Dry Creek Winery Directory
Our favorite dry creek wineries
Dry Creek Valley is a unique winegrowing region located in northern Sonoma County. With over 150 winegrowers and 70 Dry Creek wineries, Dry creek Valley is the perfect place to get away and get lost in the premium wines offered by this special region. While the area has many varietals, it is best known for its world-class zinfandel. Within this 16 by 2 mile valley, there are of a variety of soil types, elevations, sun exposure levels, and wind and water variance, creating the perfect environment for a mix of varietals and grape quality.
A Little History
Dry Creek Valley traces its winegrape growing roots back 140 years. After the California Gold Rush, settlers were attracted to the region for its fertile land around 1849. By the 1880s, there were nine Dry Creek wineries and 883 acres of vineyards – with the majority of them being Zinfandel. With prohibition came the ending of this wine boom and only two wineries, Frei Brothers and J. Pedroncelli, remained after its repeal in 1933. The valley produced prunes and pears mostly until the California wine revival in the 70s. By 1983, Dry Creek Valley was the first California wine region to be recognized as an official American Viticultural Area (AVA).
Today, 9,000 acres of vineyards and over 70 wineries, mostly family-owned, make up this charming AVA. Just 16 miles long and 2 miles wide, Dry Creek is a must visit wine country destination. Other than enjoying amazing wines form Dry Creek wineries, visitors can expect to experience agritourism, 5-star food and wine parirings featuring foods from lcoal land, and easy access tot he charmign town of Healdsburg.
If you’re looking to explore Dry Creek Valley wineries, look no further than a PLatypus Wine Tour. Our North Sonoma join-in wine tour may venture off into Dry Creek Valley, but if you want to guarentee you’ll visit some of these incredible wineries in Dry Creek, plan a private tour with us through the region. Check out some of our favorite Dry Creek Wineries below and start planning your adventure!
Make a Platypus Wine Tour reservation online now or call (707) 253-2723.
Here is a handy directory of many of wine country’s best wineries. You can use this directory while creating a custom, Private Tour. Please note that Small Group Join-in Tour wineries are selected by our experienced guides.
Noble Vines
George and Patricia Noble, and winemaker David Lattin, are dedicated to producing the best Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon and Petite Sirah from ultra-premium vineyards. By sourcing from different Napa Valley appellations—St. Helena, Rutherford Bench, Atlas Peak, and other Napa Valley hillside vineyards, including the Pritchard Hill area—they are able to hand-select lots that they know will deliver high quality and perfect ripeness for each vintage.
Notre Vue
Notre Vue Estate & Winery is a stunning 710-acre property located just south of Healdsburg, bordering the town of Windsor. They’re proud to be a certified Sustainable Vineyard and Winery, crafting top-quality wines from their estate vineyards, which sit across two renowned viticultural appellations: Russian River Valley and Chalk Hill in Sonoma County.
O’Brien Family Estate
The O’Brien’s purchased this property in 2000 which was an existing winery dating back to 1978. A small boutique winery of 40 acres located in the Oak Knoll District of North Napa, known for their romantic, poetic themed wines. It is a pleasant driveway leading to the winery where olive trees line up and their vineyards are in full view. Tastings are held either outdoors on the lawn overlooking the vineyards or in their indoor tasting room where you can get a full history on these romantic wines!
O’Shaughnessy Estate Winery
In Napa, Betty fell in love with the beauty of the land, the vineyards, and the climate. In 1990, she landed in Oakville with a parcel of land, including vineyards and a home site. Betty reconnected with her deep-rooted appreciation of the soil and the bounties it brings. Over the next few years, additional vineyards on Howell Mountain and Mount Veeder added to the source available for varieties of grapes. The new century brought a cave, grapes crushed into wine and a design for a winery structure. The project completed in time for the harvest of 2003.
Odette Estate
The Odette Estate was founded by three individual partners, Gordon Getty, Gavin Newsom, and John Conover, part of the PlumpJack Group which purchased it in 2012. Odette is located in the Stag’s Leap district just east of the Silverado Trail. The property has been renovated to display a chic and modern design in their hospitality center and is one of only a few wineries to boast a living green roof planted to grasses and plants as well as solar panels. They are known for their red wines, they boast 18,000 feet of caves, and a beautiful lounge which encompasses their stellar views. This is a winery not to be missed!
Opus One
Hand-crafted wines from the Harris Family Vineyards in the heart of the Oakville appellation in Napa Valley. Tireless advocates of eco-friendly farming and enviormental stewarship. Famed winemaker Heidi Barrett has been producing the wines since 1991.The essence of time is expressed in Opus One by the character of each vintage. Place, often defined as terroir, represents the geography, the climate and the essential human element which is captured in the wine’s balance between power and finesse, structure and texture.
Orin Swift Cellars
The history of Orin Swift Cellars dates back to 1995 when on a lark, David Swift Phinney took a friend up on an offer and went to Florence, Italy to spend a semester “studying”. During that time, he was introduced to wine, how it was made, and got hooked. A few more years of university led to graduation and eventually a job at Robert Mondavi Winery in 1997 as a temporary harvest worker. Deciding that if he was going to work this hard, it would eventually have to be for himself, he founded Orin Swift Cellars in 1998; Orin is his father’s middle name and Swift is his mother’s maiden name. With two tons of zinfandel and not much else, he spent the next decade making wine for others as well as himself and grew the brand to what it is today.
Outpost Wines
Outpost was established in 1998 with the vision of producing wines that are a living, breathing embodiment of this magical place. Truly one of the world’s great Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel growing regions, the unique terroir of the Outpost vineyards – the hard, rocky red soil, high altitude, gentle cooling breezes and sunny western exposure – produces fruit of incredible intensity and richness, with a distinctive spice you simply cannot find anywhere else.
Palmaz Vineyards
Palmaz Vineyards is a family-owned and -operated gravity-flow, gravity-finish winery and historic estate at the southern end of Napa Valley. The estates centerpiece is the Cave, an 18-story, 100,000-square-foot subterranean winery that required seven years to complete. There, the family combines the latest technology with time-honored craftsmanship to make, among much else, their signature Palmaz Cabernet Sauvignon.
Paloma Vineyard
The property is located five miles northwest of St. Helena at the top of Spring Mountain. In the last half of the 19th century it was a vineyard, but was allowed to return to forest around the turn of the century. The purchase of this raw land was the beginning of an odyssey that is ongoing, ever changing, but with one goal—to grow the best grapes possible and make a wine that reflects the terroir of Paloma Vineyard, Spring Mountain and Napa. They were rewarded for strength and determination, receiving the Wine Spectaor’s 2003 TOP PICK over 15,000 other wines from around the world.
Paoletti
All the grapes used for producing premium Bordeaux blends and Super Tuscan wines are grown on the 36 acre estate. Built in 1989, the caves contain a unique collection of Carrera marble statues.
Paradigm
Hand-crafted wines from the Harris Family Vineyards in the heart of the Oakville appellation in Napa Valley. Tireless advocates of eco-friendly farming and enviormental stewarship. Famed winermaker Heidi Barrett has been producing the wines since 1991
