Visiting the Sonoma Wine Country

Visiting the Sonoma Wine Country

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Location

Sonoma County is the second county north of San Francisco (after Marin County). Sonoma County is on the Pacific Ocean. To the east is Napa, to the north is Mendocino County. Santa Rosa is the county seat, the largest city (about 130,000) and is centrally located.

The main north-south road is US 101 which is anything from an eight-lane freeway to a four-lane divided highway and is often congested from about Santa Rosa southward. Santa Rosa is 50 miles north of the Golden Gate.

Driving times, Santa Rosa to:

Golden Gate Bridge	1hr
Sonoma	30 minutes
Healdsburg	15 minutes
Bodega Bay or Jenner on the coast	40 minutes
Calistoga at the north end of Napa Vly	30 minutes
Sacramento	2 hrs
San Jose	2 1/2 hrs
Monterey	3 1/2 hrs
Lake Tahoe or Reno	4 hrs
Yosemite	5 hrs
Los Angeles	10 hrs

If you're looking to make a day trip from San Francisco then the town of Sonoma is your best bet for a close location, wineries, restaurants, site-seeing and shopping.

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Climate

Sonoma County has a Mediterranean climate meaning wet relatively mild winters and warm dry summers. This is only a generality however because there are many micro-climates. Typical winter days have a high in the 50's (ºF). Summer is where the micro-climates come into play. Because the Pacific Ocean's current comes from the north the water is always about 55º so coastal areas may be much cooler than inland areas protected from the ocean by the coastal hills. Relative to Santa Rosa it's probably 5-10º warmer in the towns of Sonoma and Healdsburg, 15º warmer in Cloverdale and 15º cooler on the coast. A layer of low clouds and fog often moves inland during the night and retreats in mid-morning. Summer evenings are usually quite cool.

It's the warm days, cool nights and lack of rain during the growing season that makes for premium wine.

Average Santa Rosa temperatures (F):

Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
58	63	65	70	75	81	84	84	83	77	65	58
37	40	41	43	46	50	51	52	51	47	42	38

Average Santa Rosa rainfall is 30 inches per year with most occurring between November and March. Healdsburg gets about 12 inches more rain; Sonoma gets a couple of inches less.

Current weather. Click on for the forecast

People

Diversity! Old time ranchers, cowboys, gays, hippies (yes, we still have hippies), Silicon Valley transplants, retirees, etc. with events like sheep shearing contests, rodeos and the Gay Pride Parade and, of course, lots of wine tastings.

Dress is casual, even in the "fancy" restaurants. Don't bother with ties or dresses. A few years ago a new Holiday Inn moved into Santa Rosa. They instituted a dress code for their restaurant. It didn't go over well and the local paper really got on them after they kicked out Charles Schulz (creator of the Peanuts comic strip). Luckily they sold out to someone else.

The biggest non-government employer is Agilent Technologies. There are numerous other telecoms companies in the county. Wine grapes passed dairy farming as the biggest cash crop a few years ago. There's still lots of sheep and cattle ranching.