice is less common in Sonoma than in other areas, as less than 100 Sémillon acres are planted in the county. Certain older Sonoma brands might include the name Fumé Blanc on their Sauvignon Blanc labels. A term coined by Robert Mondavi in 1968, drawing from the Loire appellation Pouilly-Fumé, wines labeled Fumé Blanc have less in common stylistically than they once did, and instead the name is more of a vestige of half-century-old marketing.
Pinot Noir: Pinot Noir has only recently surpassed Cabernet Sauvignon as Sonoma’s most planted red variety, with just over 13,000 acres. It likely first arrived in California following Agoston Haraszthy’s 1862 European trip and was documented at Fountain Grove Winery in the late 19th century. Quality Pinot Noir production, however, was an innovation of the mid-20th century, with Hanzell Vineyards leading the charge in the 1950s. Joseph Swan and Joe Rochioli Jr., further north in the Russian River Valley, followed. The 2004 film Sideways brought unforeseen attention to California Pinot Noir, as well as increased plantings. Since that time, Sonoma has experienced an extraordinary swell of interest in its Pinot Noir wines, leading to a rise in quality and a host of new projects.
The breadth of Pinot Noir styles in Sonoma is about as wide as the global spectrum for the variety. On one side are the finely chiseled Pinot Noirs from Sonoma’s coldest sites—namely the West Sonoma Coast but also portions of the Petaluma Gap, select areas of the Russian Valley such as Green Valley, and even fog-soaked sectors of the Sonoma Valley. These crunchy, fresh, berry-flavored wines value site specificity, high acidity, and low alcohol (in extreme examples close to 12%), a style favored by the IPOB crowd and many young projects today. On the other end of the spectrum are the opulent and expensively oaked Sonoma Pinot Noirs that can exceed 14% or 15% alcohol by volume. These will come from warmer portions of the Russian River Valley, Sonoma Valley, and Carneros—but even some producers in the outreaches of the Sonoma Coast are able to manage this style. Those with a more Burgundy-centric palate might scoff at many of these bottles, yet they can deliver a gratifying hedonism rarely observed elsewhere for Pinot Noir and their own complexity of spice and root flavors.
Beyond ripeness, there are a number of vinification practices that differentiate Sonoma Pinot Noir wines. Some producers will completely destem their fruit, while others will use varying percentages of whole clusters, often accompanied by some degree of carbonic maceration. Fermentation in short open-top fermenters is common, but the amount of new oak used on Sonoma Pinot Noir ranges from none to 100%. Pinot Noir is a common choice for Sonoma rosé wines. The best examples are macerated for just a few hours, resulting in a pale pink wine. Pinot Noir is also an important ingredient in Sonoma’s traditional method sparkling wines. It is blended with Chardonnay for both white and rosé sparkling wines; on its own or paired with Pinot Meunier, Pinot Noir can be made into a Blanc de Noirs.
Cabernet Sauvignon: Cabernet Sauvignon just trails Pinot Noir as Sonoma’s second most planted red, with slightly under 13,000 acres planted. Cabernet Sauvignon is recorded in Sonoma since the 1850s, and the oldest still-producing Cabernet vines in California are believed to grow at Monte Rosso, planted by Louis M. Martini in 1940. Quality Cabernet Sauvignon continued to gain traction in Sonoma County in the 1970s, through efforts in the Alexander Valley driven by Robert Young, Rodney Strong, Tom Jordan, and André Tchelistcheff.
While inexpensive Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa is a rarity, examples from Sonoma can be readily found. They are often made from vigorous clones in high-yielding, fertile sites, such as the fluvial soils closest to the Russian River as it flows through the Alexander Valley. At its height, though, Sonoma Cabernet Sauvignon can challenge examples from across the county line, and arguably with greater range. Knights Valley, Alexander Valley (particularly its hillsides), Sonoma Mountain, and Moon Mountain all include premium Cabernet country, and other less likely areas have also tried their hand with the grape. In the Russian River Valley, for example, Dehlinger bottles a delicious and savory—if idiosyncratic—cool-climate Cabernet Sauvignon, and Hanzell, best known for its Burgundian varieties, has resuscitated its Cabernet program in recent years.
