Winter

Winter WINEland is Wine Road's January weekend: two days when around sixty wineries across Alexander Valley, Dry Creek Valley and the Russian River open to passport holders. You choose a starting winery when you buy, check in there for a tasting glass and a wristband, and then go anywhere on the roster in any order, with at least three tastes at each stop. Some wineries add a warming bite to go with the pours. The roster spans the whole map, from Pedroncelli and Trione in the north to Korbel and Hartford out toward the river.

Pour + Explore is Sonoma County Vintners' traveling tasting series. Each evening lands at a different host winery and gathers more than twenty-five Sonoma County producers around a single theme, a grape, a style or a group of appellations, for a walk-around tasting with light appetizers. The series is produced with sommelier Christopher Sawyer. Keller Estate hosts an evening devoted to the Petaluma Gap and the West Sonoma Coast, and Gloria Ferrer has closed recent seasons with a night of sparkling wine.

The Cloverdale Citrus Fair is the earliest fair on California's calendar each year, filling the Citrus Fairgrounds in Cloverdale over Presidents' Day weekend.

The program is a classic small-town fair: a Saturday-morning parade through downtown, a carnival, livestock shows, a talent show, live music and exhibit halls full of the entries local families bring in each year.

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.

For one week each late winter, restaurants across Sonoma County, from Petaluma to Healdsburg, set special menus at fixed prices. Three-course dinners come in at $30, $40 or $60, with one-course breakfasts and lunches, shared menus for four, and $6 Sweet Perks for dessert.

The county's Economic Development Collaborative runs the week, and more than 80 restaurants take part, from bakeries to fine-dining rooms.

Merry Healdsburg is the evening the town switches on its holidays. On a Friday in early December the Plaza fills for the lighting of its tree, with a night market of local shops, artisans and food makers set up around the square together with the Healdsburg Farmers' Market.

The evening also brings free horse-drawn carriage rides, free photos with Santa, a children's craft station and live holiday music, with the Healdsburg Community Chorus among the regular performers.

The Holiday Wine Trail + Market is Wine Road's early December Saturday for tasting and gift shopping in one outing. A single ticket opens the tasting rooms of member wineries across northern Sonoma County, and each stop sets out a small holiday market beside the pours. Expect wreaths, candles, pottery, art and edible gifts from local makers, along with the winery's own bottles for the holiday table. Some wineries turn it into a full market with outside vendors, so the trail can fill a shopping list as well as a glass.

For one weekend each December, the Santa Rosa home of Luther Burbank, the celebrated plant breeder, opens dressed for the holidays inside and out. The Holiday Open House is an old-fashioned affair: you walk through the decorated house, browse the gift shop for plants, garden gifts and holiday decor, and stop for homemade cookies and a slice of persimmon bread.

On a Saturday evening in December, boats strung with holiday lights travel down the Petaluma River and into the Turning Basin in the heart of downtown. The Lighted Boat Parade is hosted by the Petaluma Yacht Club with the Petaluma Downtown Association, and it draws several thousand people to the shore to watch the flotilla arrive.

The boats reach the basin around six o'clock, well after dark, when the reflections on the water double every string of lights.

Sunday mornings from April into early December, the Windsor Town Green in Old Downtown Windsor fills with the Windsor Certified Farmers Market. Growers bring fruit, vegetables, meats, fish, honey and eggs; food makers add bread, cheese and preserves; local artists fill out the rows. In summer the market also runs on Thursday evenings, as part of the Summer Nights on the Green concert series. The market sets up at McClelland Drive and Market Street, on the green at the center of town.

The Healdsburg Farmers' Market is one of the oldest certified markets in California, and it now has a home of its own: the Foley Family Community Pavilion on North Street, a short walk from the Plaza. The Saturday market runs 8:30am to noon from April to December, and a Tuesday market runs 9am to 1pm from May through September. Both are run by the nonprofit Healdsburg Certified Farmers' Market.