Cartograph Wines has a cool story and a cool name. The owners, Alan and Serena, not only take you through a tasting, they take you through the story of their life and how they met. They both had a love of wine but travelled to very different parts of the world to nurture it. They eventually both ended up in San Francisco making wine at a crush pad before deciding to venture out on their own. Their love of wine, and each other is really evident in everything they do at this winery. They also love history (their own, and others) which is evidenced by the new tasting room which will be in an old slaughter house. I can’t wait to see how they tell that story!

Cartography Winery also has a great theme going, from the maps and globes all over the winery, to the bottles themselves. The bottle labels are an actual cartograph of the owners and where they have been throughout their wine journey.

 The entire reason I was at Cartograph was to test run the brand new Passion for Pinot experience, and let me tell you I loved it! It was so fun to hear all the stories (and the true passion these guys have for Pinot, hence the name). I also love Pinot so this was a great tasting for me. But my friend hates Pinot and even she really enjoyed the tasting.

So first things first, the 2023 Rosé of Pinot is really good (100% Pinot) and tastes like summer in a bottle. The 2022 Russian River Pinot was young but spicy and will probably age well. The 2019 Estate Pinot was good. We also tried the 2014 library Pinot which was good too. And best of all (and a wine first for me) we got to try juice samples which were better than the wine (but hey, we all know I have a massive sweet tooth). Another wine first for me was pouring the juice in a refrac to see how much sugar is in each juice. This tasting was so fun, and it’s always more fun to hear about anything from passionate people.

Fun fact: the owners tried to trademark 17 different names before they finally landed on Cartograph!

Fun fact 2: all of the bottling for this winery happens in a semi truck. That’s not rare but it’s not that common either.

Stonemason Cellars is a sweet little stone building/tasting room in Railroad Square (downtown Santa Rosa). Much like myself this winery loves a good theme, from the building itself to the bottle labels featuring a very famous cobblestone building).

Fun Fact: the owners great grandfather was a stone mason (hence the name) and actually helped build the CIA. No, not that CIA! The Culinary Institute of America, in nearby St. Helena. The picture on the bottle labels is in fact a picture of said great grandfather working on the CIA.

These winery owners are share croppers meaning they farm other people’s lands. Confused by that? Basically, instead of owning your own vineyards you can farm someone else’s (maybe someone who has inherited them but has not interest, or other wineries that have more vines than they can handle). But share cropping doesn’t mean the wine tastes any different. In fact, with a good wine maker the wine can be better than most! For example this wineries Cobblestone Cuvée was flat out delicious. They also paired it with truffle almonds (and I hate truffle) but the cuvée made it good. Surprisingly my least favorite wine was the Pinot, it was just too smoky for me. And my all time favorite of the day? The Hammertime Red Blend, but no surprise there since I love a good blend!

All in all this was a fun experience within walking distance of a great little area in Santa Rosa.

Gloria Ferrer Wines is a place I’ve wanted to go to for a long time, but sadly they don’t do industry tastings. After years of patience, I finally made a connection and managed to do a tour and tasting of the famous sparkling wine place. After visiting I can see why this winery is so exclusive. The expansive property is absolutely beautiful and incredibly sustainably focused. There’s a cutting garden for flowers and vegetables that the chefs use onsite. And everything, including the grapes, is 100% organic.

Gloria Ferrer is known for their sparkling wines (not champagne because they’re not old enough to be grandfathered into the champagne name laws). Interestingly enough, the Ferrer family is actually from a famous Cava producing family. But Gloria and José came all the way from Spain, not to produce Cava, but to make a name for themselves in sparkling wine. In fact they are the first sparkling winery in the entire Carneros region (which is now very well known for sparkling wines). Another reason for Gloria Ferrer’s exclusivity is that they only use the wine created from the first, light, press of the grapes. Most wineries use the entirety of the grapes so this is a rare practice and could be considered wasteful to many. Luckily for Gloria Ferrer they’ve created such a name for themselves that they can easily sell off the excess to bulk wine makers (think Gallo, or Charles Shaw).

