Any recommendations on wineries? This is our second trip, we have been to all the biggies- Mondavi, Niebaum-Coppola, Joseph Phelps, Beringer, Chateau St. Jean...

I was thinking Cakebread Cellars, Peju, maybe Franciscan... any ideas, thoughts?

You may want to skip what was Coppola.
It's now called Rubicon and they charge $25 pp to taste.

Coppola has expanded to Sonoma County. His company purchased Chateau Souverain
in Geyserville. The name has officially changed to Francis Coppola Winery.

The Chateau Soverain folks will move up the road to Asti and continue wine-making.

As I have stated before, the trend in Sonoma County is to charge for tastings. Some will charge $5-10,
and some apply that toward a purchase
if you make one.

Now that Coppola is here it will be interesting to see if the "charge for tasting" trend speeds up.

You need to do a search. LLindaC just did a marvelous report on some of the best of the smaller wineries in both counties. She's a true Wine-o. They did 48 wineries in 10 days !

Also put in "Napa Wineries" or "Sonoma wineries" in the search box.

My still "best find of the year" is Thumbprint Cellars in Healdsburg.
While your up there try Armida, Lambert Bridge and A. Rafanelli (needs appt.)

From your list I like Cakebread, dislike Peju and Franciscan is just too corporate.

What time of year will you be visiting us ?

R5

Hey, I will be there at the very end of April and beginning of May, would love some great recommendations as well. Preferably FREE tastings.

Most of the wineries in the Russian River/Dry Creek/Anderson Valley are free to taste. Some require reservations. Check out wineroad.com and visitwineroad.com for proposed wine tasting itineraries.

I heard the razzle was calling me a wino.I had to come on here and defend myself, I am an oenophile. I even swirled, sniffed and spit on my last trip. So you've been to the big ones, that's okay, it's a start. Now you are looking at more big ones on the same road. Why? There are hundreds of small production wineries making wonderful wines all over Napa, Sonoma and other valleys. Why sit in traffic and stand in a tasting room behind throngs of people? Get a map of the Valley, a couple Wine Country today publications and start doing some research. We started looking at award winners from SF Chronicle and other wine competitions to select some truly unique and excellent wineries.Those results are available on the Internet. Same for Wine Enthusiast and Wine Spectator- often they highlight "best for your dollar" choices. Then we have gone to some place like Hess because of the art and grounds- really something to see. You can get Mondavi and beringer wines anywhere- go find some places that produce 250 cases of something and only sell from the winery. That's the way you start getting a true feel for the REAL wine country.

Last weekend we went to Ferrari-Carano on Dry Creek Road 8 miles northwest of Healdsburg, $5 tasting of 4 wines. We bought the rose, it's only sold at the winery, when chilled it went perfect with the fresh 4 fruit shortcake with butter caramel sauce (I didn't make anything, just assembled it) for easter dinner. The grounds are stunning, italian villa with spectacular gardens, cherry blossoms and tulips in full bloom.

LLindaC, what do you think about Benzinger?

In the Sonoma area - Schug, Nicholson Ranch, Domaine Carneros, Artesa.

Domaine Carneros is a beautiful place with a very pretty tasting room and excellent wines. One of my favorites in the area. We were there last month before wining and dining our way around Sonoma/Santa Rosa. ***kim***

Diamond Oaks is a nice smaller winery with a spectacular view and very nice picnic grounds. We really enjoyed their Chardonnay (15-$20), and their reserve Chard was great but too pricey for us. I also long to sip champagne at both Domaine Carneros and Mumm-usually we will end the day at one of those. Goosecross is another smaller winery with great staff and quality wines (one of my favorite Sauvignon Blancs).