322 Best Sights in Napa and Sonoma, California

Set amid a bucolic northern Calistoga landscape, this stately winery whose stone building was erected in 1888 helped establish the Napa Valley's reputation for high-quality wine making. At the pivotal Paris tasting of 1976, the Chateau Montelena 1973 Chardonnay took first place, beating out white Burgundies from France and other California Chardonnays, an event immortalized (with liberties taken) in the 2008 movie Bottle Shock. A 21st-century Napa Valley Chardonnay is always part of A Taste of Montelena—current releases that might also include a Riesling, the fine estate Zinfandel, and a Cabernet Sauvignon—or you can opt for the Montelena Estate Collection tasting of Cabernets from several vintages.

Sharing a 19th-century Victorian with a ground-floor wine bar, this free, well-organized mezzanine-level museum surveys the Napa Valley's wine-growing origins with fascinating memorabilia and tools of the trade. Among the latter include now taboo farm implements like "soil injectors" used to blast insecticides into the soil. Under the wine bar's Baccarat chandelier, guests can transition their education into the present by purchasing a payment card and proceeding to stations dispensing 2-, 4-, or 6-ounce self-serve pours. Three popular strategies are selecting Cabernets from a single Napa Valley AVA, comparing ones from several subappellations, or sampling a few 100-point wines.  You don’t need to taste to tour the museum, which is next door to Oakville Grocery.

Three things often stand out for guests of this two-brand winery's creekside tasting room: the fervor of father-daughter owners Ed and Mia Mascarin to make wines from world-class grapes, the hosts' authentic hospitality, and the sense of discovering an absolute jewel. “Our goal is to express the sites whose excellent fruit we have access to,” notes winemaker Matt Taylor, a third-generation Sonoman. "We're not looking to re-create a recipe." For 32 Winds, Taylor makes Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Zinfandel wines from sterling sources. The Mascarin wines, from estate and other vineyards whose farming Taylor oversees, include a Chardonnay, a Pinot Noir, and a Syrah-based field blend whose 15% white grapes contribute to its unique flavors and texture. Reservations are a must here.

Aesthete may well be the best place in Sonoma County to sample wines this serious for such a modest fee. Adorable rescue animals it’s okay to feed, a cherished creekside sipping area, and the staff's earnest hospitality provide additional incentives to drop by. But the celebrated winemaker, Jesse Katz, constructs the Sauvignon Blancs, Pinot Noirs, and Bordeaux reds with such elegance that all distractions fade away during tastings. The estate Drystack Vineyard in the Bennett Valley AVA flies under the radar, but maybe not for long: a recent barrel-aged Sauvignon Blanc from the site scored a 97 from a top reviewer, high for a California wine from this grape. The Pinot Noirs are more full-bodied than many of their Sonoma County peers yet still refined.

As a youth, Jesse Katz tagged along with his photographer father, Andy Katz, to wineries worldwide, stimulating curiosity about wine that led to stints at august operations like the Napa Valley's Screaming Eagle and Bordeaux's Château Petrús. In 2009, Katz started Aperture, a success from the get-go for his single-vineyard Cabernets and Bordeaux blends. Among the whites are Sauvignon Blancs and an old-vine Chenin Blanc that's among California's finest. Katz's wines, which benefit from rigorous farming and cellar techniques, are presented by appointment in an ultra-contemporary hospitality center about 2½ miles south of Healdsburg Plaza. The center's shutterlike windows and other architectural elements evoke Andy Katz's photography career; his images hang on the walls.

Here's your best opportunity in the western Wine Country to wander amid Sequoia sempervirens, also known as coast redwood trees. The oldest example in this 805-acre state park, the Colonel Armstrong Tree, is thought to be more than 1,400 years old. A half mile from the parking lot, the tree is easily accessible, and you can hike a long way into the forest before things get too hilly. During hot summer days, Armstrong Redwoods's tall trees help the park keep its cool.

