Thanks to our travel reporter Kathy Chin Leong for this great article about these beautiful wineries.
Napa Valley is renowned for exquisite pours and wineries palatial as the Taj Mahal. However, less than an hour away, stately wineries in Santa Rosa emerge from the shadows. They are landing awards, and stunning visitors with astounding gardens, experiences, and architecture. We’ve discovered four of the most spectacular properties that will bring sheer delight to your senses. Listed in alphabetical order, each haven is worthy of celebrating a life occasion or two.
Coursey Graves Estate Winery
Be ready to swoon. Taking a cue from Monet’s Garden in Giverny, France, owner John Graves wanted to emulate this serene palette and commissioned landscape architects to duplicate such an Eden. Back in 2015, John and his wife Denise were smitten by the hillside property on Bennett Mountain with a sad-looking pond that screamed “There’s potential here!” John had already poured 30 years of his life into a Minnesota software company he founded. Now he was ready for Career 2.0. Abandoning Midwest winters, the couple zoomed to California to pour their hopes into a winery.
However, a serious setback occurred when the 2017 Santa Rosa fires wiped out communities and ripped through the estate. Matt Ripley, the landscape designer, was tasked with figuring out what to do with all the ash, rocks, and barren soil that affected the terrain. Graves hired architect Charles Stinson to design new wine-making and tasting room facilities to blend into the landscape.
Despite the fires and COVID-19, the newest member of the winery scene in Santa Rosa launched in 2017 and has remained open. Co-owner and founding winemaker Cabell Coursey takes “the best fruit from the climate,” says the website, and you can expect bold French-styled red blends, cabs, syrahs, and chardonnays from its mountain estate, and vineyards owned in Sonoma and Napa Valley.
Everything about the Coursey Graves experience is magical. After you make an online reservation, from then on it is as if you are on an important mission. There are no large signs or billboards announcing Coursey Graves. It is a delectable secret in a way. On your designated day, you drive up a hill and press the gate’s intercom button. You enter the secret code. You’ll motor up the path on Serenity Way to only see a cornucopia of hues unravel before your eyes. Reminiscent of the scene in The Wizard of Oz when everything turns to color in Munchkin Land, here you are transfixed by the restored pond with turquoise water and the curved wooden bridge and floating rowboat, built by John himself. Cue the red-tailed hawks and scampering bunnies. It’s not uncommon to spy an egret or two flying overhead.
While in your state of wonder, order a charcuterie platter to go with your flight. Private tastings for groups of up to six go for $95 per person. Allow 90 minutes for sipping time and a guided tour. A semi-private experience at a communal table runs $70 per person for an hour. What to rave about? French-inspired wines coupled with garden splendor, plus the Monet pond that will whisk you to France.
- Coursey Graves Estate Winery
- 6860 Serenity Way ~ 707.867.1888.
Matanzas Creek Winery
Inhale. Smile. Repeat. Glory among the lavender fields at this dog-friendly locale and while you are here, savor a flight of reds and whites for a reasonable $35. Matanzas’ grapes are derived from the region and the Bennett Valley AVA. Its estate wines are certified sustainable which means that its practices in grape-growing and winemaking are energy efficient and eco-friendly.
We loved this casual destination that has honed its hospitality chops since 1977 when it was opened by founder Sandra MacIver who hired a female winemaker, Merry Edwards, one of few women in the field. Today, the enterprise is owned by the Jackson Family Wineries, where it is now part of the firm’s global winery portfolio.
Even under corporate ownership, there’s a welcoming charm where families with small kids and well-behaved dogs can picnic on the grounds. As you walk higher on the tiered property, you discover ancient trees yielding plenty of shade. Umbrellas provide comfort for outdoor tasting. Instagrammable shots include the wisteria-covered arbor and lily-padded fountain with frog companions. Inside the art-filled welcome center, you can book private tasting spaces and shop inside the Lavender Market Gift Shop for soap, sachets, lotion, or hand-cut bouquets. Toast with sauvignon blanc and merlot as you toss a ball or two on the bocce court. The winery also produces chardonnay, pinot noir, and Bordeaux-style reds in limited supply.
This summer the winery shines with signature events. The Golden Hour Series on Friday nights features live folk and jazz, plus sunsets that make you grin. Entry tickets are just $10, and you can bring your own food, and picnic blankets, and purchase wine on the premises. For $45, there’s monthly yoga in the lavender garden. And don’t forget International Dog Day where you can bring your favorite pooch on August 24 from 4-7 p.m. What to rave about? The boughs of scented lavender pop up every summer. Now is the time to go.