As with everywhere it is grown, Cabernet Sauvignon in Sonoma is made as both a monovarietal wine and a Bordeaux-style blend. For blends, it is combined with Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Malbec, and/or Petit Verdot. Cabernet Sauvignon is admired for its stoic tannins and brooding dark-fruit flavors. Rich in methoxypyrazines, it can show herbaceous green notes (tobacco leaf, bell pepper), especially when less ripe. These flavors are often more exaggerated in Sonoma than they are in the Napa Valley. Quality Sonoma Cabernet Sauvignon is almost always aged in oak barriques, often entirely new.
Zinfandel: The origins of Zinfandel, nicknamed America’s Grape, were debated long before Carole Meredith of UC–Davis identified in 2001 that it was the same as Crljenak Kaštelanski, or Tribidrag, an obscure Croatian variety. It is also identical to Primitivo, a grape found mostly in Puglia. Several Sonoma wineries bottle both a Zinfandel and a Primitivo, the latter coming from Italian budwood. Still, how Zinfandel reached the United States remains uncertain. It is documented at the Long Island nursery of George Gibbs in the 1820s and potentially came to California through the Schönbrunn imperial collection, which included cuttings of all varieties known in Austria at that time. With nearly 5,000 acres, Zinfandel is Sonoma’s third most planted red grape today.
Photo: Old vine Zin
Caption: Old vine Zinfandel at Nalle Winery in Dry Creek Valley (Photo credit: Bryce Wiatrak)
Zinfandel experiences differential fruit ripening, meaning that at harvest, it is common for some berries in a single cluster to be overripe and raisinated while others are green. This condition can be partially mitigated with crop thinning, particularly of a cluster’s wings or shoulders, which can grow nearly as long as the primary cluster (removing these reduces the risk of rot as well by allowing for more airflow). Winegrowers might also choose to harvest Zinfandel at extremely high Brix—resulting in wines that exceed 16% or even 17% alcohol by volume—to ripen out the green berries. The best Zinfandel producers, however, are more likely to accept this as a varietal quirk, resulting in a sweet-and-sour aspect in the wine.
With the exception of the far Sonoma Coast, where conditions are marginal and vineyards are younger, Zinfandel can be found in most areas of Sonoma. It is the signature variety of the Dry Creek Valley, which specializes in rich expressions of warm-climate Zinfandel. The grape is also important to the Sonoma Valley, where a number of heritage vineyards are majority planted to Zinfandel. In between, some of California’s most elegant Zinfandels hail from the Russian River Valley, where several old Zinfandel vineyards thrive. Although much of Sonoma’s Zinfandel comes from older sites, producers continue to plant or replant Zinfandel, sometimes head-trained, as is true of the historic vineyards, and sometimes on trellis wires.
Zinfandel offers distinctive wines with a rusticity that at times can be reminiscent of the Old World. Although the fruit is often described as “brambly,” quality Zinfandel is always balanced by a more savory, herbal character similar to the garrigue of the Southern Rhône. On its own, Zinfandel is pale red in color and softly tannic, with moderate acidity. However, as old Zinfandel vineyards are often interplanted with other heritage grapes, such as Alicante Bouschet and Petite Sirah, the resulting wines from these sites might notch higher for each of these metrics. In any case, Zinfandel tends to be a higher-alcohol wine, rarely lower than 14% ABV.
Several examples of Sonoma Zinfandel have proven ageworthy, with examples from the 1980s and earlier still tasting well today. While Zinfandel generally commands moderate prices, the market remains flooded with many overblown cheap examples. Beyond dry wines (and White Zinfandel), some producers will fashion Zinfandel into a dessert wine, either late harvest, fortified, or both. Zinfandel is well adapted to this style, and sweet winemaking is a wise option for sites or vintages where differential ripening presents a particular challenge.
