Why California Wine Country Is Better Than Ever
By Paul Brady. Photos: George Rose/Getty, Courtesy Francis Ford Coppola Winery.
Many think of Sonoma County as the relatively laid-back sibling of the more-polished Napa/St. Helena corridor. But Sonoma’s Healdsburg feels white-hot these days thanks to the December opening of SingleThread Farms, a restaurant/inn that quickly became as pilgrimage-worthy as any cult cabernet. Owners (and high-school sweethearts) Kyle and Katina Connaughton spent years cooking and farming in Hokkaido, Japan, and Berkshire, England, before returning to their native California with a vision for a property that would embrace the Japanese concept of omotenashi—the sort of thoughtful (and rigorous) approach to hospitality found in the best ryokans. In the dining room, they do an ever-evolving 11-course tasting menu that’s as much kaiseki as it is West Coast farm-to-table, with produce from their own fields. Upstairs are five AvroKO-designed loft-like rooms with wood-beam ceilings and exposed white brick walls (and Teforia tea infusers, housemade chamomile ice cream in the minibar, and ceramic vases with flower arrangements by Katina). The room service breakfast (a spread of dishes like grilled trout, clay-pot rice, and umami-packed miso soup) might make you want to hole up here, but don’t: In a long weekend you can hike, sip, eat your face off, and still get plenty of breakfast-in-bed time.
Our Sonoma Shortlist
Armstrong Redwoods State Natural Reserve, GuernevilleThink of it as a mini Redwoods National Forest, with 805 acres of unbelievably massive, centuries-old trees and a variety of easy to sweat-it-out-difficult hikes. Go in the morning, before that impossibly atmospheric Pacific fog burns off.
Campo Fina, Healdsburg This Italian joint has outdoor dining and a well-stocked bar, and the back patio gets packed in summer when the bocce picks up.
Francis Ford Coppola Winery, Geyserville Of course you can do a tasting, but locals come for the swimming pool, open spring to fall (passes are $35); they’ve even got private cabines with lounge chairs that rent from $170 a day.
Geyserville Gun Club Bar & Lounge, Geyserville They’ve traded the firearms for frosty Gibson cocktails and General Tso wings.
Jimtown Store, Alexander Valley A casual carry-out making some of Sonoma’s best sandwiches—peanut butter, bacon, and pepper jam; hot pastrami Reuben—and killer biscuits for breakfast.
Medlock Ames, Alexander Valley The winery’s low-key tasting room has pours of cabs, chardonnays, and pinots until 5 p.m., when the space turns into the Alexander Valley Bar, serving refreshing cocktails like the Medlock Mule, with house-made verjus and ginger beer.
Scopa, Healdsburg Hit this Italian spot for Winemaker Wednesdays, when local vintners like Kevin Rogers from Nico Wines and Eric Sussman from Radio-Coteau work the room, pouring their own reds and whites while sharing their backstories.
Scribe Winery, Sonoma Its “hacienda,” which opened in January, is a newly restored nineteenth-century homestead that hosts reservation-only tastings and dinners paired with its estate-grown chardonnay.
Shed, Healdsburg An all-in-one coffee shop, takeout café, and home-goods store stocked with kitchenwares like Laguiole knives and the Japanese clay pots known as donabe. They’ve also got what could be the country’s only “fermentation bar,” serving kombuchas and zippy vinegary shrubs.
Meanwhile in Napa Valley...
When you’re thinking about a weekend of wine drinking/tasting, Napa may seem a little... expected. But the motherland of butter and oak has evolved with a wave of new openings. The 65-room Yabu Pushelberg–designed Las Alcobas is the first-ever luxury property to open in downtown St. Helena, and its restaurant, Acacia House, has spit-roasted leg of lamb and chicken molé from chef Chris Cosentino of S.F.’s Cockscomb and Boccalone. Less than two miles away, Two Birds/One Stone opened last summer with oak- and grapevine-fired yakitori from two chefs, Sang Yoon of really good burgers-and-beers joint Father’s Office in Santa Monica and Douglas Keane of Healdsburg’s now-shuttered and still-missed Cyrus. Soon-to-open Charter Oak, a new, more casual restaurant from Christopher Kostow and Nathaniel Dorn, who won three Michelin stars for their sort of precious (but so exceptional) Restaurant at Meadowood in St. Helena, will further cement that town’s rep for food worth traveling across the country for. In Yountville, ten miles southeast on Highway 29, Protéa opened last spring with Latin American street food (mushroom and cheese empanadas, shrimp tacos with cabbage slaw) that’s a welcome alternative to Napa tasting menus. Even NorCal icon The French Laundry is making some changes. This spring, Thomas Keller’s flagship will open a Snøhetta-designed kitchen and courtyard worth seeing even if you don’t have a reservation.
This story originally appeared on Conde Nast Traveler.
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