We visited Sonoma County the last week of March and are happy to report it's an amazing place to spend Spring Break. My better half's daily diary says it better than I could, so I'll just copy that here.

I know this is unduly long, but how can you leave anything out when it's all so good?

But to sum up . . . everywhere we ate was great, nearly every winery was a good experience, the countryside is beautiful, everything in bloom, and the weather was perfect. A charmed holiday.

Day One:

good flights (into SFO), long line at the rental car counter, and MapQuest SUCKS--we ended up missing the 101 and exploring downtown instead. Heavy traffic north of San Francisco after crossing the Golden Gate bridge. Got to our lovely B&B, The Trojan Horse Inn in Sonoma--about 1 mile from the plaza. Great breakfasts, really interesting people, and owners Bethany and Greg were wonderful.

First night had a great dinner at the Girl and the Fig--best grilled cheese sandwich ever, pomme frites, taragon aioli, and a chick pea cake with carmelized onions, spinach, goat cheese and red pepper sauce. Bought a bottle of 2005 Frei Bros Reserve Russian River Valley chardonnay at the very inexpensive Safeway and crashed back at the room.

Day Two:

Awoke in ultra comfy bed in the Sarah Vaughn room. Beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky, orange tree with loads of oranges outside our window. Had no idea how perfect our first full day would be, but started with an excellent breakfast (vegetarian frittata, and the homemade banana bread rocked). Met two couples from Tallahassee FL that we would end up having dinner with. Headed north to a few wineries--first stop Valley of the Moon; pretty grounds, wines just okay. Next stop Benziger to take the tractor/tram tour of the vineyards, beautiful, fun and informative tour. The Benziger reserve chardonnay (grapes from Carneros) was wonderful.

Then on to Imagery, wines were fantastic--we would end up buying a couple of bottles (a rose and a petit verdot). Back to the plaza in Sonoma, walked around before dinner. Met our Florida buddies at the General's Daughter for dinner. For us the prix fixe dinner was expensive ($50 for three courses), but worth every penny. It was cool that you could choose your courses freely (all desserts, all entrees, all salads etc.). Wine: Picket Fence RRV chardonnay, nice. First course: dungeness crab salad. Second course: best Halibut ever, tender and flaky, and an awesome risotto. Third course: Scottish salmon. Assorted chocolates for dessert. Awesome service. Wow, wow, wow.

Day Three:

Another beautiful day. Breakfast: poached pears in a red wine & chocolate sauce, individual goat cheese souffles, sliced tomatos, and that killer banana bread again. Chatted with an interesting couple from Switzerland and Leichtenstein. First winery, Schug in Carneros south of Sonoma. Disappointing, unexpectedly. Had the wines before, but the tasting room wines were really subpar.

Gloria Ferrer saved the day. Sat out on the veranda and had several great sparkling wines, as well as a great pinot noir. Next stop was great too: Nicholson Ranch, beautiful grounds--met the owner who pointed out a small white chapel on the hillside that he built and in which all his children & grandchildren were Christened. Oh, and the wines were wonderful, especially the chardonnay.

Back to Sonoma for a nice casual tapas style dinner, al fresco, at the Bistro right on the plaza. Calamari, mushroom polenta, and spicy shrimp. Same city (Sonoma) different B&B, spent the next two nights at the Four Sisters Inn.

Day Four:

Very nice breakfast buffet with vegetable frittata and cinammon raisin whole wheat pancakes.

Decided to spend a little time in Napa Valley, so crossed the mountain on this very twisty little road. First stop Robert Mondavi (how can you not pay homage?), nice grounds. Thirty bucks for a tasting??? Not in this lifetime. Got onto the Silverado Trail and headed north--beautiful alternative to the main highway through Napa Valley.

Next stop Rombauer, perched up in the hills, a great experience--great chardonnay. Next to Frank Family Vineyards--loads of fun, they start you with sparkling (we bought a bottle of the 2000 vintage blanc de noir). Then on to a separate tasting room, for some really good wines (we had them ship half a case, assorted reds and whites). Final winery of the day, Dutch Henry, a neat little mom & pop type place. Sat outside and had a great time, mostly they have french style blends, and they were very nice. On to Calistoga for a late lunch at Brannon's: calamari w/ zucchini & artichoke hearts, and I had a great tomato soup and grilled cheese combo. Then back to the awesome Four Sisters, just a few blocks from the plaza.

Day Five:

breakfast buffet again was surprisingly high quality--more eggs, frittata with goat cheese and roasted peppers, and hash browns with spring onions.

Now on to Healdsburg, via a few more wineries! Did I mention the weather continued to be perfect? Highs in the 60s, lows in the 40s, loads of sun all day.

First stop, Kunde Estates--more of the same, great tasting experience, great wines. Then Chateau St. Jean--big place, but nice staff and again some really nice wines. Next stop, Landmark--smaller winery with, you guessed it, more nice wines.

This was a big wine day, luckily we shared tastings. On to the "castle" of Ledson. We were prepared for this to be all hype, but we really liked the various zinfandels. Last stop, a small place in the Russian River Valley near Santa Rosa owned by the DeLoach family (who sold their original winery): Hook & Ladder. Friends had recommended this one to us. This was among the best wine for the (reasonable) price we had encountered. So we joined their club and shipped home a case for starters.

Checked into the budget-priced Dry Creek Inn (Best Western) in Healdsburg, staying in the new Tuscan building. Absolutely outstanding for the price. Beautiful spacious rooms, fridge, microwave, fireplace, jacuzzi, etc.

