Homeware designer and Airbnb owner Anya Dinovich creates vacation rentals for “design-minded travelers.” She draws inspiration for her Sonoma properties — one in Kenwood and one in Cazadero — from the cozy vibe of Sundays and a quote from dancer and choreographer Mark Morris: “The goal of Sunday is to leave my home as little as possible.”
Dinovich is also a fan of lazy Sundays at home; of doing nothing or spending time with family and friends. “For me, that means being cozy,” she says. She creates pom pom pillows, sheepskin rugs and wool wall hangings to enhance that Sunday feeling; she even named her online boutique Seven Sundays. “I believe that being surrounded by beautiful things affects our mood and sense of well-being,” she adds.
Dinovich wants to create a cozy environment in which people can relax and enjoy themselves, while having a rich sensory experience.
“When designing an Airbnb you don’t have to worry about the functionality as much as you do when it’s (a) home you live in everyday,” she says. “It becomes a bit of a fantasy; a dreamy place where you can lounge by the fire, enjoy another’s company, read, relax, daydream.”
Homeware designer Anya Dinovich rests her head on one of her fiber creations. (Seven Sundays Studio)Shower at Casa Anush. (Seven Sundays Studio)
The homeware designer’s Kenwood Airbnb, a three-bedroom home named Casa Anush with an adjacent geo-dome, showcases her approach to interior design. Large pom pom pillows add a soft and playful look. The bathroom shower has black hexagonal tiles that create a dramatic backdrop for plants. Woven lampshades and leather vases add interesting textures. A giant geo-dome provides an unusual space for sleeping. A pool area has a covered sofa with wispy drapes for sheltered lounging.
Her Cazadero Airbnb, the Sequoia House, is a 1970’s marvel of a cabin nestled among redwoods along Austin Creek. Dinovich has used the particular geometry of the cabin to enhance each space.
Upstairs, an a-frame ceiling creates a cozy, tent-like sleeping area with a patterned wool blanket and fluffy pillows. The richness of the wood-paneled walls is brought out by a white fiber wall hanging and a sofa with sheepskin blankets in front of it. A fireplace in the center of the room does double duty as a source of heat and a decorative design piece while floor-to-ceiling windows connect the indoors and the outdoors. (The Sequoia House was featured on Netflix’s “The World’s Most Amazing Vacation Rentals.”)
In addition to selling her textiles through her online store Seven Sundays, Dinovich also sells the pillows, wall hangings and blankets in her vacation rentals directly to clients who stay at her properties. Products from her second company, Hooga Hooga (inspired by the Danish practice of “hygge,” or “cultivating coziness”) are also displayed and sold at the properties.
“I hope that by sharing my creations with people who want to have unique, handmade items in their home, I also get to share the sense of calmness and joy that we all need now more than ever,” she says.
A variety of pizzas, including the Old Grey Beard, left, featuring Italian sausage, Calabrian peppers, hot honey and orange zest, the Spayde, center, a square pan pizza with red sauce, mozzarella, pecorino, olive oil and fresh basil, and the Chingona, top, featuring olive oil, garlic, mozzarella, ricotta and fresh basil at PizzaLeah in Windsor, Calif., on Wednesday, May 27, 2020. (Beth Schlanker / The Press Democrat)
Everyone loves a list, and Yelp is no exception. This week, the crowd-sourced review site that chefs love to hate released its Top 50 Places to Eat in the North Bay. Curated by Yelp “data scientists” using “a variety of factors, including the total volume and ratings of reviews”, the result is an eclectic and somewhat unexpected mix of local restaurants.
To be fair, the multitudes have spoken, and most of these restaurants are quite delightful — some even destination-worthy. But hot dog and breakfast sandwich spots making the region’s “Top 50”? The sound of local foodies scratching their heads in bewilderment is pretty deafening. Click through the gallery to see which Sonoma County restaurants made the list (including their spot on the list).
Co-owner Gal Ginzburg will take your order among the antique radios at the Lightwave Cafe at Creekside Park in Monte Rio. (John Burgess/The Press Democrat)
Avocado toast from The Pharmacy cafe in Santa Rosa. (Courtesy of The Pharmacy)
Branch Line, a new plant-based eatery, is expected to open later this year in the former Flying Goat Coffee space in Santa Rosa’s Railroad Square.
Owner Kim Bourdet of The Pharmacy cafe (990 Sonoma Ave., No. 1, Santa Rosa) says the space will be transformed into a fast-casual dining restaurant and mercantile with local products. No meat or dairy food will be available at Branch Line. Instead, the restaurant will make its own nut-based milks and vegan “cheeses” and focus on local produce.