Merlot: Sonoma’s fourth most planted red variety, with more than 4,300 acres, Merlot is an important contributor to the county’s Bordeaux-style wines. It is often blended into wines based primarily on Cabernet Sauvignon, but Merlot is also bottled alone or as the dominant grape in Right Bank-inspired wines. Merlot can be found most anywhere in Sonoma that cultivates Cabernet Sauvignon, and many producers will grow these grapes in neighboring plots. However, as Merlot ripens earlier, it is also grown in cooler pockets potentially less suited to Cabernet. Bennett Valley and portions of Knights Valley, for example, harvest premium Merlot. In warmer areas, Merlot can achieve extreme ripeness, yielding plush, full-bodied wines.
Like Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot typically goes through some barrel maturation, though entry-level wines might forgo an oak program. Merlot shares many organoleptic qualities with Cabernet Sauvignon, and the two can be difficult to distinguish. While Merlot will exhibit dark-fruited, cassis, and plum flavors, its tannins are generally less firm than Cabernet’s, often described as velvety. Accordingly, the wines are often more accessible at a younger age, though top examples of Merlot also demonstrate exceptional aging capacity.
Syrah: Syrah comes in a distant fifth among Sonoma’s red grapes, just approaching 1,400 acres as of 2019, yet it is the most important Rhône grape for Sonoma County. Virtually every Sonoma producer of Rhône-style wine makes a Syrah. The grape’s importance to California viticulture grew in the final decades of the 20th century with the establishment of the Rhône Rangers, a group that sought to discover California’s next great grapes after Cabernet Sauvignon. While much of the conversation was focused on the Central Coast, the movement also impacted Sonoma. Its success was middling, however. Although many excellent wines come from these efforts, producers continue to lament the difficulty of selling California Syrah, often calling it a “winemaker’s grape.”
Varied vinification practices are used with Syrah, including whole cluster fermentation, carbonic maceration, and a range of maturation vessels at every level of ripeness. Writer Dominic Fenton made note of this in a 2014 article for The World of Fine Wine, arguing that many California Syrah wines reflect stylistic extremes. On one end of the spectrum are wines harvested from hot sites at excessive Brix and bathed in new oak, while on the other are wines treated like Pinot Noir to the point of tasting anemic, with alcohol levels as low as 12%. Still, great wines can be found nearing these extremes and in between. Fenton cites Sonoma’s Donelan Family Wines—initially a collaboration between Joe Donelan and Pax Mahle—as a definitive achievement for site-specific Syrah in California. In his subsequent, eponymous project, Pax Mahle received a surprising 100-point score from Antonio Galloni for his midrange and lightly handled Sonoma-Hillsides Syrah, further garnering attention for the potential of Syrah in the county.
Other Grapes
Sonoma’s other 50-something varieties collectively amass less than 8% of the region’s vineyard. Important grapes include blending partners for major Sonoma styles: Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, and Malbec to support Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot; Semillon to complement Sauvignon Blanc; and white and Rhône varieties including Viognier, Grenache Blanc, Marsanne, Roussanne, Grenache Noir, and Mourvèdre. Aromatic whites, such as Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, Gewürztraminer, and Riesling, are made into both sweet and dry styles of wine.
Several heritage varieties are important to Sonoma’s oldest vineyards, often interplanted with Zinfandel and made into field blends. Among these are Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains, Carignan, the teinturier Alicante Bouschet, and Petite Sirah (Durif), an inky California specialty. Nearly 300 acres of Sangiovese are planted, a reflection of Sonoma’s rich Italian heritage and some a vestige of the Cal-Ital movement of the late 20th century. The county continues to diversify today as winegrowers experiment with less-traditional California grapes, especially as many consider which grapes will best suit a future Sonoma as the climate changes. Albariño, Mencía, Trousseau Gris, and Sagrantino are a few of the many other grapes encountered in Sonoma in small quantities.