Gloria Ferrer is really unique because they really let their winemaker explore new ideas in winemaking. For example he’s currently working on a wine aged in sandstone (that one was new, even for me). Champagne made in sandstone is unique because sandstone is kiln fired so it doesn’t have to be sealed inside. It’s more oxidated than stainless steel but less oxidized than a barrel. They also have a wine robot doing the bulk of the job to riddle the wine (turning bottles so the yeast doesn’t settle in one place).

Be sure to look out for that Aranisca (Spanish for sandstone) wine in the future. Other notable wine mentions were the Carneros Cuvée, which was the best by far! It was super clear and unique. But then we got a surprise taste at the end, the Sparkling Pinot Blanc, which was absolutely the best, and was light and easy to drink. All in all this winery was worth the wait!

Caddis Wines has the most unique theme I’ve ever seen for a winery. In that it has nothing to do with wine. It’s a fishing themed winery, simply because the owner loves to fish. If you are familiar with fishing you might recognize that the name of the winery is literally a fishing term (a specific type of fly used in fly fishing). And everywhere you look in this winery you’ll find subtle nods to fishing.

Even the wine includes fishing references! For example, the Angler Red Blend, which was really good. The Livermore Cabernet and the Zinfandel were also delicious. But the winner was Better Together, a Syrah and Cab blend (and just generally a cute name).

For a fun theme and great local recs I definitely recommend this winery! Plus it’s on the Sonoma Plaza so you can easily walk around.

Cochon Tasting Room is just off the Sonoma Plaza but is tucked away enough that it feels like a hidden gem. You have to intentionally want to go there to find it. Now let’s talk about the weird name…though if you speak French you might already understand where I’m going here. The wineries name literally translates to pig, which might be good for a butcher or a salumeria but not so much for a winery. Unless of course you factor in the barrels this winery uses to make wine…hogs head barrels. Otherwise known as petit Cochon, and since this winery focuses on Rhône (French) varietals it only makes sense to use the French name.

Our tasting host, Paul, was a riot and we totally trusted his judgement so we let him select all our wines for us (instead of selecting them ourselves which is an option at this winery). The Blanc de Blanc was absolutely my favorite. I know I usually don’t like bubbles (they make me hiccup) but these were worth it. The Pinot Blanc was also good, and kept with my Blanc theme for this winery. I also loved the Zinfandel (which is rare for me) but it was fruity, spicy, and delicious!

Located in the General Hooker House (not what it sounds like) in downtown Sonoma, Bedrock Wine Co. is full of history! It was originally the prefab home (shipped from Europe) of General Joseph Hooker. Aside from a home, and now a tasting room, the tiny house has been a records room, a library, a tea room, and a museum. It’s also a historical landmark so it’s as close to the original as possible (but with modern day plumbing of course).

And of course with old houses come old vines. Some of the vines used in Bedrocks wines are 100 years old. In fact Joseph Hooker was a winemaker himself and founded Bedrock Vineyards in the early 1900s which inspired the modern day Bedrock Wine Co. So as you can see, the founders of Bedrock Wine Co. are big history buffs and found the history of Sonoma to be quite important. Bedrock is also very unique in that each wine is only from one individual vineyard. That means to get a proper blend they plant multiple different types of grapes in one vineyard and pick everything at once for a natural blend. They don’t add anything to the wine after that, including yeast which is all wild. This can make for a lot of work all at once (during harvest) but it’s a very cool concept.

Not only does Bedrock Wine Co. have a good history, they also have good wine! The 2018 Under the Wire Sparkling Pinot was really good, as was the Ode to Lulu Rosé. Ode to Lulu, is another cool part of the winery’s ode to history in that it’s an ode to Lucien Peyraud who was a very influential women in wine in the Mediterranean (where the inspiration for their wines comes from). My favorite was the late harvest which was paired with an ice cream sandwich (perfect for a hot day and an outdoor tasting). The last unique wine I’m going to talk about is the Evanghelo Heritage Blend which uses that aforementioned planting technique to get a natural blend. I love a good red blend and this was GOOD!

