Sonoma is not a place you visit so much as a place that quietly claims you — through the angle of afternoon light on a hillside vine, through the smell of oak and warm earth, through a glass of something honest poured by someone who grew it themselves.

— M.F.K. Fisher

This Months Sponsor 

3 Badge Beverage / Gehricke Tasting Room
32 Patten Street
Sonoma, CA 95476
Phone: (707) 732-9590 for the tasting room;

Buena Vista Winery in Sonoma — California's oldest premium winery, founded in 1857 — is hosting one night of the Wine Country Comedy Fest this summer, tucked inside its storied Champagne Cellar Courtyard. Doors open at 6:00 p.m. with the show starting at 7:00 p.m. sharp, and no one gets in after curtain time.

Single-night tickets run $44, with multi-night festival passes available for those who want to stretch the fun across two or three evenings. Advance purchase is strongly encouraged, as shows regularly sell out.

Guests are welcome to bring food and non-alcoholic picnic supplies; wine and charcuterie plates are available on-site. Bring a jacket — Sonoma evenings have a way of turning chilly right when you're enjoying yourself most. The event is 21 and older only.

I asked a local in Sonoma for directions, and he said, "Go past the vineyard, turn left at the vineyard, then right at the other vineyard."

I'm still there. I got lost and also somehow bought a case of Pinot Noir.

Sonoma is famous for wine, but here are some lesser-known facts worth savoring:

• The last of its kind: The Bear Flag Revolt of 1846, which briefly declared California an independent republic, was staged in Sonoma's central plaza — making it the only town in U.S. history where a sovereign nation was proclaimed, lasted 22 days, and then dissolved before it could print a constitution.
• A mission with a grim record: Mission San Francisco Solano, founded in Sonoma in 1823, was the northernmost and the last of California's 21 Spanish missions to be built — constructed after Mexico had already declared independence from Spain, making it technically a Mexican-era mission rather than a Spanish one.
• Jack London's laboratory: Author Jack London spent his final years just outside Sonoma in Glen Ellen, where he conducted experimental farming and sustainable agriculture decades ahead of his time, calling his property the Beauty Ranch and importing rare livestock breeds from around the world.
• An unusually old vine: Sonoma's Buena Vista Winery, founded in 1857 by Agoston Haraszthy, is considered California's first premium commercial winery — and Haraszthy imported roughly 100,000 vine cuttings of over 300 grape varieties from Europe in a single trip, essentially seeding the entire California wine industry.
• Cheese before wine: Before wine tourism took over, Sonoma was equally renowned as a cheese-making hub; the mild, semi-soft Sonoma Jack cheese was developed there in the early 20th century and remains a commercially distinct variety named after the county.