Backroads

Whether you’re a connoisseur or a more casual consumer, you’ll enjoy raising your wine IQ in visits to both world-renowned and up-and-coming wineries. With hundreds to choose from, we introduce you to a few standouts, including Bouchaine Vineyards, with an award-winning chardonnary, popular Ravenswood (whose motto, “No Wimpy Wines!” says it all) and Arista Winery, known for its pinot noir.

Our elegant wine country hotels have won praise from the likes of Travel+Leisure and Condé Nast Traveler. The pampering starts at the exquisite Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn, with a superb spa, and continues at serene Hotel Healdsburg. We wind down at Solage Calistoga, which blends rustic comfort, hip style and unexpected treats.

The region’s countless restaurants offer everything from multi-course gourmet meals to homespun specialties. You’ll enjoy seriously good food inspired by the region’s colorful, fresh ingredients and complemented by its wines. You can also don a chef’s hat for our visit to Ramekins Cooking School and find out what all this organic fuss is about during a tour of Long Meadow Ranch.

The Wine Country is famed for its warm spring-fed pools as well as its mud, a unique mix of volcanic ash that soothes muscles and cleanses the skin. Indeed, the region could just as easily be called California’s “Spa Country”. You’ll have plenty of chances to discover the joys of this pastime, indulging in massages, mud baths and mineral soaks to your heart’s desire.

Grapes have been put on notice: olives are moving in. Introduced by Franciscan monks in the 1700s, today olive groves are popping up all across Northern California, thriving in the same microclimate as the vineyards. There are 150 producers of olive oil in Napa and Sonoma Counties alone. Savor the robust flavor of California’s olive oil in our private tasting at Poplar Hill.

Explore the many galleries in the towns we visit, and get ready for a few special Insider art encounters along the way. The delicate relationship between art and nature is illuminated during your visit to the di Rosa Preserve. And we can hardly wait to introduce you to our special friend Barbara Necchis, a local watercolor artist who has been welcoming us to her studio for years.