Bohème Wines has a tiny tasting room in the tiny town of Occidental. You really have to TRY to go to this tasting room since there are not a whole lot of reasons to go out to Occidental. It honestly almost didn’t feel like a tasting room, there was nobody else there, and everyone’s very connected to each other. For example, our tasting host was the owners next door neighbor.

If you do make the schlep out to Occidental (for some other reason), I would definitely recommend visiting Bohème, just to take advantage of the free tasting (so rare these days). The 2019 Stuller Vineyard Pinot was good, but the favorite was of course the West Sonoma Coast Pinot.

Black Kite Cellars is absolutely in the middle of nowhere, in the town of Freestone, which I still maintain is more of a village than a town. While being small Freestone does boast one of the best bakeries AND flower shops in Sonoma County. And of course they have a winery too so that helps bring people to the area. Black Kite Cellars used to be a rug factory (weird but true) which explains the high vaulted ceilings in the tasting room…I guess.

This was actually a super personalized experience. I got a text from the host in the morning asking wether I’d like to sit inside or outside, I asked if it was cold (freestone tends to stay foggy) and I got a weather report and pictures of both spaces in response! Both hosts sat down and talked with us throughout the tasting. And we got a mini charcuterie board as a surprise! But the best part was the hummingbird dive by’s! There were hummingbirds all around us and they did like to dive bomb us which might seem scary but they’re just so cute it was fun to watch.

I always go into tastings with no expectations and no research, and this tasting was no different. So when our host poured our Chardonnay for us I had no expectations (or maybe low ones because I’m not the biggest Chardonnay fan). But oh my god the 2021 Jasper Freestone Vineyard Chardonnay was the best Chardonnay I’ve ever had! Yup that’s right, better than Hartford Family Chardonnay! It was sweet and delicious, and honestly the perfect temperature for the crisp fall weather. The 2021 Gaps Crown Vineyard Pinot Noir was also a notable mention. Of course the best Pinot was the Sonoma Coast Pinot (no surprise there) but even so, the Chardonnay was still the best wine I tried all day.

DaVero is a farm first, winery second. That means you can see aspects of the farm everywhere in the tasting room. From the blackberry and wild flower arrangements, to the lavender drying wall. There’s even hand picked rose petals in the bathroom! And if you’re lucky you’ll get to sample fresh olives, nuts, fruits, and veggies from the farm. If you’re not quite as lucky, you can still purchase many of the farms handmade products. W

hile visiting the winery we took a little self guided tour of the property, meandering the flower garden and finally making our way to the pigs! You heard that right, Davero has pigs too! And they are adorable.

While DaVero might be farm first, it’s also a winery, or I wouldn’t be writing about it here. So let’s talk about the wine! The winery features heavily on Italian varietals. Everything is OBVIOUSLY 100% sustainably made. And while the unique qualities of the farm stood out more than the wine, there was one notable wine. The 2022 Pallagrello Bianco, which was delicious, tasting like crisp apples. Which makes sense given the grapevines proximity to fruit trees.

Hop Kiln is the official John Deere winery of Sonoma County! Why you ask? Because the original owner is the great great granddaughter of THE John Deere himself. The winery is incredibly agriculturally focused. And not just wine agriculture either. The winery is named Hop Kiln because the building was literally a hop kiln once upon a time. And because of the landmark status of the building (it’s one of the most important hop kilns in the country) you can still see the old hop processing systems which is very cool to look at and unexpected for a winery.

Not only is this a super cool historic old winery, it’s also got great wine! The 2020 Damaris Reserve was good and named after the aforementioned great great granddaughter of John Deere. The 2021 Grand Detour Pinot Noir (named for John Deere’s birthplace) was amazing, fruity and light. I would definitely recommend this winery just for the unique history. The wine is an added bonus.