A beautifully restored 1913 storefront in Railroad Square, pouring third-generation winemaker John Bambury's Bonneau, Egret, and Opal Moon labels — from Sonoma reds and whites to a Napa Cabernet and a méthode champenoise sparkling. Outside food welcome, fireplace and patio seating, and live music most weekends.

Sixth-generation vintner Katie Bundschu's own Glen Ellen project — Rhône-inspired, co-fermented field blends from regenerative-organic vines, poured among 80-year-old plantings. The experience runs to olive-grove grazing boards, shuffleboard, and a thoughtfully stocked mercantile of often female-made goods. Playful, communal, and reservations encouraged.

Billing itself the 'Starting Line to Wine Country,' Adobe Road's room in the Great Petaluma Mill pours small-lot, award-winning wines from Sonoma, Napa, and the Petaluma Gap, seven days a week. A motorsports streak runs through it, from the Apex bottlings to the flagship Cabernets. Flights or by the glass.

A restored 1901 bank vault in downtown Geyserville — teller cages and all — where winemaker Brook Bannister and his artist wife pour the family's elegant Sonoma Coast Pinot and Chardonnay alongside rare bottlings like orange Riesling and Sagrantino, amid a rotating art gallery and handmade design.

The northern anchor of the walk, worth the longer stroll up the Boulevard. Founder Garry Brooks makes restrained, elegant Pinot Noir and Chardonnay with his wife Joanne — the 'Note' — in a century-old former Studebaker dealership. Seated tastings come with local cheese; some Friday evenings bring live music.

California's first premium winery, founded in 1857 a mile northeast of the Plaza — the grand destination at the end of the walk. The historic grounds hold the 1862 Press House, hand-dug caves, a wine-tool museum, and a sparkling-focused Bubble Lounge, an easy half-day in themselves.

The shared tasting bar of partners Adam Webb and Mike Kuenz, whose 2004 winemaking odyssey yields small-lot Rhône and Iberian varietals — Syrah, Pinot Gris, rosé — raised in French Hogshead barrels. Just off the Plaza, it pours flights with cheese, charcuterie, and espresso on a covered patio.

A glass-walled corner on the Sonoma Plaza where founder Lloyd Davis leads a seated, food-paired tour through seven Sonoma AVAs — each limited-production pour matched to a bite and explained. Twice named the best tasting room in the U.S. by USA Today readers, and proudly unintimidating.

Winemaker Bart Hansen pours his Sonoma Valley wines — Rhône varietals and old-vine Zinfandel — inside The Tank, an 1880s redwood fermentation tank across from Jack London Village. A cellar rat who opened here in 2024, he usually hosts himself. Book ahead for one of wine country's most unusual rooms.

A loose, easygoing wine bar in the lobby of Hotel E — the restored 1906 Beaux-Arts Empire Building on Old Courthouse Square. It pours Sonoma County wines (much of it the Wilson Artisan collection) and local beer with cheese boards, plus a daily happy hour, music bingo, and live music.

An offshoot of the family's Della Santina's Trattoria, opened just off the Plaza in 2007 and built around a 250-bottle "wine wall" of hard-to-find local and international labels. Some thirty pour by the glass alongside the full trattoria menu — Old World, unhurried, and the town's living room.

A boutique Glen Ellen winery founded by two newspaper photographers, its 'Taste the Vineyard' wines roaming from Russian River Pinot to Dry Creek old-vine Zin to Mendocino Syrah. The mercantile-style room across from Jack London Village has a barrel bar, a woodstove, a porch, and Eric Luse often pouring.

Founded in 2012 by Texas-raised Erin Brooks, Ernest makes cool-climate, single-vineyard Chardonnay and Pinot Noir from the far West Sonoma Coast, low-intervention and bright. Its chic Healdsburg lounge, steps from the Plaza, pours current and library flights, plus the exploratory Edaphos label.

Winemaker David Rossi's Pinot-centric label, built by cold-calling California's finest growers — small-lot, vineyard-designated bottlings from grand cru sites like Gap's Crown and Walala. The casual-elegant room sits just off the Sonoma Plaza; $35 buys five wines, and Rossi himself is often pouring.

Hartford's downtown salon is the in-town counterpart to its secluded Green Valley estate near Forestville, pouring the same expressive, single-vineyard wines off the square. The focus is Russian River Pinot Noir and Chardonnay plus old-vine Zinfandel — 'high personality' wines, as the family puts it. Dogs welcome on the patio.

