15 Beautiful Sonoma Wineries to Visit Right Now

From regal to rustic, modern to classic, grand to intimate, wineries in California's Sonoma Valley, across 18 appellations, are as diverse as the surrounding area is beautiful. And since after taste and smell, sight is the most important sense to satiate while wine tasting, here are 15 of the most beautiful Sonoma wineries to sip your chardonnay or pinot noir.

The natural splendor of Copain's hilltop winery is visible the moment you start meandering up the driveway, but it's best appreciated from an Adirondack chair overlooking the serene Russian River Valley below. Private tastings are available by appointment at this Healdsburg winery.

You'll feel like you're in Alsace rather than the Alexander Valley thanks to Jordan Winery's grand, ivy-covered chateau that lords over 1,200 acres of picturesque vineyards, orchards, and pastures. Consider booking an estate tour that kicks off with a continental breakfast and bubbly.

With its white stucco, terra-cotta roof, and classic bell tower, Michel-Schlumberger's Spanish Mission-style winery provides not only a light and airy tasting room to sample estate and small production artisanal wines, but also spectacular views of the Dry Creek Valley.

Hamel Family Wines' modern tasting room and hillside terrace are the arresting centerpiece of an all-around impressive estate, which is the perfect place to gaze at Sonoma Mountain and the valley below. Have a private tasting with complimentary snacks or a full four-course meal.

A sprawling green lawn with towering palm trees, manicured gardens, and a regal 1920s chateau create the feeling of an exotic escape, right off Sonoma's Highway 12. Chateau St. Jean offers seated tastings, or you can reserve the bocce court to sample wines by the bottle with friends.

Originally designed as a family home, the 16,000-square-foot French Normandy "castle" at Ledson Winery features turrets, fountains, marble fireplaces, and miles of wood inlays and mosaics, and it houses multiple tasting bars for sipping and socializing.

While the rest of Sonoma soaks up the sun inland, Fort Ross Vineyard floats over the chill of coastal fog, affording a bird's-eye view of the property's vines, forests, meadows — and the spectacular Pacific Ocean in the distance. Wine tastings are by reservation only and include chef-prepared, locally sourced small bites to eat.

The floor-to-ceiling windows and outdoor perches of Foley Sonoma's dramatic tasting room are the perfect spot to watch the play of light between Alexander Valley and the Mayacamas Mountains — with a glass of sauvignon blanc or zinfandel, of course.

This 448-acre winery has been operating since 1858, but its new tasting room, the Scion House, built on the Young family's favorite hilltop, offers fresh and modern 360-degree views of the Alexander Valley. Fans of cabernet sauvignon might like the Ultimate Cabernet Lovers Experience, featuring five samples of the varietal.

Entertainment abounds at Francis Ford Coppola's scenic winery in Geyserville, where a tasting on the terrace affords sweeping views of the Alexander Valley. You can also tour movie memorabilia, dine on Italian favorites outdoors at Rustic restaurant, or book a cabin at one of two swimming pools on the pretty grounds.

The charming wisteria-vined tasting room of this rustic Dry Creek Valley winery sits nestled within redwood-forested hills. If that's not alluring enough, there are manicured gardens and intimate picnic vistas, too.

Bordering a 22-mile wildlife preserve, Lynmar Estate's views might actually include a mountain lion or bald eagle — but only if you pull yourself away from the elegant terrace and gardens surrounding the contemporary tasting room.

Enjoy thousands of rose bushes from the wraparound veranda of Cline Family Cellars' 1850s farmhouse tasting room before disappearing to the property's great lawn, draped in oversized willow trees.

The vast and fragrant fields of lavender on Matanzas Creek's property are like a French fantasy. And if your idea of beauty is a bocce ball court, well, there's one of those, too.

The showpiece of the Ferrari-Carano Vineyards in Healdsburg is five acres of formal gardens that pop each spring with more than 10,000 colorful tulips and daffodils. Sample wines in the majestic pale pink, Italian-style Villa Fiore tasting room or underground cellar before strolling along the gardens' meandering paths and footbridges.