Calidanza Dance Company will stage the 19th annual Posada Navideña holiday celebration December 8 at Santa Rosa’s Luther Burbank Center for the Arts. (Will Bucquoy)
For many years, Steven Valencia of the Calidanza Dance Company tried to keep two very different parts of his world separate, almost as if he lived a double life. But in 2010, “a huge photo” of him dancing ballet folklórico ran in a local newspaper. The next day, he walked into his job as a corrections officer at a maximum-security youth correctional facility, and inmates and staff all had funny looks on their faces. “Everybody wanted to know, ‘Is this you?’” he recalls.
Walking the line between dance theater and the penitentiary, Valencia takes a lot of pride in helping shape the lives of kids in both jobs. “In the prison system, you get to see the other side—what happens to kids when they don’t have programming and things in their lives that are important to them,” says Valencia, a fourth-generation Mexican American.
Valencia’s Calidanza Dance Company will stage the 19th annual Posada Navideña holiday celebration December 8 at Santa Rosa’s Luther Burbank Center for the Arts.
Steven Valencia.
Reconnecting with culture
“Posada Navideña is the Mexican celebration of Christmas, held for nine nights (Dec. 16-24) and recreating the journey of Mary and Joseph as they were looking for shelter before the birth of Jesus. In America, we often condense it down into one night. For some people, it’s about discovery, and they’re learning about their culture through dance and music.
Other times, I’ll see older people in the audience in tears because it’s something they miss, something they remember when they were a child, when they were younger growing up in Mexico. It’s important for people to reconnect.”
Teaching the next generation
“I started dancing in elementary school and now we go into so many schools every year. We do an interactive assembly, where we’ll teach them how to do things like “gritos” (shouts) or we’ll bring a few kids up and teach them steps, so they’re learning about what they’re seeing and it’s not like, ‘Oh, that’s a pretty dance with pretty colors and pretty dresses.’” Dance as therapy
“I’ve been assaulted three different times. The last time was in 2017. I was out for about 10 months with a shoulder injury. I love my career, but prison can really bring you down emotionally, spiritually, and physically. I think having that balance in my life with dance, having something that’s meaningful and brings so much joy, has really left me with a very healthy balance where I don’t feel like I’m pulled down too much.”
Changing it up
This year, there’s a new piece from the state of Guerrero that takes a mixture of the different regions of Guerrero and fuses them together. But this one’s really about women empowerment represented in dance.
Usually ballet folklórico is male-dominated. A couple dances, with the male taking the lead, that’s what you usually see. We wanted to change the narrative and bring the women to the forefront, as the lead in this choreography.
The Sonoma Coast will experience some of the biggest tidal swings of the year in December and mid-January.
King tides typically occur at a new or full moon and when the moon is closest to the earth, and they cause even greater impact when they coincide with big winter storms. They’re of interest to climate researchers because they can give a glimpse of how the coast may be impacted as sea levels rise.
Waves crash into Duncan’s Landing near Wright’s Beach on the Sonoma Coast, Tuesday, Dec. 27, 2022. (Kent Porter / The Press Democrat)
Post up on the cliffs above Goat Rock or along the Kortum Trail to take in winter’s drama from a safe distance. Check tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov for tide tables.
Local conservation group Stewards of the Coast and Redwoods will offer docent-led king tide interpretive events along the coast in January and February (see stewardscr.org for information). Dec. 13 and Dec. 24, Jan. 11.
When visiting the coast, be aware of weather and water conditions and heed warnings. Never turn your back to the ocean and stay much further back from the water than you might think is necessary.
“Sneaker waves can sweep people and pets into the sea from rocks, jetties, and beaches as well as move large objects such as logs, crushing anyone caught underneath,” according to the National Weather Service.
Sometimes, as a designer, the hardest thing to do is to hold back. Paul Pavlak and Karen Gilbert, founders of SkLO, a Healdsburg-based company that produces handblown glass lighting and accessories, focused on restraint when designing the renovation of their 1,200-square-foot cabin-style home outside Sebastopol.
The couple shunned large additions and excessive ornamentation in favor of the humble, essential beauty of a smaller, cozier space marked by untreated redwood siding, stone slabs, and large glass windows to bring the outdoors in.
“It’s very warm,” explains Paul, who trained as an architect. “As an architectural point of view, and as people, we don’t want fussy stuff. We like things that are durable, things that will wear with you.”
The couple chose redwood for the exterior siding. (Eileen Roche/For Sonoma Magazine)The cabin’s cozy great room. (Eileen Roche/For Sonoma Magazine)
The couple’s daughter, Lola, now a sophomore in high school, was just a few months old when Paul and Karen bought the property, a 70s-era rancher and an adjacent outbuilding along a winding country road. The house was in fairly rough shape, with wall-to-wall shag carpeting, orange Formica counters in the kitchen, and a funky old circular fireplace that was the only source of heat. Oh, and there was a cat—an elderly, indoor-outdoor cat that had belonged to the original owners.
