Viansa Winery & Italian Marketplace

Viansa is the kind of Winery I could spend all day at. Located on a hill near the entrance to Sonoma Valley, it offers a great view of their vineyards along with a bit of restored California Wetlands. I visited this winery with 2 of my brothers while we were traveling around Northern California.

Inside the Italian-style Villa you'll find on the first floor where the winery originally produced their wines, with increased demand they had to move the actual winery operation into the city of Sonoma. The 2nd floor of the Villa houses the Italian Marketplace where you'll find the wine tasting stations and a world of specialty foods. There is even a deli where you can get an Italian lunch.

Out the back door of the Marketplace you'll walk onto the patio where you'll find a stone patio and the beautiful view. Looking around you can find a outdoor pizza oven, a grassy area if you'd prefer to throw out a picnic blanket, a tent where they host special events, and behind that additional seating.

Looking out from the patio you can see a variety of grapes being grown. Beyond the grapes and off to the right (facing away from the villa) you'll see 90 acres of Wetlands. The wetlands were reclaimed and recreated as a joint effort between Viansa and Ducks Unlimited. Finally you can see the low mountains that frame Sonoma Valley.

While there we took a tour of the winery. There are public tours three times a day. The tour is worth it and if you plan to buy much you get a discount in the Marketplace afterwards. The guide was entertaining and knowledgeable. I've been to a number of wineries, but am no expert. So I learned some new tricks when he explained how to taste wines.

After the tour we browsed the Marketplace. It was stocked full of samples for jarred goods, like jams, vinegars, and pestos. We sampled so many things and almost everything was fantastic. We made our way to the patio and ordered a pizza from the brand new (as in they just finished it a few days before our visit) outdoor pizza oven. We enjoyed the pizza while looking out over the vineyards and wetlands. Finally we made a few purchases from the marketplace and headed on our way to another winery.

Viansa was by far the highlight of the wineries we stopped at.