5 Sonoma Wineries With An Italian Vibe

By Linda Murphy

Some of the most recognizable names in Sonoma wine are Italian: A. Rafanelli, Foppiano, Gallo, Martinelli, Pedroncelli, Rochioli, Sebastiani and Seghesio, to name just a few.

The founders of these wineries, largely from Italy’s Tuscany region, made their way to California in the mid- to late-1800s, many of them attracted by the Gold Rush. When the gold petered out, they scattered throughout the state, with large concentrations landing in Sonoma and Mendocino counties. The the soil and arid climate here reminded them of home and the grapes, tomatoes, peppers and olives they grew there to feed their families.

It’s a testament to the determination of Sonoma’s transplanted Italians that so many of their wineries flourish today, having weathered Prohibition, war and financial depressions. The rustic zinfandels, petite sirahs, barberas, carignanes and “mixed blacks” field blends they bottled a century ago have evolved into wines with more refinement and superior quality. Sangiovese, nebbiolo, aglianico and dolcetto and white varietals pinot grigio, vermentino, malvasia and moscato are now fashionable, their production encouraged by the children and grandchildren of those first-wave Italians.

COVID-19 has made travel to Italy nearly impossible right now, but not to worry. Several Sonoma wineries exude an Italian vibe that will remind visitors of Tuscany, without the plane flight or need for an English-to-Italian dictionary. Here are five that deliver a sense of la dolce vita, for their Italian brand names, wines produced, architecture, design and experiences offered. All winery visits are by appointment only and conducted outdoors.

Acorn Winery

Owners Betsy and Bill Nachbaur are not Italian, although their devotion to Italian grape varieties and old-vine zinfandel is as strong as a Tuscan day is long. The couple purchased Alegría Vineyard in 1990, located in the southeastern, warmest section of Russian River Valley and originally part of the 1841 Sotoyome land grant. It was planted, beginning in the 1890s, to a dizzying array of varieties, among them zinfandel, sangiovese, alicante bouchet, petite sirah, carignane, syrah, bastardo and graciano.

Bill, who thought he would be a lawyer, instead jumped headlong into viticulture. Betsy soon joined him full-time in the business of growing grapes for other wineries. In 1994, they establish their own Acorn brand, holding back fruit for themselves and selling to a shorter list of producers. All their bold, hearty wines come from their vineyard — zinfandel, sangiovese, dolcetto, rosato (rosé), syrah, cabernet franc and proprietary blends Medley and Acorn Hill. Production is just 3,000 cases a year, and each wine is a “field blend” in which the primary variety is fermented with other grape types, adding depth and complexity.

Tastings are $30 per person and are personal, with Betsy or Bill pouring. Bill is happy to lead physically distanced, masked tours of the vineyard for those who are interested. Just say so at the time of booking.

12040 Old Redwood Highway, Healdsburg, 707-433-6440, acornwinery.com

Battaglini Winery & Vineyard

Everything old is new again at Battaglini. A visit here is refreshing for its lack of fussiness, reminiscent of tasting at a rural Tuscan winery where the ambiance comes from the rustic surroundings and hardworking people who obviously love what they do. Don’t be surprised if you smell food cooking on the stove, hear Italian music or see family members playing bocce when you arrive.

Giuseppe J. Battaglini came to the U.S. in 1956 with the desire to grow grapes as his family did in Tuscany. “Joe” met his wife, Lucia, in San Francisco in 1961, and in 1988, they were finally able to buy the Lagomarsino Winery in Santa Rosa. The zinfandel and petite sirah vines planted there, in what is now the Russian River Valley, date to 1885. They were sold under contract to Beringer Vineyards in Napa Valley; the Battaglinis were able to produce their first wines from their fruit with the 1994 vintage. Four zins and a petite sirah are made from the ancient vines; chardonnay, rosato (rosé) and late-harvest chardonnay are also poured.

