I have to be a tour guide to a friend of mine visiting. She wants to see Sonoma. Any suggestions on which wineries to see? I've been told to check out Viansa and Benzinger. Any other suggestions beside those 2?

We were there about 6 years ago. Ones that stand out in my mind were:
Rabbit Ridge - Small, scenic setting
Fetzer - Huge, beautiful estate
Hop Kiln - Funky, 60's feel

There is an excellent fold out map of the wineries, available at most book stores in the area.

One of my favourites is the Buena Vista winery (I think one of the oldest in the valley). Their creamed sherry is divine.

Cheers
Mac123

For wowing beauty, try Ferrari-Carano (Italian) and Souverain (French), both in the Alexander Valley.

A couple years ago I visited both Viansa and Ravenswood. Viansa was great, beautiful view and nice gourmet food shop. Ravenswood was very small, however, because they were smaller the people handling the wine tastings were able to spend more time with you, were very generous with their samples and really seemed interested in your likes/dislikes. Plus the wine was wonderful. We spent so much time there we didn't have time for anyplace else.

Blackstone is very nice. Try their award-winning Reserve Merlot. Valley of the Moon is also a favorite. Cheers! BTW, we were at Trader Joe's this weekend and a lot of the places mentioned sell their wines here for great discounted prices!

We even found our favorite Peachy Canyon (Paso Robles) red zin Old Red there for almost half the price of what we paid at the winery!! ***kim***

Loved Ravenswood. Great staff. Like BR Cohn, it also has olive oil tasting. Liked the gift shop. Up the road Chateau St. Jean is beautiful.

Seconds for Ravenswood and Chateau St. Jean. I couldn't remember the name of C.S.J. and knew another Fodorite would!