Barbara Bestor's sleek white design for record producer Kashy Khaledi's glass-and-metal tasting space evokes mid-century modern architecture and the era and wine-making style predating the Napa Valley's rise to prominence. Bordeaux grapes are the focus in wines that include a Sauvignon Blanc and Sémillon blend, Cabernet Franc (also a rosé of the same), and Cabernet Sauvignon. With a label designer also responsible for a Jay-Z album cover and interiors recalling the Mad Men Palm Springs story arc, the pitch seems unabashedly to millennials, but the wines, low in alcohol and with high acidity (helpful with aging), enchant connoisseurs of all stripes.   A pairing with cheeses and a family-style lunch with a seasonally changing menu demonstrate how food-friendly the A&D wines are.

The spare, glass-walled, Japanese-inspired tasting room of this much-admired producer of Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs—the name is French for "author"—sits on a knoll overlooking a few acres of its vines and those of neighbors below. The adjacent shaded patio shares the same glorious view. Marquee vineyards from Mendocino County to Santa Barbara supply grapes for the wines that owner-winemaker Kenneth Juhasz intentionally crafts to express vintage and place of origin—a single vineyard or multiple ones from the same appellation—rather than hewing to a particular house style. Hosts of Be Here Now tastings pour these well-authored wines blind, allowing guests to contemplate the nuances on their own before explaining them. Other tastings, some with cheeses selected by Juhasz's wife, Laura, a former cheesemaker, proceed more traditionally.

Kenneth Juhasz, whose résumé includes an extended run at Sonoma's The Donum Estate and experiences in Burgundy, Oregon, and New Zealand, is the creative force behind this winery known for Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Tastings of his singular wines unfold north of Sonoma Plaza in a magnolia-shaded 1915 Craftsman-style bungalow the original owners ordered from a Sears Roebuck catalog or in the cedar-paneled former garage out back. Reservations are appreciated, especially on weekends.  In 2025, the winemaker and his wife and cofounder, Laura Juhasz, opened a second tasting room in the Russian River Valley.

Three entrepreneur-investor types established AXR with a winemaker-partner, Jean Hoefliger, who describes a vineyard as "the soul of a wine" and his job in the cellar "to create an emotion." Hoefliger crafts multilayered Chardonnays from sourced grapes (including an often highly rated entrant from Sonoma County's Ritchie Vineyard) and dense yet supple 100% Cabernet Sauvignons. The collector-quality Cabs come from notable sites like Sleeping Lady in Yountville and the estate V Madrone Vineyard. Hosts at one-on-one tastings convey the passion, science, and experience underlying Hoefliger's wines and the history of the redwood-studded AXR property. Some sessions unfold in a renovated barn, others in an 1876 house once part of a pre-Prohibition restaurant and inn that thrived here.  This is the Napa Valley at its low-key classiest.

The chefs take center stage at this boutique winery’s open-hearth kitchen, and with good reason: creating food-friendly wines is B Cellars' raison d'être. Appointment-only visits to the hospitality space—all steel beams, corrugated metal, and plate glass—often begin with a tour of the culinary garden and a stop in the caves to sip a wine still aging in barrel. Highly recommended Oakville Trek tastings of wines paired with small “B Bites” are offered from Thursday to Monday. Charcuterie and cheeses accompany the wines poured at daily Elevage sessions surveying the Napa and Sonoma appellations that supply B Cellars fruit. Kirk Venge, whose fruit-forward style suits the food-oriented approach, crafts red and white blends and single-vineyard Cabernets from estate fruit and grapes from Beckstoffer and other noteworthy vineyards.

The boutique wineries of this energetic collective pour mostly Sonoma County wines inside and on patios of Spanish Mediterranean–style buildings bordering a large piazza. Music, art, and culinary events lend the dog- and kid-friendly space a village-square feel. Smith Story, Convene by Dan Kosta, and Dot make Pinot Noir; tasting at more than one reveals the roles of clones, locations, farming, and cellar strategies in the finished product. Comstock also produces a Pinot Noir, along with Zinfandels and a few other whites and reds. The Lopez family of Aldina Vineyards, who developed Bacchus Landing, specializes in Cabernet Sauvignon. So does The Setting, whose partners include Jesse Katz of nearby Aperture Cellars.

