Valley of the Moon Winery keeps tradition fresh
Budbreak season arrives
at Valley of the Moon
Winery, nestled in tranquil
Sonoma Valley.
28 / the tasting panel / june 2009
I
t started with the Miwok Indians. This California-dwelling
Native American group called their home Sonoma—usually
translated "valley of the moons"—because the moon seemed
to rise and set several times in the evening as it appeared and
disappeared behind the neighboring peaks of the Mayacamas
Mountains to the east. The name was slightly shortened by cele-
brated novelist and local resident Jack London when he published
Valley of the Moon in 1913.
By the mid-nineteenth century, Sonoma was a burgeoning
wine region and home to some of California's earliest wineries.
One of these, in the hamlet of Glen Ellen, fi rst opened in 1863, mak-
ing it one of the oldest in the area. In the 1880s the winery was sold
and renamed Madrone Vineyards; it would later be owned by Sena-
tor George Hearst, father of William Randolph Hearst, and its wines
served to dignitaries in Washington.
story and photos by David Gadd
Sonom
Moonrise in
