The Spill: 3 reasons to visit Sonoma Valley wineries

Sonoma Valley Presents is the latest effort of Sonoma Valley’s wine trade group to entice consumers to check out local wineries and come for a visit, which became more appealing this week as the county’s business operation restrictions loosened.

The reciprocal relationship between the wine and tourism industries suffered economically during the past pandemic year, and the subsequent business closings and constraints placed on them during shelter-in-place.

“Any visitor-facing business, whether it’s a tasting room or a restaurant or lodging, has had an incredibly difficult year,” said Tim Zahner, executive director of Sonoma Valley Visitors Bureau.

When Maureen Cottingham, executive director of Sonoma Valley Vintners and Growers Alliance, and her staff started developing Sonoma Valley Presents, “everybody was closed and they had limited staff,” she said. They were trying to come up with a program that was “easy for vintners to put together.”

Sonoma Valley Presents is a new marketing campaign that will highlight different aspects of wine and visitor opportunities for at least the next three months.

“We are the Bay Area’s back yard in the sense that we are 45 minutes away from San Francisco and other Bay Area cities, so we developed this with them in mind,” Cottingham said. “It gives them a reason to return to the Sonoma Valley wine region multiple times, not just once. They can have new experiences and discover new wineries they haven’t been to, or haven’t been to in a long time.”

March kicked off highlighting one of the more popular reasons visitors, or as Cottingham called them the “epicurious,” come to Sonoma Valley – for the food and wine.

More than 25 Sonoma Valley wineries are featured this month for experiences that range from picnics to cheese and charcuterie to caviar to four-course menus.

April is all about library wines. It is an opportunity to taste the wines of yesterday and understand how a newly released wine might age.

Library wines are those wines that have aged well – it is up to each winery to decide what that really means – and can showcase a particular vintage. For example, the 2010 and 2011 vintages had cool growing seasons and the 2011 vintage was particularly challenging. It started out cold, delaying the growing season, then Sonoma experienced heavy rains in October threatening rot and mildew on grapes about to be harvested.

When 2011 cabernet sauvignon wines were released a couple years later some critics panned them, but now a decade later some are saying the vintage is beautiful and elegant. The vintage illustrates the importance of growing and winemaking techniques.

Vintners are still working out which library wines they want to showcase in April, Cottingham said.

The month of May moves in the opposite direction than library wines and focuses on new releases. The month will be warming up and wineries typically have new sauvignon blancs, chardonnays and rosés to wake up the palate, and newly released red wines that haven’t been sold or tasted before.

The program isn’t just about bringing in visitors from outside the county, of course, Cottingham said.

“We have been lucky in the sense that our locals have done a really nice job of supporting their favorite wineries in Sonoma Valley” during the shelter-in-place, she said. And considering the beauty of the location “it’s fun being able to play tourist in your backyard.”

Visit SonomaValleyWine.com to see the offerings.

Contact Anne at anne.ernst@sonomanews.com.