Went to the plaza and ate a great little casual mexican place: El Farolito. Service was a little lax, but they were busy and the food was great: fish tacos and a blackened snapper burrito.

Day Six:

Kind of a sad little breakfast buffet at the hotel--not terrible, but with the room as nice as it was, the breakfast was the only reminder this was a chain hotel. Walked around the plaza until the wineries opened. Went to a fantastic tasting room in town for Selby Winery. Great wines! Lunch near the plaza at the coolest little cafe, the Charcuterie: salad topped with blackened cod , and I had rigatoni marinara with eggplant and olives, both outstanding. Then on to more wineries in the Dry Creek Valley--kind of a blur, but we bought wine from all of these nice places: Family Wineries (a co-operative tasting room), Pedroncelli (probably the best reasonably priced, solid tasting wines we sampled, the chard and the old vine/mother clone zin are real bargains), and Raymond Burr Winery--yes, that Raymond Burr, and the chardonnay was great.

Dinner at Willie's near the plaza--wow again: lobster rolls, dungeness crab cakes (no filler), and roasted whole artichokes. Back to the hacienda for more wine and the hot tub.

Day Seven:

First stop on another beautiful day, Dry Creek Vineyards--nice looking, but very expensive okay tasting wines. Then to Rued Family winery--wow, a small operation where they do it all, grow the grapes and make the wine. This was an unexpected little treasure. Talked to the owners/managers, a very nice married couple, and bought several bottles (they also sold us some case shipping boxes for a reasonable $5 each).

Then over to the Alexander Valley, lunch at a really cool old fashioned general store, Jimtown--befriended a resident cat while eating on the patio: brie, olive, eggplant sandwich, and I had vegetarian chili--very good.

Next to Alexander Valley Vineyards--very good wines as expected. Then to White Oak, a place that sells 95% of the grapes they grow to other wineries, and makes some great wines out of the remaining 5%. Same for our last stop: Robert Young, wow. This may have been our best winery experience. We were the only tasters there, and we hit it off with the manager minding the tasting room, so he gave us an extensive tour of their cave. Their chardonnay was killer, but I think the best wines were several 2004 cabernet sauvignons.

We met friends from home whose journey just overlapped ours and had a great dinner at Zin in Healdsburg. We both had the grouper over polenta with salsa verde--awesome! Back to the room for our last night in Sonoma County, sigh.

Day Eight:

the only non-perfect weather day we had, but still just a little cloudy and drizzly. Went to Hop Kiln winery in RRV and had a great time with the "wine educator" in the tasting room--he was informative and unpretentious. Very nice wines. Lunch in Healdsburg at Zin again--just couldn't get enough: home-made foccacia w/mozzarella, portabella mushrooms, & red peppers, with kennebec potato fries, awesome.

Headed back to San Franciso to spend the last night near the airport for our early morning flight. Stopped at the Armstrong Park and walked among incredible redwood trees. Then back to the city, uneventful drive.

Stayed at the convenient Hampton Inn south of the airport, and had an unexpectedly good dinner at this place called the Elephant Bar & Restaurant. They had everything on the menu, so we were very hesitant. But the quality was great, as was the service & fun atmosphere (lots of locals)--full bottles of Chandon sparkling brut were cheaper than any of the wines, so we said what the hell and stayed forever with a couple of bottles. Oh, the food: Pad Thai (not the best I've ever had, but very good nonetheless), spicy salmon, and creme brulee.

We made it home fine with only one delayed flight from CLT (one hour), and were soon greeted by the four and a half cases of wine we shipped home. What an awesome trip--we're thinking of repeating it next Spring, as there were lots and lots of wineries we didn't have time to visit.

Yes Arnold, we'll be back.

HI--I need to read this later---looking forward to it! However, just quickly, I don't think map is to blame for 101 issue. We also almost missed it and got off in wrong place. It is poor signage on the road and had it not been for the fact that my husband had remembered it correctly, we would have been where you were!

Thanks for the great trip report! That is one of my favorite places to visit and your report makes me long to go back. I especially like the specific mention of which wines you liked and the wineries as well. The Girl and the Fig seems like a fabulous restaurant; we had dined at their sister restaurant in Glen Ellen? We plan to try it next time we go.

Ah, that all sounded glorious.
Lucky you, beach_dweller.

Socialworker,

you could be right about the signage, but I think Mapquest's mileage from point to point was off also. And this follows a definite Mapquest screw-up we encountered in southern Maryland. I am switching to randmacnally online, or we'll just go back to maps.

Glad you successfully made it onto the 101!

Glad you had a great time. Thanks for posting all the details. The weather was glorious that week.

Sounds like a great time, we also enjoyed our meals at the girl and the fig and General's Daughter very much last month. ***kim***

Hi, beach_dweller! Thanks for sharing a wonderful trip!

Yes, Robert Young is a hidden treasure. We got a case of their wines about two years and their estate is so lovely!

Just a suggestion - since you are planning on a return trip next year - can you make it during Barrel Tasting weekends? This year it was the first two weekends in March. Check out wineroad.com.

Thanks again for sharing!

A fabulous report, showing that with well researched planning and an openness to exploration, Sonoma can be both a high end and affordable destination.

I love the stories of the white chapel at Nicholson Ranch and the Jimstown Cat, as these are the spontaneous pleasures we are rewarded with when traveling.