The Sonoma Valley is one of the county’s most historic winegrowing areas and its first AVA. It is home to the town of Sonoma; a Franciscan mission; the oldest operating winery in California, Buena Vista; and several old vine vineyards. American writer Jack London called Sonoma Valley the Valley of the Moon in his novel of the same name, which he set near his ranch home in Glen Ellen. Others cite Indigenous languages for the origins of the name Sonoma, which may have evolved from a term for “many moons.” Regardless, many still refer to this sector of Sonoma by that name, and the jagged rocks across its expanse can, in fact, resemble an extraterrestrial moonscape.
Occupying the southeastern corner of the county, the Sonoma Valley is formed by the Mayacamas to the east and the next ridgeline over of the Coast Ranges. The appellation falls in the pathway of the Petaluma Gap, which brings fog and maritime influence to the valley floor, as well as wide diurnal swings. Days, however, tend to be hot. Soils here are diverse, though alluvial wash from the Mayacamas and reddish volcanic material fan across parts of the benchlands.
Several grapes perform well in this central corridor on the floor of the Sonoma Valley, especially Rhône and Bordeaux varieties. The great treasure of this portion of the AVA, however, is old vine Zinfandel, along with the heritage cultivars interplanted with it. Joel Peterson honored these sites through several vineyard-designate wines he crafted at Ravenswood, and today, his son Morgan Twain-Peterson does the same at Bedrock Wine Co.
The hillsides of the Sonoma Valley AVA are carved into several additional appellations. Along the western slopes, the Sonoma Mountain AVA, established 1985, ascends to 2,400 feet. Its east-facing aspect captures early to midday light, and its grapes experience longer ripening periods at lower Brix than many other mountain AVAs. With predominately volcanic soils, Sonoma Mountain excels with the Bordeaux varieties, especially Cabernet Sauvignon. A small number of producers bottle Sonoma Mountain AVA wines, among them Benziger and Laurel Glen.
Directly north, the Bennett Valley AVA is situated between the summits of Sonoma Mountain, Taylor Mountain, and Bennett Peak. Only 650 acres are planted in this small and young AVA, approved in 2003. Matanzas Creek is the best-known producer in the appellation, and its founding in 1977 marked the beginning of the AVA’s modern commercial history. Grapes, however, were first planted here a century earlier by Isaac De Turk for his winery Belle Mount. Bennett Valley’s early industry was obliterated by phylloxera, and later Prohibition.
Bennett Valley is lifted above the central Sonoma Valley floor, with plantings between 400 and 1,100 feet. The elevation, along with exposure to the Petaluma Gap through Crane Canyon, results in a cooler climate than many other areas of the Sonoma Valley. Soils are volcanic—eroded lava and tuff—though greater alluvial content is encountered at lower sites. Although Pinot Noir and Rhône varieties are planted, Bennett Valley is most associated with Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, and Merlot—largely due to Matanzas Creek’s work with these grapes. Merlot, in particular, can achieve finesse and complexity in the AVA, and Bennett Valley Merlot is an important component in Vérité’s iconic La Muse.
Opposite the valley, the Moon Mountain District AVA (formed in 2013) extends across the Mayacamas range. It essentially forms the western face of Napa’s Mount Veeder AVA, with the ridgetop following the county line. Yet the topography is sparser on this side of the mountain, and without protection from the Petaluma Gap, its climate is cooler. Soils vary across Moon Mountain, reflecting both their maritime origins and ashy volcanic contributions, and the appellation’s name is explained by lunar-like stone outcroppings on the hillside vineyards. The AVA extends from 400 up to about 2,700 feet in elevation. The fog sits in between, around 800 feet, creating dramatically different growing conditions depending on elevation.