Winemakers compete for grapes from the Bacigalupi family, who planted Chardonnay and Pinot Noir in the Russian River Valley in 1964. Doing so was fairly novel then, but the decision proved prescient a dozen years later when the prize-winning Chardonnay at the 1976 Judgment of Paris blind tasting partially came from their grapes. Other wineries still purchase most of the fruit the Bacigalupis grow (the Zinfandel has also long been in demand), but they reserve 10% for wines hosts pour inside a shingled tasting room or on a tree-shaded patio nearby. Two recent additions worth inquiry are the Sauvignon Blanc and Brillante, an unusual sparkling wine containing honey from the property.   A family member leads Friday-morning vineyard hikes from May to October.

Heirloom-corn bourbon and the flagship malted rye are the big sellers at the distillery that Michael and Lorraine Barber and the couple’s partner Aaron Lee started in 2017. The spirits are mashed, fermented, produced, distilled, and aged from "grain to glass" inside the company's 1910 redbrick storefront using traditional methods and uncomputerized equipment. White rum, aged rum, Gravenstein apple brandy, grappa, lambanóg (a traditional Filipino spirit distilled from palm sugar), absinthe blanche, and other spirits are handcrafted in smaller batches. Amid the aromatic barrels, guests sample flights, Lorraine's finely honed cocktails, wine (the Barbers own a winery), or craft beers.

A multibuilding complex on a 12½-acre former apple-cannery site, The Barlow celebrates Sonoma County's "maker" culture with tenants producing or selling wine, beer, artisanal prepared and packaged foods, crafts, housewares, clothing, and art. Kosta Browne, the anchor winery, receives guests by appointment, but Region Sonoma, a wine bar promoting small county producers, welcomes walk-ins. Crooked Goat Brewing makes ales, and Golden State Cider pours its apple-driven beverages and the affiliated Seismic Brewing Company's beers.

Fern Bar and Sushi Koshō are among the full restaurants. Sarmentine Artisan Boulanger bakes bread and pastries using recipes and techniques from Bordeaux—the coffee’s excellent. For comfort and lighter fare, try Acme Pizza (some gluten-free), Cock Robin (burgers), The Farmer’s Wife (soups, salads, sandwiches), Osito Style (tacos), Purple Açaí (smoothies, juices), Two Dog Night Creamery (ice cream), and William Cofield Cheesemakers (small bites).

Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon, and other grapes grown in heritage vineyards throughout California are the focus of this ambitious winery whose backstory involves several historical figures. General Joseph Hooker’s 1850s former home is now the tasting room, and he and General William Tecumseh Sherman were combative partners in what's now the estate Bedrock Vineyard a few miles away. The next owner, newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst's businessman-politician father, George, replanted it in the late 1880s. Bedrock co-owner and winemaker Morgan Twain-Peterson learned about Zinfandel from his dad, Ravenswood founder Joel Peterson. Twain-Peterson’s sensitively farmed field blends, containing multiple grape types grown and fermented together, are as richly textured as his winery's prehistory.

One dazzling room leads into another at this winery's Rutherford hospitality center. A courtyard and its centerpiece aqua-tile fountain crowned by two canary palms draw attention even before guests reach the brasserie-style atrium, whose natural light constantly shifts. Hosts conduct the introductory Taste of Bella here, with successively more comprehensive sessions unfolding in several salons, culminating in the Jewel Box Tasting featuring top Cabernet Sauvignons paired with small bites. Glass walls in this experience's second-floor room reveal valley-floor vistas east to the Vaca Range. Bella Union, a Far Niente brand, first distinguished itself with smooth drinkable Cabernet blends. The whites, including a delicate Pinot Blanc, show the winemaker's range.  At  4–6 pm courtyard "Social Hours," servers pour wines by the glass and bottle. 

Winemaker-partner Mike Sullivan's Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs would taste marvelous even in a toolshed, but guests to Benovia's unassumingly chic Russian River Valley ranch house will never know. Appointment-only tastings of his acclaimed wines—Benovia also produces Grenache, Zinfandel, and Cabernet Sauvignon—take place in the brown-hued living room or on the open-air patio. From either vantage point, views of the estate Martaella Vineyard all the way to Mt. St. Helena draw the eye. Weekday vineyard tours focus on the winery's earth-friendly farming practices; production tours track the wine-making process from vineyard to barrel to glass.

