Recently my wife and I decided to take a day to go wine tasting in Sonoma County. With some recommendations from a friend we mapped out three wineries to check out. Our first stop, Mazzocco Winery was about an hour and a half north of San Francisco which was an easy drive on a weekday. The winery is set in the rolling hills of the Dry Creek Valley appellation. The winery is most well known for its Zinfandels, which have won a number of awards. The tasting included two white wines and six reds. While all of them were very good, I particularly liked the petite sirah they were pouring. The grounds around the winery are very nice and we took some time to just sit in their patio enjoying the sun and the wine. One of the great things about this winery is the fact that the tastings are free.

When we had enough sun we decided to move on to our next stop, Stryker Sonoma Winery, in the Alexander Valley. The tasking room has a modern look and a large glass window that allows you to peer down into their barrel room. Their two tastings were priced at $10 or $20 and each included six different wines. The wines we tried were very good and I particularly liked their chardonnay which is unusual because I tend to gravitate towards reds wine more than whites. The grounds around the tasting room is beautiful and elegant and they have a number of picnic tables available to the guests.

After lunch we stopped in at our last winery for the day, Twomey Cellars. Situated in the Russian River Valley, Twomey has a dramatic entrance and a nice tasting room with broad views of the countryside. The tasting was $10 and featured some great pinot noirs. The grounds around the tasting room looked nice but we didn't explore much because we had to get back to the City.

Anyone interested in visiting wineries around Healdsburg in Sonoma County can't go wrong with these three. The landscape is beautiful and there are a number of great restaurants in the region that make visiting the area a fun and special trip.