- Matanzas Creek Winery
- 6097 Bennett Valley Rd. ~ 707.521.7019.
Paradise Ridge Winery
Wine, food, art. What’s not to love? From Paradise Ridge’s hilltop tasting room, you witness a panorama of Sonoma County. From the balcony or inside the two-story wine building, you can imbibe Russian River Valley varietals and indulge in splendid eats. Opt for the cheese and charcuterie platter to start with. Base-level wine tasting runs $65 for four pours. Whites include sauvignon blanc, blush rose, and chardonnay. In the red family, meet the cabernet, pinot noir, red blends, and zin. The winery stands on awards that are nothing less than exceptional. In recent years, various publications have dubbed Paradise Ridge the best winery of the year, best art-inspired winery, best wedding venue, and best tasting room. Its rose and sauvignon blanc vintages have snagged double golds.
Downstairs, a tribute wall honors Japanese winemaker Kanaye Nagasawa of the Fountaingrove Winery, Paradise Ridge’s predecessor. Photos and news articles tell the tale of a young boy from a prestigious Samurai family who was smuggled out of Japan at age 13 in 1865. He arrived in the U.K., was educated in Scotland, and mastered the English language. He later met Thomas Lake Harris who was a leader in a religious order called the Brotherhood of the New Life, and wound up in Santa Rosa where Kanaye would later learn to make wine which helped earn money for the colony. The sharp vintner built it into one of the largest wineries in California in the 1890s and was called “the samurai who forever changed California,” by the BBC.
Among its 155 acres, take time to wander Marijke’s Garden where many pieces are secured from the annual Burning Man festival in Las Vegas. The range of art forms spans the gamut from a whimsical tower of colorful doors to the word LOVE hammered out in 12-foot-high metal letters.
These modern sculptures made of steel, plastic, wood, and more are made to be activated, touched, sat in, or walked on. What’s very cool is that the garden itself is open free to the public daily from 10-4 p.m.
This summer every Wednesday is set aside as Wine and Sunset night, featuring a different food truck weekly and local music. A ticket of $10 to $25 (prices vary according to where you sit) provides entrance. Food and drinks are sold separately. What to rave about? Inspiring setting with art, wine, history, food, and music.
- Paradise Ridge Winery
- 4545 Thomas Lake Harris Drive ~ 707.528.9463.
St. Francis Winery and Vineyards
Executive chef Peter Janiak creates a vegetarian menu pairing with reds and wines, and you won’t even miss the meat. So, whether you are a carnivore or herbivore, it doesn’t matter. Janiak’s resume boasts years as a winery executive chef that dates back to 2011. He will prepare something that will astound. Sitting outdoors, we realize there is not a bad seat in the house. From the valley floor, you are mesmerized with rows upon rows of estate vines that roll from valley level up to the hillsides. It is one of the few wineries that offers 100 percent certified sustainable wines through its Wild Oak Estate vineyard. The winery building features a bell tower within Mission-style architecture that’s cradled by blooms and trees.
Book a flight of wines for $35 with five selections. If you want to impress your date, reserve the five-course Wine and Food pairing for $125 with seasonal produce from the estate farm. Inside the elegant estate dining room, you share a long table with other like-minded connoisseurs. Don’t take for granted the vista of the Mayacamas Mountains.
We sampled the $70 Estate Pairing which comes with four courses including dessert. On the day we came, Janiak prepared charred asparagus to go with the 2023 Sonoma Valley sauvignon blanc which melded the crispness of the white with the char of the veggies. Then a mushroom and fried polenta came along, matched with the 2021 Sonoma Coast pinot noir. By the time we were feeling a bit giddy, our server poured us the 2019 zin from Dry Creek Valley joined by Moroccan spiced baby carrots. The final note in this food symphony was a strawberry tartlet wed to a 2020 old vine zin from Sonoma County. We were, as they say, in “foodie heaven.”
Sign up for the Tour de St. Francisco where you and your group board a trolley powered manually by foot pedals and maneuver through the vineyard. You sip and learn about history, viticulture, and production. The Friday through Sunday excursion costs $60 per person and lasts 90 minutes.
You can also go on a 1.2-mile hike among the vines, or consume fresh fare among the vines with its spectacular tasting menu. What to rave about? The wonderful menu of eats that pair with wine. It is an excellent experience.
- St. Francis Winery and Vineyards
- 100 Pythian Road ~ 877.477.5639
