This little town of 2500 people with a three-block business area has suddenly become a chic wine destination. The town has four wine tasting rooms, two fabulous restaurants, and a handful of unique shops. Geyserville runs along the Russian River and is located in the heart of the Alexander Valley wine region. Just over the hill to the west a couple of miles is the Dry Creek Valley wine region. There are at least twenty wineries within easy driving distance of the town. What more could a wine lover ask for in a wine town?
 
Tasting Rooms in Geyserville
Meeker Vineyards was the first to open a tasting room in Geyserville and to this day remains one of the most unique and interesting tasting rooms in California. The tasting room is housed in a 100-year-old bank building. The atmosphere is fun, relaxing, and entertaining to say the least. On the next block over is Locals tasting room that features wines from nine wineries from the nearby area. The new kids on the block are Route 128 Vineyards & Winery and the Terroirs Artisan Wines tasting room, both of which opened in 2008. Route 128 is a 500-case winery owned by husband-wife team of Pete and Lorna Opatz. At the Terroirs Artisan tasting room you find the fanciest and most lavish of the four tasting rooms in Geyerville. This tasting room is a collection of four wineries in the area with the same winemaker consultant, Kerry Damskey.
Restaurants
There are two fabulous restaurants, one old and exquisite restaurant, and the other, new and casual. Santi, the old, has two huge dining rooms and a fancy bar and serves up excellent Italian cuisine. It is a favorite of the locals and has received numerous raves from restaurant critics. We have dined there on several occasions and have never been dissppointed.
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Next door is Diavola Pizzeria and Salumeria. The owner and chef is Don Bugica who was chef at Santi for five years. We had a Margherita Pizza and the crust had to be the finest and best tasting of any pizza I can remember eating. It was thin and cooked to perfection in the pizzeria’s brick oven.
Lodging
The main lodging in Geyserville is the Geyserville Inn at the north end of town. This a popular hotel for weddings so often the Inn can be booked solid for an entire weekend. In town, there are also two B&B’s, the Hope-Merrill House and the Hope-Boswell House. Up in the hills, there is the exquisite Alexander Valley Lodge.
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Geyserville has become the artist/Urban stop over for Sonoma County. Hughes Family Vineyards, Palmeri,Pena Ridge and Godwin wines are all located in Geyserville at the Terroirs tasting room…24/7 is held once a month with Art, rock, jazz and food (always the 24th day of the month starting at 7:00PM.
Some of the smaller towns in Sonoma are doing a great job of maintaining their charm but welcoming guests at the same time. I feel like Sonoma is poised to make some gains on Napa in the tourism area especially with the easy access from the Santa Rosa airport. If you are coming in from out of town, 10 minutes till you are in your rental car and exploring all that Sonoma has to offer. Can’t beat that!