Tiny Urban Kitchen

Exploring Food from Boston to Hong Kong and Beyond

  • About
    • About Me
    • Tiny Urban Kitchen’s Favorite Equipment
    • Press
  • Recipes
    • Recipe Index
    • Asian
      • Chinese
      • Taiwanese
      • Thai
      • Malaysian
      • Japanese
      • Korean
    • Appetizers
    • Soups
    • Salad
    • Pasta
    • Noodles
    • Rice
    • Vegetarian
    • Meat
    • Sweets
      • Baking
      • Ice cream
      • Cookies
    • Misc
    • Kawaii (Cute)
  • Travel / Restaurants
    • United States
      • Boston
        • Jen’s Picks
        • Boston
          • Allston
          • Back Bay
          • Brighton
          • North End
          • South End
        • Cambridge
          • Kendall Square
          • Inman Square
          • Central Square
          • Harvard Square
          • Porter Square
          • North Cambridge
        • Somerville
          • Davis Square
          • Union Square
        • Greater Boston
          • Brookline
          • Arlington
          • Belmont
          • Watertown
          • Newton
          • Lexington
          • Concord
          • Burlington
          • Natick
        • Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, Berkshires
      • Vermont
      • Maine
      • New York
      • Washington DC
      • Philadelphia
      • Orlando
      • Chicago
      • Las Vegas
      • California
        • Los Angeles
        • San Francisco
        • Napa
        • Sonoma
      • Seattle
      • Hawaii
    • Canada
      • Montreal
      • Canadian Rockies
      • Toronto
    • Argentina
    • Europe
      • United Kingdom
        • London
        • Oxford
      • Italy
        • Rome
        • Piedmont
      • France
        • Paris
        • Bordeaux
      • Spain
        • Madrid
        • Barcelona
        • Catalonia / San Sebastian / Girona
      • Germany
      • Belgium
        • Brussels
      • Switzerland
      • Greece
      • Finland
      • Norway
      • Denmark
    • Japan
      • Japan Guide
      • Tokyo
      • Osaka
      • Kyoto
    • China (Mainland)
      • Beijing
      • Chengdu
      • Shanghai
      • Shaanxi
      • Shenzhen
      • Xiamen
      • Yunnan
    • Singapore
    • Hong Kong
    • Malaysia
    • Taiwan
    • Thailand
    • Australia/New Zealand
  • Michelin
    • Formerly had a star
    • Michelin Recommended
    • 1 Star
    • 2 Stars
    • 3 Stars
  • Jen’s Eating Guides!
    • Boston Restaurants
    • Boston Dishes
    • Tokyo
    • Hong Kong
    • Las Vegas
    • Napa / Sonoma
    • Taiwan (night markets)
    • Taiwanese (casual eats)
    • Street Foods of Bangkok (Part I)
    • Street Foods of Bangkok (Part II)
    • Kitchen Equipment
  • Trip Reports
    • All trip reports
    • New England
    • New York
    • Washington DC
    • Las Vegas
    • California
    • Canada
    • Europe
    • Florida
    • Japan
    • China

A Cycling Wine Tour through Sonoma Valley

October 15, 2013 by Jennifer Che 7 Comments

_DSC3361
This is the fourth post in the “An Unforgettable Anniversary Weekend In Sonoma” series highlighting Sonoma Valley and surrounding areas. Other posts in this series include Addendum, El Dorado Kitchen, and Basque Boulangerie.

I’m not sure why, but it never occurred to me that you could bike around wine country. I guess the first few times I came, the wineries that we visited seemed so far apart from each other, I could not imagine traveling between them in any other way except by car.

