Weekend Getaway: California Wine Country

Welcome to the weekend!

California Wine Country is one of our favorite places for a getaway, and we’ve made many trips to Napa and Sonoma over the years. Northern California is a constant fixture in our travel rotation — in part because Kenney used to live in the Bay Area, but also because this slice of the country is endlessly appealing.

We have written about both the Napa Valley and the Sonoma Valley before, but this weekend, we are expanding and updating our list of recommendations and including both destinations in a brand new Field Guide. On our trips, we don’t stay only on one side of the mountains, and we don’t think you do either. So in today’s newsletter, you’ll find all of our favorites — the café we have breakfast every morning in Sonoma, the Napa lunch spot we never miss, the restaurants we go to for dinner because they exemplify California cuisine and have outstanding wine lists. We are also sharing a range of some of our favorite wineries, from casual outdoor tasting rooms to more polished affairs that include a hearty lunch. There are endless places to taste wine in this part of the country, so we will hit a few highlights that offer a range of experiences.

We’ll of course throw in some spots for a cocktail or a beer, for when you need to give your palate a break from a day of wine tastings. We also have picks for coffee, ice cream, bakeries, and more. It’s a robust itinerary that will have you planning your own visit to Wine Country. As always, our Weekend Getaway newsletters tell the story of a place from our own first-hand experiences and are reserved for paid subscribers.

If you aren’t a paid subscriber yet, you can get all our recommendations in our downloadable Signature Field Guide to California Wine Country, available on our website for $25 but included in a paid subscription. The 54-page guide features more than three dozen recommendations that we’ve organized into a five-day itinerary, featuring vetted picks for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and drinks. We feature original photography and include maps and social media links, as well as our picks for what you should order when you’re there.

Finally, before we head off to enjoy the summer Friday, our Weekend Reading list features Wayne Curtis on the legacy of the Aviary in Chicago, shannon weber | aperiodictable on the St. Louis restaurant Louie, and Paula Forbes on the rise of Texas oyster farms.

Thanks for reading!

— Amy Cavanaugh & Kenney Marlatt
Editors, American Weekender

NAPA AND SONOMA, CA. — California Wine Country checks a lot of our travel boxes. It’s a beautiful, mountainous region dotted with cute towns. The food scene is superb. You can pack your days with winery visits or move at a leisurely pace (the latter is definitely our M.O.). And it works well for any kind of trip, from solo exploration to couples getaways to friend trips (we’ve done all of these!).

If you know our style of travel, you know that our picks for where to eat and drink range from Michelin-recommended spots to food trucks. We aim to seek out the high and the low wherever we travel and send you to the places that we think are truly great. Our Wine Country favorites include elegant French restaurants, beautiful brunch spots, roadside tacos, blistered pizzas, and one of our favorite burgers anywhere. Let’s go explore.

You’ll start your Wine Country explorations by flying into the Bay Area (you can fly into San Francisco, Oakland, or San Jose), and driving North. We always spend at least a couple days in San Francisco before or after any Wine Country trip, so we picked up our rental car in the city and headed out. It’s a beautiful hour drive out of the city, which is just enough time to make you hungry for lunch. Our destination was Valley Swim Club, a casual roadside eatery in Sonoma that features patio seating and beachy bites. We split the spicy tuna bowl, with cubes of tender tuna served over rice and dressed with cucumber, nori, and sesame seeds, and the battered cod sandwich, piled high with slaw, tartar sauce, and chopped chilies. Save room for a mug of local Straus vanilla soft serve; you can get it with all kinds of toppings, but we loved it with a drizzle of fruity Valley olive oil and a sprinkle of sea salt.

Our first winery was nearby at Hamel Family Wines. This was a recommendation from sommelier Alex Reed, who we know from his time with Chicago’s Alinea Group, but who has also worked at the French Laundry and Compline in Napa Valley. He has never steered us wrong. It’s all about the personal touch at this biodynamic winery, which makes wines that range from mourvèdre to chardonnay. John Hamel, the son of the founders and the director of wine growing, is devoted to sustainably managing the vineyards and has implemented dry farming to preserve water. We booked the Estate Experience ($95 per person), and had a knowledgeable staffer lead us through a tasting of four wines (our favorite was the 2020 Isthmus, an estate cabernet with light tannins and dark fruit notes), served alongside a bean dip topped with chive blossoms. After our tasting, Hamel took us on a tour of the property, including their expansive wine caves.

After checking into our rental house in Sonoma and meeting up with some longtime friends, we headed to dinner at Glen Ellen Star, where chef-owner Ari Weiswasser cooks the best of California ingredients in the wood-fired oven. We loved the vegetable dishes, like Brussels with brown sugar bacon marmalade, and the pizzas, with blistered crusts and seasonal toppings like spring onions and shiitake mushrooms. There’s a nice, all-local wine list with plenty of affordable bottles to share.

In the morning, we headed to breakfast at Sunflower Caffé, which we made several visits to during our stay in Sonoma. I would go here every day for breakfast if I could. There’s an appealing, lush patio and everything we ate was a hit — the buttermilk biscuit sandwich with scrambled eggs, cheddar, allium conserva, and gochujang aioli; the scramble with fresh sweet corn and goat cheese; and the fluffy waffles with passionfruit curd with toasted coconut. Pair it with a cold brew to fuel up for the day.

We soon headed to Scribe Winery, a cult-favorite spot from brothers Andrew and Adam Mariani. Caveat: You will need a membership to book a visit, but you can join before you go. We booked the Hacienda Tasting, which takes place at the breezy Spanish-style house and is $85 per person. It includes pours of four non-interventionist wines and a robust mezze spread. We sipped wines like the fruity 2024 Rosé Pet-Nat and zesty 2024 Estate Chardonnay, while snacking on little gem salad with squash and verjus vinaigrette and buttermilk fried chicken with chile aioli.