Preston Vineyards

9282 West Dry Creek Road , Healdsburg, CA 95448
Tel: 800-305-9707
Fax: 707-433-3372
URL: http://www.prestonvineyards.com

I visited this winery during my visit to Sonoma's annual Barrel Tasting weekend. Over 90 participating wineries open their doors to the public to let them taste wine. All you need to do is pay the $10 fee that gives you a bracelet and a wine glass. You can visit all 90 vineyards, and taste wine directly from the barrel. It happens every first full weekend in March.

Preston vineyard prides itself in being an organic family farm. Not only do they produce wine but they also grow delicious olives and bake their own fine bread. The winery itself was quite small and although I couldn't tell the difference between an organic vs. the normally produced wine, I'm sure the piece of mind knowing they didn't use pesticide on their grapes makes me feel all better inside.

Limo tour suggestions to Sonoma and Napa

If you're planning to visit more than 3 wineries in Sonoma or Napa and have a group of 5 or more people with you, I would suggest hiring a limo to chauffeur you around the wineries. With all the wine you'll be consuming, it's better to be safe than sorry to be driving on the road intoxicated.

Most of the wineries within Sonoma allow you to bring snacks and picnic baskets to enjoy your wine with. I would suggest purchasing a bottle of wine at your favorite winery and sitting down at one of their picnic tables and just enjoy the company.

Below is a list of Limo companies that I've gathered with reasonable prices that will drive you and your group from San Francisco to Sonoma or Napa:

Beau Wine Tours
(800)387-2328

Stretch Limousine
Up to 6 passengers
$70/hr. (min 3 hr rental plus $30-50 for gas)

Stretch Limousine
Up to 8 passengers
$80/hr.


Royal Class Limousine
(888)594-5466 (mention that you got the price from their website and you'll receive a special discount)
These limo tours are for Napa excursions only
Napa tour based on 6 hour tour and prices below do not include "out of pocket expenses":
6 people = $289
8 people = $339
10 people = $389
12 people = $489

Ferrari Carano

8761 Dry Creek Road
Healdsburg, CA 95476

www.ferrari-carano.com/

This is one of the most beautiful wineries in Sonoma. The gardens and landscape scenery is something seen out of the movies. The tasting room is inside this beautiful looking mansion, and there are gardens you can walk to. I asked them if they rented out the venue for weddings, but they said no. What a bummer.

There are two tasting rooms within this winery, one in the main room, and another downstairs where they the premium wine tastings occur. If you are into dessert wines, I believe the Eldorado Gold or Eldorado Noir will not disappoint you. The bottle sold for $28, and goes absolutely perfect with chocolate covered berries or any dessert for that matter.

Enjoy the scenery here and make sure to bring your camera!

Bella Vineyards - Healdsburg, CA

This winery was very unique. They created wine caves within the landscape and you can do your wine tastings there as well as tour the wine storage rooms, and purchase beautiful silver house ornaments. This was my 2nd stop on my visit in Sonoma county and I was already a little tipsy, so the wine tasted much better than it probably was.

Bella gave out free breadsticks that you could nibble on while sipping on some wine. The lighting within the cave was glowful and calm. I would definitely recommend coming here just to see the original architecture of these caves.

They also had a dog who would come into the cave and play stick with you. She would place the stick at your feet and wait for you to throw it out into the fields so she could fetch and return it back to you. The staff were friendly and the flights were only $5 for 5 different tastings. What a bargain!!