You can begin your day by stocking up on healthy picnic foods at Down to Earth Natural Foods (201 W Napa St., 996-9898). Open at 7AM and complete with a deli and juice bar, they are tucked into the back corner of the shopping center that is across the street from the
Sonoma Valley Inn (click on picture).
As you head back toward the plaza you might also want to stock up on bagels to munch on at the wineries at the Homegrown Baking Company (122 W Napa St., 996-0166).
Around the back of the northeastern corner of the plaza, at 389 4th St. you will find the huge Sebastiani Winery complex (938-5532). Besides tastings, they offer a 20 min. tour of their ancient aging rooms and a free Native American Indian museum.
From the bike path which runs at the edge of their property, you can follow the signs to Ravenswood Winery. Up a small hill at 18701 Gehricke Rd (938-1960), this winery offers a pleasant view of vineyards and has a picnic area.
Skip past the Hacineda Winery, even though the signs on Lovell Valley Rd. direct you to it, because they've suspended their operations, so skip it and cruise on to the Buena Vista Winery at 1800 Old Winery (938-1266). Built in 1851 by a Mr. Haraszthy, the alleged founder of the California wine industry, this winery, built against a hillside, overlooks a creek and a thick canopy of trees and rows and rows of picnic tables.
The next winery, is not as easy to find but well worth the small hills you have to climb to get to it. Gundlach Bundschu Winery (2000 Denmark St, 938-5277, and pronounced Gun-Lock-Bun-Shoe) has a sense of humor, great wine and they let bike riders use their front delivery entrance to get to the flat roads that lead back to downtown. They do this because several managers there commute to work on their bicycles (yay!).
Cyclists wanting to cover some distance and taste some more good wine, can ride over to the Carneros Wine District. Go from the base of Gundlach Bundschu's delivery entrance and connect to Denmark Rd. Denmark Rd. connects with Burndale and car-free back roads. This charming path of farmhouses leads to Ramal Road and the back route to Napa's Carneros District. Don't despair that the poor condition of the road is the price you pay for no traffic because once you get to the Napa county line, the road surface changes to brand new asphalt. See this book's Napa City page for a description of the wineries in the Carneros district.
If you'd enjoy still some more biking miles, Arnold Drive will take you to Glen Ellen Winery. Be careful because once you get near the wineries, beyond Madrone, Arnold Drive changes from a wide, bike-laned boulevard to a narrow, small-shouldered thoroughfare a few miles before the Sonoma Developmental Center and then Glen Ellen slow the traffic down.
This is Sonoma as we've seen it from two wheels. We hope you'll use the information we have provided here and in our maps to discover even more wonderful things about this unique area.
To The 'Bents
