Special Tours & Tastings Around Sonoma County

Sonoma County offers travellers an embarrassment of riches but until recently gourmands seeking a world-class dining experience often felt compelled to venture east to Napa Valley or south to San Francisco. Thanks to Kyle and Katina Connaughton, those days are over. The husband-and-wife team—he’s the executive chef; she’s the head of culinary gardens and farm manager—opened Single Thread in late 2016, instantly transforming the local food scene with their exquisite take on farm-driven, Asian-inspired haute cuisine. The 52-seat restaurant, which also features an upmarket five-room inn, received three stars from Michelin and makes it worth a special trip to Healdsburg.

The evening begins on the rooftop garden, where snacks are served, drinks are poured and the day’s stresses melt away. From this vantage point, just one street away from Healdsburg Plaza, you can see where the farm is located—about 10 minutes away on the banks of the Russian River. You are then escorted to the downstairs dining room, a stylish space that provides foodies with a clear view into the kitchen and offers design aficionados a master class in understated elegance. From the hand-carved wooden spoons to the custom sake cups (you get to pick your own!) to the Zalto stemware, every detail oozes excellence.

And then the food begins to arrive. Single Thread features three 11-course tasting menus—vegetarian, pescatarian and omnivore—and the Connaughtons’ love of Japanese culture shines throughout. The first course is a collection of intricately crafted single mouthfuls—hyper-local selections of impeccably plated vegetables and seafood. The bulk of the seasonal menu is constantly in flux but Dungeness crab, Mt  Lassen trout, Monterey Bay abalone, Sonoma grains and assorted treasures from the Connaughtons’ farm feature prominently. Every bite marries Californian produce with Japanese technique, and the results are uniformly magnificent without being the slightest bit fussy.

Excellence comes at a cost, of course. Dinner will set you back $225 per person, exclusive of service, and head sommelier Evan Hufford’s two wine-pairing options are $155 and $295. (The wine programme features many local favourites, including some hard-to-find bottles, and is worth every penny.) You’ll want to book at least several weeks in advance of your visit; new seats are released on the first of each month.

For the full Single Thread experience, book one of the rooms upstairs ($700–$1,000 per night) where you’ll find the latest Teforia tea system, Matouk linens, underfloor heating and a Japanese toilet that may startle you the first time you encounter it. You can help yourself to the goodies in the room, which include sweets created in the restaurant below and even a bottle of Pliny the Elder, the acclaimed (and hard-to-find) double IPA brewed down the road in Santa Rosa. Best of all, your overnight stay includes a high-end breakfast that somehow manages to build on your dinner experience from the night before and will prompt you to plan a return visit.

—John Godfrey

A sojourn in California wine country is virtually guaranteed to result in the palate being satisfied, but finding the right place to stay is important, too. With its varying landscapes, Sonoma County offers accommodation that ranges from luxury resorts to quaint B&Bs, all framed by spectacular surroundings. Consider these, listed roughly from north to south.

Seventy miles north of San Francisco, Healdsburg is home to Madrona Manor, which is a modernised historic 1881 Victorian mansion with plush suites, Michelin-starred dinners and extravagant service—all befitting its setting on eight acres of English-style gardens and wooded hillside. Take your gourmet buffet breakfast in the estate's parlour, if you can bear to leave your room outfitted with antiques, pillow-top mattresses and feather-soft linens.

If a quaint, historic B&B or private bungalow is more your style, you’ll find joy amid the vineyards outside Healdsburg at places like the Raford Inn, an 1880 Victorian plantation where breakfast brings stuffed French toast soufflé, and evenings glide in with complimentary wine tastings from neighbouring wineries.

The spa treatments at Forestville’s Farmhouse Inn use herbs and heirloom cider apples grown at the resort.

A dozen or so miles to the south, Forestville’s Farmhouse Inn and Restaurant offers a ravishing mix of gorgeous guest rooms and a Michelin-starred restaurant supplied with farm-fresh food. Its seasonally inspired spa uses massage oils enriched by herbs and even heirloom apples grown at the inn.

Or perhaps the ocean is calling, in which case Bodega Bay Lodge beckons as the only AAA Four Diamond hotel on the Sonoma Coast. The seaside perch, about 33 miles south-west of Forestville, offers a luxury escape, in snug rooms with fireplaces, feather duvets and private balconies for stargazing. But make time to dine too, at the resort’s Drakes Sonoma Coast Cuisine (the seafood on the menu comes from the same ocean glittering outside the windows). Or indulge in a sea-inspired spa treatment like the massage using warm tiger-clam seashells.

