Sonoma Wineries:
Chateau Souverain and Johnson’s Alexander Wineries
To buy Johnson’s Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, you must stop in at the small winery, accessed by a short, often rough, road. Expect to be greeted by an old tractor and two basset hounds. When you buy a bottle, a 1,000-pipe organs plays the theme from Phantom of the Opera.
In a stone and redwood winery building on another country lane, Canyon Road Winery offers old vine Zinfandels and other varietals, and you can linger here to picnic and play bocce ball.
From Highway 128, it is hard to miss the sight of the blue slate, steep roofs of Chateau Souverain, an architectural cross between a French chateau and a Sonoma County hop kiln. On the terrace of the restaurant, here, sipping a chocolately merlot while gazing out into the sweeping vineyards and the Mayacamas Mountains beyond can be a lyrical experience.
Another vantage point for valley views is on oak-shaded picnic grounds at Field Stone Winery, where the crisp, lemony Viogniers, and other varieties, stay chilled in the massive stone cellars.
On Alexander Valley Road, the Jimtown Store is a general store like no other. The green and yellow, circa-1860 building is jam-packed with old-fashioned toys and penny candies, local organic produce and wines, antiques and folk art. You can pick up a boxed lunch here at the deli, or have a picnic on the patio.
The rich colors of October in the valley are followed by cold scenes of dark, bare vines dripping in the rain and the mists of winter. Come spring, the brown hills turn new green, acacia trees along the roadsides burst with gold blossoms and daffodils bob in the meadows. Rivers of yellow mustard flow beneath the budding vines, as another vineyard year begins.
Continue the Alexander Valley Winery Tour with a Trip to Chalk Hill Road »
The article on this page is adapted from the book, Backroads of the California Wine Country by Karen Misuraca (www.karenmisuraca.com), published by Voyageur Press.
Photo Credit: The pictures on this page are by Lisa Moore. www.studioponderosa.com