At the time, with their growing careers and a young child to raise, the couple didn’t have much of a budget for renovations. They painted inside, ripped out the carpet, and installed a makeshift kitchen, but other needed improvements, like a more functional bathroom and better insulation and heating, had to wait a few years.
“When Lola was little, I just remember getting up in the morning, and it would be like 46, 48 degrees in the house,” says Paul.
“You get pretty good at making a fire when you use it for your heat source every day,” laughs Karen. With Paul’s architecture training and Karen’s background in jewelry and product design, the couple never stopped picturing what would come next in the property’s evolution. When Lola was 10, they took on a much larger renovation of the space, moving into a single small bedroom as work began.
“Remember at the beginning of ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,’ where everyone sits in the bed together? That was us. There was nowhere to be, but the bed. And Lola was still little enough that we could get away with that,” says Paul. His design added a mudroom and a half bath at the front of the house, a fully updated kitchen, and a new family bathroom. They also replaced doors and windows, added insulation and central heating, and traded the old fireplace for an economical European woodstove.
The family streamlined material choices, layering in color with SkLO glass, books, and artwork. (Eileen Roche/For Sonoma Magazine)Karen creates simple holiday displays of foraged greens, lights, and SkLO glass in jewel colors. (Eileen Roche/For Sonoma Magazine)
As they updated the layout and made the house more energy efficient, Paul and Karen focused on maintaining the pared-back simplicity that had drawn them to the home. Post-renovation, it still has a “just the facts, ma’am” feel, with a thoughtfully laid-out main room that combines a kitchen, dining area, and living spaces, plus two identical, modestly sized bedrooms just off the living room.
The couple chose redwood for the exterior siding, durable and inexpensive basalt stone floors in the new mudroom, and oiled redwood kitchen counters, inspired by ones they saw on a visit to Jack London’s turn-of-the-century cottage in Glen Ellen. The wood for the bathroom countertop is from their old dining table, studded with small touches of paint from Lola’s childhood art projects.
At every opportunity, Paul and Karen sought out the most honest expression of the materials they chose.
“I remember when the contractors were putting up the pine boards for the interior walls, which we’d repurposed from the old flooring. They were trying to figure out how to space the joints so they were all perfect, and one guy was trying to fill in all the old knots, so it would be seamless. And I was like, no—I want that texture, I want to see those knots. I want to see those old nail holes underneath the paint,” says Paul.
Intentionally, the redwood siding on the exterior is untreated, and the interior floors are treated simply with tung oil. There’s no drywall anywhere, no polyurethane sealants, no window coverings to separate the home from the outdoors.
“Everyone’s kind of obsessed with permanence,” says Paul. “But impermanence is part of the deal, for all of us. And we embraced that in building. The redwood—it is probably going to fail a little bit faster because we didn’t seal it, but it also would look different if we’d sealed it, right?”
Karen says she appreciates how the renovated space maintains the connection to the outdoors.
“That’s why it’s kind of like camping,” she says. “You’re very tied to the outside in all the seasons.”
When the weather is warm, the house opens up to the breezes, with skylights and sliding doors and various window configurations. And as winter approaches, the family can close off the windows and doors, or perhaps build a small fire on the weekend. (Even though the new wood stove is highly efficient, Paul is conscious of how often they use it, as the particulates in the smoke affect the environment.)
Karen and Paul’s workshop and design studio is just across the courtyard from the main home. It is a functional, barn-like space with tile floors and space for drawing, prototyping, and metalwork. (Eileen Roche/For Sonoma Magazine)Karen pins up sketches and color palettes for future SkLO lighting and tableware. (Eileen Roche/For Sonoma Magazine)
Paul and Karen are minimalists by nature and keep the common spaces neutral in tone, layering in color through books and art. While all the walls in the main space are painted white, Lola, who has grown up to be an artist and creative like her parents, wanted more color and vibrancy in her bedroom. She left the pine paneling in her bedroom in its raw form and chose a brightly colored bedspread.
The cabin feels cozier and quieter in early winter, as Lola sketches on her bed or at the kitchen counter and Karen works at the dining table.
“We’re very homebody people—we all kind of have our own inner world,” says Karen. “I make things, Paul cooks. We’re out in the country, so you don’t just go out for coffee. We make everything here.”
With the main home updated, the family turned their attention two years ago to a 1940s outbuilding, renovating it into a design studio and workspace for their business. The new studio is an unapologetically industrial space, with sturdy tile floors and big windows that look across the courtyard to the house and let in beautiful light to work by. One corner is given over to machinery and tools for Karen’s metalworking and jewelry, and there’s a large table at the center where she and Paul can spread out prototypes and work together on new designs.
