Carneros Region
The Carneros District gets its name from its previous use: "Carneros" means sheep in Spanish and the slopes now covered with vines were once thought to be good for nothing except sheep pasture.
To understand completely how different the Carneros area is from the other lands neighboring San Francisco Bay, you need to approach it from the water. Seen across the shallow waters of San Pablo Bay on a cold, gray day, the Carneros area's flat marshes and low hills look extremely desolate, more like Scottish moor than a California shore.
Vines grow slowly in the Carneros region and yield few grapes. But thanks to the low yields, some of the land was permitted to fall back to sheep pasture after phylloxera annihilated the vines in the 1890s. The wines made of Carneros grapes are unique. They have better acids and more delicate fruit than grapes grown in the hot valleys. Even warm-climate grapes like Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot ripen well in favored Cameros locations.
Shockingly, the variable Pinot Noir ripens well on exposed, gusty slopes, making glorious wine of great complexity and depth. It and the chardonnay grapes grown here also make glorious champagne.
Carneros Region Wineries
Buena Vista Winery
Sonoma
Founded in 1857, Buena Vista Carneros is California's oldest premium winery, and its history is as colorful as it is proud. Just outside the town of Sonoma, the original winery is now a California Historic Landmark, and home to our Tasting Room & Visitors Center.
Cline Winery and Cellars
Sonoma
Cline Cellars produces distinctive Rhone-style wines and intense, flavorful Zinfandels for which he has garnered enormous acclaim.
One of the first wineries on the road to wine country, Cline Winery and Cellars is located 45 minutes north of San Francisco in Sonoma-Carneros.
Schug Carneros Estate Winery
Sonoma
Founded in 1980, Schug Carneros Estate Winery is the showcase and life-long dream of one of California's most celebrated winemakers. Walter Schug's reputation blossomed during his tenure as Founding Winemaker for Joseph Phelps Vineyards in the 1970s, where he made California's first proprietary Bordeaux-Style blend (Insignia) and legendary vineyard designated Cabernets (Bacchus and Eisele Vineyards).
Viansa Winery
Sonoma
Sonoma wineries are world renowned for their natural beauty and quality varietals. At Viansa Winery and Italian Marketplace, we are proud to enhance and carry on that tradition.
