Sonoma Sips

Sonoma Sips is a winter tasting month in Sonoma Valley, run by the Sonoma Valley Visitors Bureau with Sonoma Valley Vintners & Growers. From mid-February to mid-March, more than fifty wineries, tasting rooms, restaurants and hotels offer a special tasting for a flat fifteen dollars. There is no pass to buy: you choose a stop, tell your host you are there for Sonoma Sips, and they pour the offer. Recent participants include Larson Family, Cline, Imagery, B.R. Cohn and St. Francis.

Go for the quiet season. Late winter is when the valley turns green with the rain and the tasting rooms have time for you, and the flat fee turns an unfamiliar name into an easy yes. Most stops take walk-ins, so an afternoon can wander from a Carneros estate to a Glen Ellen cellar to a tasting room off the Plaza without a single booking, though calling ahead on weekends is wise. Some stops pair the pour with something extra: chocolate and an art gallery at one, a dog-friendly welcome at another.