Sonoma Winery Seeks Approval To Expand Footprint, Visitors, Parking

SONOMA, CA — A prominent Sonoma winery wants county approval to expand its hospitality operations with new tasting barns, a commercial kitchen, more office space, and additional parking on its Ramal Road estate.

The Donum Estate applied for a use permit modification for its property at 24520 Ramal Road.

The Sonoma Valley Community Advisory Commission will review the proposal Wednesday ahead of the county's final land-use decision.

The proposal calls for two single-story hospitality buildings totaling about 2,470 square feet. The buildings would include tasting rooms, storage space, a commercial kitchen, an outdoor pizza oven, and a barbecue area.

The winery also proposes a new single-story administrative office building totaling about 2,480 square feet.

In addition, the Donum Estate wants to reuse an existing 953-square-foot cottage for retail sales and storage.

The application seeks to legalize a break room and restroom inside the existing White Barn, which would be used as a tasting space for wine club members.

Visitors and events

The application would increase visitation to as many as 55 tasting visitors per day, or up to 20,000 visitors annually. The daily visitor cap would include 15 wine-tasting visitors and 40 visitors taking part in wine-and-food pairings.

The winery also proposes increasing staffing to 22 full-time employees, one part-time employee, and eight seasonal employees.

However, the winery is not seeking changes to production, marketing events, or operating hours, according to the permit application. The winery’s existing annual production capacity is listed at 20,000 cases.

However, the plans include 33 additional parking spaces and a 36-space event parking lot, bringing the site total to 99 parking spaces.

The application says special events would not occur at the same time as tastings, and valet service would be used during special events.

The property, which spans about 186 acres, includes vineyards, winery buildings, barns, hospitality areas, a cottage, ponds, and agricultural uses.

The new buildings would sit at least 1,400 feet from public roads and would not be visible from public roads.

County review of the application is pending.

Meeting: Sonoma Valley Community Advisory Commission
6:30 p.m. May 24
177 First St. West and online