Anne Moller-Racke, founder of the Pinot Noir powerhouse The Donum Estate and its president for nearly two decades, established this smaller label also devoted to serious Chardonnay and Pinot Noir wines. Hosts of private tastings at her 13-acre estate explain her “made-in-the-vineyard” philosophy and the several appellations where she cultivates grapes. Anchored by a circa-1880 Victorian and adjacent pump house, the former horse farm is now planted to 7 acres of grapes. Near the residence, a formidable century-old pepper tree and a rose garden with dozens of varieties catch the eye, the Mayacamas Mountains supplying the idyllic setting's backdrop. The appointment-only winery requests prospective guests inquire about visits at least 48 hours in advance.

According to cofounders Mark and Beth Hanson, the French word bricoleur loosely translates to "flying by the seat of the pants," the feeling the two experienced as they set about establishing a winery and lavish hospitality center. Their 40-acre Windsor property produces Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, with additional grapes coming from vineyards in Alexander Valley (Zinfandel, Carignane) and Fountaingrove (Sauvignon Blanc, Viognier, and Grenache for rosé). Hosts pour these self-assured wines in a 10,000-square-foot barn, a tree-shaded courtyard, an open-air pavilion, and other settings with vineyard, garden, or Russian River Valley views (sometimes all three). Chef Charlie Palmer, the winery's culinary advisor, oversees the food pairings accompanying tastings; Bob Cabral, formerly of Williams Selyem and Three Sticks, consults on the wines.

The parents of the current owners of the Napa Valley's first Black-owned estate winery purchased 450 acres in Chiles Valley, planting a vineyard in 1985. The second generation—siblings Deneen and David Brown, later joined by sister Coral—established the family's label. The estate Zinfandel and Cabernet Sauvignon, made by David, are perennial winners for their bold elegance, with another star the punchy accessible Chaos Theory blend of Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon, and a grape or two more. The Browns pour their wines in a high-ceilinged loftlike salon on the second floor of a 1905 structure that once housed the Napa Valley Register.

The husband-wife team behind Cartograph believes in Pinot Noirs emphasizing "balance, nuance, and complexity, rather than power and intensity." To that end, they select vineyard sites based on climate and clone compatibility, harvest their grapes early, and intervene as little as possible during the wine-making process. The resulting wines please on their own and pair well with food. Unlike many Sonoma County Pinot producers, Cartograph eschews Chardonnay for its still whites, opting for the Alsatian grape Riesling, done in a refreshingly crisp and dry style.  Sometime in 2026, the winery plans to move 2 miles north to 280 Chiquita Road, where it will be open daily for indoor and outdoor tastings.

When Donn and Molly Chappellet established their renowned Pritchard Hill winery in 1967, they chose a rocky, tree-studded, now 640-acre property for its potential as a Cabernet Sauvignon growing site, but the vistas north to Lake Hennessey and Mt. St. Helena undoubtedly played a role, too. The vice president of wine making has worked here for three-plus decades, and with the family's second generation in charge, a sense of purpose and continuity prevails. Relaxed tastings of wines that might also include a Chenin Blanc and a Cabernet Franc take place in the cavernous original winery amid rows of stacked oak barrels. Book the April–October Pritchard Hill ATV tour for an exciting spin through the grounds.

Fans of Snoopy and Charlie Brown will love this museum dedicated to the late Charles M. Schulz, who lived his last three decades in Santa Rosa. Permanent installations include a re-creation of the cartoonist's studio, and temporary exhibits often focus on a particular theme in his work. Children and adults can take a stab at creating cartoons in the Education Room.

