Daytrips & Getaways: Wine tasting in the Valley of the Moon

For more than a century, Glen Ellen was a refuge for outcasts: Be it Jack London or Hunter S. Thompson, it was their tiny hideaway tucked under Sonoma’s craterscape of green hills and endless oak trees. Known as the Valley of the Moon, it remains an escape hatch to this day, one that gives vino lovers a blood-warming oasis that’s far removed from the plaster, Disney-esque winery mansions that dominate nearby Napa County.

A Glen Ellen highlight is Kivelstadt Cellars (13750 Arnold Drive in Glen Ellen). Its wine bar is saddled in a post office from 1872 and breathes a rough, Western charm that makes the tasting experience feel genuine. One of its best bottles is the Father’s Watch, a smooth union of syrah, grenache and carignane with hints of spicy grapefruit swirled on black liquorish topped by a cinnamon-clove finish. This valley blend has its own moon glow.

Glen Ellen is also home to the Jack London Saloon (13740 Arnold Drive in Glen Ellen), a brick holdover from the days of its namesake filled with old photographs and Gilded Age chandeliers. Local wines are stacked along the dusty Victorian shelves, including St. Francis Vineyards’ old vine zinfandel, which is a pathfinder for what Sonoma soil can do. The St. Francis zin glows with bright boysenberry dimensions, its base conjuring faint, crackling hues of vanilla and nutmeg. It’s wine that’s purebred from California sunlight.

Down the road, visitors see a Prohibition-era truck watching over Mayo Family Winery (13101 Arnold Drive in Glen Ellen). While this Glen Ellen staple is known for brut sparkling and steel-barrel Chardonnay, winemaker Michel Berthoud has also mastered a Port made from Zinfandel grapes, which tastes like Cayenne, honey and sugarcane, all melting into a seamless crimson bliss.

Perhaps the most indelible tasting experience lies on Glen Ellen’s outskirts. Owned by 50-year friends, it’s aptly named Two Amigos Wines (25 E. Napa Street, Suite D in Sonoma). One of the friends is Bob Briner, a retired engineer; the other is Squire Fridell, who was the face of Toyota commercials in the 1980s and the actor who played Ronald McDonald for Generation X. It’s a laid back operation making Sonoma’s most richly balanced, fruit-forward syrah. Tastings here are personal by design, as guests can visit only the estate through one-on-one tours with the owners. Making such arraignments leads to sipping wine with Briner and Fridell on a hilltop overlooking one of the Valley of the Moon’s most breathtaking vistas.

“It’s hard to have a very personal experience when you go wine tasting in Napa,” Briner told SN&R. “You walk into a tasting room, and there are 50 people and you have to fight just to get a glass. Very special things can happen at small, boutique wineries, especially where everything is literally made by hand.”

Fridell agrees, noting that his 30-year journey as a winemaker has been more invigorating than moments on the Shakespearean stage or gigs on Hollywood back lots.

“There’s been no greater pleasure in my life than opening a bottle of wine that I’ve made, from grapes I’ve grown, and having someone say, ’This shit is pretty good,’” Fridell notes with a smile. “I think people who leave here come away with a little capsule of who Bob and I are.”