Meyer lemon curd pot from The Pharmacy in Santa Rosa. (Heather Irwin/Sonoma Magazine)
Psychic Pie, the funky pizza pop-up from Bay Area baker Nicholi Ludlow and his wife, Leith Leiser-Miller, has found a permanent home at the former Food Mechanic in Sebastopol (980 Gravenstein Highway S.). Aiming for an early 2022 opening, the couple plan to continue serving their Roman-style square pizzas by the pound at the new location, along with salads, wine, beer and sweets.
Ludlow and Leiser-Miller launched their Psychic Pie pop-up in April 2021 as a pandemic side hustle, making only 30 pizzas each week at a commercial kitchen in Santa Rosa’s Skyhawk Village. With nothing quite like their chewy, crunchy, locally sourced pies in the North Bay, eaters went wild for the couple’s par-cooked 9-inch-by-9-inch pizzas that could finish baking at home for a better-than-delivery experience.
The pizzas sold out swiftly each week. Seasonal produce and well-sourced ingredients, including Central Milling flour, Bellwether Farms ricotta, local water buffalo mozzarella and Zoe’s Meats bacon, made them all the more coveted.
“Our goal is hyper-local pizza that puts a big emphasis on naturally fermented dough — a truly Bay Area pizza,” Ludlow said in an interview with BiteClub in April. Both Ludlow and Leiser-Miller previously worked at San Francisco pizzeria Del Popolo.
Sadly, you won’t be able to get your hands on a Psychic Pie for a few more months, as Ludlow and Leiser-Miller build out the former Food Mechanic space. But like anything great, it’ll be worth the wait. Follow their progress on Instagram @psychic_pie.
Wine tasting at Grand Cru Custom Crush in Windsor. (Beth Schlanker/The Press Democrat)
Grapes slide to the sorting table in juicy clusters, dancing and jiggling on the vibrating, 20-foot-long mechanized belt. Winemaker and consultant
Adam Lee of Clarice Wine Company studies the fruit as interns and friends carefully pick out leaves, twigs, and other unwanted hitchhikers in a ritual that marks the beginning of the winemaking process.
But this is a different kind of winery. It’s Sugarloaf Crush, located along Highway 12 at the western edge of Sonoma Valley, and the expensive sorting and crushing equipment is all in rented space. Lee, known for his limited-production Pinot Noir, shares the 60,000-square-foot structure with some three dozen other clients, all making their own small-production fine wines. Think of it as a collaborative co-working space for winemakers.
“I knew that Clarice’s production was going to be small — only about 600 cases a year — and that certainly isn’t enough to sustain its own facility,” Lee says. “But I needed to make wine somewhere. Custom crush allows smaller wineries to exist, and if it weren’t for them, many of us wouldn’t be around.”
In the highly competitive world of Sonoma wines, pennies count. Winemaking equipment is expensive — sorters, tanks, presses, and bottling lines, not to mention the square footage to house them. So custom crush facilities, where small producers come together and share equipment, are a great value. Sonoma County has long hosted custom crushes, ranging from larger wineries that lease out their facilities for extra income to behemoth businesses like Healdsburg’s Rack & Riddle, which handles more than one million cases annually for some 150 clients.
Cristian Ortiz adds sulphur dioxide to wine barrels at the Grand Cru Custom Crush facility in Windsor. (John Burgess/Sonoma Magazine)
A boon for wine lovers
But here’s the big news: the newest custom crush facilities in Sonoma County now come with extra amenities that are a boon for wine-lovers: first-class tasting facilities, event areas, and tours. Guests can see the work in action, meet one-on-one with winemakers, and explore rare wines they might never find otherwise.
Trendsetters include the luxury Grand Cru in Windsor, Healdsburg’s architecturally stunning Grapewagon Custom Crush, and Sugarloaf itself, which wows with its communal Grand Room: a lounge trimmed in reclaimed wood featuring a fireplace, and plush leather furniture, not to mention an expansive entry lawn with majestic mountain views.
Working with a modern crush is a more personal experience now, says Rebecca Birdsall, who co-owns the 3,000-case Black Kite label with her husband Tom Birdsall, and was one of the first winemakers to join Grand Cru. They previously made wine at the more industrial Punchdown Cellars in Santa Rosa and were happy with the experience, she said.
“But we were intrigued by the elegant design and flexibility of Grand Cru, and the fact that we could use their tasting salons and take our customers into the winery and barrel-taste.”
