Experience the best on this Dry Creek Valley Sonoma road trip (updated)

Dry Creek Valley, a scenic road trip through Sonoma’s wine country

It always seems like perfect weather early June up in Dry Creek Valley in Sonoma County – the promising growth of the area’s famous zinfandel grapes looks like another delicious year for tasting wines in the region. One of the fun things to do in Sonoma is to take a scenic road trip through the area, preferably in a sporty convertible to enjoy all those views of rolling hills and vineyards sprawling all the way to the coastal mountains of West Sonoma County. I love that these craggy old grape vines are still flourishing on many established vineyards and producing the legendary zinfandel that is predominantly grown and ideal to the Dry Creek topography.  Zindfandel has a long history in the valley and is grown on over 2,400 acres throughout the valley. But enough of the data, we are just here to relax, enjoy the sunny weather and hopefully sample some fine wines along the way.

 

 

 

Where is the Dry Creek Valley located?

The Dry Creek Valley is close to the city of Healdsburg in Sonoma County and home to small scale family owned wineries with award winning zinfandel, cabernet and pinot grapes. Located on the western side of Sonoma County, a drive through Dry Creek valley is a nice with scenic vistas, rolling hills and vineyards and fantastic wineries to visit along the way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What’s a road trip without stopping to take a picture at the iconic sign of the Dry Creek area with sprawling vineyards in the background, okay here it is for those that must see the sign and postcard perfect view. I cruise through and endless stream of vineyards with lush vistas of rolling hills and geometric patterns of vines crawling up to the hills in all directions. In Dry Creek, they really take advantage of growing vines in every strategic spot including the foothills in the area to maximize every square acre for grape production although there are spectacular wine caves and even gorgeous Sonoma gardens to explore here at some of the best wineries in the area.

 

Here are a few more spots I had to stop and take a picture of the area:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For some reason, a Sotheby’s For Sale sign caught my eye and fronting an expansive vineyard view was this ornate and stately Victorian home with a huge veranda.  Can you picture yourself in the late afternoon on that veranda with a fine glass of local zinfandel and just sipping and watching the grapes grow, nice right?  Want to own a piece of beautiful wine country? After a quick search online, I found property listing for a mere $1, 250,000-  its worth every penny don’t you think?  The Sotheby’s listing shows this property as a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom home with over 2081 square feet of living space, here’s the listing for those interested in touring the interior of the home. The home comes with .7 acres of land, just enough space to put int a small hobby vineyard if you choose. What do you think – would you buy it if you had the money for the good life in Dry Creek Valley?

 

 

 

I took a detour from Dry Creek Valley Road to visit a well-respected green/eco winery called Quivira – a certified organic and biodynamic winery. I’ve read about all the cool eco focused projects that the winery had implemented for their organic vineyard and operations including: a produce garden, artisan wine production, farm animals, even a steel head spawning ground.  I was looking forward to checking it out, but unfortunately I didn’t check out the days of operation and it was closed that day, a real bummer.  Well even though it was closed, I did take some pictures below of their garden and vineyards and spotted some of the green initiatives that they were pursuing including the solar roof panels, gardens and animal stalls in the gardens. It would have been nice to try some of their specialty wines, but then I’ll make sure to go back again for another visit when the tasting room is open. Biodynamic farming is one of the latest new trends in wine production, creating a new product niche in the competitive wine marketplace. For those who support the development of authentic crafted wines, then biodynamic farming is the most complex terroir focused methodology and is starting to command respect within the industry and to wine connoisseurs. To learn more about the process of biodynamic farming of grapes, visit Quivira’s information page here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are many wineries to enjoy in the region with unique amenities, gardens and even wine caves to explore. We are continuing the road trip along Dry Creek Valley road to visit the gorgeous estate of Ferrari Carano winery which is close to the end of Dry Creek Valley Road.  The estate is simply stunning, resembling a Tuscan villa set on acres of rolling hills and vineyards. But the real gem to this beautiful winery is not only the wines that they produce but the amazing gardens that surround the property and are open to the public to wander and enjoy.

 

 

 

The owners have always been fond of beautiful gardens from their many travels and having an estate with a botanical garden as part of its signature brand brings in a cross spectrum of wine, art and garden lovers to visit the winery and seems to go hand in hand with the milieu of this expansive estate.

 

 

 

 

 

Places to stay around West Sonoma County

There are many choices of places to stay around the area from Healdsburg, Russian River to Santa Rosa area, check out the top reviewed places to stay here around Sonoma County.

Check out the best reviewed places to stay around the Healdsburg area here for current prices and reviews

Check out the best reviewed places to stay around the Russian River here for current prices and reviews

Check out the best reviewed places to stay around the Santa Rosa area here for current prices and reviews

 

 

Check out these other posts to visiting Sonoma County

10 things to do in Sonoma for non wine drinkers

Wines and gardens of Ferrari Carano

California cheese road trip

St. Francis winery food and wine experience

Things to see in Sonoma city

Cool designs at Cornerstone in Sonoma

Visiting Hip Healdsburg in Sonoma

The Luther Burbank Gardens

Visiting the Russian fort at Fort Ross

Kendall Jackson winery and gardens

 

 

 

Have you been to Dry Creek Valley?

Any fun vineyards and other places to interest to share?

The gardens are definitely a must visit to the estate. In the next post I’ll give you an extensive tour of the gardens and visit inside the estate where we can sample some of the fine wines on their tasting menu. Thanks for taking the road trip to Dry Creek Valley, hope you enjoyed the tour – if you want to find out more information about Dry Creek Valley and wineries, please visit their official website here.   If you enjoyed the post on Dry Creek Valley Sonoma road trip , please do share it with any of the social media buttons below or on the side of the post. Thanks so much.

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