Ledson Winery & Vineyards
Steve Ledson built a castle on Highway 12 and pours five wines inside it, $45 standing or $65 seated. The marketplace by the door sells sandwiches.1
Why go
The tasting is the product here and it comes in five sizes.1 The Classic puts you at one of three bars named for Steve Ledson's father Noble and his uncles Winslow and Whitby, five wines from $38 to $60 a bottle, $45.1 The Seated is $65 for five wines from $40 to $96.1 The Private, $95, runs in a suite named for a family member and pours five reserve and limited bottles from $68 to $150.1 At the top is the Mountain Terraces flight at $125, five wines off the western slopes of the Mayacamas in the Moon Mountain District.1 The names come off a farming line that runs back to William Cunningham, Ledson's great-grandfather, who planted 35 acres of Zinfandel and Aleatico and sold wine commercially in the mid-1860s.1
Order this / avoid
- Order: the Classic at $45 if you want the bar and the story, or the Reserved Table at $30 a head if you want nobody hovering. The table price includes a bottle for every two people.1
- Order: the cheese and charcuterie board, $19 a person, added to any tasting.1
- Avoid: cancelling inside 72 hours. The winery charges the full tasting fee plus anything ordered from the marketplace.1
Good to know
- Booking: through Tock. Walk-ins are welcome when there is room.1
- Reserved tables are booked by phone or email rather than online, on 707.537.3823.1
- Everything here is the winery's own account. No independent review of these wines was found.
Verdict
could-visit — Everything known about this estate comes from the estate, which caps how high it can sit. What the winery does publish is unusually useful: five ways in at five prices, from a $30 reserved table where nobody hovers to a $125 flight of Mountain Terraces wines off the Moon Mountain District slopes. The Cunningham line behind it is real family history, back to 35 acres of Zinfandel and Aleatico planted by Steve Ledson's great-grandfather. No critic has published a tasting note on any of it in the record here, and the winery's own 95-to-99-point claim names nobody, so the rung reflects a good visit rather than a proven bottle.