|
||||||||
SONOMA County Business Directory |
|
|
||||||
Yellow Pages
|
||||||||
SONOMA County
|
||||||||
Visitors Center
|
||||||||
Sonoma County
is on the northwest coast of
California, in the greater San Francisco Bay Area, USA. Its population
at the 2000 census was 458,614. Its largest city and county seat is
Santa Rosa.
Sonoma is the southwestern county of California's Wine Country region:
Napa, Sonoma, Mendocino,
and Lake counties. It has thirteen approved American Viticultural
Areas, and over 250 wineries.
In 2002 Sonoma County ranked as the second county in the United States
in agricultural production. As early as 1920 Sonoma County was ranked
as the eighth most productive U.S county, largely due to the abundance
of high quality irrigation water.
Winemaking—both the growing of
the grapes and their vinting—is an important part of the economic and
cultural life of Sonoma County. In 2004, growers harvested 165,783
tonss (150,396 tonnes) of wine grapes worth US$310 million. In 2006
the Sonoma County grape harvest amounted to over 185,000 tons,
exceeding Napa County's harvest by over 30 percent.[11] About 80
percent of non-pasture agricultural land in the county is for growing
wine grapes—59,973 acres (242.70 km˛) of vineyards, with over 1100
growers. The most common varieties planted are Chardonnay, Cabernet
Sauvignon, and Pinot Noir, though the area is also known for its
Merlot and Zinfandel.
Sonoma County is home to more than 250 wineries with eleven distinct
and two shared American Viticultural Areas, including the Sonoma
Valley, Russian River Valley, Alexander Valley, Bennett Valley and Dry
Creek Valley, the last of which is known for the production of
high-quality zinfandels.
More than 7.4 million tourists visit each year, spending more than $1 billion in 2006. Sonoma County is the home of Sonoma State University and Santa Rosa Junior College.