A literal red barn tucked off the Sonoma Plaza, pouring the down-to-earth Highway 12 and Highwayman labels — Sonoma red blends, Zinfandel, Trailblazer — from longtime friends Paul Giusto and Michael Sebastiani. Roadhouse-casual and dog-friendly, with $20 flights, chill tunes, and tented patio seating.

One of the West Sonoma Coast's most revered estates, planted on a remote ridge above the Pacific and farmed biodynamically. The estate is closed to the public, so this appointment-only room at Old Roma Station is where you taste its acclaimed Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Book ahead; seats are few.

A cooperative tasting room "where the river meets the tracks," in the 1890 cellar of one of Healdsburg's first wineries. Since 2006 it has gathered a handful of small family producers under one roof, pouring limited-production reds, whites, and rosés side by side. Walk-ins welcome; picnic area out back.

Kamen Estate is the downtown bar for Robert Kamen's Moon Mountain vineyard — the screenwriter planted it with the proceeds of his first script and farms it organically with Phil Coturri. The wines are mountain-grown Cabernet and Syrah, dark and structured. A block off the Plaza.

A cozy, living-room-style wine lounge in Petaluma's Theater District, family-run since 2007. Owner-sommelier Sahar Gharai pours boutique wines from around the world — 40-plus by the glass — with gourmet bites, a signature bacon-pear pizza, and classic black-and-white films above the bar.

One of California's iconic mountain Cabernets, poured in an intimate room in the heart of Glen Ellen. The fruit climbs a certified-organic estate a thousand feet up Sonoma Mountain, and the seated flights run from chilled whites to library Cabernets going back decades. Walk-ins welcome; a text ahead helps.

A New California Wine pioneer dreamed up behind Spago Beverly Hills — restrained, oak-free Chardonnay plus Pinot, old-vine Carignan, and Valdiguie, all from organic, dry-farmed ranches. The Lickliders' sleek, retro-cozy room just off the Healdsburg Plaza pours flights and small plates, with live music and industry nights.

A sprawling, light-filled hub a block off the Healdsburg Plaza — wine lounge, bottle shop, 100% plant-based restaurant, and live-music venue in the former SHED. Owners Laurie and Jeff Ubben pair farm-driven bites with thoughtful pours, plus free Thursday-night music upstairs at The Second Story.

A Geyserville collective, owned by Carolyn Lewis, pouring small artisan producers too tiny for their own rooms — no reservations, no pretension, and no tasting fee. Dozens of bottles open daily; pick a varietal and taste three side by side to find your favorite. Diavola's pizzas are next door.

Marine Layer is named for the fog that makes its wines possible — authentic, cool-climate Chardonnay and Pinot Noir drawn from windswept coastal vineyards. The light-filled room on Center Street pours flights by day and shifts to wines by the glass after 5pm. Reservations recommended; walk-ins welcome when there's room.

Celebrated natural winemaker Martha Stoumen — a Sebastopol native farming for healthy soils and minimal intervention — opened her first tasting room steps from the Healdsburg Plaza in late 2025. The copper-toned, open-late room pours six-taste flights of southern-Italian varietals and her playful Post Flirtation blends.

A barn-like room anchoring the south end of the village at the Highway 12 corner, family-run since 1993. Expect an adventurous lineup — Zinfandel and Cabernet beside Gewürztraminer, Carignane, and Grenache — poured as a six-wine Premium flight or a nine-pour Adventure tasting. Picnic in the dog-friendly courtyard.

Winemaker Brad Beard's "mad scientist workshop" in downtown Geyserville, named for the Alexander Valley's old quicksilver mines. Tiny lots of Bordeaux, Rioja, and Rhône-style blends, esoteric whites, even orange and sparkling wines. The funky room shares a back garden with Ramazzotti; brother Grady and dog Freddie host. Walk-ins welcome.

Winemaker Kevin Bersofsky's "roller coaster" label — a garage start, a brush with the feds, then a 2015 debut. Now a downtown Petaluma Winery & Record Lounge pouring cool-climate Petaluma Gap Chardonnay, Pinot, and Syrah beside 4,000+ vinyl records for sale. Dog-friendly, with requests taken.