SkLO’s lighting and accessories are designed by Karen and Paul in Sonoma County but are produced by artists at a glassblowing facility in the Czech Republic. “There’s this allure of being creative and working with a team of people in this ancient tradition,” says Karen. “Glassblowing is a craft—an ancient, living craft. Things are made exactly as they were 200, 300 years ago.”
The simplicity of the home in all of its seasons remains at the heart of what the family loves about living here. This time of year, there’s always someone in the kitchen, often heating up water for tea or starting a batch of soup. Lola puts on headphones and wanders under the oak trees, lost in an audiobook. They hear deer rustling in the leaves down by the creek, sometimes in the middle of the night. And the early winter light is especially resonant, pouring in through the windows to warm the home indoors and out.
“It’s one of the most beautiful times of the year,” says Karen. “You go somewhere else and it’s so gray all the time. We have entire weeks when it’s sunny—the sun is low and it’s still warm outside. That’s the real appeal, I think, of where we live.”
Karen Gilbert, Paul Pavlak and their daughter, Lola. (Eileen Roche/For Sonoma Magazine)The SkLO showroom. (Adam Potts)
Building a Business
Karen Gilbert and Paul Pavlak founded SkLO 10 years ago with design partner Pavel Hanousek. The trio have a new trade showroom in Healdsburg, and their designs are produced at a glassblowing facility in the Czech Republic. As with Karen and Paul’s nearby home, the focus is on subtlety and process, paring back shapes to their essence while layering in vibrant color. Handblown pendant lights and sconces, jewel-colored vases and vessels, and elaborate glass-beaded wall art (a nod to Karen’s background in jewelry design) are staples of the lineup.
Early on, the three founders felt compelled to put every dollar they made straight back into each next project. But as they found their footing, the company expanded. This year the trio introduced beautiful fluted and frosted glass, and soon, they will add new furniture and tabletop accessories. “I feel like we’re finally making what we want to make, versus what we had to make,” says Karen. “You go through a phase in design where you’re just trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together and make something that people want. I think we’re finally at that phase where we have a language we can speak in.”
An understated sense of luxury reigns at the updated Dawn Ranch, with sophisticated velvet and sheepskin seating in the lounge. (Gentl and Hyers/Dawn Ranch)
Saying goodby to sun-soaked summer days isn’t easy, but come fall, a barely noticeable but seemingly magical current takes hold along the banks of the Russian River, encouraging us to catch our breath and slow down. Warm days linger on, but the tempo of life in the bohemian community of Guerneville changes, as the quieter season evolves into an opportunity to relax and reconnect.
Those in the know have been seeking solace in Guerneville for years.
But this once-sleepy spot has seen a recent resurgence in popularity that’s redefining what visitors expect. Several of the town’s historic lodgings have been made over in recent years, including The Stavrand and Casa Secoya, attracting a new generation of visitors seeking more high-end amenities and experiences.
In this context, Dawn Ranch first appeared on the scene in the spring of 2022—testing the waters, so to speak—before the resort’s new owners also purchased the neighboring Fern Grove property across Highway 116 and set to work reimagining the combined destination as an immersive wellness retreat.
At Dawn Ranch in Guerneville. (Gentl and Hyers/Dawn Ranch)Views of towering redwoods, the fragrance of dew-covered meadows, and the calming harmony of chattering bamboo canes will transport you to a calming oasis. (Gentl and Hyers/Dawn Ranch)
“Our design brings new life to a historic property, where the ocean meets Wine Country, and the river meets the southern edge of the redwoods,” says Atit Jariwala, CEO of Bridgeton Holdings, which operates Dawn Ranch and its sister resort, the Marram Montauk in New York. “With this sense of place in mind, we capture the inviting charm of a quintessential Northern California camping retreat to provide a livedin and grounding quality so guests can relax and gather inspiration to create.”
People have been gathering inspiration on these acres since 1905, when the Murphy family opened a resort with tent cabins and a dining hall, catering to wealthy San Franciscans looking for summer retreats on the Russian River. In 1978, it became Fife’s Resort, one of the first gay destination resorts in Sonoma County. Rebranded yet again as Dawn Ranch in 2005, the property operated as an events venue until floods in February 2019 forced the venue to close.
The Dawn Ranch guests experience today pays tribute to the resort of days past, shining light on its charmingly rustic bones while incorporating a more modern feel. The 81 newly renovated cottages and cabins feature four-poster beds and brutalist-style bedside cabinets, as well as hand-loomed rugs and unlacquered brass bathroom fixtures that will patina over time.
Gleaming bathrooms with handmade sage-green tile that echoes the colors of the trees and river. (Gentl and Hyers/Dawn Ranch)
Accommodations come in a variety of configurations, ranging from luxe glamping tents and one-room cabins to two-bedroom bungalows with a full kitchen. You won’t find any televisions here, but the views of towering redwoods, the fragrance of dew-covered meadows, and the calming harmony of chattering bamboo canes will transport you to a calming oasis.
