Sonoma Wineries:
Sonoma
Valley, Old Mission Days
The Route
From the Sonoma Plaza, go east on East Spain Street to north on 4th Street to east on Lovall Valley and north on Gehricke Road. From Lovall Valley, go north on Castle Road, and north on Castle Road, then go south on Eighth Street East to east on Denmark Street to Gundlach Bundschu Winery.
Sonoma was settled in 1823 by Franciscan padre Jose Altimira, who planted the first grapevines and built San Francisco Solano de Sonoma, the northernmost mission church on El Camino Real, the road linking California’s twenty-one Spanish missions. In the 1830s, the Mexican general, Mariano Vallejo, laid out a small pueblo around the mission and built adobe barracks for his battalion of soldiers. Today the original plaza is bordered by the barracks, a few adobes and the mission, plus a colorful collection of Western false-front buildings and fanciful Victorian mansions housing shops and restaurants.
A National Historic Landmark and a beautiful one, the Sonoma plaza is pleasant with huge bay and eucalyptus trees, a stream with chattering ducks, picnic tables on the lawns, and a monolithic stone City Hall, unique for its four identical sides.
Look for the flag-bearing settler, in bronze, a memorial to the Bear Flag Rebellion. On a hot, dusty day in June, 1846, a ragged band of American settlers rode into town to Vallejo’s barracks, whereupon they took the general prisoner, hoisted a homemade flag and declared California an independent republic. Some days later, Mexico gave up all claim to Alta California and General Vallejo went on to become a state senator and later, the mayor of Sonoma.
Sonomans are still proud of their rebellious attitudes and a certain laid-back, often humorous approach to the mystique of winemaking. In 1990, a caped and masked gang of Sonoma Valley winemakers, calling themselves the Wine Patrol, hijacked the Napa Valley Wine Train. They handed out flyers which read, "Come to Sonoma, where the wines are fine, the sampling is still free and the prices do not rob your children of a college education."
Sonoma Winery Tour: Sonoma Valley Lifestyle »
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