2948 Piner Road, Santa Rosa, 707-318-8944, battagliniwines.com

Ferrari-Carano Vineyards and Winery

Second-generation Italian Americans Don and Rhonda Carano, hoteliers from Reno, built this grand Italian-inspired estate (with a hint of French château) in 1981. Don honored his grandmother, Amelia Ferrari, by adding her to the winery name. F-C has been a visitor magnet for three decades, thanks to Rhonda’s exquisite gardens and fountain, the serene and expansive view of Dry Creek Valley from the north looking south and Villa Fiore, the hospitality center. The design is a modern replica of a northern Italian villa, with an Enoteca tasting bar in the underground cellar (not open during the pandemic) and tasting areas on terraces overlooking the vineyards.

Now part of the Foley Family Wines group, Ferrari-Carano debuted two new tastings this fall. The Sycamore Grove Tasting includes a flight of four single-vineyard wines paired with Italian-inspired bites, encompassing ingredients from the garden. $50 per person. There are two Il Terrazzo Tastings on the patio, with four wines and the option to purchase a cheese and charcuterie board. The Traditional tasting is $20 per person; Reserve is $30. The wines poured run the gamut, from Italian to Burgundian to Bordeaux varietals. Open Thursday through Sunday.

8761 Dry Creek Road, Healdsburg, 800-831-0381, ferrari-carano.com

Jacuzzi Family Vineyards

Fred and Nancy Cline, of Cline Family Cellars in Sonoma, opened Jacuzzi in 2007 to honor Fred’s grandfather, Valeriano Jacuzzi, whose family invented the famous spa pump. Valeriano, an immigrant from Carsasa, Italy, taught Fred how to grow wine grapes, and while the Clines first focused on Rhone-variety wines at Cline Cellars, Jacuzzi is devoted to Italian-style wines, among them arneis, moscato, pinot grigio, barbera, teroldego, aglianico, dolcetto and nebbiolo. Chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon are also produced.

The winery and visitor center, built across the street from Cline, were inspired by both the Jacuzzi family home in Italy’s Friuli-Venezia Giulia region and medieval monasteries. The large farmhouse-style stone structure has a watch tower and a main piazza in its center, where guests taste wine and picnic. An 80-some-year-old fig tree, transplanted to Sonoma from the Valeriani ancestral ranch, provides shelter from the elements. The interior — which will reopen after pandemic restrictions are eased — is filled with rustic furnishings, Italian art and a Venetian chandelier. The tasting bar and gift shop are crammed with visitors in high, non-COVID, season.

In 2013, the Clines purchased The Olive Press, adjacent to Jacuzzi. Their own olive oils, and those of others who contract for pressing services, are a big draw. The winery and olive press area are open 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday.

24724 Arnold Drive, Sonoma, 707-931-7575, jacuzziwines.com

Sebastiani Vineyards & Winery

Tuscan immigrant Samuele Sebastiani could not have predicted, when he founded his winery in the heart of Sonoma in 1904, that multigenerational squabbling over how to run the business would eventually force its sale. The saga is long and complicated, with a deep cast of characters, among them Samuele’s son and daughter-in-law, August and Sylvia, and grandchildren Don, Sam and Mary Ann, who eventually sold to Bill Foley, now of Foley Family Wines, in 2008.

The result today is a winery with a pared-down approach to producing a wide range of wines from Sonoma County grapes (in its heyday, Sebastiani’s second-label wines sourced grapes from throughout California) and offering visitor experiences that include telling the history of the Sebastiani family. Prior to Foley’s purchase, the hospitality center underwent a major redesign in 2001, with then-President and CEO Mary Ann Sebastiani Cuneo modernized the tasting room with an 80-foot curved bar of concrete and limestone, vaulted ceilings and retrofitted stone walls, columns and archways. Under coronavirus restrictions, Sebastiani offers daily seated tastings on its courtyard, 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The Seated Wine Tasting is $35 for the Classic Flight and $40 for the Signature Flight. The Cherryblock Vineyard Tour and Tasting ($75) takes place in the vineyard north of the winery, planted to mostly cabernet sauvignon in 1961. Space heaters and a covered tent are available for cold or rainy days.