A bungalow that once served as the living quarters for the resort’s owner has been reimagined as a jewel box of a spa. Offering a variety of nature-inspired services, the trio of treatment rooms feature wood-paneled ceilings inspired by the home’s original millwork details.
However, it’s the chance to gaze at starry skies while lounging in one of the spa’s four Japanese ofuro soaking tubs that’s likely to leave the longest-lasting impression.
“Dawn Ranch was designed to rejuvenate guests’ creativity, to help them create their own indulgences in life, on the property or after their stay,” says Jariwala.
A plethora of wellness experiences ranging from yoga and meditation, to origami and beading workshops, take place throughout the resort on any given day. A simple chalkboard perched outside the open-air lobby reminds guests that days here are enriched with opportunities for renewal. Amenities the likes of Fender guitars, Swarovski wildlife binoculars, sketch books, journals, kayaks, and inner tubes encourage musings and exploration.
A bungalow that once served as the living quarters for the resort’s owner has been reimagined as a jewel box of a spa. (Gentl and Hyers/Dawn Ranch)The chance to gaze at starry skies while lounging in one of the spa’s four Japanese ofuro soaking tubs is likely to leave the longest-lasting impression. (Gentl and Hyers/Dawn Ranch)
Original to the Dawn Ranch property, the 1900s-era lodge guests see when they first arrive is now home to a restaurant, bar and lounge area, where the original redwood paneling still shines behind the bar.
“We wanted to make the bar and lounge area a hearth and center place for guests to meet, plan their days, and indulge in a cocktail upon return,” says Jariwala.
“In doing so, we reorganized the design around the key forms of the building—revealing the gables of the ceiling and providing uplighting to accentuate them.”
A cool lime plaster now brightens public spaces, while allowing many of the lodge’s original details, like redwood flooring and trim, to shine. Luxurious velvet couches mix with organic wood furniture to bring the rustic texture and beauty of Dawn Ranch’s outdoor spaces inside.
The resort’s new restaurant, The Lodge at Dawn Ranch, debuted when the Guerneville landmark reopened Memorial Day weekend. Chef Juliana Thorpe, formerly of Napa Valley’s three-Michelin-starred Restaurant at Meadowood, and famed chef Fernando Trocca of Argentina have crafted a vegetable-forward menu with constantly changing offerings the likes of roasted beets with ricotta and pistachios, rainbow trout à la plancha, and wild mushroom risotto.
“My desire is for people to come here and to just get lost on the property and to let themselves wander,” says Teach Mayer, the resort’s manager.
The resort’s new restaurant, The Lodge at Dawn Ranch, debuted when the Guerneville landmark reopened Memorial Day weekend. (Gentl and Hyers/Dawn Ranch)
Those who dedicate time to roam often find themselves at the shoreline of the Russian River. Float and kayak trips extend the boundaries of exploration, but even just a quick dip of the toes is enough to slow down and appreciate the seemingly untouched beauty of this part of the county in fall.
Along with highly sought-after river access, the now 22-acre property boasts a diverse natural landscape that spans the river, multiple redwood groves, a small orchard, and meadows filled with wildflowers. Towering redwoods and giant bamboo mingle with persimmon, pear, and plum trees. The apple trees in the orchard, located between the Russian River and Fife Creek, are believed to be about 120 years old. And then there’s the property’s namesake, a pair of dawn redwoods, a rare and unusual member of the redwood family that dates to prehistoric times and were once thought to be extinct. Fall is the perfect time to linger in their shade, as their feathery leaves turn a vibrant shade of orange.
No one knows for sure how these two dawn redwoods came to be on the property. Legend has it that sometime around 1900, Mrs. Murphy, one of the resort’s original owners, may have allowed arborists working at the nearby Bohemian Grove to camp on her land for free in exchange for planting some of their saplings.
“Clearly, this did not happen just on its own,” says the resort’s Teach Mayer about the unusual and historic plantings. “Will we ever know? Probably not. But I love that story, and I love telling it.”
Rates at Dawn Ranch start at $450 per night. A second pool and restaurant, with a view of the property’s two namesake dawn redwoods, is planned for next summer. Dawn Ranch, 16467 Hwy. 116, Guerneville. 707-869-0656, dawnranch.com
Almos waits as long as five years for salvaged and recycled woods to properly dry and age. Only then will he craft his designs. (Erik Castro/for Sonoma Magazine)
To an untrained eye, the stacks of wood from 19th century old-growth redwood wine tanks in Jesse Almos’s Rincon Valley workshop might look like something you’d take to the landfill, or put on the curb, hoping someone might haul it away.
But to Almos, the owner of Sonoma Woodworks, these stacks are as good as gold. His workshop is piled high with slabs of walnut and oak, often salvaged after wildfire, each one awaiting a magical transformation into a custom dining table, bench, or cutting board. Many of the trees might otherwise have been left to rot or die in place—or even cut up for firewood.
