Harvest Wine Trail

The Harvest Wine Trail is Wine Road's Saturday in the middle of crush. A single ticket opens the tasting rooms of about twenty member wineries spread across the Alexander, Dry Creek and Russian River valleys, and you plot your own course between them. There is no fixed itinerary and no host to follow: pick a valley, pick a handful of doors, and taste what each winery has chosen to pour that day. It is one of Wine Road's seasonal wine trails, and this one is timed for harvest, when picking and crush are under way across northern Sonoma County.

Harvest is the liveliest season in wine country, and a trail day lets you feel it from the tasting room side without booking a single appointment. With no reservations to juggle, you can linger where a conversation takes off and move on when you are ready. Putting a Dry Creek Zinfandel stop and a Russian River Pinot Noir stop in the same afternoon shows how different neighboring valleys can taste. Bring a designated driver or hire a ride, choose three or four wineries, and the day takes care of itself.