Certainly, a custom crush is financially necessary for their Black Kite brand, with most of the wines produced in tiny batches ranging from about 125 to 200 cases. But Grand Cru’s individual tasting salons, framed by modern garage-style roll-up doors, allow customers to learn first-hand about — and fall in love with — the couple’s Burgundy-style Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.
Windsor’s Grand Cru Custom Crush has private tasting salons, which its winemaking clients use to meet with guests. Wineries here include Black Kite and Maritana Vineyards. (John Burgess/Sonoma Magazine)At Grand Cru Custom Crush in Windsor the upper offices have views into the fermentation room. (John Burgess/Sonoma Magazine)
Cross-pollination of ideas
Winemaker Donald Patz makes 5,000 cases a year of his Maritana Vineyards Russian River Valley Chardonnay and Pinot Noir at Grand Cru. In addition to the value of being able to speak directly with his customers, he appreciates the collaboration with fellow winemakers and the cellar crew.
“Even when it’s really busy, the staff is so good at parsing out assignments that it feels like my own wholly dedicated team, with skills I couldn’t afford on my own,” says Patz. “And winemakers hang together here, so there’s cross-pollination of ideas, which is what I really wanted.”
Behind-the-scenes peeks become an integral part of custom crush visits, as guests experience the complicated waltz between winemakers and facility management. “There is immense communication taking place at harvest time to optimize the pick dates, the available labor, crush pad usage, and tank and press availability,” explains Birdsall.
“The best winemakers are clairvoyant.”
While Clarice’s Adam Lee, who is in high demand as a consutant, could likely operate out of almost any winery he’d like, he remains a custom crush fan. He makes his new Beau Marchais Pinot Noirs at Grapewagon, wines for the Bucher Winery at Grand Cru, and projects for J. Cage Cellars at Sugarloaf Crush. It’s interesting, he finds, as multiple winemakers collaborate, sharing tips and techniques. “In the heat of harvest, it sometimes is every person for themselves, but during the rest of the year we often chat and taste together,” he said.
Clarice Wine Company winemaker Adam Lee in Sugarloaf’s large shared tasting room. (John Burgess/Sonoma Magazine)
The storage room at Sugarloaf Crush has a capacity of 4500 barrels. (John Burgess/Sonoma Magazine)Winemaker Chris Leonard of the Leonard Wine Company high up in the barrel stacks, sampling for a wine-blending trial. (John Burgess/Sonoma Magazine)Jessica Yeates, the enologist for VML and Truett Hurst wineries, in the facility’s wine lab. (John Burgess/Sonoma Magazine)
Behind-the-scenes thrills
Witnessing the teamwork can be a rush. Flaunt Wine Company joined Grapewagon Custom Crush for the 2019 harvest, with owner/ winemaker Dianna Novy producing 250 cases of Sexton Vineyard Pinot Noir. Grapewagon’s owners, James and Kerry MacPhail, originally built the 42,000-square-foot facility in 2011 for their MacPhail Family Wines. After selling that brand, the MacPhails switched the setup to custom crush, serving a dozen clients, including their own new label, Tongue Dancer. The facility is just 50 feet from the MacPhail family’s own home.
“Winemakers collaborate here, and if it weren’t for custom crush, small boutique wineries would be basically nonexistent,” says Novy. “There is a great camaraderie, and I think it’s because we all just want to drink the best wines, so we encourage each other to make the very best that we can.”
The Sugarloaf Crush facility rests at the base of Hood Mountain in Oakmont. (John Burgess/Sonoma Magazine)
How to taste at a custom crush
Custom crush tastings and tours are generally by appointment and often arranged individually by each winery client.
Grand Cru Custom Crush, 1200 American Way, Windsor. 707-687-0905, grandcrucustomcrush.com. Independent wineries include Bucher Wines, Maritana Vineyards, and Black Kite Cellars.
Sugarloaf Crush, 6705 Cristo Lane, Santa Rosa. 707-244-4885, sugarloafcrush.com. Three dozen wineries including J. Cage Cellars, Leonard Wine Company, Truett- Hurst, and Clarice Wine Company.
Grapewagon Custom Crush, 851 Magnolia Drive, Healdsburg. 707-433-4780. Over a dozen clients including Tongue Dancer, Flaunt Wine Company, and Beau Marchais.
Monday has always been Charlie Hustle day at Jam’s Joy Bungalow in Sebastopol. Chef Jamilah Nixon-Mathis’ epic fried chicken sandwich (named for rapper E-40’s album of the same name) is loaded with crispy thigh meat, sweet honey sauce, pickles, sriracha and cabbage piled so high it needs a low-flying aircraft warning.