In many ways, Almos is like a rescue organization for local trees. He almost never sources the wood for his projects from freshly cut trees or from purchased sources. Instead, he reclaims his material from trees left behind due to wildfires, disuse, abandonment, or neglect. He’ll take what is left behind, mill it on-site, then patiently wait until the wood is properly dried and aged, often as long as five years. Only then, sometimes years later, will he begin to craft the material into beautiful pieces destined for forever homes.
Jesse Almos of Sonoma Woodworks at his workshop in the Rincon Valley neighborhood of Santa Rosa. (Erik Castro/for Sonoma Magazine)
A native of Santa Rosa with a deep connection to craft, Almos started working with wood at a young age. When he was 5 years old, his parents separated, and his father told him that he would need to be “the man of the house.” It was an old-fashioned message, but one Almos took to heart, crafting simple benches and other small household items—even a fort for his friends. By the time he was 12, he was making and selling skimboards: flat, oval-shaped boards used for gliding across small waves as they break across the sands. “Everyone in my neighborhood had my skimboard,” Almos recalls, smiling.
A years-long childhood friendship led to the growth of Almos’s skills. Growing up, Almos’s best friend was the grandson of Henry Trione, a key figure in Sonoma history who preserved much of what is now Trione-Annadel State Park. Almos and his friend spent many hours camping and exploring the Trione family’s sprawling Mendocino County ranch.
Much of the old-growth redwood Almos uses today comes from the Trione Winery’s abandoned redwood wine tanks in Geyserville. He still visits the ranch, and harvests wind-fallen trees for his craft. “I’m blessed to be able to get these old wine tanks from the Trione family and build beautiful furniture from it,” he says.
“All that old-growth redwood was once wine tank wood that was basically going to be discarded,” Almos says. “It was sitting out in the vineyards, and their vineyard manager says, ‘Do you want it? I’m going to burn it if you don’t take it.’ And it’s like the most beautiful wood ever. That wood is California history.”
Woodworker Jesse Almos shows impressive attention to detail, from carving minute chiseled designs to sorting through massive recycled slabs of redwood, oak, and walnut. (Erik Castro/for Sonoma Magazine)The former heavy-equipment operator started working on wood projects as a child, starting with simple tables and moving on to carved skimboards for his friends. He started selling his designs at farmers markets in 2011. (Erik Castro/for Sonoma Magazine)
For two decades, Almos worked as a foreman at a heavy equipment operator. Woodworking was a side gig, and he occasionally sold small pieces at farmers markets or craft fairs. “I had built some furniture, including chairs, bistro sets, and lazy Susans, and then went to the farmers market to ask if I could set up a booth,” he remembers. “That first day I sold everything, and it really showed me what I was supposed to be doing.”
In 2011, he took a leap and founded his one-man company, with the goal of selling his furniture and working on larger pieces by commission. At first, he operated out of his home. Three years later, he relocated to a much larger workshop with more room to store scavenged and found materials. While he remains a one-man show, he occasionally has some help from his mom and his 9-year-old son.
Almos keeps a library of wood along one wall of his workshop, with slabs of upcycled walnut, old-growth redwood, red gum eucalyptus, maple, cedar, madrone, oak, and rare Monterey cypress. “Most people would use this wood for firewood, but I turn it into tables,” he says. Almost all the wood he works with is from Sonoma County. Almos often receives calls from homeowners or builders looking to clear land for new developments. Burnt trees from the devastating 2017 Tubbs fire provided a valuable addition to his collection.
“Most people would use this wood for firewood—but I turn it into tables,” says Almos. (Erik Castro/for Sonoma Magazine)
After a lifetime around wood, Jesse sticks to a simple message, modestly playing down his role as a rescuer of rare local wood. On his Facebook page, he shares stories of majestic Sonoma County redwood trees felled to build cities, infrastructure, bridges, and schools alongside 1880s-era photos of loggers standing tiny among the towering. He says he develops a deep attachment to much of the material he acquires. Walnut is his favorite—a wood he says can appear dull brown and unremarkable at first glance, but a great deal of patience, not to mention hours of sanding, oiling, and staining, is transformed into highly individual pieces, each with a story to tell.
These trees, this wood, from these hills holds a special, almost mythical place in Almos’s heart.
“They have a third life, I call it,” he explains. “First, they were massive trees, then big wine tanks, and now they become tables where people sit around and tell stories.”
A Red-tailed Hawk soars over the Jenner Headlands. (John Burgess/The Press Democrat)
Forget canaries in the coal mine. For Larry Broderick, the real indicator species are raptors soaring high overhead, hunting along Sonoma’s rich marshlands, or nesting in our native trees. “They’re a biological bellwether,” says the Santa Rosa-based leader of the Jenner Headlands Raptor Migration Project and West County HawkWatch. “When things are going wrong with them, it often means that things can go wrong with us.”