389 Fourth St. E., Sonoma, 707-933-3200, sebastiani.com

Healdsburg Restaurant Offers Immersive Winter Fantasy Dining Experience

By Heather Irwin

The wild and mystical winter forests of northern Japan are coming to Healdsburg this holiday season.

“Usu-Zan” at the upscale Single Thread restaurant will be a five-nights-per-week immersive outdoor dining experience inspired by the food and wild spaces of Hokkaido, a far-flung island prefecture of Japan. The event is a collaboration between Chef Kyle Connaughton and Katina Connaughton of Single Thread and interior designer Ken Fulk.

Tasked with creating a misty forest that marries the tranquility of an old-growth forest with the energy of a Japanese countryside restaurant, the team plans for river rock-lined pathways and fountains leading to a verdant open-air tent filled with Japanese cypress trees. Guests are invited to journey through gates, past an altar and over a footbridge on their way to their tables. Shoji screens and tatami mats offer a warm stage for rustic tables, while softly lit lanterns made from rice paper are suspended overhead.

“We wanted to create an imaginary Hokkaido forest providing a cinematic backdrop for an otherworldly meal,” Fulk said. “Rather than be limited by the current dining constraints, we saw (this) as an opportunity to craft spaces that reveal themselves and recapture that childlike sense of wonder in all of us.”

Expect an over-the-top luxury environment that showcases Fulk’s unique ability to join story, art and design in a space. He is also working on the reopening of the former SHED space in Healdsburg as Little Saint.

The food, of course, will be up to the standards of the three Michelin stars that Single Thread has been awarded. But it is also a very personal homage for the Connaughtons, who credit their time living in Hokkaido and learning the cuisine, culture and artisan lifestyle of the region as the inspiration for Single Thread.

The opening nine-course menu is focused on seasonal winter ingredients — seafood from the cold waters of Hokkaido; local Wagyu beef prized for its tenderness; uni and scallops; konbu (kelp) and Single Thread Farm’s onions, turnips, chrysanthemum greens, daikon and eggs. The highlight of the meal will be family-style donabe hot pots that include Hokkaido Seafood and Miso Nabe; Roasted Duclair Duck Nabe and Vegetable, Mushroom and Tofu Nabe, along with A-5 Wagyu beef Shabu Shabu. DuMOL wines will be offered as a special pairing with the donabe course.

“In Hokkaido, all of our friendships were forged over a simmering hot pot of rich miso broth with local seafood and vegetables” Kyle Connaughton said. “We’d sit for hours fortifying the broth, sharing sake and talking. It was a way of cooking and a way of life that changed us forever. We are excited to bring this to a new dining experience for our guests, when everyone can use fun, excitement, nourishment and comfort.”

In a moment when fairy tales and far-off worlds sound pretty good, Usu-Zan fulfills that fantasy, according to Fulk.

“We all need a little escapism now and then, perhaps now more than ever,” Fulk said. “The dining experience at Single Thread is so exquisite that Usu-Zan needed to be equally magical but also whimsical and transportive. It feels like you stepped into a Japanese fairy tale.”

Usu-Zan will take place Dec. 10 to March 28, with seating from 4-6:30 p.m. Thursday through Monday. Dinner bookings are $375 per guest with a transferable, nonrefundable $100 deposit required at the time of booking. A special “experience within an experience” will be offered for parties of four with King Crab from the Okhotsk Sea, roasted crab broth and other crab goodies along with Connaughton’s book, “Donabe: Classic and Modern Japanese Clay Pot Cooking,” for $475 per person. Details are at singlethreadfarms.com/blog/usuzan.

Living in a Landmark: A Look Inside This Historic Santa Rosa Home

By Abigail Peterson

After 30 years, Noreen and Rick Carvolth are used to rolling with the surprises that come with living in a landmark.

