The Russian River appellation is one of Sonoma's largest and most diverse. It covers about 150 square miles of forest, orchards, vineyards, and pasture land from trendy Sebastopol in the south to chic Healdsburg in the north, from the suburban freeway sprawl in the east to rural Occidental in the west. And running right through it is the mighty Russian River, shaping the climate, scenery, and recreational opportunities of the region.

The Russian River Valley attracted immigrants in the late 1800s to exploit its vast forests, and many of the towns that exist today were originally established as logging or railroad outposts. Once the redwood forests had been largely cleared it was sheep ranches, cattle pasture, orchards, and even hop farms that took over the land. The gravenstein apple, now an endangered piece of local agricultural history, was embraced as the region’s very own, though its roots remain somewhat ambiguous.

It wasn’t until the 1980s, when the cool growing climate was recognized as ideal for the increasingly fashionable pinot noir and chardonnay grapes that the area’s wine industry took off and the Russian River Valey has long since been recognized as one of the best cool grape growing regions in California. This is not an easy part of Wine Country to explore compared to relatively self-contained valleys elsewhere in Sonoma, however. Roads wind through forests, over hills, and along the snaking river, making wineries sometimes hard to find. Large parts of the region are rural, dotted with small communities like Forestville and Graton, which hide their already small populations very well in the surrounding hills and woods.

The center of the action is Guerneville and neighboring Monte Rio, both slightly faded Victorian resort towns that are transformed each summer into a surreal scene of leather-clad bikers and plaid-clad outdoorsmen, hipsters and hippies. Guerneville is somewhat of a gay mecca and party town, too, and the rustic resorts and bars often pulsate with the beat of dance music and drunken hoards on summer evenings

The eastern and western edges of the appellation could not be more of a contrast. The suburban sprawl of Santa Rosa is just outside the eastern boundary of the appellation and is almost a poster child for how not to grow a city. It is by far the biggest city in the region — a place where culture meets characterless malls — but a far cry from the peaceful and remote Bohemian Highway running along the appellation’s western edge, where the picture-postcard town of Occidental exists in the midst of with dense forests.

The Wines

Almost a third of all the grapes grown in Sonoma County come from the Russian River Valley but there’s the potential for it to be a far higher proportion. Only 12,000 acres, or about 10%, of the 125,000 acres in the valley are actually planted with vineyards. The rest is still pasture, forest and the occasional town.

The river and the valley it carved through the coastal mountain ranges over millennia provide the region with the unique climate and conditions that are perfect for growing grapes that like cool conditions. There’s enough strong sunlight each day to ensure the grapes ripen but the air remains cool, often downright chilly at night, and keeps a lid on the fruit’s sugar levels.

Pinot noir and chardonnay are the dominant varietals in this part of the Wine Country, but zinfandel is almost as important and the resulting wines have a subtlety that is often lacking in the brawny zins from the warmer valleys to the north. Growers are also having increasing success with syrah and some other Rhône varietals, while Gewürztraminer is also starting to make more of an appearance. The ubiquitous cabernet sauvignon and merlot are largely absent, however, except on the warmest eastern hills of the region.

The cool layer of damp marine air from the Pacific Ocean just a few miles west is the region’s natural air conditioner and was a big factor in the granting of the Russian River Valley’s AVA status in 1983. Marine fog rolls down the river valley during the summer, snaking into gullies and canyons and keeping the temperature here lower than any other inland portion of Sonoma County. As the ripening process slows the fruit can gain in complexity and retain enough acidity to keep the wines interesting. Grapes are usually harvested several weeks later here than in some hotter Sonoma regions.

The river is also responsible for the area’s unique soils, depositing deep, well-drained sandy and gravelly soils over million of years. The combination of relatively cool microclimates, no summer rain, and a patchwork of soils is a grape growers dream and a reason there are so many styles of pinot made here.

Within the southwest corner of the Russian River appellation, closest to the ocean, is the even cooler Green Valley AVA. This is just about as cool as a climate can be and still ripen grapes, and it is the source of some of Sonoma’s best pinot noir.

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