And what if you missed the Charlie Hustle sando at the tiny Sebastopol Town Square walk-up window on Monday? Sorry, Charlie, you’d have to wait until next week.
At least that was true until the recent opening of Nixon-Mathis’ new Cotati restaurant and kitchen (also called Jam’s Joy Bungalow), where now you can get the Charlie Hustle every day of the week, along with an expanded menu of Southeast Asian-inspired dishes with all the spicy, sweet, aromatic flavors we’ve come to expect from Jam’s Joy Bungalow.
Jok at Jam’s Joy Bungalow. (Courtesy of Jam’s Joy Bungalow)Crispy rice salad, curry fries and fried chicken skins at Jam’s Joy Bungalow in Cotati. (Heather Irwin/Sonoma Magazine)
Familiar menu favorites include the area’s best Banh Mi sandwich ($10, vegan and grain-free options available); Nutty Noods ($10) with buckwheat noodles, peanut sauce, shiitake mushrooms and crispy shallots; and Jok ($7), a savory rice porridge with herbs, fermented soybean paste, ginger, garlic and a creamy six-minute egg.
You’ll want to try menu newcomers like fried chicken skins (think poultry chicharrones) that crackle and melt in your mouth; a mountain of curry fries ($8) radiating the scent of turmeric and ginger and smothered with curry aioli, hot sambal sauce and a flurry of cilantro; or Go’s Balls ($6), orbs of crispy coconut and curry rice with sweet chile sauce.
Leave room for lighter options, including Crispy Rice Salad ($11), a chopped salad with pickled carrots, lettuce, ginger, jalapeño, shallots, peanuts and sweet-sour fish sauce dressing.
Weekend brunch packs the biggest punch, with most of the weekday items available plus Chicken and Waffle ($12) with mochi brown butter waffles, fried chicken and chile crunch honey; the JJB Breakfast Burrito ($11) with braised beef, kimchi, cheese and a fried egg; or Hawaiian surfer breakfast fave, Loco Moco ($11) with gravy, egg, rice, seaweed and Spam, fried chicken or Chinese sausage.
Daily specials and surprises make Jam’s Joy Bungalow all the more destination-worthy. If you’ve never tried Garlic Buttered Scallop or Salted Egg Lays potato chips from Thailand, you’re in for a treat. Sit outside on the patio or porch or head inside to the whimsical, jungle-y sit-down restaurant. Look for a slithering (fake) boa or visit the rain forest bathroom. It’s a dining adventure.
Hours change frequently, so watch their Facebook page for details. Cotati location is at 101 E. Cotati Ave., Cotati; Sebastopol walk-up at 150 Weeks Way, Sebastopol.
Homemade chocolate dipped marshmallows at Cravin’s Candy Emporium in Petaluma. (Beth Schlanker/The Press Democrat)
If the anticipation of Halloween has you salivating for sweets, like those you hoarded years ago as a young trick-or-treater, there are plenty of places to buy unique candy in Sonoma County, including one that might take you right back to childhood.
Cravin’s Candy Emporium opened in downtown Petaluma in July, and the family-owned neighborhood candy store knows how to bring out the kid in its customers — no matter their age.
Walking into the candy store is like traveling back in time. Vintage posters and signs decorate the walls, along with game boards from the kiddie classic, Candy Land, with some of the editions dating back to 1955. Retro metal lunchboxes sit on high shelves. Hypnotizing round rainbow lollipops reach for the sky, and the movie “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory” — the 1971 Gene Wilder version, of course — plays on a big-screen TV.
“It’s easy to leave your troubles behind when you are surrounded by candy,” said Debbie Giordano, who owns Cravin’s Candy Emporium with her husband, Joe.
Jawbreakers at Cravin’s Candy Emporium in Petaluma. (Beth Schlanker/The Press Democrat)A variety of chocolate bars at Cravin’s Candy Emporium. (Beth Schlanker/The Press Democrat)
Retro candy
Cravin’s Candy Emporium carries more than 4,000 kinds of goodies; no doubt, you’ll stumble on at least one long-lost childhood favorite. Here you can find Pop Rocks, Candy Buttons, Ring Pops, Cow Tales, Zotz and speckled Jawbreakers the size of your fist. In fact, it’s hard to take more than a few steps without exclaiming, “I remember that!”