Sometimes, it’s a note left on the porch from someone who grew up in the neighborhood saying how much she has always loved the home; other times it’s a tentative ring of the doorbell from some passers-by wondering about the woodwork or the second-floor Union Jack-style windows. “I feel proud that people take interest in the history,” says Noreen, who in pre-Covid times was known to invite folks in for an impromptu look around.

The Craftsman home in downtown Santa Rosa’s graceful McDonald Avenue neighborhood was built in 1910 by a prominent turn-of-the-century pharmacist and designed by architect Brainerd Jones, who was known for building homes and libraries throughout Sonoma County. In its hundred-plus years, the home has been owned by just four families, including the Carvolths, who raised three sons and a daughter here and now welcome back their young grandchildren for sleepovers and romps in the backyard pool.

Noreen, a former member of the Santa Rosa school board, and Rick, an emergency-room physician turned healthcare executive, knew a bit about challenges of living in a historic home before purchasing it in 1987. They’d renovated a 1928 bungalow in Mill Valley to fit their young family before making the leap to Santa Rosa for Rick’s medical career. Moving into the neighborhood with three energetic young kids in tow was a bit of a barrel-ofmonkeys proposition. It was a hot, muggy summer that year and the home still needed plenty of work, Noreen remembers. The couple didn’t have their phone hooked up in time for Rick’s first on-call shift at the hospital, so they had to ask a neighbor to borrow the land line. “The neighbor said to me, ‘Well, we were wondering who’d bought that house. What did you spend so much money on that house for?’” laughs Noreen. “We attracted some attention.”

But they settled in, sending their children to Proctor Terrace Elementary School and living with the house as-is for a year before hiring architect Mark Quattrocchi to reimagine it for a family of six (the Carvolths’ fourth child was born two years after they moved in). Quattrocchi added a separate shingled garage to match the house and a large kitchen overlooking the backyard. Over time, they also worked on the bedrooms and baths upstairs and enclosed a side porch to make space for their daughter’s piano. “It was so easy to imagine,” says Noreen.

“The bones of the house were a livable home. It had been designed for a family, and we’ve tried to keep everything in the spirit of the house.”

Now that their children are grown, the extra bedrooms have become guest rooms, craft spaces, and offices for Noreen and Rick, who maintain busy schedules of work, volunteering, and home projects. (“Since the pandemic began, I’ve cleaned out every cabinet in the house!” says Noreen.) Her second floor office is a showstopper, with a rosy paint job, period furniture, and a line of stained-glass windows featuring stylized pink and green tulips, a Craftsman-era motif that repeats in the room’s wool rug. Noreen oversaw the restoration of the stained glass windows, one of which bowed dangerously outward—but fortunately, did not shatter—after being hit by a basketball.

Period details abound throughout but particularly on the first floor, including beautifully maintained Douglas fir paneling, built-in cabinetry, coffered ceilings, pocket doors, and original multi-pane windows and light fixtures. “The wood was milled right here on-site, all the custom trim,” says Rick.

“It was a time where there was a high value placed on people’s craft, their artistry. Everything was handmade.” In the living room, a wide couch flanks the wood-paneled fireplace, with a chess table and glass-fronted bookshelves alongside. The formal dining room across the hall has its own extensive glass built-ins, vintage sconces, and custom gold-textured walls. And above the large round dining table is one of the few decidedly non-Craftsman details, a fanciful Murano glass chandelier the couple purchased on a trip to Venice.

Noreen and Rick feel deeply connected to the others who raised their families in the house over the years. Noreen has the original blueprints and a collection of hundred-year-old photographs of the exterior that she shares with her grown children and now her grandchildren. She keeps files of newspaper clippings from the society pages of the Press Democrat that mention parties held in the home in the 1930s. And in the basement, next to a newly-added wine cellar, there’s a small “jam closet” tucked underneath the stairs with vintage wooden shelves where the wife of the home used to line up stockpiles of homemade preserves. It’s now where Noreen stores board games for her grandchildren. But the 1920s housewife’s jam labels are still there, marking the shelves in exquisitely tiny, perfectly scrolled handwriting. The labels—“Strawberry Jam, 1924” and “Blackberry Jelly”—are a moment of connection that delights Noreen.