Hanzell is situated beneath the fog, closer to the base of Moon Mountain. Unsurprisingly, it is better suited to Pinot Noir and a leaner style of Chardonnay than most other vineyards on the slope, though it also grows a highly regarded Cabernet Sauvignon. The warmer upper portions of the AVA are more successful with Bordeaux and Rhône grapes, Zinfandel, and Chardonnay, found here in the original Kistler Vineyard. Several other pedigreed sites fall within the Moon Mountain District, including Monte Rosso and Montecillo. Monte Rosso is among the most famous vineyards in California and dates to the late 19th century. Louis M. Martini purchased it after Prohibition’s repeal and renamed it Monte Rosso, referencing its volcanic, iron-rich Red Hill loam. Today, Monte Rosso is owned by E. & J. Gallo, supporting Gallo’s various brands and those of many notable third-party buyers, and is tended to by viticulturalist Brenae Royal. The Coturri family and its management company, Enterprise Vineyards, farms much of the rest of Moon Mountain, including the acclaimed Kamen Estate.
Further south, the Carneros AVA (also Los Carneros) is the Pinot Noir and Chardonnay center of the Sonoma Valley. Carneros is shaped like a bow atop the San Pablo Bay at the southern foothills of the Mayacamas. At the knot is the Napa-Sonoma line, and the area is one of the coldest for grapegrowing for either county. Conditions are generally warm at midday, however, allowing other varieties to ripen; Merlot, for example, thrives in the appellation’s heavier clay soils.
While Carneros is covered in vineyards today, for much of the 19th century, this land was largely dedicated to fruit orchards and livestock pastures—carneros means “rams” in Spanish. Grapegrowing is documented as early as the 1830s at Rancho Huichica, a property planted and owned by Jacob P. Leese. William Winter acquired almost 1,000 of Huichica in the 1850s and, in 1870, established Winter Winery, the first winery in Carneros. The nearby Stanly Ranch garnered acclaim around this same time, and in 1889, Carneros was described as the California Medoc in the San Francisco Chronicle. As in the rest of Napa and Sonoma, Carneros’s wine industry suffered during the phylloxera and Prohibition eras. Upon repeal, André Tchelistcheff and Louis M. Martini helped revive local winegrowing by purchasing grapes from Stanly Ranch. Martini soon after bought 200 acres of Stanly Ranch, where he planted Pinot Noir, today the AVA’s most cultivated red. The Carneros AVA was established in 1983.
Sandwiched between San Francisco and Sonoma, Marin County includes the charming seaside town of Sausalito, the soaring redwoods at Muir Woods, the Point Reyes National Seashore, and no shortage of suburban mansions. It is also home to a small winegrowing culture, which likely began around the San Rafael Mission in 1817, and today includes about 200 acres under vine. Like Sonoma, Marin has broad soil diversity, with a mixture of marine and volcanic types. A narrow strip between the San Pablo Bay and the Pacific, Marin actually experiences some winter temperature moderation from its adjacent water bodies, allowing for warmer dormant months than Napa and Sonoma and pushing budbreak earlier. The growing season, by contrast, is generally colder, delaying ripening.
Marin’s most widely produced variety is Pinot Noir, with examples coming from Dutton Goldfield’s Devil’s Gulch Ranch (the same Dutton family of the Russian River Valley, Sean Thackery, and George Lucas’s Skywalker Ranch). The eccentric Kalin Cellars also operates in Marin, though it sources fruit from throughout the Bay Area. The winery has attracted a niche but devoted following—especially for its Chardonnay—that appreciates its slow approach to maturation. Kalin’s current releases are from as early as the 1990s.
Several important properties in Carneros supply grapes to a large number of wineries, from which they bottle vineyard-designate wines. These include the Hyde, Hudson, and Sangiacomo Vineyards. Carneros Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are typically vinified in a style somewhere in between that of the Russian River Valley and the Sonoma Coast. Chardonnay is generally bright and lemony, but with some weight and bruised yellow apple flavors. Pinot Noir can achieve the same richness as examples from the Russian River, but examples here can be more angular and herbal. Carneros is also one of the most important suppliers of sparkling wine grapes in California. Several large European sparkling houses, including Champagne’s Taittinger and Cava’s Freixenet and Codorníu, have projects in the appellation with Domaine Carneros, Gloria Ferrer, and Artesa, respectively.
