Preston Farm and Winery
Lou and Susan Preston farm 125 acres of Dry Creek Valley and sell the vegetables next to the wine. Jug Day falls on the first Sunday of the month, and Esther Mobley says the wines are worth the dirt road.1
Why go
The Prestons took this land in 1973 and farm it as one thing.3 Vineyards run beside fruit trees, hedgerows guard the vegetable ground, small fields of grain hold birds and squirrels, and creeks through the property carry spawning salmon.3 The soil work is cover crops and compost.3 Their own summary of the method is short: less disturbance, less cultivation, fewer imported materials.3
Mobley calls it a farm in the true sense of the word, and the farm store beside the tasting room is the proof: fruit, vegetables and olive oil off the same ground, and a CSA you can join.1 The CSA is in its twelfth season and runs twenty weeks.3 The wines come out of the family's Italian antecedents and a later run of Rhone-style blends.3
Order this / avoid
- Order: Madam Preston. Mobley calls the cuvee of Roussanne, Marsanne and Grenache Blanc
honeyed, intensely floral.
1 - Order: L Preston, which she describes as
a peppery, spicy blend of Syrah, Mourvedre and Grenache.
The Prestons named both for themselves and both come last in the flight.1 - Order: the Cinsault if you want to see how light a red can go. Mobley's run through the flight is a yuzu-forward Sauvignon Blanc, then the Cinsault, then a brambly Zinfandel.1
- Avoid: arriving unbooked. Tastings are by appointment seven days a week, $35 a head, and they cap the party at six.2
What locals & experts say
- Esther Mobley, San Francisco Chronicle, Top Sonoma County Wineries 2025 (14 May 2025):
It's really worth driving down the winding dirt road to Preston for the wines, though, which are subtle, well made and consistently underrated.
1 - Mobley on the property:
Preston is a farm in the true sense of the word, growing vegetables and raising animals alongside organic grapevines at its beautiful 125-acre property in Healdsburg's Dry Creek Valley.
She counts twelve winery cats roaming it.1
Good to know
- Jug Day is the first Sunday of the month, and the 2026 dates are published through December.2
- Tastings are $35 a head for five or six estate wines over 60 to 75 minutes, outdoors when the weather allows, with covered space if it does not. Children count toward the party of six and are welcome.2
- Picnic tables book separately. Two hours, eight guests or fewer, bring your own food, and a wine purchase is required. No tasting comes with it.2
- The farm store is open 10am to 4pm seven days for bottles, olive oil, seasonal cider and whatever produce is up.2
Verdict
should-visit — The farm store sells fruit and olive oil alongside the vegetables, and there is a twenty-week CSA you can join. Mobley runs the flight from a yuzu-forward Sauvignon Blanc through an ultra-light Cinsault to the two Rhone cuvees named for the owners, and calls the Madam Preston honeyed and intensely floral. Thirty-five dollars, sixty to seventy-five minutes, six people at most, and children count in the six. No critic puts these in the top rank, so come for the flight and the farm store together.