“I think about who has handled these things in the past, who has touched these shelves or this doorknob.”

The home’s history still comes knocking every so often. Noreen once met

a man who’d rented a room in the house in the late 1970s when the downstairs was turned into practice rooms for a rock band (he told her how they’d broken one of the living room windows, solving the question of why, to this day, it doesn’t match the others).

The children of a family who rented the house in the 1960s told how they played hideand- seek in the crawlspace. And a few years after they moved in, Noreen met three of the children of the house’s original builder, by then in their 80s, who told her how as teenagers, they’d climb out the windows, Pollyanna-style, to meet up with friends.

Noreen and Rick almost sold the house a few years back, thinking it was time to downsize. But now they’re glad they didn’t and look forward to making more memories as the house, and its people, meet the changes brought by time. “Our kids still come home and sit at the same spots around the kitchen table,” says Noreen. “I feel thankful that this house is such a steady force in their lives.”

15 Unique Gifts Under $35 Available at Sonoma Stores

By Karen Kizer

You can shop small and local and still spend just a little. Thanks to the curation efforts of Sonoma shopkeepers, you can find small gifts that are big on style. Here are 15 unique gift ideas, all under $35. Click through the above gallery for details.

Best Holiday Gift Ideas from Sonoma County Businesses

By Karen Kizer

There are so many wonderful things made, grown or cultivated in Sonoma. So giving the gift of Sonoma is always a wonderful way to go, whether the person on your list is across the country or across the street. Here are just a few favorites finds that are just so Sonoma. Click through the above gallery for details.
Continue reading “Best Holiday Gift Ideas from Sonoma County Businesses”

Shop Online at These Sonoma Stores This Holiday Season

By Karen Kizer

If you’re planning on holiday shopping but prefer to stay out of stores altogether, there are still ways to shop small in Sonoma. Here are just some spots with great online shopping, whether the person on your list loves food, style, nostalgia or fitness. Click through the above gallery for details.

Our Favorite Soups in Sonoma County This Year

By Heather Irwin
Onion soup at Fandees Restaurant (7824 Covert Ln, Sebastopol). (Heather Irwin/Press Democrat)

A well-crafted soup says a lot about the temperament, creativity and patience of a chef.  In fact, learning to make a basic stock is one of the first (and most important) things a chef learns. Fail that, and you fail in the kitchen.

Deceptively simple, making soup is about time, seasoning and ingredients. No matter what the cuisine, every good restaurant has a massive pot of stock bubbling away on a back burner. Skimmed and simmered for up to 24 hours, it’s a literal melting pot for roasted bones and vegetable trimmings that comprise the foundation of a hearty, flavorful, steaming bowl of soup.

As the weather cools, now’s the time we really start looking for a warm cup of minestrone, posole, French onion or beef barley.  Here are some favorites…

Have a soup you’d like to see added to our list? Send a picture and a description to us.

Local Pastry Chef Featured on Food Network’s ‘Candy Land’

By Heather Irwin
Robert Nieto, Pastry Chef of Jackson Family Wines. (Heather Irwin / The Press Democrat)

Now that the Great British Baking Show has broken all of our hearts, there’s something so much sweeter to love: “Candy Land.”

The Food Network show hosted by actress Kristin Chenoweth features a life-size, edible version of the much-loved children’s board game including a peppermint forest, chocolate mountain, lollipop woods and a licorice swamp. Thousands of pounds of candy, chocolate ganache, fresh cookies and other goodies were a dreamy larder for the contestants. According to the Food Network website, the contestants must forage for ingredients to use in their sugar masterpieces they then present to the judges.

Local pastry chef and chocolatier Robert Nieto of Jackson Family Wines and Fleur Sauvage Chocolate has helped his team sail through the first two rounds as they created a chocolate bridge (complete with gumdrop troll) and a fantasy chocolate blimp with cocoa nib race cars.

Before the show began taping in Long Beach last August, Nieto had to quarantine for a week in a hotel, where he made the cocoa nib molds — just for fun — because, well, that’s what he does.