The Petaluma candy store pays homage to the original Powell’s Sweet Shoppe in Windsor, which opened in 2003. After owner Michael Powell franchised his business in 2006, the Giordanos moved their young family from Santa Rosa to Boise, Idaho, to open their own Powell’s candy store. They later re-branded their store Cravin’s Candy Emporium and when an opportunity arose to open a second location in Petaluma, the Giordanos jumped on it. They now split their time between Idaho and Sonoma County. (The Giordanos have licensed the Cravin’s name; there is an independently operated Cravin’s Candy Emporium in Windsor, in the former Powell’s Sweet Shoppe location, and another in Bend, Oregon.)
Like the original Powell’s, Cravin’s in Petaluma has a dedicated movie area with wooden theater-style seats for watching “Willy Wonka.” Kids and kids-at-heart are encouraged to spend some time enjoying the film here.
“This is not just a jelly bean store,” Joe Giordano said. “It is about time. … It’s (about) having something in common, where a family can be together.”
Sweet memories
In addition to old-fashioned sweets and “Willy Wonka,” Cravin’s Candy Emporium stocks other nostalgia-inducing items. Remember Lite-Brite? You’ll find the backlit light box toy here, along with classic pick-up-sticks, although you might need to do a quick internet search to remember how to play the game.
If you can’t find that favorite sugar-laced candy of your youth, the Giordanos will put it on their special requests list. Surrounded by candies of all stripes, even Joe Giordano misses some treats, like the discontinued Wonka chocolate bar. But many previously extinct old-school candies, like Astro Pops and Wacky Wafers, have made a comeback in recent years and have returned to candy store shelves.
At the front of the store, you’ll find an ice cream case with two dozen flavors of gelato and a cooler stocked with a rainbow of soda in glass bottles. But the best place for chocolate lovers is toward the back of the store, where the giant peanut butter cups handcrafted by Debbie Giordano are kept. She also makes chocolate-covered pretzels and chocolate-covered honeycomb, English toffee, pecan turtles and marshmallow pops.
“The dream is real,” Debbie Giordano said. “Owning your own candy store is fun and amazing, and actually very fulfilling when you see people having a great time together.”
Swedish candy at Stockhome restaurant in Petaluma. (Elise Aileen Photography)
Candy from around the world
You’re never too old to dress up for Halloween, but trick-or-treating after a certain age or raiding your kid’s bag of sweets is a faux pas. So what’s a grown-up with a sweet tooth to do on Halloween? In addition to taking a sweet trip down memory lane, check out these Sonoma County restaurants and stores for candy from around the world:
Dulceria Las Tapatias (1630 Sebastopol Road, Santa Rosa) and Dulceria Pepito (2101 W. College Ave., Santa Rosa) have Mexican treats like cocadas (colorful candy made from coconuts), mazapan (a sweet, dry, peanut butter candy) and camote (a traditional candy from the state of Puebla made from sweet potatoes).
Swedish fish at Stockhome restaurant in Petaluma. (Courtesy of newrevmedia.com)Italian torrone, a soft nougat candy made with almonds, is available at Canevari’s Delicatessen in Santa Rosa. (Shutterstock)
Stockhome restaurant (220 Western Ave., Petaluma) carries more than a dozen types of Swedish sweets or lördagsgodis (Saturday candy) in old-school glass jars, including fruit-flavored Dala Horse Gummy Candy.
For Italian sweets, look in Canevari’s Delicatessen (695 Lewis Road, Santa Rosa). They have torrone, a traditional soft nougat candy made with almonds.
The Chocolate Cow (452 First St. E., Sonoma) sells Kookaburra Licorice from Australia, and at nearby Tiddle E. Winks Vintage 5 & Dime (115 E. Napa St., Sonoma), you can traverse the sugary globe. Choose from Hermann the German Bavarian Hard Candy (in a variety of fruit flavors), Violet Crumble chocolate bars from Australia, British Maltesers milk chocolate confectionery and other foreign sweet treats.
Philippe Colasse, owner of Crêperie Chez Solange, is closing at the end of October. Colasse hasn’t been able to find workers for the past six months; running the restaurant by himself is not sustainable, he says. Wednesday, Oct. 20, 2021 in Larkfield. (Kent Porter / The Press Democrat)
For more than seven months, Chef Philippe Colasse has been advertising for kitchen and serving staff at his petite Larkfield restaurant, Creperie Chez Solange. Located in the busy Molsberry Market shopping center off Old Redwood Highway, his restaurant has had precisely zero applicants.