About 23 miles inland, at Santa Rosa’s Vintners Inn, a 78-room hotel nestled amidst 92 acres of Sonoma farmland, guests can luxuriate in spa treatments and ramble along two miles of paths. And a short drive further east, at the Landmark Vineyards Cottage in Kenwood, there are two private cottages built on the edge of the vines to choose from, and happily they both overlook an award-winning winery estate in the foothills of the Mayacamas Mountains.

Another notable retreat less than 10 miles down the road is the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa, with its 3,700-square-metre spa built over a natural underground hot spring.

Run hand-in-hand on the beach. Wander across grassy meadows. Savour a picnic in a mountaintop forest. Such fantasies can easily become reality in Sonoma County. An oasis stretching from the gorgeous Mayacamas mountain range to the Pacific Ocean, the region boasts so many parks, reserves, beaches and vast open agricultural areas that you’re never more than a few minutes away from another outdoor adventure.

Salt Point State Park, for instance, located about 94 miles north of San Francisco, features a marine conservation area and 20 miles of walking paths along the rugged coastline, making it a prime spot to watch grey and blue whales. Grab a perch at Ocean Overlook to see the gentle giants travelling south to Baja California in January, heading from the Chukchi Sea near Alaska—then watch them travel back north in April or May for the summer feeding season. Salt Point has two campsites, one atop the cliffs on the ocean side of Highway 1 and one on the eastern side of Highway 1.

Head inland about 60 miles to Glen Ellen’s Jack London State Historic Park, and you’ll see history, romance and nature intermingle so harmoniously that it’s no surprise that the famous author called the area his 'Beauty Ranch'. Walkers and horse riders share the 26 miles of paths to a 2,000-year-old redwood tree and the centuries-old terraced gardens (the original version of sustainable farming). Don’t miss the ruins of the huge Wolf House that the London family had built, but which burned down before they could move in.

Annadel State Park in Santa Rosa offers more than 40 miles of paths for walking, cycling or horse riding.

Less than five miles north of Glen Ellen, in Kenwood, you’ll find Sugarloaf Ridge State Park, home of the headwaters of Sonoma Creek. Climb the 832-metre summit of Bald Mountain, and on a clear day, you can see the Golden Gate Bridge. Sugarloaf also has the Robert Ferguson Observatory, which provides year-round astronomy education with the help of some of the largest telescopes dedicated to public use.

Even Sonoma County’s largest city, Santa Rosa (with fewer than 200,000 residents), is anchored by an enormous park. Annadel State Park spreads out over more than 5,500 acres of rolling hills, lakes, streams, meadows and woodland. Walkers, equestrians, mountain bikers and runners are all drawn here for the more than 40 miles of paths. Keep your eyes peeled for a sight of the rare California red-legged frogs, popularised in Mark Twain’s short story 'The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County'. In Guerneville, you can walk the paths at Armstrong Redwoods State Natural Reserve, home to a grove of majestic coastal redwoods—including one tree that is taller than an American football field is long. And in the city of Sonoma itself, Sonoma State Historic Park, which consists of six central locations each featuring a historic attraction, and Depot Park both offer facilities for outdoor fun and relaxation such as bocce courts, picnic tables, playgrounds and cycle paths.

If you’re wine tasting in central Sonoma County, you’ll probably hear the phrase 'Petaluma Gap' at some point. It’s a curious term, since there are only a few wineries in Petaluma, which include Keller Estate and Kastania Vineyards, but the unique geography here gives many surrounding vineyards a famous, distinctive character. The 15-mile-wide 'gap' flows from the ocean between Tomales Bay and Bodega Bay, through the coastal range mountains and into San Francisco Bay, delivering wind, fog and soil enrichment to the local grapevines.

As a town, Petaluma was built on its own river, which made it easy to deliver goods, like its world-famous eggs and chickens, to Oakland and San Francisco. Today, it’s still known for world-class food, such as Cowgirl Creamery cheese, McEvoy Ranch olive oil, and both ROCKY the Free Range Chicken and ROSIE the Original Organic Chicken (both from Petaluma Poultry, founded in 1969 and still immensely popular).

By the same token, it’s no wonder central Petaluma's restaurants are held in such high esteem (see Central Market, Cucina Paradiso and the Michelin-starred Risibisi). Locally produced ingredients star on plenty of restaurant plates around town, like the roasted chicken, avocado, mozzarella and mixed greens on hearth-baked pain de campagne at the beloved Della Fattoria’s artisan bakery.