“With the chocolate, I was just in my element,” he said.

Nieto, who has competed internationally with the US Pastry Team, joined four other bakers to make up Team Pink on the six-episode series, which premiered Nov. 15. None knew each other before the contest.

“You just show up on set and it’s go time,” he said, acknowledging that the first challenge was the hardest as they figured out where each of them fit in. His other teammates are primarily cake bakers, while Nieto has a strong background in chocolate and sugar modeling.

Nieto can’t say what happens on the next “Candy Land” episode, but he will confess that he gets a chance to be team leader (at some point) and watchers are in for a sweet treat.

If you’re dying to taste one of Nieto’s gourmet chocolates, he’ll be at the Healdsburg Farmers’ Market and Windsor Farmers Market through December. Or try his incredible desserts as part of the Jackson Family Wines’ wine pairings at Kendall-Jackson Wine Estate & Gardens.

Other BiteClub News

Marla Bakery: One of Santa Rosa’s best-kept bakery secrets is popping up each Saturday throughout the month of December at Miracle Plum (208 Davis St., Santa Rosa, miracleplum.com) in Santa Rosa. Superstars of the SF bakery scene, Joe Wolf and Amy Brown, have moved to Sonoma County with their kids and are now bringing us their famous English muffins, bagels, pastries and bread starting Dec. 5 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. You will want to get in on that breakfast action. They’ll also be doing pre-order pickups at their new Windsor bakery on Sundays for those in the know. Stay up to speed at marlabakery.com.

Where to Get Traditional Doughnuts for Hanukkah in Sonoma County

By Michele Anna Jordan

From late November through December, nearly 20 million jelly doughnuts, known as sufganiyot, are devoured in Israel as one of Hanukkah’s traditional treats. As their popularity has grown, so has the range of fillings, from the traditional raspberry and cherry jam to the more unusual rose petal jelly. Israeli versions include nutmeg in the dough and a final dusting of powdered sugar.

Why doughnuts for Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights? The holiday celebrates the miracle of the oil, specifically lamp oil that should have lasted for only one night somehow lasting for eight. Doughnuts, like the more familiar latkes, are fried in, yes, oil.

Over the last few decades, sufganiyot have grown in popularity in the United States, including in Sonoma County. If you have a neighborhood doughnut shop, ask if they offer them during the holidays. If not, you’ll find delicious versions of the traditional recipe at these spots.

City Garden Doughnuts & Coffee

1200 Fourth St., Santa Rosa 707-595-1932

Grossman’s Noshery & Bar

308 Wilson St., Santa Rosa 707-595-7707

Johnny Doughnuts

1617 Fourth St., San Rafael 415-450-1866

Where to Find Mistletoe Outdoors in Sonoma County

By Abigail Peterson
Get in the winter spirit by searching for mistletoe out and about in Sonoma County. (HildaWeges Photography/Shutterstock.com)

Forget about that sad sprig of mistletoe hanging all by its lonely self. For a more appropriately Sonoma-style spin on the holiday tradition, find a spot underneath the mistletoe along one of our many woodland trails. Mistletoe grows widely in our deciduous valley oaks, and it’s easily recognized this time of year, when the leaves have fallen and the delicate shapes of the oaks’ branchwork are revealed. Though it represents a sweet custom, in reality the parasitic mistletoe can damage the health of our oaks; large infestations harm trees by sapping water and nutrients. But nonetheless, the time spent hiking outdoors to spot the bright-green, lacy garnishes will bring calm and good health to your season.

Spot mistletoe in the oak woodlands at these local parks.

Glen Ellen

Eldridge Trail to Fern Lake. Begin at the end of Orchard Road on the campus of the Sonoma Developmental Center.

Windsor

Foothill Regional Park. 1351 Arata Lane.

Santa Rosa

Santa Rosa Taylor Mountain Regional Park and Open Space Preserve. 2080 Kawana Terrace or 3820 Petaluma Hill Rd.