Distinguished producers like Kosta Browne make wines from grapes farmed by the Chenoweth family, whose ancestors settled in the redwood-studded hills northwest of Sebastopol in the mid-1800s. Charlie Chenoweth, who converted apple orchards to vineyards, reserves fruit for his wife, Amy, to craft the namesake Pinot Noirs, a Chardonnay, and a Grenache rosé. Her wines alone warrant a visit (by appointment only) to the several hundred–acre property, but the lofty Russian River Valley perspectives and hardworking but fun-loving family vibe elevate the experience exponentially. Seasonal UTV tours, sometimes conducted by the gregarious Amy herself, include a rollicking ride to sip Pinots where their grapes were grown. Other tastings take place in the woodsy Wine Shack.  Region wine bar in Sebastopol pours two Chenoweth wines year-round.

The whitewashed Cape Dutch–style structure erected by this winery's original owners, one South African, stands out against the craggy Stags Leap cliffs rising behind it. With 120 acres of vines devoted mainly to Cabernet Sauvignon, Chimney Rock’s reputation rests on several estate bottlings, some from specific vineyard blocks yielding wines with strikingly different personalities. Brazil-born Elizabeth Vianna, long an advocate of sustainable grape-growing practices, crafts the Chimney Rock wines in a smooth accessible style that sometimes belies their power. Two whites, Sauvignon Gris and the Elevage Blanc blend of the former and Sauvignon Blanc, hold their own at tastings (reservations recommended, but walk-ins possible) in several small salons and on a shaded patio.

Inspired by his passion for classic rock, Cliff Lede named the blocks in his Stags Leap District vineyard after hits by the Grateful Dead and other bands. Two other Lede obsessions are rock memorabilia and contemporary art like Jim Dine's outdoor sculpture Twin 6' Hearts, a magnet for the Instagram set. Despite its light-hearted vibe, this efficient, high-tech winery is anything but laid-back: cutting-edge agricultural and enological science informs the vineyard management and wine making. Lede produces a Sauvignon Blanc, another mostly Sémillon white, several Cabernet Sauvignons, and a few Bordeaux-style red blends. The Cabs, particularly Poetry, rock. Book a Backstage Tasting Lounge session to sip top-tier wines amid a rock-music-related art exhibition.

Respected for three 100% Cabernet Sauvignons, Corison Winery harks back to simpler days, with tastings alfresco in view of the half century–old Kronos Vineyard or amid oak barrels inside an unadorned, barnlike facility. The straightforward approach suits the style of Cathy Corison. One of post-1960s Napa Valley's first women owner-winemakers, she eschews blending because she believes her sunny St. Helena AVA vineyards (and other selected sites) can ripen Cabernet better than anywhere else in the world. Critics tend to agree with her approach. The Library Tasting, which starts with a brief winery and vineyard tour, includes recent releases and older vintages that together illustrate Corison's consistency as a winemaker and how gracefully her wines mature. All visits are by appointment.

A multihued garden reminiscent of Monet's surrounds a pond at this hillside winery whose Bennett Valley views and assiduously cultivated wines enthrall in equal measure. Above the fog line on volcanic soil, much of the property is warm enough to grow Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. The Bennett Mountain Estate Blend contains both and sometimes other Bordeaux red grapes like Malbec. Syrah is another focus, as are Pinot Noir and Napa Valley Cabernet. Guests pass through not one but two gates on the steep, narrow drive up to the glass-walled hospitality space. Group or private sessions—indoors, on the patio, or amid the garden—usually start with a Sonoma Coast Chardonnay. Reservations are a must.

Halfway through a wine-and-food pairing at this serenely rustic Dry Creek Valley winery, you may find yourself asking, "How does she do it?"—"she" being Dr. Mary Roy, Cāpo Creek Ranch's proprietor, winemaker, chef, and hostess with the mostest. The answer might simply be that running a winery isn't likely to faze someone who raised six kids while operating a bustling radiological imaging center. Whatever the reason, in "retirement" Roy has created a magical showcase for her mostly Rhône-style whites and reds (the stars) along with Cabernet Sauvignon, estate old-vine Zinfandel, and numerous blends. Most tastings occur outdoors facing east toward the heritage-Zin vineyard, with the cave and tasting room alternative possibilities.  You can taste wines without food, but this place is all about the pairings.