Collections and Research at the Wine Library

  • Woman pulling book on wine off of the shelf
  • Angled image of the periodical shelves showing about 10 magazine covers

    The Wine Library subscribes to some 45 journals and magazines related to wine

  • Close-up view of a soil map that is focused on the Healdsburg region

    The Wine Library has an extensive map collection, both current and historical

  • Screenshot of the Wine Photography collection on the Heritage Collections website

    Through the Sonoma County Library's Heritage Collections you can access digitized photos, oral histories, and books from the Wine Library

  • Multiple colorful posters laid out on a table

    The Wine Library collects all kinds of posters

  • Scanned image of the frontispiece of the Libro de Agricultura

    In our collections are some 1,000 rare books, such as the Libro de Agricultura of Herrera (1584)

  • Four different wine labels from Italian Swiss Colony side by side

    Our collection of wine labels includes local historical examples as well as items from all over the world

  • Screenshot of the IWRDB home page and search bar

    The International Wine Research Database (IWRDB), formerly Winefiles, allows researchers to locate articles on almost any wine topic

Digital Collections

The Wine Library features several digital collections as part of Sonoma County Library's Sonoma County Local History & Culture project:

The Sonoma County Wine Library's online local history collection includes images of historical interest of the Sonoma County wine industry from the 1870s through the 1990s. These images portray the wine makers and companies of Sonoma County, past and present.

From proclamations of George III on wine regulations to letters describing the grape production in Sonoma Valley vineyards, the Sonoma County Wine Library's collection includes a wide range of historical texts on all aspects of viticulture and winemaking. The digitized books, pamphlets and ephemera available through theSonoma County Local History & Culture represent the majority of the Wine Library's holdings available in the public domain (published before 1923).

One of the most important roles for the Wine Library historically for this region has been in the creation and preservation of the oral histories of important industry personalities. Our digital collections feature the full audio and transcriptions of many North Coast wine histories.

 

Periodicals

The Wine Library currently subscribes to 40-plus magazines and journals. We do not keep all of our journals in perpetuity, but we do have full runs of several industry trade publications. You can view our holdings in the Library Catalog or inquire for more information.