Message: My wonderful husband just suprised me with a trip to Sonoma for my 40th. We arrive in Oakland at 8:00 a.m. Sunday and fly out at 7:00 p.m. Monday. We have reservations at Honor Mansion in Healdsburg for the night. Should we drive straight to Healdsburg and go tasting in that area then drive slowly through Sonoma on the way out? Or visa versa? We are novice wine tasters but really enjoy the scenery and the ambiance. Which wineries are a must see for us in our limited time. We love, love, love good food - where should we eat dinner in Healdsburg? Any recomendations for picnic style lunches? Thanks so much for any help.

I would drive straight to Healdsburg and do tasting from there. There's lots of great places in the area. Here's a link. So many places, so little time. We liked the Dry Creek area, and on your way back Monday you can hit the Russian River Valley area. Some great Pinots there.

http://www.wineroad.com

You can get a great gourmet lunch at the Oakville Grocery in Healdsburg. There is a wine tasting store right next door, and I thought their wine was "awful." Go directly to the individual wineries for tasting.

You could have lunch at Chateau Souverain on Sunday, and do the picnic lunch and driving around on your way back.

P.S. You do have a wonderful husband.

I agree to drive to Healdsburg and do tastings from there. Right down the road from the Honor Mansion is Seghesio, an old winery. We happen to really like their chiantis and their sangioveses. It's a very nice tasting room. There are so many wineries to sample from just in the Healdsburg area. I'd say since you have 24 hours stay there. Some of my picks include Rosenblum and Sapphire Hill both of which are tasting rooms only downtown. A drive out 128 to Geyserville will give you many good wineries from which to choose. We also happen to be big fans of Sausal for Zinfandels. You might consider lunch at Santi which is in Geyserville. I agree with Budman..you have a good husband.

And a most Happy 40th to you!

Hi PamSF, Next trip to SF I'll have to get to the Seghesio winery. I am beginning to like the sangiovese blends.

Gailar, Ravenous Café seemed to be one of the popular places on this board in Healdsburg. Here's a link to dining in the area. http://www.healdsburg.org/play/playdining.html

If you find some wines that you really like, go to the Safeway in Healdsburg. They have a huge wine selection, and a lot cheaper than buying directly from the winery. Go figure. You can even get a 10% discount buy a case, and if you have a Safeway card (pick one up), you get an additional 10% (so I am told).

WE just returned from the Healdsburg/Sonoma area. Have the lunch at The Alexander Valley Grille at Chateau Souverain, it was wonderful. For $19.95 you get three courses and a complimentary tasting with a 20% off your wine purchase.

If you're in this area around dinner, The Dry Creek Kitchen was wonderful, located at the Hotel Healdsburg.

We also enjoyed the Ledson, Kunde and Chateau St. Jean wineries very much. Have a great trip! ***kim***

Budman has a good idea about purchases
of wine that is the distribution cycle.
Winery purchases are typically full retail (and then some wine is only availiable at the winery). Even better prices can be had
at Trader Joes-(2 in Santa Rosa,1 in Petaluma) or Beverages and More in
Santa Rosa. I agree with driving on up to Healdsburg,Pam has a great idea about Seghesio, Rosenblum & Sapphire Hill. Allow me to confuse you even more about dinner-if you are into
oysters I can vouch for Willies Raw Bar
(they have more than oysters!)but it might be fun for appetizers and then you could go onto Ravenous. If you want scenic I like Westside Road in the Russian River area. So many wineries, so little time, Bman says it best!
Happy 40th!

And, I am a big fan of Ravenous. It's nothing fancy..simply comfortable, great wine list and very good food. It's in a small house off the Healdsburg Square. Reservations anywhere up there will probably be essential.

I just returned from a trip to CA last week. I am going to try to post a trip report tonight but wanted to reply to your post too. I went to Viansa Winery and Italian Marketplace which is south of the town of Sonoma. My daughter and husband went there on their honeymoon and she told me they loved it. It has a beautiful grounds and building. The tasting room and Italian Marketplace are wonderful. We spent at least an hour there. You can taste four wines free or pay a fee for tasting from another list. They have at least six tables set up that are full of food samples that they sell there. So you can sample almost everything they sell. Lots of tapanades, sauces, pestos, salsas and dessert sauces with crackers, bread cubes or pretzel sticks to dip into them with. I bought a picante pasta sauce, lemon dessert sauce and red pepper pesto. I could have bought more but had to think about the suitcase room. It was the first of about 12 wineries during my week there. From there we went to Buena Vista Winery which doesn't have that great quality wines but is the oldest winery in Sonoma I believe. The building and grounds are beautiful. A little tricky to find. I went to AAA and made a triptik before I went out there with all of the addresses of wineries I wanted to go to so I had great directions. The guy who poured for us at Buena Vista told us to go to Imagery winery on our way into Sonoma. It was very nice too. They have an art gallery and beautiful labels on the bottles designed by an artist. I bought two bottles of wine there, about 35 each but very good. I ended up shipping a case of various wines home by the end of the trip! I also thought that Ferrari Carano was beautiful, lovely gardens and a mansion like tasting room, very Italian. It is outside of Healdsburg, I think north or north west of town when you get into the more country like area. Ledson is between Sonoma and Santa Rosa right on rte 12 and it is a huge mansion. Big gift, food and deli room that is fun to explore. Have a great time.

