Significant Eater and I just spent a great week in northern California, beginning with 3 nights in Sonoma wine country, followed by 4 nights in San Francisco. You know, leaving NYC for a week during the miserable weather of late August may become habit-forming.
Central to the 6-ish northern Sonoma County wine appellations is Healdsburg, a beautiful town with nice restaurants, a few bars, and in its center, numerous tasting rooms - all within walking distance from the Camellia Inn. One of the oldest houses in Healdsburg, the Camellia Inn is a fine starting point for exploring the area, whether you set out by bike, by car, or by foot if you're just heading "downtown." Breakfast is generous, the pool out back is chill for hanging out, and the rooms are welcoming. The inn even hooked us up with some nice wine tasting freebies, as I imagine many of the lodgings in Sonoma do.
After a 3 hour drive from the airport (the traffic on Saturdays is a nightmare, but not a surprise), after checking in, and after having a quick nap, we headed into town to taste a bit before dinner. Stonestreet Winery has a room in town; we buy a few bottles from Stonestreet via their wine club - so post the standard tasting, we were treated to a vertical tasting of their 3 most recent Rockfall Cabernet Sauvignon releases - 2010, 2011, and 2012...the 2010 is already a beauty, while the 2 later vintages will benefit from a few more years of age...
Central to the 6-ish northern Sonoma County wine appellations is Healdsburg, a beautiful town with nice restaurants, a few bars, and in its center, numerous tasting rooms - all within walking distance from the Camellia Inn. One of the oldest houses in Healdsburg, the Camellia Inn is a fine starting point for exploring the area, whether you set out by bike, by car, or by foot if you're just heading "downtown." Breakfast is generous, the pool out back is chill for hanging out, and the rooms are welcoming. The inn even hooked us up with some nice wine tasting freebies, as I imagine many of the lodgings in Sonoma do.
After a 3 hour drive from the airport (the traffic on Saturdays is a nightmare, but not a surprise), after checking in, and after having a quick nap, we headed into town to taste a bit before dinner. Stonestreet Winery has a room in town; we buy a few bottles from Stonestreet via their wine club - so post the standard tasting, we were treated to a vertical tasting of their 3 most recent Rockfall Cabernet Sauvignon releases - 2010, 2011, and 2012...the 2010 is already a beauty, while the 2 later vintages will benefit from a few more years of age...
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| Stonestreet Rockfall Vertical |
Dinner that night, after catching a bit of a buzz from the travel and wine, was at SHED. Not The Shed...just SHED. SHED's a place where you can shop; where you can gather; where you can drink switchels and shims and shrubs; where you can kibbitz; and - where you can dine quite nicely, thank you. The California aesthetic is in its full glory here...
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| Monterey Squid, Eggplant, Red Curry, etc. |
Remember back when David Chang caused a stir a few year ago, saying: "Fuckin' every restaurant in San Francisco is just serving figs on a plate. Do something with your food!" Was he talking about this rabbit liver terrine, because it is figs on a plate - and so much more...
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| Rabbit Liver Terrine with Figs |
Don’t go crazy trying to visit as many wineries as possible; instead choose 2 or 3 places a day, in different appellations, so that you’re able to see as much of the scenery as you can. Me, I'm driving - so I'm not drinking, and how much wine can Sig Eater drink before dinner anyway? One of the highlights this trip was Rochioli, a pioneering Russian River Valley winery that produces Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc. Some of their vineyards...
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| Rochioli Vineyards |
And pinot noir "berries" just about ready for picking...
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| Pinot Berries |
Heading west from Rochioli towards the coast (stop at Porter Creek Vineyards - it's on the way), you'd hit the town of Guerneville, where we lunched at Boon Eat+Drink, a little joint that's an outpost of the Boon Hotel+Spa (what's with the ++ signs?), and where I had a good burger and eschewed the truffle fries. Walk around town after lunch, soak in the...well...remoteness of it all, along with the beauty of the redwoods that are left after the logging of the 19th and 20th centuries. Dinner this 2nd night in Healdsburg, after a sip of wine by the pool at the inn, was at Baci Cafe and Wine Bar. A fantastic wines by-the-glass list is the real draw here, in my opinion. The menu is expansive, and physically imposing, but we kept it simple, local, and somewhat light, starting with this tomato salad...
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| Baci Tomato, Plum, Asian Pear Salad |
On a Sunday night, Baci was ready for us to leave at 9, and we got back to the inn just before the sidewalks were rolled up. Next morning we stopped back at SHED, for a fermented drink from their fermentation bar, and picked up a couple of sandwiches and great pickled stuff for a picnic lunch at Bella Winery, a property with a tasting room in their wine cave; it's at the northern end of Dry Creek Valley. Here we found one of the elusive 2015 rosés we'd been hearing about; evidentlyt 2015 was a good year for Sonoma rosés, which had sold out by Father's Day this year, but Bella had a bottle or two left - Sig Eater declared it one of the best California rosés she'd tasted. After I was unceremoniously chased off of the Bella property by a belligerent bee, we headed east, back over the Russian River to the Alexander Valley and the Robert Young Estate Winery, known for their Chardonnays and Cabs, as well as some lesser known Bordeaux varietals. Jordan, Stonestreet, and a slew of other wineries are in the Alexander Valley, and they're each a nice stop on any wine tour; check first, you may need a reservation to visit.
Down to our last night in town, we started off the evening heading to a brand new place, Duke's Spirited Cocktails. Open for less than 2 months, but helmed by some real cocktail pros, Duke's back bar is a looker...
Down to our last night in town, we started off the evening heading to a brand new place, Duke's Spirited Cocktails. Open for less than 2 months, but helmed by some real cocktail pros, Duke's back bar is a looker...
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| Duke's Spirited Cocktails |
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| Duke's Rangpur Me Some More |
Perfect for a summer evening, a blend of Opihr gin, Rangpur lime shrub, saffron bitters, house tonic and pink peppercorns. And my Mic Drop, a Dickel Rye based Manhattan-ish cocktail, also was good. But it was my no-name cocktail, concocted on the spot out of these ingredients, which led me to believe that in another life, if we were living in Healdsburg and I was still bitter, we'd be spending way too much time at Duke's...
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| Duke's No-Name Cocktail |
Originally, we had scheduled dinner at a restaurant called Chalkboard, which took over the beloved Cyrus space a few years ago (we'd had a great meal at Cyrus once). But then I'd heard some whisperings about a newer place, with high aspirations, called Valette. Curing their own meats. Local boys (brothers!) made good. So we switched things up, and had dinner at Valette instead. Was it a mistake? I can't say for sure, because obviously we didn't get to taste the food at Chalkboard. And while some of what we ate was just fine, both Sig Eater and I found a few of the plates to be way too salty; for salt lovers like us, that's kinda hard to do. The wine list was a standout, however, and desserts were great, so the meal ended on a high note.
We left Healdsburg the next morning, driving south to San Francisco, which at a light traffic time on a mid-week day, takes a little over an hour. On our way out of town, we stopped into Flying Goat Coffee, a Healdsburg mainstay for 20 years. I grabbed an iced, Sig Eater an Americano. Both were just fine, and we were on our way.
A little more Healdsburg info:
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