Viansa Winery, Sonoma

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Popular in the Sonoma Area. Viansa was founded by a Samuele Sebastiani descendant Sam Sebastiani in 1989 due to a split in the Sebastiani Family and the new Winery was named Viansa (for Vicky and Sam Sebastiani) and they say, the rest is history.

Viansa features whatelse but Italian varietals of Wine! wine tastings, which cost $5 per person, are offered at the east and west end of the marketplace. The self-guided tour includes a trip through the underground barrel-aging cellar adorned with colorful hand-painted murals. Guided tours, held at 11am and 2pm

Open daily 10am-5pm

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Our first stop was the Viansa Winery. Few places in the world are more romantic than a gorgeous villa surrounded by vineyards. We caught glimpses of the Italian hilltop villa through the olive trees as we made our way up the driveway and into the parking lot. I stepped out of M's camry and into what could have been a vineyard in Tuscany.

The Sebastiani family's Tuscan heritage is visible everywhere, from the architecture : the fountain in the courtyard ,the red-tiled roofs, frescoes, sculptures, traditional artisan iron-work to the things they produced: the food, olive oil and of course the wine. The winery was founded in 1989 by the Sebastiani family and produces some of the finest Italian wines in the region.

We checked out the cool cave cellar with its interspersed arching alcoves topped with a high vaulted ceiling before heading to the Italian Marketplace at the back of the villa. Barbera Rose, Prosecco, Dolcetto, Muscat Canelli are just some of the wines made in these grounds. Upstairs is the marketplace/tasting room, I was surprised to find a very extensive array of food products. They had salsas, jams, dipping oils, spreads, cheeses, side by side with Tuscan-inspired tableware, cookbooks and souvenirs. I made my rounds from table to table sampling everything, sparing none. Everything was so good, I almost forgot about the wines!