Michele StuevenFrom trailblazing winemakers to innovative hoteliers and tastemakers, Healdsburg in the Sonoma County wine country is home to an increasing number of female leaders shaping the industries and making a lasting impact in the community.
Some of those include Alison Smith Story, the President & Co-Founder of Smith Story Wine Cellars and a feisty 2022 breast cancer survivor, who is an industry leader with expertise in wine buying, marketing, and sales.
Erin Brooks, founder and CEO of Ernest Vineyards, was inspired by Sonoma’s vineyards after moving to California for a tech career in 1999.
Dot Wines’ Lise Asimont is a viticulturist, winemaker, and co-founder with more than 20 years of experience in ultra-premium winegrowing, focusing on quality and sustainability.
Alice Sutro of Sutro Wines is a well-known artist and president of the Alexander Valley Winegrowers Association, who manages her family’s Warnecke Ranch and Vineyard.
Jane Portalupi of Portalupi Wines leads the business operations at its Cal-Ital lifestyle brand, bringing experience from executive roles at Nordstrom and Eddie Bauer that can be found in the cozy tasting room in the heart of Healdsburg’s town square. Try the new sparkling Arrossire di Barbera, with great strawberry flavors, tight tiny bubbles and a heady creamy mousse.
Approaching the nearby airport in Santa Rosa, it feels like you’re landing in the middle of a vineyard dotted with bright yellow mustard flowers and orange California poppies.
After deplaning on the breezy tarmac, enter into the charming Charles M. Schulz–Sonoma County Airport, named after the famed cartoonist of the Peanuts comic strip, who lived in Santa Rosa for more than 30 years. It’s filled with playful art and sculptures of the beloved characters including Snoopy hovering over the entrance in his red Sopwith Camel.
With a population of about 11,300, Healdsburg is centered on a 19th-century plaza with towering redwoods that is surrounded by relatively new businesses. The Russian River flows through the Sonoma County town, making it ideal for farming, and the warm days and cold nights are ideal for growing wine grapes.
Inside the speakeasy at the Grape Leaf Inn (Michele Stueven)
Where To Stay:
If you want the more historic and rustic take on Healdsburg, the Grape Leaf Inn is located off the beaten path in a neighborhood filled with historic Queen Anne style homes. Built in 1900 and expanded in the 1960s, the Victorian bed and breakfast has a downstairs speakeasy for special events with an entrance hidden behind a bookshelf as well as a separate new spa, and is within walking distance from the town square.
For slightly more modern accommodations, Hotel Healdsburg, the Harmon Guest House and the eco-chic h2Hotel located on the historic town plaza are managed by co-founder Circe Sher of Piazza Hospitality, a visionary woman whose family built the hotels. With a strong spirit, Sher has played an instrumental role in shaping the hospitality landscape of Healdsburg with a strong emphasis on local artists.
The Hotel Headsburg features country gardens and an intimate pool located next to its luxurious spa, as well as acclaimed Chef Charlie Palmer’s Dry Creek Kitchen, which helped launch the town’s now formidable – but welcoming – culinary scene.
h2hotel holds the gold standard in sustainability, LEED NC 2.2 Gold Certified Green, which means they’ve designed everything at the hotel and its rooftop bar to use less energy, water, and natural resources while creating less waste.
The owners have partnered with local artists and Oakland’s Swarm Gallery to commission works throughout the hotels, including bathrooms and hallways that reflect the concept of being rooted in Healdsburg.
Where To Sip:
Nicole Hitchcock Harvest (Will Bucquoy)
Led by Winery Estate Director Nicole Hitchcock, J Vineyards and Winery offers an exquisite wine and cheese tasting experience, known for its sparkling wines and picturesque estate.
A trailblazer in the typically male-dominated wine industry and overseeing a majority-women team charting new territories in the wine industry, Hitchcock earned the title of Winemaker of the Year in 2022. Since 1986, J Vineyards & Winery has earned a reputation as one of the top sparkling and still wine producers in California.
“There are more women winemakers since I came to the area in 2010,” Hitchcock tells LA Weekly at a tasting in the winery’s Legacy Lounge. “It’s so different from what it used to be. It’s still a tough business to get into and not for the faint of heart. I think what sets women apart is that we tend to be more empathetic towards one another and welcoming of different opinions and ideas, wanting to collaborate. When I was a super young winemaker, it was really intimidating to sit down with those with a lot of experience. You can either be quiet or give your thoughts and opinions on things like blending decisions.”
