I intend to visit Wesmar winery in September and somewhere I saw a map of the surrounding wineries. I did a search but to no avail.
Are these wineries in close proximity for a day of tasting. (Perhaps I saw it on winodepot?)

I'm planning on staying at the Marriott courtyard in Santa Rosa and visiting:

Wesmar
Siduri
William-Selyem
Kosta Brown(pipe dream)
Kistler

Looking for the single vineyard pinots for a nice day. Any help appreciated.

See the other string on Budman's Sonoma trip. He and I will both be there week of 15th and will each have a report I expect.

I will miss WS cuz they don't take visitors in Aug. And if you're not on "the list" you won't get in either. I hear they don't do tastings anyway, so why bother? I've been on plenty of tours.

Thanks for the post, I'll be going either 9/17 or 9/24. I've been to Napa a few times and thought I'd spend a day in Sonoma. I have always wanted to get over to Wesmar, so that will be a destination and just wanted to tie in additional wineries from that area.

Thanks for the info on WS. I'll be making my arrangements throughout this week and hopefully can put something good together.

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Wesmar are in the same old apple packing plant near Sebastopol on Occidental/Gravenstein intersection as Tandem Winery. Email gregl@tandemwinery.com and see if you can get an appointment.

Siduri is pretty easy to get to, near the airfield at Windsor just up the I101.

You could try Freeman and also Merry Edwards whilst you are in the area.

Not sure about Kosta-Browne, Dan is a good guy but they are always in demand.

Lynmar gets a good review but personally I have never been there or tasted their wines.

Kistler doesn't have a tasting room.

Check out Martinelli on River Rd. in Windsor. No tasting fee and they poured 2 single vineyard Pinot's when I was there a couple weeks ago.

If you get up to Dry Creek, check out A Rafanelli, Truett-Hurst and Bella. The latter of the two are my two favs in Sonoma.

Not looking at a map but we went last year and our favorites were

Paul Hobbs based on the quality of wine and property even if a bit expensive.

Lynmar who treated us great and the property was beautiful. Wines were exception as well.

Arista was a nice property and we hung out with a friend who owns the place - so I am biased on this. We still enjoyed the wines and the family a great deal.

Merry Edwards was also a nice experience. Got to try 4 or 5 wines in a private setting. A nice visit learning about the place.

I would reccomend all these places - which require reservations. Great people and a bit more laid back than the Napa places.

Wow!! thanks for all the suggestions!!

ilb thanks for pointing me towards Freeman. Never tried their wines but the reviews look good.

Berno thanks for the heads up on Kistler. I think your just north of me in Geneva area? I'm in Yorkville.

So far I'm for sure going with Wesmar, Merry Edwards and Siduri. Possibly Freeman, Martinelli and Lynmar. Although Kosta-Brown would be Excellent!! Could be a two day tasting in Sonoma?????

take the road into Sebastopol and, on the left side just as you enter town, you'll see the Starlight Cafe....good place to eat.

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Originally posted by irwin:
take the road into Sebastopol and, on the left side just as you enter town, you'll see the Starlight Cafe....good place to eat.

Ah yes nourishment!!! Thanks Irwin.

I did a Spring mountain tasting a couple years back and had a nice picnic lunch up at Pride. Good wine and views. Is there anything similar in this region?

If you head north on Gravenstein Highway (116) out of Sebastopol, past WesMar at the Occidental intersection then turn left after 3 blocks onto Grafton Road (Grafton).

Less than 1 mile down the road you enter the town and on the left is Underwoods who do grills and a mean hot sandwich for lunch (and dinner). They also serve wines from a number of the local wineries or just a beer.

If you arrive eary morning then across the street from Underwoods is a great place to have proper cooked breakfast or just a coffee and some brownies. Quality is good and the prices sure beats the hotels.

Greg la Follette at Tandem introduced me to Underwoods when he bought lunch after I helped with the 2006 Tandem punch down. There are some gentlemen in Sonoma!!

The breakfast cafe is Willow Wood, just looked it up via Google. I saw a couple of bad comments in amongst some great ones but I have been there 3 or 4 times and the service was fine. It's just a local cafe and not a Michelin starred restaurant!

Personally I don't like folk crawling all over me every two minutes filling my glass etc. Take my order, bring my food and leave me alone to eat. But then I'm a Brit!

Thanks ilb I really appreciate all the input here especially now that I might be taking the trip myself. Still could be a great time. The guidance is definatly helpful.

I'm more towards Naperville.

Kistler makes enough money to open a tasting room. It'd be nice to taste their wine before spending a fortune and going on Parker's ratings.

If your in Windsor, go to Restaurant Mirepoix.

Enjoy your trip.

Berno thats the Costco I go to, and Probably more often than I should

I'll look up Mirepoix thanks!!

Napacoast.....if you do make it to the starlight cafe, be sure to tell them that you heard about them from the Wine Spectator guys.
Try the barbecued shrimp. Chef trained in New Orleans.

Will do Irwin.

As it looks now I'll be taking the trip by myself, so I'll have plenty of opportunity to pass along the great advice I've been receiving here. When I went out there a few years back I took the recommendations of a Powell Yang(off wino depot) on the Spring mountain winerys. I remember the folks at Shool House winery asked how I heard of them, they thought I was from a magazine! I let them know P. Yang referred me there and I never met the man! Wine people are good people

Hope you enjoyed School House. John and Nancy are great.

Also hit up family vineyards in Dry Creek, Papa Pietro Perry and my friends winery Kokomo(also a great Olive Oil company right next door). Don't miss Russian River Brewing Co. in Santa Rosa!

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Originally posted by MiamiWineNovice:
If you get up to Dry Creek, check out A Rafanelli, Truett-Hurst and Bella. The latter of the two are my two favs in Sonoma.

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Originally posted by Powell Yang:
Hope you enjoyed School House. John and Nancy are great.

Hey Powell, that was a great time. I can remember sitting on their deck and tasting through their wines. A Very engaging couple, great conversations. Oh, and also is it walnuts or something that kept falling from the tree above? Fun time Thank you for the info on the wineries of Spring Mountain. I had a great day!

See my post under Budman's tour.

Other ideas:
West of SR - Pellegrini, Sunce, Dutton-Goldfield.
North - Hartford, Moshin,Gary Farrell, Woodenhead, Russian Hill

Last week, we visited Martinelli and Merry Edwards. I believe appointments are required for both. Martinelli has some picnic areas but do not allow any alcohol consumption.

At Martinelli, we tried their 2006 Zio Tony Ranch Chardonnay, 2006 Bella Vigna Pinot Noir, 2007 Bondi Home Ranch Pinot Noir, 2005 Terra Felice Syrah, and 2007 Vigneto di Eva Zinfandel.

At Merry Edwards, we were in a private room with their rep, and we tried six varieties of their Pinot Noir (including the 2007 Klopp Ranch and 2007 Olivet Vineyard) plus the 2008 Sauvignon Blanc.