Exhausted by trying to run his French crepe shop alone — doing all of the sourcing, cooking, serving and dishwashing himself — Colasse had decided to close the restaurant permanently on Halloween.
It’s no secret that the pandemic has gutted the hospitality industry. According to restaurateurs, the combination of on-again, off-again restaurant closures, customers surly over mask requirements, night and weekend hours, concerns about health and safety, the lack of health care and the pull of more lucrative job opportunities have occluded the steady stream of workers willing to work for California’s minimum wage of $14 per hour.
To keep staff, larger restaurants are advertising between $18 and $30 per hour with signing bonuses and health care. That’s something small mom-and-pop restaurants like Colasse’s just can’t afford.
“I do believe it’s a question of pay, and other businesses may pay higher, but they all still need people, and they’re not there,” he said.
Instead, Colasse has tried to keep his restaurant afloat single-handedly, offering takeout and later in-restaurant dining.
“I’ve just been doing it all myself, and the workload is too harsh. A restaurant needs three or four people working at minimum,” said Colasse. He said the last employee he had left six months ago to go back to school, something that’s also been a common refrain as workers reassess career opportunities.
Though unemployment is down in Sonoma County, a 2021 report by the county Economic Development Board found that 42% of businesses face hiring difficulties, and 78% had significant concerns about affordable housing and living costs for employees.
“This is the new reality, and I’m not the only one suffering,” he said. When the restaurant opened in early 2020, Colasse said he employed up to seven cooks and servers.
Sadly, the closure isn’t for lack of eager diners. With plenty of locals still trying to order his savory French buckwheat crepes and flaming crepes Suzette, the problem isn’t the lack of clientele, but Colasse’s inability to serve customers in a timely way when he’s alone.
Ham and Swiss buckwheat crepe at Creperie Chez Solange in Larkfield. (Heather Irwin/Sonoma Magazine)Peche Melba crepe with preserved peach, berry jam, toasted almonds, chantilly cream at Creperie Chez Solange in Larkfield. (Heather Irwin/Sonoma Magazine)
“Business has come back, but we in the food industry are suffering. If I already have two or three orders, I tell people it’s a 30- to 45-minute wait, and they leave,” he said, acknowledging that long wait times are bad for business.
“I’m turning down people who try to order food or try to walk in and eat because it takes too much time to serve them. Most people are in a hurry, and they want to eat now,” he said. He estimates that he turns away at least a dozen people each day, with up to 40 people on busy Saturdays.
Adding to the woes, meat prices have skyrocketed up to 40%, to-go containers are almost impossible to buy at any cost and supply chain issues continue.
“I don’t feel like charging people for something that doesn’t have the value. I see food as a pleasure, not a way of making money, and when I see that I can’t serve at a decent price, it’s time for me to walk away,” Colasse said.
For now, he plans to help a new Vietnamese restaurant open in his space, then reassess what’s next.
“I knew that selling crepes, as close as I could to what you would get in France was a difficult challenge, but I also realized that day after day, people were more appreciative. It’s been a great satisfaction,” he said.
Shawn Phillips and Lise Asimont of Dot Wine. (Courtesy of Dot Wine)
Many of Sonoma County’s least-known but still very fine wines begin as pipe dreams.
Winemakers working for someone else frequently yearn to have their own label one day, and many follow through.
Urbanites ditch their day jobs and regular paychecks to move to Sonoma County, answering the siren call to live the vineyard lifestyle and exchanging business suits and manicures for fleece vests, muck boots and perpetually stained hands. The garage often serves as their first cellar.
There are farmers, almost as proud of their grapevines as they are of their kids, who are eager to taste the fruits of their labors from bottles bearing the family name.
And there are multigenerational local ranching families that diversify with wine growing to sustain their businesses now and for the future, sometimes in unexpected ways. Blueberry wine, anyone?
Here are five wine producers that demonstrate the measures some take to follow their vinous dreams. Their brands are relatively new and often too small to have their own tasting rooms, yet they are well worth discovering. While wine critics’ scores, powerful social media campaigns and high-end tasting experiences drive consumers to wineries, word-of-mouth (and in print) remains an authentic introduction to under-the-radar brands.
Cormorant Cellars
Charlie Gilmore is one of those winemakers who had a burning desire for his own wine brand and for its focus to be sauvignon blanc. He worked 12 years at Fetzer Vineyards in Mendocino County and, before that, at wineries in France and Australia. He struck out on his own in 2018, producing two vintages of Dry Creek Valley sauvignon blanc at Matorana Family Winery, then moving his production to nearby Kokomo Winery for the Cormorant 2020 vintage.
