Sonoma Valley

Sonoma Valley has a history that makes Napa look recently settled. General Mariano Vallejo's military garrison and mission complex around Sonoma Plaza were established in the 1820s and 1830s as the northernmost outpost of New Spain's California mission system. The Bear Flag Republic was proclaimed on the Sonoma Plaza in June 1846 by a group of American settlers who briefly captured Vallejo's garrison the state of California's grizzly bear flag is a direct descendant of that hand-sewn banner. Jack London purchased land in the Valley of the Moon (his name for the valley) and built a farm he called Beauty Ranch; the ruins of his stone Wolf House, which burned mysteriously in 1913 before he could occupy it, survive in what is now Jack London State Historic Park. Sonoma's wine appellations include Sonoma Valley, Russian River Valley (for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay), Dry Creek Valley (for Zinfandel), and Alexander Valley (for Cabernet). Gloria Ferrer and Domaine Carneros produce outstanding sparkling wines in the Carneros appellation at the valley's cool southern end. The town of Sonoma itself remains pleasantly unmanicured compared to Napa the plaza's restaurants, tasting rooms, and Vallejo buildings coexist naturally without the monoculture-of-wine atmosphere that can characterize Napa.