Nightlife is another hallmark of this stretch of normally sleepy wine country; check out top-rated craft brewpub Lagunitas Brewing Company; The Block Petaluma, a food-van market with 30 taps and on-site wood-fired pizza; or the historic McNear's Mystic Theatre, famous for its live music. But first, spend a day shopping at the top-notch antiques stores lining Petaluma Boulevard. Check Visit Petaluma for upcoming events.

There’s no shortage of places to stay when visiting the area. If you’re looking to commune with nature, there are several campsites in the vicinity, including both KOA sites and ones that offer a cushier glamping experience.

Once considered just a 'hippie' town, Sebastopol is now arguably the arts and creative centre of West Sonoma County. Its main hotspot is The Barlow, a $23.8 million culinary, wine and arts centre that spans 12.5 beautifully landscaped acres. You can explore its wine tasting rooms, craft breweries, art galleries and even some innovative, garage-style restaurants. But Sebastopol still has its earnest hippie soul, so banish any thoughts of chains: all tenants must be locals, making their own products. It’s so producer-driven that even much of the landscaping is edible, used in the restaurants’ food and cocktails.

This is still a small town too, with a central area just a few streets long and a scattering of outlying antique, ranch and clothing stores where all the owners (and most of the customers) are locals. Residents are fiercely proud of their off-beat and intimate town, evidenced by elements like the tie-dyes of Cali Kind Clothing Co. and the wondrous insect-eating plants found at the California Carnivores nursery (the hungry flowers add flair and function to any home).

Other things to do include taking a walk down a stretch of Florence Avenue, where you can see the various 'trash art' sculptures made from random discarded items by a local team of creatives. Or learn about the history of western Sonoma County at the West County Museum, which is housed in a restored 1917 railway depot. If visiting in the summer, for a truly local culinary experience you must try a Gravenstein apple. They’re famous in these parts but are difficult to find elsewhere in the country due to their soft skins; they do not travel well.

Otherwise, small-production wineries and vineyards sit amid the maritime-fog-enveloped hillsides here, like Kosta Browne, Iron Horse, Dutton Estate Winery and Cirq. A day of tasting is like a celebrity tour, sampling the works of big-name but tiny-production vintners such as Paul Hobbs, Merry Edwards and O’Connell (the latter the winner of the acclaimed 2016 Pinot Cup for its stellar Pinot Noir).

Sebastopol is also the place to come for restaurants that offer inventive, handcrafted and sustainable dining, like Ramen Gaijin and the French-meets-hyperlocal K&L Bistro, where most ingredients come from Sebastopol (on Sunday mornings, make sure you take a wander around the central farmers' market). Non-vegetarians, meanwhile, will love Zazu Kitchen + Farm from The Next Iron Chef contender Duskie Estes, who offers up bacon, bacon and more bacon—all from her own sustainably raised pigs.

Back in 2008, Guerneville was a sleepy Russian River hide-away best known for its spectacular natural wonders like the primeval redwood forests, year-round waterfalls and the back-country wilderness spanning the nearly 6,000-acre Austin Creek State Recreation Area. Today, the tiny town of less than 5,000 people is still a shining jewel of Sonoma County's West Coast vibe, but it’s also become a hip dining destination and a burgeoning resort retreat.

Boon Hotel + Spa, for instance, is an intimate, eco-chic retreat on the edge of the 805-acre Armstrong Woods State Natural Reserve. Its sister restaurant Boon Eat + Drink sits a short walk away on Main Street, near Big Bottom Market (best biscuits ever) and El Barrio bar, which brings tequila, mezcal and bourbon to wine country. But don’t think there are fancy attitudes: the town’s heart is still an eclectic mix of dimly lit but convivial bars, so-tacky-they’re-fun souvenir shops, quirky art galleries and modern hippie types looking to escape big-city bother. There’s also plenty of flair from the drag queens and alt-lifestylers who’ve made Guerneville their home.

To see how down-to-earth culture translates into wine, taste the certified biodynamic wines from the mountainside Porter-Bass Winery, run by winemaker and Earth child Luke Bass, with his heritage chickens, tail-wagging coonhound and saluki dogs. Before you leave town, relax with the locals at Johnson's Beach, a slip of sand that beckons beneath Guerneville’s entryway bridge, with beach chairs, canoes, kayaks and pedal boats for hire.