Citizen scientists like Broderick consider fall and winter the best time of year to observe these adaptable hunters. That’s when migratory harriers, hawks, kites, kestrels, merlins, eagles, and osprey from farther north join year-round residents countywide in search of “little furry things” to eat.
Visiting birds move freely among Sonoma’s wildlands in search of a good meal. “There are like all these restaurants throughout the area, and [the birds] are gonna go to which ones are serving the food based upon prey availability,” says Broderick. Even so, individual birds have been observed to return year after year to the same overwintering location, like a vacation home. Others are only passing through.
After three decades of observing raptors, Broderick has noted population declines in several species. The timing of local migrations has also changed, moving back about two weeks since the early 1990s, an outcome Broderick thinks is at least partially due to climate change. “It’s a good way to gauge how healthy the environment is,” he says, “by checking out your top-of-the-food-chain predators.”
Where to observe raptors
It’s no coincidence that some of the best places to spot raptors are along hiking trails at some of Sonoma’s most treasured public lands. Each destination shows off early winter’s quiet beauty.
The Butcher Burger with house American, cheddar and jack cheese, iceberg lettuce, smoked ‘n’ grilled onions and pickles from the Butcher Crown Roadhouse in Petaluma. (John Burgess/The Press Democrat)
This year, Sonoma County lost more than a dozen well-known restaurants — far fewer than in previous years, but heartbreaking nonetheless. Whether staffing shortages, financial woes or other reasons forced the closures, we will miss the meals we enjoyed at each of them. Click through the above gallery to see which restaurants closed in 2023.
The four leaders of Breathless Wines in Healdsburg. The winery’s méthode traditionnelle sparklers are fresh and lively, with three new wines introduced in 2021: two single-vineyard blancs de noir from the Robledo Vineyard in Sonoma and a blanc de blancs from the McMinn Vineyard in Russian River Valley. (Courtesy of Breathless Wines)
As Sonomans and visitors find more reasons to enjoy sparkling wine, producers are responding to the increased demand by using old-is-new-again ways to put bubbles into the bottle quicker, at lower prices and in more diverse and interesting styles.
A number of Sonoma wineries long ago mastered the time-consuming techniques for making sparklers that mirror the quality and depth of true Champagne, which relies on chardonnay and pinot noir for the base wines and a secondary fermentation in the bottle, called méthode champenoise.
In the 1980s, Gloria Ferrer Caves & Vineyards, Iron Horse Vineyards, J Vineyards & Winery and Piper Sonoma joined Korbel Champagne Cellars (established 100 years earlier) as power players in the sparkling wine scene in Sonoma, turning sunny California fruit into wines with brioche and toasty aromas and flavors, a fine bead of tiny bubbles and crackling acidity.
Yet wines made with less-intensive methods, and using nontraditional grape varieties, have burst upon the scene.
There are pétillant naturels, or pét-nats for short, which are bottled while still undergoing a first fermentation and closed with a crown cap instead of a cork. The French call this process méthode ancestral, with the yeast staying in contact with the wine until the cap is removed. Out gushes a fruity, slightly creamy and easy-to-drink sparkler that lacks the complexity of Champagne-like wines, yet is crowd-pleasing in its simplicity.
Some wineries are applying the charmat method to carbonate their wines in large steel tanks, adding carbon dioxide to create the bubbles. Like pét-nats, these fizzies are all about the fruit, nonfussy yet satisfying, ready to enjoy soon after bottling and typically costing half as much as méthode champenoise sparkling wines. (In deference to Champagne houses’ demands that the term champenoise be used only for Champagne, many U.S. producers now label their sparkling wines as méthode traditionnelle.) Grapes including zinfandel, syrah, malbec and gewürztraminer are showing up in Sonoma wines made with méthode traditionnelle, thus expanding the aromas and flavors of sparklers beyond the characteristics of chardonnay and pinot noir.
Lucas Meeker, winemaker for his family’s Meeker Vineyards in Healdsburg, is one of Sonoma’s “mad professors” experimenting with the various ways bubbly can be made.
“Pét-nats are definitely trendy right now,” he said. “First, the bottle-soon-drink-soon nature of pét-nat goes hand in hand with the rise of natural wine. It’s also a method that can heighten less-explored grapes and regions that might struggle to get the tannin, ripeness or climate necessary to make more traditional wines.
“I think the reason people are drinking pét-nat is the same reason why I ended up making it after years of eyeing up traditional method. Traditional sparkling wine is expensive to make and drink. When you bring the investment cost down from a production side, winemakers like me are excited to start pushing the boundaries and doing new things, like sparkling verdelho, or even twists on old things, like our sparkling Russian River Valley pinot noir. It makes for an influx of new, exciting options of sparkling wines at accessible prices, which are not designed to age but instead reward drinkers who embrace the new, the exciting or the ephemeral.”
