Sonoma Portworks
Fortified wine and nothing but, made in Petaluma since 1994. Bill and Caryn Reading handed it to Heringer Estates in 2025, so the sign now reads Portworks.1
Why go
Sonoma County has a couple of hundred wineries and, by this one's own account, it was the only one that existed to make port.1 The Readings started in 1994 and ran it for thirty-one years. In 2025 they passed it to Heringer Estates, a Clarksburg family that has farmed for generations, and the room reopened under the shorter name.1 The pour is wider now. Ports first, then Heringer's still and sparkling wines, plus slushies and a non-alcoholic line.1 What the site leaves out is the method, so I cannot tell you the base grape or how long the port sits in wood.
Order this / avoid
- Order: the fortified wines. That is the reason the address exists, and the Heringer bottles are the side quest.1
- Avoid: Tuesday and Wednesday. Closed both days.1
Good to know
- Hours: noon to 5 on Monday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday, noon to 6 on Saturday.1
- The winery calls its ports award-winning and names no competition, category or year, so treat that as a wall and not a record.1
- The name on the door changed in 2025. Look for Portworks, not Sonoma Portworks.1
Verdict
could-visit — Bill and Caryn Reading spent thirty-one years making fortified wine in a county that mostly does not, and by their own account this was Sonoma County's only dedicated port winery from 1994. In 2025 they handed it to Heringer Estates in Clarksburg, so the sign now reads Portworks by Heringer Estates and the pour has widened to still and sparkling wines. The room opens Thursday through Monday from noon. The rung is could-visit because the winery is the only witness and nothing published describes the port itself, not the base grape, not the fortification, not the time in barrel.