Chemist-turned-vintner Bob Mueller founded his label in Healdsburg in 1991, chasing small-lot Russian River Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. His acclaimed "Emily's Cuvée" Pinot leads a lineup that includes old-vine Zin and Syrah. The intimate room — Bob often pouring — is open weekends or by appointment.

A historic cluster of 1870s–90s brick winery buildings on Hudson Street, "where the river meets the tracks," a short walk from the Healdsburg Plaza. Today it's a one-stop tasting hub — Holdredge, Sapphire Hill, Pezzi King, the Hudson Street co-op, and more — with bikes, shops, and easy parking.

Pangloss Cellars fills a restored 1902 storefront on East Napa Street, named for the optimist of Voltaire's Candide. Winemaker Erich Bradley's Pinot, Chardonnay, and Grenache share the list with the Repris and Texture labels, poured in seated 90-minute flights with small-plate pairings.

Winemaker Cindy Cosco's label — named for her Italian grandfather's Ellis Island "passage" — reopened in 2022 as a creekside wine bar and music venue in Glen Ellen's Jack London Village. Taste her unoaked Chardonnay and uncommon Italian varietals on the deck, with live music most weekends.

Pax Mahle's urban winery in Sebastopol's Barlow — a former lid factory with roll-up doors, vinyl, and wine on tap. He launched Pax in 2000 on Syrah's "untapped potential" and became a California benchmark. Taste foot-crushed, native-yeast Syrah, Gamay, and Chenin Blanc, with charcuterie and Friday music.

A boutique, family-run Geyserville winery named for the prehistoric French caves owners Bruce and Cheryl Lawton love — under 3,000 cases of single-vineyard Sonoma wine. Veteran John Pepe makes the wines; the "up-cycled chic," very dog-friendly room has leather couches and an ivy patio. Open daily.

The "Cal-Ital" winery of married founders Jane Portalupi and Tim Borges, on the Healdsburg Square since 2011. Don't miss Vaso di Marina — wine in a milk jug, honoring Jane's Piemontese grandmother — alongside Zinfandel, Barbera, and Charbono in a sleek, warehouse-chic room. Open daily.

David Ramey is one of California's most respected winemakers, and the family's urban winery near Memorial Bridge is where you taste why — elegant, balanced wines built to age. Tastings are seated and by appointment in an upstairs parlor over the cellar, six wines across about ninety minutes.

The Barlow's communal cellar — a locals-first bar where you pour your own from self-serve WineStations stocked with small Sonoma makers, then order in from the neighboring kitchens and stay a while.

A husband-and-wife winery and love story in Glen Ellen's Jack London Village. Rob Schermeister makes native-fermented, unfiltered wines (Viognier to Pinot); designer-wife Laura creates every label and the art-filled creekside room. Every guest tastes with the vintners — and dog Eli. Reservations appreciated; hours are seasonal.

Healdsburg's standard-bearer for Zinfandel, planted by Edoardo Seghesio in 1895 and farmed by five generations since. A few blocks northeast of the Plaza, the room opens onto The Grove — a shaded lawn with bocce courts made for a glass. Worth the short walk for the Zin.

Selby is the oldest tasting room downtown, owned and run start-to-finish by Susie Selby a half-block off the square. The wines are well-made and unpretentious — and have been poured in the White House since 1995, across four administrations. A quiet, friendly stop with a small patio.

Named for the Babylonian goddess of wine, Siduri is built on one obsession: cool-climate, single-vineyard Pinot Noir. The relaxed Healdsburg lounge is its home — cozy seating, a vinyl collection, and a signature flight that travels a thousand miles of coastline in a single sitting.

SIGH is Sonoma's champagne bar, opened in 2012 by Sonoma native Jayme Powers after years with a California sparkling house. The list runs from grower Champagne to California sparkling and rosé, poured by the glass, the flight, or the occasional frozen slush. Walk in.

Sojourn Cellars works from a quiet salon just off the square, pouring single-vineyard Pinot Noir, Cabernet, and Chardonnay side by side so the vineyards can be read against one another. Founded in 2001 by Craig Haserot and winemaker Erich Bradley. Friendly dogs welcome.

Anchoring the north side of the Plaza since 1931, the Sonoma Cheese Factory carries one of the Square's largest selections of cheese and charcuterie. Wine flights pair with that charcuterie or house-smoked brisket off the patio smoker, alongside gelato from Italy and, come summer, frosé blended from sparkling rosé.