Meeker currently offers two pét-nats, Pop Punk #1 and Pop Punk #2. The grapes are pressed, fermented in a tank, then bottled so the residual sugar in the fruit interacts with the yeast, creating carbon dioxide (bubbles) and alcohol.
“The primary goal with the Pop Punk series is to make sparkling wine accessible, fun and straightforward — both for the consumer and for us,” Meeker said. “One of the biggest cost buckets in sparkling wine is riddling and disgorging. By skipping that step and asking consumers … to save them and us money by accepting some cloudiness (in the wine) seems to be a much easier ask now than it used to be.”
Meeker is not alone in this quest to create sparkling wines without the equipment, time investment and expense of méthode traditionnelle bottlings, which are admittedly more complex and age-worthy than pét-nats and charmat-produced bubblies. Others are turning dark-red grapes into fine sparklers using Champagne methods.
Here are a handful of unusual-suspect wineries leaving tradition behind in the pursuit of more diverse and delicious sparkling wines.
Amista Vineyards
Amista owners Mike and Vicky Farrow had their hearts set on producing sparkling wine when they bought what is now called Morningsong Vineyards in 1999. They added syrah to the chardonnay vines, purchased cabernet sauvignon and zinfandel grapes from others and released their first wines in 2005. Three years later, they launched their sparkling syrah, a relatively bold move in Sonoma yet a long-established tradition in Australia, where they turn syrah grapes into sparkling shiraz. So besotted with sparkling wine were the Farrows that they created the Amista Sparkling Friends wine club in 2014.
Winemaker Ashley Herzberg bottles a wide array of méthode traditionnelle wines for this Dry Creek Valley winery, in addition to still (table) wines. Grenache, chardonnay (called blanc de blancs), syrah, mourvèdre (labeled as mataro) and a blend called Fusion (chardonnay, grenache and syrah) are fizzes with fine depth and precision. They sell for approximately $46 a bottle.
The Farrows converted many of their 20 vineyard acres to Rhone Valley varieties, including grenache and mourvèdre; those grapes go into Herzberg’s sparkling, still and dessert wines, showing off the versatility of red grapes in making a range of styles.
A sabered bottle of bubbly from Breathless Wines in Healdsburg. (Jeremy Portje)
Breathless Wines
Rack & Riddle co-founder Rebecca Faust and her sisters, Cynthia Faust and Sharon Cohn, created Breathless Wines to honor their mother, Martha Jane Faust, who died of a rare respiratory condition — but not before teaching her daughters the joy of each breath taken. Unofficial fourth sister, Penny Gadd-Coster, is their winemaker, as an offshoot of her duties as director of winemaking at Rack & Riddle.
The Breathless méthode champenoise sparklers are fresh and lively with rich fruit flavors balanced by crisp acidity. My favorite, the Breathless NV Sonoma County Brut ($27), is an excellent value: a beautifully balanced blend of chardonnay and pinot noir with red berry, citrus and tropical fruit notes and a subtle yeastiness. There is also a blanc de noir and sparkling rosé, each fruity yet refined.
A fledgling brand, created in 2012, Breathless is making rapid strides in the quality of its wines and also in its range. Three sparklers debuted in 2021: single-vineyard designates from the Robledo Vineyard in Sonoma (two blanc de noirs) and the McMinn Vineyard in Russian River Valley (blanc de blancs). Each is $39.
Michael Cruse and his family moved from San Francisco to Petaluma when Michael was 10. He studied biochemistry at UC Berkeley, got a lab job at Sutter Home in Napa Valley and worked in the cellar at Starmont in Carneros before starting his own Cruse Wine Co. in a Petaluma industrial space.
Cruse’s Ultramarine méthode traditionnelle sparkling wines made a big splash with younger and adventurous drinkers. They are iconoclastic, scarce and made by hand in every step. Prices have soared beyond $100, thanks to the “cult” status Ultramarine has achieved. Cruse looks to single vineyards, such as the Charles Heintz Vineyard on the Sonoma Coast, to showcase site personality rather than regional blends, which are the foundations of most Champagnes and California sparkling wines.
Cruse expanded his bubbly lineup to include pét-nats such as Ricci Vineyard Carneros Sparkling St. Laurent ($32) and Deming Vineyard Napa Valley Sparkling Valdiguié ($35). They are exuberantly fruity with a chalky texture and mouth-filling generosity. The cool kids embrace them.
“I got into (sparkling wine production) because it is difficult to do and I appreciated the challenge,” Cruse said. “But as I learned the craft, I realized that it was an exceptional way to tell the story of terroir and that, in California, we haven’t been particularly good at it. Or put a different way, most of the sparkling wine in California has been built on the Champagne large-house models and not the grower model of expressing one little plot of land. So that’s where my interest lies.”