And then I tried it – in Napa Valley – and loved it.
_DSC3347
It turns out, there are a TON of very bike-friendly paths all around wine country. You can easily bike between vineyards on roads that are virtually never frequented by cars. For a city girl like me, these rustic, relaxing bike rides along country roads are a rarity, and thus these paths were a real treat.
SonomaBikeTourStops
If you’re spending a few days in Sonoma Valley, definitely consider setting aside half a day to bike to a variety of vineyards. I was so surprised to find out how easy it was to bike between them, and how nice (and pretty) the paths were.
_DSC3383
We rented bikes at Wine Country Cyclery, right in Sonoma Plaza, where they will also provide you with a map showing bike routes to nearby vineyards as well as discounts to tastings at those wineries. They have plenty of parking for cars, so it’s a convenient place to leave your car if you want to explore all day via bicycle.
SonomaCycling
And off we go!
_DSC3349
A large part of the path consists of dedicated bike paths, which is great. You get to bike right through rows and rows of grape vines.
_DSC3352
The first stop, Ravenwood, is not too far away. It’s a large winery and a popular stop pouring all different sorts of wine flights.We used our “buy one, get one free” tasting coupon to do two tastings for $15 (check out that gorgeous view out the window!).
_DSC3355
We then entered Bartholomew Park, which included Bartholomew Park Winery. The winery itself was quaint and rustic. Plus they had a free water cooler, which was invaluable because the bike ride up to this winery was not a piece of cake. It was definitely hilly, and we were sweating a bit (and slightly out of breath) by the time we got to the top!
DSC00060-2
The best part about Bartholomew Park?  The picnic benches!There are many of them, and despite the fact that it was one of the busiest days of the year in Sonoma, we didn’t have trouble finding an empty picnic table not far from the winery.

It was lovely to just sit, relax, enjoy our sandwiches from Basque Boulangerie, and soak in the view.
_DSC3363
After lunch, we headed to Buena Vista Winery, which had beautiful grounds and a large tasting room packed with people. Unfortunately it so packed we were unable to squeeze in and try a tasting. We waited for quite awhile before deciding to move on.
_DSC3362
After walking around for a bit and exploring the grounds, we decided to bike back to our starting point. If we had wanted, we could have biked further and visited at least one more winery. However, after having been out for a solid four hours, we decided it was time to head back into the Plaza.
_DSC3382Our last stop was Roche Winery, which is located right in Sonoma Plaza.
_DSC3370
What makes this place unique is that you can sample their wine while enjoying food from the Sunflower Caffe.
_DSC3372
Oh, and you get to try Roche’s olive oil too, which is quite delicious.
_DSC3376
At Roche we had an extended tasting where we tried all sorts of wines – everything from exploring the difference between unoaked, American oak, and French oak chardonnay (very different, by the way; we preferred French oak), to sampling their solid selection of red wines.
_DSC3373
Bryan’s favorite? The 2011 Pinot Noir Carneros. My favorite was the Late Harvest Topaz, a Sauternes style dessert wine.
_DSC3378
They even have a barrel right in the tasting room so you can try a barrel taste, which is kind of fun.

We finally dropped off our bikes after a long day of traversing the valley via pedal power. The final bill was $60, not too bad for a long day of bike riding. $10 gets you an hour; $20 for 2 hours; and then $30 for a whole day. We got the least expensive option (“comfort/hybrid” bikes), which was fine. They offer a lot of other options, such as endurance road bikes, race road bikes, kid trailers, and even tandem bikes (ha ha, wouldn’t that be fun to try!).

General Notes about Biking in the Vineyard

1. Bring Water and Plan Your Path 
Some parts of the path do go uphill, so take that into consideration when deciding how long or how far you want to bike. If it’s hot out, bring plenty of water, since you’ll get dehydrated, especially if you plan on doing a bit of wine tasting while stopping at the various wineries.

2. Purchasing Wine
If you do want to purchase wine at these wineries, most of them understand that you can’t quite cart the bottles away via bicycle. If you are staying nearby, some of them will actually offer to deliver the wines to your hotel, which is a really nice service. Of course, you can always buy the wines and then just pick them up later by car.

3. Be Responsible
This goes without saying, but you are operating a vehicle, so treat biking as you would driving. If you feel that you wouldn’t drive, you most certainly shouldn’t be biking. There are parts of the trail that are shared with cars, and even though the cars don’t come that frequently, you will still see them. Stay safe!

That’s it! Have fun and enjoy the unique scenery that wine country has to offer.

Disclaimer: this trip was organized by the Sonoma County Visitor’s Bureau. Some of the activities and meals in this series, such as the cost of bike rentals and the tasting at Roche Winery, were paid for by the owners of the establishments.  

