Wineries &
Alexander Valley
Dry Creek Valley
Sonoma Valley Map
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Alexander Valley and Dry Creek Valley are located north of Healdsburg in Sonoma County wine country.
Follow the links in left hand column to view panoramas and pictures of the wineries and landscape around Alexander Valley and Dry Creek Valley. Scroll down for a map of Sonoma County. Use the blue column links, right side, to visit other areas in the wine country or to tour San Francisco or to book Discount Travel reservations.
Alexander Valley and Dry Creek Valley Wineries and Wine Tasting
Read our Wine Trails articles for complete coverage of Dry Creek Valley Wineries and Alexander Valley Wineries. Maps and detailed directions to the wineries, wine tasting at each winery and many more pictures and panoramas are included.
Visit area wineries and break for lunch and some game time at the nearby River Rock Casino when you wine tour with California Jeep Tours.
A Brief History of Alexander Valley and
Dry Creek Valley wine country
Alexander Valley gets its name from the first European to develop the area: Cyrus Alexander. At the age of 21 Cyrus left his native Pennsylvania for the exciting life of a fur trapper in the Rocky Mountains.
Cyrus Alexander arrived in California in 1833 and soon went to work for Captain Henry Delano Fitch. Fitch had received the 48,000 acre Rancho Sotoyome land grant from the Mexican government in 1844 and having business to attend to in San Diego, sent Alexander to develop and manage a ranch on his property.
Alexander spent the next four years building redwood and adobe buildings, planting fruit trees, growing wheat, managing livestock, building both a lime kiln and a grist mill and planting the area's first grape vines. Cyrus was rewarded for his efforts with 10,000 acres that he was able to choose himself. He married fourteen year old Rufina Lucero and they eventually had ten children, five of whom survived to adulthood.
In 1983 Dry Creek Valley became among the first regions to receive formal recognition as an American Viticultural Area.
Early Dry Creek Valley pioneers include Charles Dunz, a Swiss immigrant and '49er tired of the search for gold, who bought 344 acres in Dry Creek Valley in 1884. His 70,000 gallon capacity cellar was the Valley's largest winery at the time. Charles Dunz transferred his acres to a fellow Swiss, Andrew Frei in 1890.
Lake Sonoma at the north end of Dry Creek Valley is the result of the Warm Springs Dam, a compacted earth fill dam built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1983. In addition to serving as a deterrent to disastrous floods, Lake Sonoma stores water for irrigation and municipalities. The lake also provides an area for recreation.
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