Cormorant does not have a public tasting venue, but you can buy the wines online and at retailers and restaurants, which are listed on the company website. Sauvignon blanc devotees also can arrange private tastings with Gilmore, although his limited production, for now, means his wines can sell out quickly.
What is so special about Cormorant sauvignon blanc ($24)? It’s how it’s made, with very little oak contact, careful sur lie (on the spent yeast cells) aging and no fining or filtration. The wine can be a bit cloudy and show tiny bits of sediment in the bottle, which means minimal handling. The result is a pure, vibrant, low-alcohol (12.7%) white wine with zesty grapefruit, lime cordial, Meyer lemon and tropical fruit aromas and flavors and beautiful texture. From the 2020 and 2021 harvests, Gilmore expanded production to include grenache blanc, marsanne, chardonnay and zinfandel. These wines will debut in 2022 or later.
Bacchus Landing in Healdsburg. (Ricky Grossmann/Bacchus Landing)
Shawn Phillips and Lise Asimont of Dot Wine. (Courtesy of Dot Wine)
Dot Wine
Lise Asimont and Shawn Phillips recently opened a tasting room at Bacchus Landing, a new, multibrand tasting space, hospitality center and gourmet market in Healdsburg. She’s a longtime viticulturist (20 years) and Santa Rosa Junior College adjunct professor; he is a professional gardener and landscaper (30 years). They use regenerative and sustainable agriculture methods to produce wines with a heavy emphasis on Russian River Valley pinot noir. (Regenerative farming means minimal intervention and includes composting, maintaining pollinator habitats and using other environmentally friendly practices for soil health and lower carbon emissions.)
Asimont, a full-time viticulture consultant, previously worked for large wine companies, including Cakebread Cellars, The Family Coppola and Beam Wine Estates. A dare from Phillips to produce a pinot noir she truly loved prompted the couple to found their own wine label; Asimont’s familiarity with farmers and their vines gives her an inside track to procuring great grapes. They make three pinot noirs, an unoaked chardonnay and a dry rosé, with other bottlings possible in the future. Tastings at Bacchus Landing are $30 for four wines. Like other Bacchus Landing tasting rooms, food pairings can be arranged in conjunction with the onsite gourmet market.
As for the name, Dot Wine, the couple said that, “In art, the dot is the purest unit of both form and function. Dot Wine is the direct translation of vineyard to bottle.”
14210 Bacchus Landing Way (at Westside Road), Suite 201, Healdsburg, 707-385-9855, dotwinery.com
Drive Wines owners John Musto, left, and Tom Young at Puccione Ranch. (David Ruf/Drive Wines)
Drive Wines
East Coast native John Musto is among the winemakers who gave up non-agriculture careers to dive into winemaking. He worked in finance for a time, studied at the Culinary Institute of America in New York and acquired a taste for wine when his parents opened bottles of old-vine zinfandel.
After living in Italy for two years, Musto moved to Sonoma in 2013, intent on making wine. While taking enology and viticulture classes at Santa Rosa Junior College, he met Tom Young, a graphic design and print professional with a home vineyard. They hit it off, began making wine in Young’s garage and eventually upgraded to the garage of a vineyard owner and restorer of vintage race cars, Peter Lewis. Thus, the Drive label.
Musto and Young went pro in 2017, starting with zinfandel from Puccioni Ranch in Dry Creek Valley, and they have slowly added more wines to their arsenal. Their business is small and personal, the wines of excellent quality and smartly priced. It’s a labor of love, not hefty profit.
Current releases include a 2019 Sonoma Coast Syrah from Canihan Vineyard, a 2018 Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel from Puccioni Ranch (from vines planted in 1904) and a 2020 Quan Vineyard Carneros Rosé of Pinot Noir. In the pipeline are small lots of 2021 cabernet sauvignon from Alexander Valley and 2021 pinot noir from Carneros.
Complimentary tastings — yes, free — are offered by Drive and other small producers at Locals Tasting Room in Geyserville; Musto and Young are often behind the bar.
Pinot noirs, chardonnays and syrahs from cool-climate vineyards in the Sonoma Coast and Petaluma Gap growing regions of Sonoma County are Kevin Bersofsky’s forte. He began making his own wine in his Napa garage in 2006, after working in the business end of winemaking, holding COO and CFO positions at Merryvale Family of Wines and Trinchero Family Estates, as well as at The Republic of Tea.
