CHAPTER 19

California’s Sonoma County: Benziger Winery1

Unlike the Napa Valley with its crowded highway 29, which runs through the heart of the wineries, Sonoma County, offers a more pastoral scene of narrow winding roads leading to small family owned wineries off the beaten path. At one turn, you might be surprised by a winery in an abandoned brick Hops Kiln; at another, by having to stop to let traffic through on a narrow one-way bridge over Dry Creek.

As in Napa valley, many of Sonoma’s wineries are making remarkable progress on the path to sustainability. Benziger Winery is one of the leaders; it took an early lead in biodynamic farming and tells its story in a remarkably detailed vineyard tour.

The light on Sonoma Mountain in October is ...

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