We loved the Imagery winery. I would not have stopped there, if we hadn't discovered a wonderful Viognier at The Girl and the Fig that I had to purchase! I found out it won't be available until May, but did get a card to order some online!

Ledson is also beautiful. I hope WineryCat gets to tour that Castle soon! LOL ***kim***

I live west of Sebastopol and I recommend you try the Mirpoix Restaurant located in a cottage in Windsor, a village just 5 minutes north of Healdsburg. It is truly wonderful food created by a young chef and his partner "Carrot and Leek"... a great place to match food to wine. They have a marvelous selection of local wines and if you bring your own LOCAL wine there is no corkage charge. I prefer to learn from their choices.

Thanks so much sarens. Windsor doesn't receive too much recognition. I love discovering new places such as the one you mentioned. Is there a website? I'd like to learn more about this interesting little gem you mentioned. ***kim***

I'm so glad sarens mentioned Mirapoix. On our last trip, we ate at bistro Jeanty and Mustards, but Mirapoix was our favorite place. Fabulous food, great service, lovely old house. Reservations necessary! Don't miss it.

Deb

The website is www.restaurantmirepoix.com Mirepoix looks like it deserves more attention here! ***kim***

Thanks everyone for all the great advice. It appears that there are 3 restaurants that receive high marks - Ravenouse Cafe, Dry Creek Kitchen, and Mirpoix. Since we only have time for one of them perhaps someone can tell me what the main differences are between them? Thanks again for any help.

Gailar, you've been given some great information to pick & chose on the entire area. Based on the websites, I would pick Mirpoix, but I haven't been to any of the three.

I've heard great things about Mirpoix, very very mixed reviews of Dry Creek Kitchen and have only eaten at Ravenous.Ravenous is a place frequented by locals. It's food is very good and not particularly precious. Service is good but also somewhat casual. We once took a very, very good bottle of champagne there and shared it with our server. We delighted in his assessment "This champagne rocks". I think you might also want to consider how much of a drive you are willing to undertake. You will be one or two freeway exits south of Healdsburg for dinner at Mirpoix. You will be in five minutes driving distance max of both Ravenous and Dry Creek Kitchen as both are located just off the square in dowtown Healdsburg. In a pinch you could take a long stroll home from either. I think of it as more casual than Dry Creek Kitchen. I can only tell you serious food folks(in the business) and friends of mine were put off at Dry Creek. They felt the service was abysmal and the food not particularly good. It is in the Hotel which is a very modern looking building right on the square.As you can read other folks really like it. And so goes horse racing. Mirpoix is a very small venue and had been another great restaurant called Mariposa briefly. Folks at Rosenblum raved about Mirpoix to us.

We recently had a very pleasant experience at Dry Creek Kitchen. I posted a report on the chowhound board if you're interested.

As far as the service goes, ours was impeccable, with each course (we had the tasting menu) perfectly spaced. Our every need was attended to and we were truly pampered. It was on a Thurs. night, tho, not a weekend but the place was full.

The food on the tasting menu was excellent and very nicely presented. Charlie Palmer restaurants come very highly recommended and have received excellent reviews from prestigious publications.

They also serve lunch if you don't do dinner, the patio was full when we checked out of the Hotel Healdsburg.

The location is at the Hotel Healdsburg, a truly amazing property. I would recommend a stay there to anyone visiting this area. www.hotel healdsburg.com is the web address and also you could check out the DCK there. Have fun! ***kim***

Darn it! Just when I decided to try Mirepoix I find out it's not open for dinner on Sunday. After talking to the folks at Honor Mansion I have narrowed (or expanded) my choices to John Ash & Co., Zin, or Ravenous Cafe. I am put off from trying DCK based on the mixed reviews. I definately will hit Willi's Seafood for an afternoon platter of oysters - yum! Any input on John Ash or Zin would be greatly appreciated. I'm really thankful for all the help I've received so far!

DCK is also a bit more "pricey" than the the choices you have narrowed it down to. I haven't dined at any of your other choices, but on the Chowhound board, I've also heard very good things about Syrah located right in Santa Rosa. The owner of the restaurants posts there sometimes.

I think of your three choices, I would try Ravenous. We would have tried it for lunch on our last trip, but were anxious to get to Geyserville where we had a great lunch at the Chateau Souverain. Too bad you can't fit that place in somewhere, it was wonderful! ***kim***