Sonoma Valley Wine Tour

When in San Francisco, one MUST do a wine tour.

I booked a tour with Edge of the World Tours to go up to Sonoma Valley for a day. Before getting into the wineries, I’m going to take a second to rave about this tour company. Edge of the World Tours is a super tiny little tour company run by a local San Franciscan who couldn’t be more passionate about the place he lives in (yes, the owner was our tour guide). We got all kinds of history and details about San Francisco, Sonoma & Napa Valleys, and winemaking in the region. The tour is small by design, with a van holding up to 12 people at max (rather than one of the giant buses that pulls up to a winery and everyone else scowls and rolls their eyes). That allowed our group to pretty close & comfortable pretty quickly.

The tour took us to three wineries in Sonoma Valley (these change periodically for each tour). The goal was to show us a super small, boutique winery, a large commercial winery, and one somewhere in the middle. I’ll talk more about the wineries and which was my favorite after saying this: If you are booking a wine tour to Sonoma Valley, book with Edge of the World Tours!

Okay, onto wine.

#3: Mayo

Mayo was the third and last winery we visited on the tour and was my least favorite (which isn’t saying too much because they were all really great). The space was very nice and chill, with a spacious tasting room and super cute courtyard in the back. We also got to go into the back of this winery and learn more about the winemaking process, seeing the equipment they use and the wall of barrels of wine. But the wine here just wasn’t popping out at me, which is what I’m ranking based on.

#2: Cline Cellars

Cline Cellars was our commercial winery stop. While definitely bigger and busier than the other wineries we stopped at, it wasn’t to an overwhelming level, which was nice. The grounds were immaculate, with trails through ponds and trees and flowerbeds to walk through. The California Missions Museum, with mini replicas of all the missions, is even located on the grounds behind the winery. The wine here was good (there’s a strong chance you find it in places across the country), but the grounds were the star of this show.

#1: Homewood Winery

And the winner of My Personal Favorite Award goes to our boutique winery, Homewood Winery! This little winery was so cute. The owner of this one is the grower and carries out the entire winemaking process himself – literally a one-man wine production show. He started the winery as a hobby or passion project, and that passion came through in his wines. The wines we had here outshined either of the two wineries by a lot. I bought one bottle to bring home from this one, because (tragically) they only are available for sale at some very local places in Northern California.

Other tour stops:

In addition to the wineries, our tour stopped at the Golden Gate Bridge, Sonoma Square for lunch, and Sausalito at the end of the day. Sonoma Square was super cute, with cheese and chocolate tasting (perfect for a day of wine touring) and a bunch of great places for lunch. The little park in the middle of the square was also perfect for grabbing a bench to relax in the shade and take in life around you.