The Petaluma Gap is Sonoma’s youngest AVA, recognized only in 2017 and divided between Sonoma and Marin Counties. It takes the shape and name of the meteorological pattern that defines its climate, providing for cold temperatures and windswept, fog-drenched vineyards. The appellation extends from Sonoma’s southern Pacific coastline to the San Pablo Bay, occupying a small sliver of shore adjacent to the Sonoma Valley border. While the town of Petaluma was historically known for its egg industry, wine grapes have been cultivated locally since the 1830s with the vines of General Mariano Vallejo. Petaluma’s first winery was founded by G. V. Fischer in 1884.
Vineyards in the Petaluma Gap experience early morning fog, which is driven away by the sun and rising temperatures. Winds pick up by mid-afternoon, followed within a few hours by fog again. The intense wind currents greatly contribute to quality in the region by reducing yields, thickening skins, delaying ripening, and preserving acidity. Of the Petaluma Gap’s 4,000 acres, 75% are devoted to Pinot Noir, with the rest almost entirely Chardonnay and Syrah. The Gap’s Crown Vineyard, near Cotati, is the AVA’s most famous property, today owned by Bill Price of Three Sticks.
The Russian River Valley may be the best recognized Sonoma County appellation globally, and it is certainly the most known of California’s Pinot Noir regions. As the name suggests, winegrowing was first initiated by Russian settlers, who moved east after finding the coastlands unsuitable to grapevines. The earliest known vineyard here was planted by Igor Chernykh in 1836, near Graton. The region’s viticultural history began in earnest in the post-Gold Rush era, when hopeful new arrivals and immigrant communities made their homes near the banks of the Russian River. By 1891, a reported 300 winegrowers were documented in the Russian River Valley, harvesting a collective 7,000 acres. This included such wineries as the Santa Rosa Wine Company, Martini & Prati, Foppiano, and the “Champagne” brand Korbel, founded in 1882 by Czechoslovakian brothers and still one of the United States’ largest sparkling wine producers.
During Prohibition, farmers converted vineyards to apple orchards, hop fields, and other crops. Today, cider and beer remain important products for the Russian River Valley. The area’s winegrowing revival coincided with the local proliferation of Pinot Noir. Among its first champions were Charles Bacigalupi, Joe Rochioli, Jr., and Joseph Swan, whose wineries remain benchmarks in the appellation. The Russian River was awarded its AVA in 1983, and by the late 20th century, it had established a brand for its plump Pinot Noir and Chardonnay wines, with wineries such as Williams Selyem attracting critical acclaim and a following of collectors. At the turn of the millennium, newer projects, such as Kosta Browne, harnessed that trend with business models more like those seen with Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. Customers vied for coveted spots on these mailing lists, and wines consistently sold out through allocation programs. The Russian River Valley’s claim to be the United States’ preeminent producer of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay has been challenged in the past two decades, as critics eye competitors in the Sonoma Coast, Santa Barbara, and Oregon. But the Russian River Valley style still services a devoted consumer base that favors its unique approach to the Burgundian varieties.
The Russian River Valley is still best associated with Pinot Noir and Chardonnay and, generally, riper expressions of both. The typical Russian River Valley Chardonnay is rich in yellow orchard fruit flavors, nuanced by more savory autumnal flavors. Wines in this style commonly undergo partial or full malolactic conversion and are fermented and aged in barrel, a significant percentage new. Pinot Noir wines from the Russian River Valley are similarly round and ample. They, too, will see notable new oak. Russian River Valley Pinot Noir often exceeds 14% alcohol by volume, making it among the ripest classic expressions of the variety. According to climatologist Gregory Jones, the Russian River Valley, overall, is the warmest region worldwide for premium Pinot Noir. The wines exude aromas and flavors of Christmas spices, cranberry, cola, and sarsaparilla. Unlike Burgundy, which can be fickle to the consumer, Russian River Valley wines offer immediate pleasure. Of course, a number of producers buck such stereotypes, especially in cooler pockets well suited to a lighter touch in the cellar.