©2009-2014 Tiny Urban Kitchen
All Rights Reserved

Filed Under: California, Sonoma, Wine, World Travel Tagged With: Napa/Sonoma

« Basque Boulangerie
Pride Mountain Vineyards »

Recent Posts

  • L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon Hong Kong January 18, 2021
  • Nostalgic Reminders of Home: Five Guys Hong Kong January 6, 2021
  • Elementary Hong Kong January 5, 2021
  • Happy New Year 2021! A Look Back at 2020 January 1, 2021
  • Restaurant Le George Paris December 29, 2020
  • Nice Yakiniku and Fine Wine Hong Kong December 28, 2020
  • Merry Christmas 2020 December 25, 2020
  • Sushi Shikon Autumn 2020 December 24, 2020

Latest Chinese recipes!

Comments

  1. Michelle Lahey says

    October 16, 2013 at 2:17 pm

    Looks gorgeous, and so fun. We actually rented a tandem bike in Calistoga during our honeymoon, and it was one of the highlights of our trip!

    Reply
  2. Jennifer Che says

    October 16, 2013 at 2:35 pm

    Ooh fun! Who rode in front? I’ve only ridden a tandem once (with my uncle), and I clearly felt he was (literally) pulling a majority of the weight by being the one in the front!

    Reply
  3. Michelle Lahey says

    October 17, 2013 at 9:53 am

    Z rode in front…I don’t think I could be trusted with the brakes, haha. After 10 minutes we got the hang of it (mostly), but it was a learning experience at first!

    Reply
  4. napa valley wine tours says

    October 21, 2013 at 8:07 am

    sound awesome and Looks gorgeous, and so much fun.
    sonoma wine tours

    Reply
  5. Henry James says

    April 12, 2014 at 4:09 am

    Cycling through Sonoma valley for wine tour would be an interesting and excellent experience with full of surprises. Looks wonderful! http://www.atasteofsf.com/

    Reply
  6. Sarah Dukes says

    November 22, 2016 at 3:18 am

    Hi Jennifer it’s amazing and interesting. Since wine is good for the heart and you combine it with cycling it will be a perfect combination to stay fit.

    Reply
  7. Billy says

    August 24, 2017 at 5:21 pm

    Sonoma Valley is absolutely gorgeous. I love all of your pictures you included to show every step of your beautiful day. Can’t wait to go on my own bike tour through the wineries! You make it seem so easy! Thank you for sharing!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Welcome to Tiny Urban Kitchen!

JenChe

Hi, my name's Jen and welcome to my cooking, eating, and travel site! I am a Boston to Hong Kong transplant, born and raised in Ohio with parents from Taiwan. Feel free to head on over to the About page if you want to learn more about me, or just explore away, maybe starting with the Recipe Index or one of the travel pages! I hope you enjoy this site!
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Flickr
  • Google+
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Archives

Categories

Awards

Saveur
PFB

BostonGlobe

Most Recent Posts

L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon Hong Kong

L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon Hong Kong

Five Guys Hong  Kong

Nostalgic Reminders of Home: Five Guys Hong Kong

Elementary HK

Elementary Hong Kong

Happy New Year 2021! A Look Back at 2020

Restaurant Le George Paris

Restaurant Le George Paris

Great Yakiniku and Fine Wine

Nice Yakiniku and Fine Wine Hong Kong

Merry Christmas 2020

Sushi Shikon Autumn 2020

Foodhallen + Amsterdam Eats and Museums

4850 Restaurant Amsterdam

4850 Amsterdam – Nordic Inspired Creative Food

France!

Yam'Tcha Paris
David Toutain Paris
Divellec Paris
Breizh Cafe Paris
Clamato Paris

Kawaii! (Cute)

Norway!

Food Advertising by logo

Chinese Recipes

Okra with Chicken
Food Advertising by logo

Shop & Support us!

Spain!

Girona Spain
Amelia San Sebastian

Japan!

Bulgari Il Ristorante Luca Fantin
Sukiyaki Imafuku Tokyo
Sushi Ishimaya Tokyo
Disney Sea Tokyo
Tempura Fukamachi Tokyo
Shinjuku Gyoen

Cambridge restaurants

Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2021 · Foodie Pro Theme by Shay Bocks · Built on the Genesis Framework · Powered by WordPress