Those working in the wine industry associate Healdsburg with some of Sonoma County’s finest wineries, not realizing it is also the location of the Sonoma County Wine Library. The public library at the Healdsburg branch of the Sonoma County Library holds approximately 5,000 wine books. The books on the shelves include the most recent literature, as well as rare books. The focus of the Sonoma County Wine Library is to provide information about viticulture, enology, and winemaking, but it has also become a valuable resource for the business side of the industry. It also chronicles the region’s wine history. The following data and research resources are available to wine professionals and wine lovers.
Wine Periodicals
The library subscribes to 40 wine periodicals, trade publications, and academic journals. The selection includes popular magazines such as Decanter and Wine Spectator. The peer-reviewed journals include the Journal of Wine Research and the Journal of Wine Economics. The trade publications most frequently accessed are the Gomberg-Fredrikson Report and Shanken’s Impact Newsletter, which provide the most up-to-date wine data and trends. As with any public library, visitors can browse the wine periodicals while there. You can check out any back issues if you have a Sonoma, Lake, or Mendocino County library card.
Reference Materials
The Wine Handbook by the Beverage Information Group is a popular resource for sales and marketing professionals providing comprehensive data on wine sales and consumption trends. The handbook costs almost $1200, so it is not always a feasible purchase for small wineries or independent consultants. Other reference materials at the library include the wine industry’s Directory and Buyer’s Guide, and various annual reports from the 1980s to the present. Another example is the Economic Impact of California Wine, a research report by Motto Kryla and Fisher. Reference materials will always be there for patrons visiting the branch.
Online Resources
The Biblioteca Vinaria Sonoma is a digital online collection of historic wine books and documents. It is a valuable resource for wine industry professionals looking for historical reports. The majority of the collection is from 1800-1923. An example from the collection is the History and Description of Modern Wines from 1833 by Cyrus Redding. It is considered one of the first books in English dedicated to wine. The collection also focuses on Sonoma viticulture and winemaking resources, such as the Soil Survey of the Healdsburg area, California from 1917 or Observation on some vine diseases in Sonoma County, California from 1905. The Biblioteca Vinaria Sonoma is a publicly accessible online resource.
The library has several other wine-related resources useful for researchers and scholars. The International Wine Research Database (IWRDB) is an online citation database dedicated to current and historical wine literature. The Wine Library collection also contains 26 oral histories of wine industry pioneers from Sonoma County. If visiting the branch, check out the ephemera folders, which hold menus, newsletters, and advertising for specific wineries in Sonoma County. There is also an extensive current and historical map and poster collection.
Megan Jones has been the Curator of the Sonoma County Wine Library since 2017 and has become a valuable resource for information to the local wine industry. Next time you are in Healdsburg, consider visiting the Sonoma County Wine Library. It’s like a small wine museum.