Randy Pitts’ family has grown wine grapes in the Russian River Valley since 1976. In 2000, he assumed the farming responsibilities at the 9-acre ranch and began making zinfandel from the ranch. Pitts’ sparkling wine program began in 2003 with gewürztraminer, the lone white grape grown on the estate.
Over the next decade, Harvest Moon added small lots of sparkling pinot noir rosé, chardonnay, zinfandel and a red sparkling blend made from pinot noir and zinfandel. The gewürztraminer is the shining star: racy, spicy and dry on the palate, with hints of apple and honeysuckle. The sparkling wines, produced by the traditional method, range in price from $48 to $50. Nearly all the grapes are grown on the estate on Olivet Road, in the Russian River Valley. For still-wine fans, there are several zinfandels, gewürztraminers and pinot noirs.
Charlie Meeker, who died earlier this year, and his wife, Molly, founded Meeker Vineyard in 1977 in Dry Creek Valley. They launched their wine brand in 1984 with zinfandel, cabernet sauvignon and chardonnay as their chief varietals. Charlie was in the movie business at the time, working as an attorney, film producer and eventually president of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. After retirement, he immersed himself in grapegrowing and winemaking, with Molly as captain of the ship.
Their son Lucas joined the winery full-time in 2007 and has, since then, added an experimental excitement to the brand. He’s become a master grenache maker and blender of Rhone Valley red grape varieties, introduced a white verdelho from Contra Costa County and numerous rosés and continued his father’s efforts in making zinfandel and merlot. Pop Punk, the two pét-nats he produces — a rosé ($34) and a verdelho ($29) — add a youthful vibe to this Dry Creek Valley winery, which has one foot in traditional winemaking and another in sky’s-the-limit thinking.
Meeker recently moved its tasting room to its winery in Healdsburg, after earthquake retrofitting construction at its former Geyserville space made continuing there impossible.
Ned Hill, proprietor of La Prenda Vineyard Management, farms multiple sites within Sonoma Valley. A few years ago, he began producing wines from his clients’ grapes and selling them under the Sonoma Collection and La Prenda labels. In March, he released the Sonoma Collection 2020 Carneros Pétillant-Naturel sparkling wine ($28), a blend of chardonnay grapes from the Hi Vista Vineyard and pinot noir from La Prenda’s Vineburg Ranch. Winemaker Mike Cox, formerly of Schug Winery, made the 2020 pét-nat, which is dry and refreshing, with low alcohol yet with a robust character from the yeast that comes alive when the crown cap is removed.
“The pét-nat 2020 came about sitting around with Ned Hill and Guido Murnig, our sales director,” Cox said. “We had played about with sparkling wines and wanted to produce something fun to mark the end of 2020. Ned has always been very encouraging, and so I ran with it. We actually ended up splitting the lot and are going to produce a méthode traditionnelle as well from this.”
There is also a charmat-method La Prenda 2019 Sonoma Coast Brut Rosé ($20) of pinot noir, a generously fruity, fizzy wine with less yeast character — and at half the price — of méthode traditionnelle sparklers.
Hill’s wines can be purchased online and at several local markets and wine shops. According to Cox, the pét-nat is sold at Broadway Market and Sonoma’s Best, both in Sonoma.
Click through the above gallery for our editor’s picks for Sonoma County’s best hikes, with hallmark views of vineyards, oak woodlands and stunning coastal bluffs.
Auro has its own farm and grows vegetables, herbs and flowers for the restaurant, which serves a $175 prix fixe tasting menu. (Auro)
Auro restaurant at the Four Seasons Resort and Residences in Calistoga has been named one of Esquire magazine’s Best New Restaurants in America, 2023. Authors of the Nov. 28 article noted 50 restaurants across the country for their “radical authenticity” and “raw honesty.”
“While there’s no shortage of places in Wine Country that will give you the luxe tasting-menu treatment, Auro, helmed by chef Rogelio Garcia, does so with precision and California ease,” wrote Kevin Sintumuang, one of four writers contributing to the article. Two hundred restaurants were tested by the authors from coast to coast.
Auro won its first Michelin star in July, and Garcia, 37, is truly Napa Valley’s phenom of the moment. He’s garnered accolades for his fresh versions of hyperlocal Wine Country cuisine. The restaurant has been featured in the Robb Report, Forbes Magazine, San Francisco Chronicle and The Press Democrat in recent months.
Garcia is no newcomer to fine dining. He’s a Napa native who started his culinary journey at age 15 as a dishwasher and moved up through the ranks of Cyrus, the French Laundry, the now-closed Commissary in San Francisco and others. He is also executive chef of Truss, the Four Seasons’ upscale casual restaurant.
Raised in a Mexican-American family, Rogelio is returning to his roots with a forthcoming cookbook, “Convivir: Modern Mexican Cooking in California’s Wine Country,” due to be released in November 2024.