The county's port specialist, founded in 1994 as Sonoma's only dedicated port house and now run by Heringer Estates. Tucked into the riverside Foundry Wharf just southeast of downtown, the casual, industrial room pours small-batch California ports, sherry, and grappa. Their motto: drink dessert first.

A wine bar and wine club a few blocks east of the Plaza, built around sommelier Todd Jolly's list of world-renowned wines and top spirits under a full liquor license. A marketplace and deli round out the space, and four cottages offer an overnight retreat. Easy and community-minded.

Sosie — French for 'look-alike' — makes California wine in the image of the Rhône, the Loire, and Burgundy: Grenache Blanc and Marsanne whites, Pinot Noir, Syrah, picked early for acidity and restraint. The tasting room sits on Vine Alley, off the square. Built for the table.

A slate-trimmed brick room on the corner of Davis and Fifth, blocks from Railroad Square, where husband-and-wife T.J. and Francesca Elam pour small-batch Sonoma reds. The $30 flight pairs each wine with a playful bite — caviar with a sparkling cuvée — and runs the latest hours in town.

Talisman is Pinot all the time — a Glen Ellen specialist making tiny, vineyard-designated lots from across Sonoma County, each bottled on its own. The cozy village room pours a 90-minute terroir flight through six vineyards side by side, so you taste how place changes the wine. Appointments encouraged.

Petaluma's Barber family closed their eleven-year Hotel Petaluma tasting room and reopened bigger: Taste Petaluma brings their wine, spirits, cheese, and dessert under one Washington Street roof. Pour a Barber Cellars flight, add a cheese board and a craft cocktail, finish with a truffle.

Big, bold Sonoma reds since 1984, still family-run with a take-nothing-seriously-but-the-wine spirit. The Healdsburg room hides behind a gate beside Longboard Vineyards, a few blocks off the Square — pours in a working cellar, a tucked-away patio, and that hand-painted Handprint Merlot. Walk-ins welcome.

The Oakland natural-wine favorite's Sonoma little sib — a mom-and-pop bar and bottle shop pouring organic, minimal-intervention bottles by the glass, with tinned conservas and a deep shelf to take home.

Three Sticks pours its estate Chardonnay and Pinot Noir inside the 1842 Vallejo-Casteñada Adobe, a half-block off the Plaza and restored by designer Ken Fulk. Tastings are seated, by reservation, and paired with small bites from El Dorado Kitchen. Adults only.

Truett Hurst's Tasting Barn fills the 1903 French-American cellar at Old Roma Station, opened in late 2024 under founder Phil Hurst and vintner Ken Wilson. The flight runs Dry Creek and Russian River wines — a Zinfandel-rooted range — in a vintage-modern room steps from the river. Closed Tue–Wed.

Part bottle shop, part neighborhood wine bar: owner, sommelier, and wine writer Jason Jenkins stocks 400-plus labels from around the world and pours them by the glass at a small tapas bar in back. Belly up to a barrel with cheese, charcuterie, and a draft beer. Unpretentious and well-priced.

WALT, the Hall family's Pinot label, works a room off the northwest corner of the Plaza, pouring Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from across the Pacific Coast — Sonoma Coast to Anderson Valley to Oregon. The signature flight runs a thousand miles of Pinot, with caviar and charcuterie alongside.

More bottle shop than tasting room, Wilibees still checks every box: a downtown taproom and gourmet deli pouring $20 themed flights, wines by the glass, and daily happy-hour pours. Pull a bottle off the shelf, pay a small corkage, and pair it with the deli. The walk's most affordable stop.

Winery Sixteen 600 is the family label of Phil Coturri, the viticulturist behind much of Sonoma Valley's organic farming, working from a 120-year-old farmhouse a block off the Plaza. Tastings are seated and comparative — certified-organic Grenache, Zinfandel, and Cabernet poured from antique theater seats while records play. By appointment.

Wine Snob* — the asterisk does the winking — is a Sonoma Valley winery whose Glen Ellen room is hosted by the winemaking owners, Lindsey and Ryan. The wines run from Chardonnay and Pinot to oddballs like Chenin Blanc and Tempranillo, all sustainably farmed. Your taste buds, your rules.