Sonoma Portworks - Petaluma

Excellent Port, very friendly staff. Marty, I mean, MURRY, was the best.

What a wonderful find in Petaluma! Just 5 or 6 blocks southeast of historic downtown in the refurbished Foundry Warf complex next to the Petaluma River. Sonoma Portworks uses grapes grown in the Wine Country area to create wonderful fortified wines. [BTW there is a tasty place just up the block called Aqus Cafe if you wish to grab a bite to eat before port tasting. But cheese boxes are available for purchase in the tasting room. Best to make a reservation, as the tasting room is open Thurs Sundays only from 12 5 PM.If you are not a fan of traditional tawny port, don 't be discouraged. Additionally they offer unusual Chardonnay (light and fruity) and Rose (floral and peppery) ports which are lovely for summertime sipping. We purchased a bottle of each. The more traditional red blend ports were tasty; our favorite was the Petite Sirah Port. But we could not leave without buying bottles of the Cask Reserve (very jammy spicy but smooth) and Maduro Reserve (deliciously tawny) ports.If you like to cook, be sure and try their side products of Sonomic Almost Vinegars in Red or Gold flavors. Non alcoholic grape products, they are wonderful secret ingredients to add to salads, cooked veggies and meats. Also great drizzled over fruits or cheeses.We felt the prices were very reasonable. They offer a wine club you may join with a three release commitment the first year. You receive 15 25% discounts on your orders and complimentary tasting fees. But it is not a hard sell. We signed up because we know we want to purchase more of their products in the future.We had a wonderful tasting experience with Murray. He was knowledgeable and laid back, able to answer all of our questions. We just had such a good time talking with him that we forgot to sample the Deco Duet dessert wines. Oh well, that leaves something for us to try on our next visit. Cheers!

Nice little tasting room with a small patio outside as well. Excellent tasting provided by Murray. We got a little tour too and learned a lot about port. Their port is very delicious too. We really enjoyed our time here.

Highly recommend. We had our tasting with Amy. She was wonderful and full of knowledge about the array of products and how they’re made. We got a tour through the production area. Highly recommend stopping by if you’re in the area.

So being a huge wine snob I have a familiarity with wines cousins like Port, Sherry, Cognac, Brandy etc. However, I have never been Port tasting and I have to say it was quite a blast. We tasted 6 different Ports. Since tasting and palates are unique with each person, I will forgo a detailed note for each port. However, my palate more or less tracked with the descriptions provided by the maker. I will provide notes for the two I did purchase. The interesting addition was the Sonomic. While in many way a finishing vinegar like soemthing 50 years+ from Modena this offering was more acidic and much brighter that a fine Balsamic. It is perfect to drizzle on smelly cheese, or say pork or fish. A little goes a long way and it will be a welcome addition to my pantry Port Barrel Reserve California Brandy: This one was a nice surprise. Given that it aged only 6 years I expected it to come on strong, hot and have a lot of hard edges. However, what we tasted was extraordinary complex, with vanilla and dark fruit on the nose, with a hint of jammy plums on the palate with a slightly hot lingering finish. There are optional food boxes that can be ordered and the contents paired perfectly with the tasting. Service was super friendly and time was taken to explain each offering. It was a quiet day we visited (Middle of the weeks after lunch) so parking was easy and lines were not in evidence. However, given the quality of the offerings, I suspect it can get really crowded.