A Sonoma Wine Tasting Vacay: Eat, Drink, Bike and Spa

About an hour north of San Franciso, Sonoma’s wine-growing region is more laid-back and less visited than neighboring Napa.

In Napa, you may rub shoulders with up to 25 people at a time, compared to only six to ten visitors in Sonoma’s wine tasting rooms. Still, Sonoma’s more than 400 wineries pack an intoxicating punch.

Sonoma wine tour by bicycle

A Healdsburg wine country bicycle-and-wine tour with Getaway Adventures. It takes us up the long finger of Sonoma’s bucolic Dry Creek Valley.

Photo: Getaway Adventures

We taste-test different Zinfandels and other varietals at several wineries this day and also the next when we cycle out on our own.

Sonoma wineries

Photo: Preston Farm and Winery

A grape-based spa treatment

Its swank 40,000 sq. ft. Willow Stream Spa has a set of cold and hot mineral pools for a bathing ritual that’s included with any treatment.

Photo: Matanzas Creek Winery

Exploring beyond Sonoma wine country

At Armstrong Redwoods State Natural Reserve, we venture on a short hike through a magnificent forest of ancient coastal redwoods, the world’s tallest and oldest living things.

Just one more Sonoma winery

This time, we hit Chateau St. Jean Winery near the town of Sonoma. Founded in 1973, the winery first caught the attention of wine buffs with its stellar Chardonnays.

Credit: Sonoma County Tourism

Chateau St. Jean is most famous for its Cinq Cépages Cabernet Sauvignon – a Bordeaux-inspired blend (luscious!) and the first Sonoma wine to be chosen by Wine Spectator as its “Wine of the Year”.

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