A good friend just got engaged and they are thinking of having the wedding in Northern California (anywhere from Santa Cruz Mountains to Napa/Sonoma) if they can find a nice winery to have it. They plan to have about 75 guests. Does anyone have any suggestions for possible wineries to look into? Any help is much appreciated.

Thanks,
Jeff

In the South Bay Area; Leal, Clos La Chance, Byington, and Fogarty are set up for weddings.

Fogarty is cool. You might also consider Testarossa, which is much easier to get to than Byington (20 mins up Bear Creek Rd) and Fogarty (Skyline).  The wine is also a lot better Finally, you can pre/post party in Los Gatos, which is 5 mins down the road. http://www.testarossa.com/weddings.html

I like the Testarossa idea because then I can push to have my finder's fee paid with a dinner at Manresa.

Reverie Winery. I've never visited but I'v tried their wines and met one of the owners and employees at a tasting. Nice group of folks. They also own the Butterfly Cafe in SF, so the catering should be pretty good.

http://www.reveriewine.com

What kind of budget? With the proper budget, there are some amazing places in Napa/Sonoma to get married. Wine is weak, but the indoor ballroom & wine caves at Jarvis are amazing. Castello di Amarosa has weak wine as well, but getting married in an authentic italian castle has its upsides. Phelps and Shafer also do weddings I believe; shafer just finished a new area. Or you might just use a resource like
http://www.napavalley.com/eventplanning/weddings.html

In the south bay area, Byington is awfully nice; views are to die for, they have a room for the married couple to stay in overnight. Also, the manager is a friend of mine :-) Easy enough to hire bus service to downtown los gatos for those that do not want to navigate bear creek road.

Fogarty is very good as well, but IMO even more difficult to get to than Byington. Testarossa... well, the views are OK, but not awe inspiring.

They decided to stay in Chicago. I was hoping for a California wedding just for the chance to get back. Thanks again for the all the suggestions though, my wife is talking about renewing our vows and I figure California is the place to go for that.