575 Best Sights in USA

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.

The name derives from an archaic Spanish word meaning "to plant grapevines," and that's exactly what this winery's husband-wife team started doing in the late '90s. Abacela has steadily established itself as one of Oregon's most esteemed wineries. Hot-blooded Spanish Tempranillo is Abacela's pride and joy, though inky Malbec and a subtly floral Albariño also highlight a repertoire heavy on Mediterranean varietals, which you can sample in a handsome, eco-friendly tasting room where you can also order light appetizers to snack on.

This small winery specializes in small batches of Chardonnay and Pinots, with weekend tastings served to hip-hop beats in its cozy North Plains tasting room. Owner-operator Bertony Faustin is the first known Black winemaker in the state and has done much to elevate the voices of BIPOC winemakers, notably through his documentary, Red, White & Black.

Housed in a sloped Oregon pine building designed to mimic the surrounding hills, this beautiful winery is worth visiting for its looks alone. After a brief tour of the facilities, guests are ushered into an underground cave filled with French oak barrels and are seated at small tables illuminated by candlelight. Here guests are guided through a tasting of Abbot Claim’s unfined, unfiltered, and (mostly) estate Pinots and Chardonnays produced relying heavily on biodynamic and organic methods. Make sure to take a peek at the Oculus, a little library room off to one side of the cave with a skylight that lets in plenty of natural light. 

Expect no heavy reds at this boutique operation specializing in Rhône-style whites. Owner-winemaker Susan Tipton, who sourced her grapes' vines from Château de Beaucastel in France's Châteauneuf du Pape appellation, produces Viognier, Roussanne, and Grenache Blanc but also spotlights lower-profile varietals like Bourboulenc and Clairette Blanche. (There's also a Grenache rosé.) Tastings, by appointment only, take place in a 100-year-old barn or just outside it, in either case with vineyard views.

David Adelsheim is the knight in shining armor of the Oregon wine industry—tirelessly promoting Oregon wines abroad, and always willing to share the knowledge he has gained from his long viticultural experience. He and Ginny Adelsheim founded their pioneer winery in 1971. They make their wines from grapes picked on their 230 acres of estate vineyards, as well as from grapes they've purchased. Their Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, and Chardonnay all conform to the Adelsheim house style of rich, balanced fruit and long, clean finishes. They also make a spicy cool-climate Syrah from grapes grown just outside the beautiful tasting room.  Tours are available by appointment.

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.

With an attractive tasting room in the up-and-coming Port of Benton Wine and Food Park on the east side of town, Alexandria Nicole opened its eco-minded winery near the Columbia River—about 35 miles south—in 2004 and has steadily developed into one of the region's stars. The refreshing Viognier and lightly floral Shepherds Market Roussanne-based blend scores high marks from critics, while the cherry- and plum-inflected Tempranillo is a stellar choice among the reds. Ask about the four tiny houses for rent at the vineyard, which also has a seasonal (mid-March to mid.-November) tasting room. 

Lofty valley views and deftly crafted wines, the latter often sipped under a cork oak, are among this 160-acre boutique winery's lures. The vineyard team uses "regenerative" techniques such as no-till farming, which increases the soil's organic matter, to grow Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Syrah. Winemaker Martin Bernal-Hafner taps Sonoma County sources for Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Reservations are a must.

The elite Napa Valley consultant Philippe Melka oversees the wine making at Andis, whose contemporary, glass-and-metal production and hospitality buildings provide an appropriately refined setting to enjoy wines that raise the Sierra Foothills bar. The estate Barbera ranks among the region's most elegant, as do several single-vineyard Zinfandels. On-site winemaker Mark Fowler also crafts Sauvignon Blanc and Arinto whites (the latter grape is Portuguese) and Grenache, Syrah, Petite Sirah, and several red blends.

This family-run winery between Corvallis and Eugene takes sustainable wine-making to the next level, championing their own brand of "grazing-based viticulture" that uses barnyard critters, including adorable kune kune pigs, to help clear the land and keep the biome in prime working order. The result is balanced Pinots that often sell out soon after they're released. 

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.

Since Argyle opened in 1987, it has consistently produced sparkling wines that are crisp on the palate, with an aromatic, lingering finish and bubbles that seem to last forever. The winery also produces Chardonnay, dry Riesling, Pinot Gris, and Pinot Noir. Stop by the sleek tasting room for a four- or six-wine flight, or sign up for the "Sparkling Experience," which includes a property tour and an eight-wine flight served with charcuterie.

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.

With interesting varietals and sangrias, a hip vibe, and bottomless bowls of Cheetos to accompany tastings, AZ Hops & Vines rocks the Sonoita wine-tour scene. This spunky, women-owned, and family-friendly winery, which often hosts weekend events, boasts indoor and outdoor seating, games, and a petting zoo.

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.

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. 

If you're after a wine-tasting experience that feels less like a formal presentation of wines and more like sitting down with old friends, Bells Up is the place to go. It’s run by a husband-and-wife team Sara and Dave Specter, who personally lead wine tastings, one group at a time. Along with the expected Pinot Noirs and Blancs, Bells Up offers Syrahs, Cabernets, and the occasional lesser-produced varietal, such as Seyval Blancs. Each wine is named for a piece of classical music, which—like the name of the winery itself—is inspired by Dave’s love for the French horn. 

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.

This operation 11 miles east of downtown comes highly recommended for its excellent Spanish varietals and warm hospitality. The Albariño white and Tempranillo and Graciano reds often receive favorable critical notice, but everything is well made, including the non-Spanish Petit Verdot and old-vine Carignane. Bokisch welcomes picnickers; pick up fixings in town, and enjoy vineyard views while you dine.

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.

This vineyard, one of the oldest in the region, produces some of the best wine in Arizona. Its Buena Suerte 2015 ("good luck" in Spanish) is a favorite, and Caitlin's is considered one of the top wines in the United States.