Welcome to Sonoma Portworks
We are Sonoma County’s only winery specializing in port and after-dinner wines. We have been coaxing California grapes into elegant, well-balanced ports since 1994. Our tasting room and winery are tucked into the historic Foundry Wharf in downtown Petaluma, California.
Our tasting room is open for tastings Thursday – Monday Noon to 5pm. Reservations are encouraged. Our reasonable tasting fees are only $15 per person for non-club members. Club members receive complimentary tasting fees for up to 4 people per visit. If you join our club, you could have up to 4 tasting fees refunded to you on the day you sign up and you will begin receiving club benefits right away.
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Our Mission
Our mission is to create balanced ports where the grapes demonstrate their aroma and delicious flavors. We pride ourselves on providing our guests with a memorable tasting experience. We like to educate our customers about our port-making style. The making and aging of port require time, skill, and patience. Thankfully we have all three.
With sustainably-grown grapes purchased from family-owned vineyards, we create unique and delicious ports. Each vintage is a labor of love, the result of efforts by the dedicated team that also makes Sonoma Portworks unique.
As you look through our ‘port’-folio, you will see we have an extensive selection of other artisanal products. Our port-barrel-aged brandy and our fig-infused liqueur, to name a few. We also have our non-alcoholic food product line, Sonomic Almost Vinegar, which is like balsamic vinegar, only better. You’ve never tasted anything like this!
How we got started
Our founder, Bill Reading, always knew chocolate and wine were meant for each other. But chocolate and wine didn’t seem to think so. His attempts to marry the two into one unique after-dinner wine just didn’t work. That all changed on a night in 1994 when he and a winemaker friend took a chance and added a dash of dark chocolate essence to a glass of port.
One sip and he knew that he’d found the perfect pairing. That’s when DECO was born—a port with essences of natural dark chocolate. A year later, using his creative matchmaking skills, Bill created DUET, an after-dinner sherry with essences of natural hazelnut.
With their unique composition and sleek packaging, DECO and DUET revolutionized the fortified wine world. Many port and sherry producers have tried to copy this formula.
Bill’s creativity extends to other drinkable delights. We now offer single vintage, single vineyard ports made from sustainably grown petite sirah and petit verdot grapes, as well as our reserve and tawny ports. Our wines are hand (and foot) crafted into artisan, small batches. That’s right, we press our grapes with our feet (well…sanitized rubber boots)!
Bill has passed the winemaking down to Deneice Knotts, his right hand for over 20 years. She started making the ports in the challenging year of 2020 and is bringing in new varietals that hit the tasting room in 2022. We have to wait a couple of more years to see other new varietals.