By: Virginie Boone

A good year, a hard year, 2025 has finally come to an end. And while it had its challenges, this past 12 months also offered plenty to celebrate. Here are the highlights:

2025 Vintage Marked by Exceptional Flavors: Mild summer temperatures led to grapes with excellent balance and flavor across the board.

Sonoma County Winegrape Commission Extended: More than 85% of the vote said yes to continuing the commission for another five years, with growers agreeing to continue to be assessed to fund the organization.

Magnum Awards Debut: 76 restaurants from around the United States were recognized for their exceptional support of Sonoma County wines and for showcasing Sonoma County as a world-class wine region. Of those, 32 are in Sonoma County.

San Francisco Giants Wine Club, Presented by Sonoma County Winegrowers Launches: A first-of-its-kind wine club in Major League Baseball. The membership-based program features a series of Sonoma County wines with three releases of six bottles from six different Sonoma County wineries a year, hand-selected by Giants team Master Sommelier Evan Goldstein.

Sonoma County Welcomes the Olympic Village of Ag Tech for Vineyards: Reservoir Farms, Sonoma officially launches in partnership with Sonoma County Winegrowers. This is the world’s first on-farm robotics and automation hub for viticulture; a living lab for growers, startups and industry partners.

Partnerships Continue to Power Sonoma County Wine: Powerful Sonoma County Winegrowers partnerships with John Deere, Ford Pro, Wilbur Ellis, GuildSomm, Alaska Airlines, Landry’s and others continued in 2025, and a new partnership launched with Lettuce Entertain You, a 50-year-old restaurant group based in Chicago, as well as The Somm Journal.

Rodney Strong Wine Estate’s Tom Klein Recognized as American Wine Legend: Klein was acknowledged by Wine Enthusiast Media for his decades in the wine business, longstanding dedication to Sonoma County wine and commitment to sustainable vineyard and winery practices, only the sixth recipient of this distinction.

Ravenswood Returns: Ravenswood returned after a five-year hiatus, with original founder Joel Peterson on board for the relaunch. And according to Wine Spectator, “E&J Gallo recently released the first new wines, beginning on a modest scale, with just 3,400 cases of four Sonoma County Zins from the 2023 vintage.” The wines will include a Dry Creek Valley appellation wine, and single-vineyard offerings from MacMurray Ranch (Gallo owned), Monte Rosso (Gallo owned) and Teldeschi Vineyards.

New Tasting Rooms Open: Auteur, Cobb Wines, Bob Cabral Wines, Kanzler, Marietta Cellars, Martha Stoumen, Wayfarer and more opened new tasting rooms across Sonoma County.

Two Michelin Stars for Enclos: Enclos opened late last year and achieved two Michelin stars this year, the first stars awarded to any restaurant in the town of Sonoma. Housed in an 1890s Victorian, the restaurant is a partnership between Leslie and the late Mac McQuown of nearby Stone Edge Farm and chef Brian Limoges, who has culinary gardens on which to draw, with ingredients sourced from throughout Sonoma County playing an important role.

Sonoma County Wins James Beard Awards: James Beard awarded Guerneville-based Chef Preeti Mistry for the podcast series, “Loading Dock Talks with Chef Preeti Mistry.” Notable semifinalists in 2025 in other categories included Chef Ari Weiswasser of Glen Ellen Star, a semifinalist for Best Chef California in 2025, and Healdsburg’s Quail and Condor, a semifinalist for Outstanding Bakery in 2025. Previous Beard Award finalists and winners from Sonoma County include Chef Karen Taylor Waikiki of El Molino Central, brewer Vinnie Cilurzo of Russian River Brewing Co., and Ted Lemon of Littorai Wines.

Sonoma County Grape Camp Immersion a Hit: The hands-on wine harvest adventure last September/October invited guests over three days to work a little, eat a lot, meet the locals who do this for a living, and drink the results of their labor.

The Global Old Vine Conference Comes to Sonoma County: The 2025 Global Old Vine Conference: Meeting of the Minds spent a couple of days in Sonoma County in November, partnering with Zinfandel Advocates and Producers to create a new global category of wine from heritage vineyards around the world.

Century Club Added 11 More Members: In December, 11 Sonoma County families were recognized for their longstanding contributions to farming in our community and inducted into Sonoma County’s Century Club, joining a previously honored 22 others who have been farming for at least 100 years. The Bartolomei, Cadd, Cameron, Chenoweth, Guadagni, Mazzoni, Norton, Pagani, Pastori, Rotlisberger and Shepard families are the newest members of the club.

So goodbye 2025, thanks for the memories. And happy 2026!