California Wine Country

For those visiting Wine Country, I’d always recommend starting out in Healdsburg. When you try to picture a quintessential American town, it’s exactly that, with so much charm. It’s got everything from diners and ice cream parlors to three-Michelin-Star spots. Elsewhere in Northern Sonoma, a really fun place to visit is The Barlow in Sebastopol, a culinary and arts center filled with great restaurants and shops. I also love the quirkiness of Occidental, which has a hippie vibe and feels like you’ve headed back to the 1960s. It’s a great place for people watching.

My top choice to eat in Healdsburg would be Valette in the Downtown area. It’s run by chef Dustin Valette, who also owns The Matheson nearby, and the food there is just phenomenal. Start with the Hawaiian ahi poke (diced fish) before moving on to the Liberty duck breast. In Geyserville, Cyrus recently earned a Michelin Star and has a tasting menu concept that takes around three hours and is made up of eight courses. The incredible experience starts with champagne in the bubbles room before moving into the kitchen.

Obviously, there are lots of places to drink great wine, but Maison Healdsburg is one of my favorites. It’s owned by three former sommeliers from SingleThread, a three-Michelin-Star restaurant in town, and it combines Old World wine with New World wine. So, if you wanted to try a Chardonnay from Sonoma and a Chardonnay from France, you can try them next to each other.

Wherever you are in Wine Country, you’re pretty much guaranteed to find a farmer’s market. The one in Healdsburg is on Saturday morning, and I’ll go there to pick up fresh flowers and baskets of berries. For high-end groceries, head to Oliver’s Market in Windsor, where you can buy first-class cheeses and vegetables.

Healdsburg is a very dog-friendly town – I joke that as soon as you move here, you have to get a dog – and there’s a great store called Fideaux that sells everything from treats and toys to fun leashes. Bon Ton Studio is the best place for fashion and jewelry, while Bon Ton Baby sells the cutest gifts for children.

Northern California is known for its redwood forests and about 30 minutes from Downtown Healdsburg is Armstrong Redwoods State Natural Reserve, which is full of the most beautiful, massive trees. On the weekends, my wife and I love taking our dog to Jenner, which is about an hour from Healdsburg. It’s right on the ocean and when you’re hiking up the hillside, overlooking the water, it’s just gorgeous.

Biking is big in Sonoma. For mountain biking, I love going to Trione-Annadel State Park, which has great hills. Every weekend there’s a lively crowd there using the trails. There are just so many wonderful places to get out into nature here.

Downtown Napa has come a long way over recent years and there’s so much that’s changed – before, there was just one hotel and one restaurant there. Now, there’s an amazing collection of restaurants, great shopping, and so many wine-tasting rooms to try. Yountville is another fun spot to visit because it’s home to some of the world’s greatest restaurants, from The French Laundry to Bouchon Bistro.

I also love Sonoma Plaza, which is about ten minutes away from Southern Napa. There are so many great things to see and do there, from Portuguese tapas restaurants and wine-tasting spots to antique shops and art stores. There’s also a beautiful big park right in the middle of it, which I love walking around.

You’re spoiled for choice when it comes to food and drink in Napa. One of my favorite restaurants is La Taberna, which serves Spanish tapas. The menu there changes on a daily basis, but there is always a great selection, from yellowfin tuna tartare to bocadillos (Spanish sandwich) and great seafood. In terms of secret spots, I love John Anthony Church Vineyard. John Anthony has several different wineries, but this old church in Napa is surrounded by vineyards, where there are wine tastings with amazing food pairings. It’s a really unique experience that not many people know about.

For cocktails I recommend Fink, which serves up the most creative drinks in Napa. All of the ingredients are so interesting, and the owner is always walking around in his bow tie greeting every table, so there’s a great atmosphere.

Oxbow Public Market in Downtown Napa is a great place to spend half a day. It has everything from a grocery store and a coffee shop to a fish market. Stop off at Whole Spice, which sells spices you can’t find anywhere else, before visiting Napa Valley Distillery. It sells everything you need to make first-class drinks, from hard-to-find bitters to cocktail mixes.

In Yountville, JCB Boutique is a vibrant spot, with charming chandeliers and beautiful products. It’s a great place for gifts, including glassware, jewelry, and perfumes. Yountville is also home to many great art stores and one of them, Gallery 1870, has just relocated to Napa. It sells lots of fun artworks – my favorite is a series that features mice drinking wine. Sometimes the artists will come and paint pictures right in the gallery, which makes it definitely worth visiting.

If you’re in Napa, don’t miss the chance to explore the Napa Valley Vine Trail, a 47-mile trail that runs from Vallejo to Calistoga. You can walk it or bike it, and along the way you can stop off and visit wineries. Near Oxbow there’s a great lively spot called Feast It Forward, which has a wine store, natural wine tastings, live entertainment, and outdoor games.

There’s a great contemporary art museum in Napa called di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art, which is spread across 217 acres. It has a beautiful Sculpture Meadow, which you can walk through before stopping off to have a picnic. It’s such a stunning landscape, where you can enjoy both the art and the scenery.