Visit to Historic Sonoma Is a Salute to the Grape

History here runs as deep as the prize vintages that have made this pleasant country town the hub of one of the state’s best-known wine regions.

Sonoma is considered the birthplace of viticulture in California, when in the mid-1800s a Hungarian count planted the major varieties of European wine grapes in America.

This unassuming town also was headquarters for the Bear Flag Revolt that proclaimed California an independent nation in 1846. Although the republic lasted only 25 days before the United States took over the California territory, the state flag is patterned after the banner of the revolutionists.

Visitors to the area can taste Sonoma’s wines, eat good food, find cozy B&Bs; and talk to friendly townsfolk.

Begin a tour at Sonoma’s plaza, a six-acre, tree-shaded town square that is the largest in the state. Originally a parade ground for Mexican soldiers, the plaza sports a duck pond, a children’s playground, picnic tables and the Sonoma City Hall.

Also look for a statue commemorating the Bear Flag Revolt, and stop by the Sonoma Valley Visitors Bureau for tour maps and literature. The bureau is open daily in the former Carnegie Library building on the 1st Street East side of the plaza. Telephone: (707) 996-1090.

El Camino Real once cut across the plaza to end at the chapel door of Sonoma’s mission, now at the corner of 1st Street East and Spain Street. A plaque notes 300 years of Spanish and Mexican settlement along that historic mission trail, which eventually stretched from Guatemala to Sonoma.

Padres’ Quarters

Walk past the original mission bell to view the padres’ quarters, built about 1825 and now Sonoma’s oldest building.

Visit the chapel with its rather plain altar, and go into the courtyard to see a depiction of the mission complex as it used to be.

Entry to Sonoma Mission costs $1; your ticket is also good for admission to other historic buildings in the state park.

One is just across the street--the Barracks, a rebuilt two-story adobe that housed Mexican troops. Today it is a museum of early Sonoma, with artifacts from Indian and Mexican times. Be sure to see the handmade copy of the original Bear Flag.

Potbelly Stoves

Also peek in the Toscano Hotel, furnished as at the turn of the century with a lobby bar, poker tables and potbelly stoves. Down the street get food and drink at the Swiss Hotel, an 1850s adobe. Another park building of the same period is the rustic Blue Wing Inn, now home to antique and gift shops.

Stroll around the perimeter of the plaza to view other early structures. Across from the mission, meals are served at the Old Sonoma Creamery, once an ice-cream parlor. An 1890s general store now is home to the Sonoma Coffee House, where customers at its six-stool counter can order everything from espresso to tap beer to ice-cream sodas.

For a picnic in the plaza, visit three shops to create your own sandwiches. Start with oven-fresh bread from the Sonoma French Bakery, select one of the 60 kinds of sausage made at the Sonoma Sausage Co., then add some of the Sonoma jack cheese that you can watch being made at the Sonoma Cheese Factory.

Pasta Nostra

Near the plaza you can dine in style at two of Sonoma’s acclaimed restaurants--L’Esperance and Les Arcades (dinner only). More casual is the Pasta Nostra.

Another favorite for food and drink is the Sonoma Hotel, built at the plaza’s northwest corner in the 1880s. On the second and third floors you can spend the night in one of its 17 antique-decorated rooms. Rates are $58/$65 with bath down the hall, $78/$98 with private bath. For reservations, call (707) 996-2996.

Visitors also can bed down at five B&Bs; in Sonoma, including the Victorian Garden Inn, 316 E. Napa St. Two of its four rooms are in the water tower that once nourished the fruit trees that still surround the 100-year-old summer house. A small swimming pool is an added attraction.

Rates from $69 in the main Victorian house to $125 in the separate Woodcutter’s Cottage, including homemade breakfast served by owner Donna Lewis. Call (707) 996-5339 for reservations.

Wine-Country Spa

Another option is to relax at the Sonoma Mission Inn, the wine country’s famed spa that’s two miles from town at Boyes Hot Springs. A one-night package, including spa program and dinner at its Grille, costs $340 single, $530 double. Rates for rooms only are $135/$275. Reservations: (707) 938-9000.

Before visiting some of Sonoma’s wineries, tour Lachryma Montis, the estate of Gen. Mariano Vallejo, founder of the Pueblo of Sonoma. Even after California became part of the United States he continued to be a prominent figure and was elected to the state Senate.

The ornate Yankee-style home Vallejo built in 1851 is half a mile from the plaza and furnished with family belongings.

First enter the Swiss Chalet, a fancy storehouse that is now a museum portraying the general’s remarkable life. Also look in the tiny hillside cabin where Vallejo’s 15-year-old son, Napoleon, lived with 14 dogs, 3 cats, 2 monkeys and a parrot.

Sons and Daughters

Two of Vallejo’s daughters married sons of Count Agoston Haraszthy, the Hungarian who collected cuttings from 300 varieties of French, Italian and Spanish wine grapes and brought them to Sonoma to start the area’s fine wine industry.

Signs direct you from town to the Hacienda Vineyards, site of the count’s original vineyards, where visitors can taste the winery’s vintages. Tastings and tours are offered nearby at the Buena Vista Winery that Haraszthy founded in 1857.

The fastest way to Sonoma is a flight from Los Angeles to San Francisco. With a rental car, drive north on U.S. 101. Beyond San Rafael, exit onto California 37 to pick up California 121 and join California 12 north to Sonoma’s plaza.

From Los Angeles by car, round trip is 910 miles.