Wineries &
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Sonoma Valley Map
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Sonoma is a town of approximately 9,000 residents and is located in the Northern California wine country.
Follow the links in left hand column to view panoramas and pictures of the wineries and landscape around Sonoma. The blue column links, right side, take you to more of the wine country and alow you tour San Francisco and San Diego, visit Yosemite National Park and New Orleans.
After a virtual Wine Country tour you may be inspired to visit Sonoma Country and take a real wine tour.
Get the most from your Wine country visit when you take our small group Wine Country Tour, Redwoods and Wine Tour or Wine Country Jeep Tour.
A Brief History of Sonoma
Sonoma's central plaza (Sonoma Square) is the largest of its kind in California. The plaza was originally surveyed by General Mariano Vallejo in 1834 and dedicated as a National Historic Landmark on September 24, 1961.
Sonoma State Historic Park is in the center of old town of Sonoma and includes many historic buildings as well as Sonoma Square. The first, and now oldest, building in Sonoma was constructed in 1823 as part of the Mission San Francisco Solano Sonoma by a young, ambitious, and impatient, Father Jose Altimira in his controversial plan to replace the existing mission establishments at San Francisco and San Rafael.
Altimira called the area around San Francisco de Solano "The Valley of the Moon", after the Native American observation that the moon in winter made seven successive appearances between distant mountains. Mission San Francisco Solano was the last of the California missions.
Other historic structures on Sonoma Plaza are; the Sonoma Barracks–built to house Mexican army troops under the command of General Vallejo, La Casa Grande—General Vallejo's first home—with its wide second-story balcony overlooking the Plaza, and the Sonoma City Hall in the center of the Plaza, made famous by the TV program Falcon Crest, where it was referred to as the Tuscany County Courthouse.
La Casa Grande was the center of social and diplomatic life north of San Francisco Bay. Completed in 1840, The General added a three-story adobe tower about 1843. The main wing of the L-shaped original building burned down in 1867 leaving only a two-story servants wing standing.
The Toscano Hotel, built in the 1850's between La Casa Grande and the barracks, has been used as a rental library, retail store and working class hotel. The name was changed to Toscano from Eureka around 1890. Furnished with period furniture and looking much the way it did around the turn of the century, the Toscano Hotel is open to visitors.
Sonoma history is California State history. The City of Sonoma is known as the birthplace of the State of California.
For twenty-five days, Sonoma served as the capital of the Bear Flag republic. Captain John Charles Fremont, U.S. Army topographer, explorer, and trail blazer encouraged Yankee settlers to capture the Northern Headquarters of General Vallejo at Sonoma. The Bear Flag revolt ultimately led to California's entry into the union as a state.
The uprising began on June 14, 1846, culminating in the raising of the Bear Flag on the Sonoma Plaza. William B. Ide led the Bear Flag party. William L. Todd, nephew of Mrs. Abraham Lincoln designed the flag, with the words California Republic and a rough illustration of a grizzly and a star, using rusty nails and blackberry juice. Todd's rendering of a bear wasn't very accurate and Native Californians looking up at it were heard to say ‘Coche,’ the common name for pig.
You can see pictures of the homes of two participants in the Bear Flag Revolt, David Hudson and Col. J.B. Chiles, as well as the Bale Grist Mill where planning for the revolt is believed to have taken place on my St. Helena and Oakville/Rutherford pages.
General Vallejo built a house four blocks from the plaza in 1851 after he had become an elected State Senator. He called it Lachryma Montis—Latin for mountain tear—after the Indians name for a spring on the property which they called "crying mountain." The house is a grand Victorian in the Gothic Revival style that was prefabricated in the northeast and shipped around the horn.
Another prefabricated building on General Vallejo's property was originally built as a warehouse. It was later converted to use as a residence and became known as the Chalet. The Chalet is currently being used as the parks Visitor Center and Museum.
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Oak Carving at the Sebastiani Winery
Duck carved in barrel
Wine Tours
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The Swiss Hotel was built in 1850 by General Mariano Vallejo's brother, Don Salvadore Vallejo, as his family home, and has been a stagecoach stop, hotel and restaurant.
Sebastiani Vineyards, located just a few blocks from the plaza, recently completed a redesign of their winery - including a Museum and a Barrel Room to house their large collection of oak carvings.
Sonoma Enoteca is a collective wine tasting room on Sonoma Square where you may see Fred Favero — owner of one of the newest, and smallest, wine caves in Sonoma County. Favero Vineyards is not far from Sonoma Square.
Read about other wine caves and champagne cellars throughout the Northern California Wine country in my illustrated article.
A 7 day California Wine Country Vacation begins and ends in San Francisco. You'll stay at the Westin St. Francis and tour the City-by-the-Bay before heading north to spend some time in Muir Woods National Monument walking among the redwoods then continuing on to Napa for lunch aboard the Napa Valley Wine Train. Free time in historic Sonoma Plaza rounds out your first day in wine country as you retire to Santa Rosa and the FountainGrove Inn.
Wine tours and tastings, champagne tour and tasting and a visit to Bodega Bay on the California coast are some of the highlights of this trip.
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