While Chardonnay and Pinot Noir cumulatively account for more than 70% of the Russian River Valley vineyard (around 42% and 29%, respectively), several other varieties perform well. The Russian River Valley is home to a number of old vine Zinfandel vineyards, which can offer somewhat fresher, more dialed-in expressions of the variety than typically encountered in warmer regions. Martinelli’s Jackass Hill Zinfandel, for example, and several bottlings from Williams Selyem have achieved impressive followings. Sauvignon Blanc also succeeds in the Russian River Valley. The best examples demonstrate a stylistic middle ground between the crisp, inexpensive Sauvignon Blancs cropped high in other parts of Sonoma and the more unctuous prestige wines that emulate Bordeaux Blanc.
The Russian River Valley forms roughly the shape of a triangle at the center of Sonoma County and includes many of its best-known towns, including Healdsburg, Windsor, Santa Rosa, and Sebastopol. Roughly 96,000 acres are included in the appellation, with more than 16,000 planted to vine. The AVA boundaries, however, have shifted since its establishment in 1983. First, a 767-acre, cooler-climate area was appended in 2003. More controversially, E. & J. Gallo successfully had the TTB add 14,000 acres in 2011 so that its Two Rock Vineyard would fall within appellation lines.
The defining feature of the AVA is, of course, the Russian River, which flows through the appellation’s northwestern corner. The Russian River Valley is sometimes described as the floodplain of the Russian River, but its 21st-century expansions have made that definition inaccurate. Further, the Russian River Valley is hardly a single valley but instead a succession of rolling hills. The undulating landscape traps fog from the Petaluma Gap, creating cold swaths of land with high frost risk. Some flatter plots can be found nearer the river itself, and on the other side of the Russian River are Eastside Road and Westside Road, home to many of the Russian River Valley’s best-known vineyards.
The Russian River Valley Winegrowers, the AVA’s vintners association, has embarked on carving the appellation into various “neighborhoods.” So far, the group has identified six distinctive sectors. One, Green Valley, has its own AVA, Green Valley of Russian River Valley AVA, approved in 1983 (then with the shorter name of Green Valley), the same year as the Russian River Valley AVA. Pioneered by the Dutton family in the 1970s, Green Valley follows the path of the Green Valley Creek, a tributary to the Russian River, along the western wall of its parent appellation. Winegrowers here covet the high concentration of Goldridge soil, which covers approximately 60% of the AVA. For some, Goldridge’s low water-holding capacity mandates greater irrigation than might be required elsewhere in the Russian River Valley.
One of the coldest areas of the Russian River Valley, Green Valley holds fog from the Petaluma Gap longer than much of the rest of the AVA, while its proximity to the Pacific exposes the area to heightened maritime winds. Ripening, however, is less challenging in the region’s west, where vineyards reach higher elevations where the fog burns off more quickly. The cool conditions of Green Valley allow for the production of quality traditional method sparkling wines. One of the leading and earliest American-owned sparkling houses, Iron Horse Vineyards, is located here.
Just south, the Sebastopol Hills neighborhood has much in common with Green Valley. Similarly influenced by the Petaluma Gap, this neighborhood is even more climatically extreme. Added to the Russian River Valley through the 2003 expansion, it is now the coldest corner of the AVA, occupying the southern tip. The area is also rich in Goldridge soil and yields particularly acidic expressions of Pinot Noir that can be uncharacteristically angular for the Russian River Valley. Bordering Green Valley to the east is Laguna Ridge, which extends south from the Russian River. The neighborhood has a combination of Altamont and Goldridge soils, which, along with the region’s sloped vineyards, allow for exceptional drainage. The historic Joseph Swan Vineyards and its surrounding Trenton Estate are in Laguna Ridge. While the area is still better known for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, Dehlinger has demonstrated that Cabernet Sauvignon can also succeed.
