Sonoma Wine Tasting

During my last trip up north in June, we spent a day wine tasting in Sonoma and Healdsburg with a focus on the region's renown pinot noirs and zinfandels.  Sonoma and Healdsburg are great; the towns themselves are quaint and charming with some nice restaurants, and the surrounding vineyards and wineries are picturesque and relaxing.  It's much more laid back than Napa; during my last Napa trip, we needed appointments at pretty much every winery we visited, and made our dinner reservations a month in advance.  There was also some pretty bad traffic on the main roads.  In Sonoma, most places we visited did not require reservations (more like Santa Barbara), and the people were super friendly and laid-back.  We tasted some fantastic Pinot Noirs at Sojourn Cellars and Copain Wines (pictured above) and nice Zinfandels at Mauritson Winery.  We wanted to try more zinfandels at wineries around Mauritson in the Dry Creek Valley, but unfortunately we ran out of time.  We also had a lovely dinner at the Girl and the Fig in downtown Sonoma and a casual lunch at Bovolo in Healdsburg.  For more pictures and details, visit here.