Sonoma Wineries:
Geyserville: Alexander Valley, Sonoma County
Healdsburg anchors the south end of the twenty-mile-long Alexander Valley, while the little town of Geyserville, looking much as it did a century or so ago, lies in the middle, and Cloverdale is to the north.
Carefully preserving a trove of vintage buildings, Geyserville is as quaint as a wine country town can be. In the century-old Geyserville Bank Building, Meeker Vineyard offers pours from hand-painted bottles of Bordeaux blends with whimsical names––such as Four Kings, the Winemakers' Handprint Merlot, and the Halloween blend Blankenheim's Frankenstein. Charlie Meeker, a former Hollywood film studio executive, and his wife, take wine-making seriously, and their themselves, less so, hence their FroZin and Tutu Luna dessert wines.
A vestige of the old days when pioneers galloped through town,
a former stagecoach stop is now the Geyser Smokehouse, where a
cowboy roadhouse setting is created by wooden floors, a stamped
tin ceiling, a rusted hay baler, and an antler chandelier.
Locals and Harley-riders belly up to the longbar for micro-beers,
while Texas-style ribs and burgers are cooked over an aromatic
smoker fed by oak and apple wood, and Chardonnay vines.
A buggy shop in 1902, Bosworth and Son General Merchandise is a sort of museum and an emporium of Western gear. Harry Bosworth and his black lab, Buster, will sell you a pair of red cowboy boots, a ten-gallon hat, a Western saddle, livestock feed or a souvenir bandana.
Twenty or so wineries are scattered in the Alexander Valley AVA along Highway 128 and on a few country roads that connect with the Dry Creek and Knights Valleys. This is prime Cabernet country.
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