The Santa Rosa Plain flanks Laguna Ridge to the east, moving toward its namesake city. Flatter than other portions of the Russian River Valley, this neighborhood is a major hub for old vine Zinfandel. Pinot Noir, too, is widely cultivated, with many celebrated vineyards along Olivet Road. To the north, Middle Reach surrounds the Russian River in the area closest to Healdsburg. In many respects, this is the most “classic” area of the Russian River Valley, cultivating its oldest plantings and housing such legacy brands as Williams Selyem, Rochioli, and Bacigalupi. Temperatures are higher than in most of the other Pinot regions, resulting in a luxurious mouthfeel in many wines from Eastside and Westside Roads.
The most recently announced neighborhood, the Eastern Hills, is unusual for the Russian River Valley in its compatibility to Bordeaux and Rhône varieties. Their success here is understandable; tucked into the foothills of the Mayacamas, this is the warmest sector of the Russian River Valley. With volcanic soils, the west-facing slopes experience the least fog, supporting earlier ripening.
Other Regions
The northern portion of the Russian River Valley’s Eastern Hills comprises the Chalk Hill AVA. While the entire appellation, recognized in 1983, falls within the Russian River Valley (with a tiny slice also overlapping into the Alexander Valley), it is hardly discussed as a neighborhood and is understood as a separate entity. Generally warmer than the Russian River Valley, Chalk Hill gains temperature as it climbs in elevation away from the fog in the foothills of the Mayacamas Range. While Pinot Noir and Chardonnay are grown in Chalk Hill, Bordeaux varieties, such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Sauvignon Blanc, are present there as well.
Chalk Hill’s white soils are not actually chalk but rather volcanic derived. The region’s dramatic appearance is what attracted Fred Furth, who acquired his Chalk Hill Estate in 1972 after flying his plane over the area. The property, 1,300 acres in size, remains the dominant producer for the AVA, though other key Sonoma winemakers, including Rodney Strong and Arnot-Roberts, bottle Chalk Hill-designate wines.
Southeast of Chalk Hill and Knights Valley, the Fountaingrove District AVA fills in much of the gap between the Russian River Valley and Sonoma Valley. A newer appellation, approved in 2015, Fountaingrove’s viticultural traditions date to the late 19th century. Thomas Lake Harris, who had winegrowing experience on the shores of Lake Erie, purchased 400 acres in 1875 and relocated the Brotherhood of New Life utopian community from Brockton, New York, to establish Fountain Grove. By the 1890s, Harris’s Japanese-born successor Kanaye Nagasawa grew the Fountain Grove Winery to be one of the 10 largest in California, exporting its wines to the East Coast and Europe. Surviving Prohibition through the sale of cooking “Sherry” and grape juice, Nagasawa rebranded the winery as Fountaingrove upon repeal. However, the property was sold a year later, in 1934, upon Nagasawa’s death, and converted to a cattle range.
The original Fountain Grove Winery was planted primarily to Zinfandel, Pinot Noir, and Cabernet Sauvignon. The latter dominates acreage in the current AVA, which harvests primarily Rhône and Bordeaux varieties, as well as Zinfandel. These grapes thrive in the heat of the appellation’s west-facing slopes, which reach above 2,000 feet in elevation, while Chardonnay also succeeds in cooler blocks with northern aspects. Like Chalk Hill, the Fountaingrove District is blanketed in volcanic ash. Despite Fountaingrove’s inland geography, a gap in Sonoma’s mountain ranges provides a pathway for maritime breezes, which moderate ripening. While several growers operate in the appellation, only a handful of wineries are based here.