A quieter day of wine tasting, 40 minutes north of Healdsburg.
If you've spent a day or two tasting in Healdsburg, you know the rhythm: the square, the reservations, the rooms that fill by noon. It's a wonderful place. And when you're ready for something slower, the road north is the right call.
Highway 101 out of Geyserville does something subtle as you drive. The valley narrows, the billboards thin out, and somewhere past Cloverdale the hills start to feel rugged and authentic. You cross into Mendocino County without much announcement. Forty minutes after leaving Healdsburg, you're turning off the highway at Hopland, and a few minutes after that, climbing a dirt road up Duncan Springs toward our gate.
What you'll find at the top
No tasting room, in the usual sense. One table under an old cork tree, looking out over vines that have been farmed organically and without tilling since they were planted in the 1980s. We pour five or more wines, walk the vineyard with you, and take about two hours doing it. You might meet the sheep. You'll probably meet the dog.
Tastings are $25 a person, and the fee is waived with every three bottles you take home. We're a small team, so reservations are the surest way in, though we'll always fit in a walk-in when we can.
Making a day of it
Hopland is small and worth the stop: The Golden Pig pours and sells local wine in town, and the Real Goods solar campus is stranger and more charming than it sounds. If you're continuing north, Ukiah and the Anderson Valley are within reach. If you're looping back to Healdsburg for dinner, you'll be there by evening with wine in the trunk and dust on the car, which is roughly the point.
The drive is part of the experience. So is the quiet at the top.