Bersofsky went “legit” in 2015 and summer 2021 saw him open his first public tasting room for his own wine label, Montagne Russe, at Healdsburg’s Bacchus Landing. The brand name, French for “Russian mountain,” alludes to the 18th century European predecessor to the roller coaster (Bersofsky designed a roller coaster as his university engineering project), and perhaps also to the up-and-down nature of the wine industry.
Wine buffs will recognize the names of many of the vineyards Bersofsky sources for grapes, among them Roberts Road, La Cruz (Keller Estate) and Terra de Promissio, all in the wind-whipped Petaluma Gap AVA. A new wine is Tous Les Deux, an unusual white blend of pinot gris and pinot noir, the juice of the latter spending no time in the skins after pressing and thus not picking up the dark-red pigment and tannins of traditionally made pinot noir.
The Classic tier tasting at Bacchus Landing is $25; Reserve tier $35. Additionally, Bersofsky hosts visitors at his wine-aging cave in Petaluma ($50), with six or more wines poured during the 90-minute experience. Cave tastings must be arranged in advance; the location will be shared at that time.
4210 Bacchus Landing Way, Suite 101, Healdsburg, 855-467-8773, russewines.com
Vineyards at Serres Ranch in Sonoma. (Bob McClenahan/Serres Ranch)
Taylor Serres pours wine at Serres Ranch in Sonoma. (Bob McClenahan/Serres Ranch)
Serres Ranch Wine
Here is where blueberries enter the enological picture, as a creative and casual extension of the Serres family’s agricultural history in Sonoma Valley. Six generations of Serres have raised cattle, blueberries and wine grapes on their property north of Boyes Hot Springs, with Gen V leading the winemaking charge.
The Serres wine brand launched in 2017, made from mostly Bordeaux red grape varieties planted in the mid-1980s. Tim Milos is the winemaker (some will recognize him from Hidden Ridge in the Fountaingrove AVA, now known as Immortal Estate), and the current releases — all exceptional — are a merlot and two blends of merlot, cabernet sauvignon, malbec, petit verdot and cabernet franc ($65). Bleusé, a sparkling blend of blueberry fruit and aleatico wine, is refreshing, low in alcohol and remarkably good ($23 for a four-pack of cans).
Schedule a private tour and tasting at the ranch ($40), usually led by fifth-generation Taylor Serres and with hellos from her father, John Serres Sr., and Taylor’s brothers, John Jr. and Buck. Tastings are accompanied by a charcuterie board with local artisan cheeses, meats and nibbles.
Arustic-meets-majestic 3,500-square-foot hacienda complete with a 630-square-foot guest house has hit the local luxury real estate market with an asking price of $4.2 million.
The three-bedroom mission-style property, perched on a hill in Sonoma’s gated George Ranch community, was built in 1999. Rammed earth walls make the home fire resistant and handmade tiles from Mexico and unique design features like a wooden pantry door from an old Spanish church add a personal touch. The interior design and choice of furniture — a Ralph Lauren leather couch and a 12-foot-long credenza stand out — give prospective buyers the idea of the property’s potential.
The current owners of the home, Edna Hayes and Bruce Needleman, have an eye for design: They own the high-end rustic furniture store Salsa Trading Company in the town of Sonoma. The color palette in their Sonoma hacienda includes browns from leather and wood and clay-red from ceramic floor tiles; hues of cobalt blue contrast with the earthy tones in select spots in the bathroom and by the pool. Iron sconces, sculptures and paintings decorate the space and also offer splashes of color.
Pool area at 3480 Hawks Beard Drive in Sonoma. (Circle Visions)
Pool area at 3480 Hawks Beard Drive in Sonoma. (Circle Visions)Botero inspired mosaic and cobalt blue tiles in the shower at 3480 Hawks Beard Drive in Sonoma. (Circle Visions)
“The home is very elegant but also very kick-back,” says the property’s listing agent David Costello of the ACT team at Compass Real Estate. He adds that the sturdy materials used throughout the home allow prospective buyers to live there with kids, without worrying about damaging anything.
In addition to being fireproof, the home’s 12-foot-thick rammed earth walls, made from cement and sedimentary rock, also allow for natural temperature control while sun-blocking awnings cover the patios outside each room. A mature garden with towering succulents aligns with water conservation efforts in the area and with the style of the home. From the gates of George Ranch, which has just 51 residences spread over 1,000 acres, downtown Sonoma is just a 15-minute drive away.
The home is listed by Andy Ardilla and David Costello of ACT at Compass. For property details and appointments, please call 415-608-1003, email act@compass.com or visit 3480hawksbeard.com