Winemaker Maggie Kruse oversees the operations at the historic and imposing Jordan chateau in Alexander Valley, including day-to-day operations in the cellars, quality control experiments, fermentation monitoring, tank and lot organizing, selecting and inspecting barrels, blending, batonnage, selecting corks and bottles, bottling and labeling. Known for its chardonnay fermented in concrete wine eggs and cabernet sauvignon, the Jordan Winery offers a variety of tours that include tours, tastings, and other experiences on the 1,200-acre estate with over three-quarters of the land dedicated to wild open space and natural habitat.
Tasting tour at Jordan Winery (Michele Stueven)
For more spirited creations in town, the Lo & Behold Bar and Kitchen is a warm and inviting space to gather any time of day to enjoy the simple pleasures of comforting food, tasty cocktails, and welcoming hospitality. A labor of love from Laura Sanfilippo and Tara Heffernon, it’s a gathering place for locals in a range of seating options that include a lush garden patio, cozy lounge, lively bar and dining room. Signature cocktails include The Birds & The Beez with charbay vodka, elderberry, hibiscus lavender, yuzu, carpano bianco and Eye Candy with new alchemy aquavit, gin, carrot lemongrass, size and lemon. Match those with coconut shrimp toast, housemade kimchi noodles, and the crunchy almost famous chicken tendies.
Where To Eat:
Located in the heart of historic Healdsburg Plaza, Courtney Foley’s Goodnight’s Prime Steak + Spirits is a local pioneer in a new frontier of classic Western-styling steakhouse dining experiences. Foley should know, her great uncle was Charles Goodnight, the dude who invented the historic chuckwagon. With an extensive selection of bourbons and an expansive wine list, the restaurant delivers an adventurous cocktail program along with the finest chops in the area. The hidden bar upstairs in the back is another local haunt, which serves the perfect martini using the lemony house gin, Lighthouse.
Martinis at Goodnights (Michele Stueven)
For lunch, Troubadour Bread & Bistro is a must. This year’s James Beard semi-finalist for best bakery, former Gjusta pastry chef Melissa Yanc and her husband Sean McGaughey have deep roots in the community. They also own the nearby Quail & Condor. Located off the square in central Healdsburg, Troubadour Bread & Bistro’s humble boulangerie transforms into a 20-seat intimate bistro in the evenings that offers a seven-course tasting menu, with choices featuring the seasons and the restaurant’s deep-rooted relationships with Sonoma farmers and wine makers, or the option to select dishes from the abbreviated a la carte menu. Lunch sandwiches at the Michelin 2024 recognized cafe include a stuffed muffaletta and a drippy winter vegetable with roasted maitake mushrooms, broccolini, koji spread, pickled onions and arugula.
Little Saint is a 100% plant-based restaurant, coffee bar, wine lounge, cocktail bar, upstairs music venue and cultural hub located in downtown Healdsburg. Born from a passionate collaboration between owners Laurie and Jeff Ubben, Director Jenny Hess, and Creative Director Ken Fulk, Little Saint is dedicated to climate justice, animal welfare, and kindness for all beings with a mindfulness of sustainable practices and support for emerging makers and musicians.
The menu showcases locally sourced produce from the venue’s Little Saint Farm, an eight-acre property two and a half miles away on Westside Road. The farm employs minimal-tillage practices to nurture rich, healthy soil and promote biodiversity. This hyperlocal produce highlights the innovative and sustainable efforts of producers who blend traditional farming practices with modern solutions, featuring and supporting marginalized groups across all sectors.
Dinner and music at Little Saint (Michele Stueven)
For breakfast or brunch with your bestie, try the Acorn Cafe for lemon ricotta hotcakes, huevos rancheros, Healdsburg shakshuka with pistachio and olive tapenade or green eggs and ham. Wash it down with fresh pressed juices like roots with ginger or mango turmeric.
If there’s a single thread that runs through Healdsburg and Sonoma County, it’s Katina and Kyle Connaughton’s three-star Michelin restaurant, inn, and a 24-acre farm in the Dry Creek Valley that provides the area with most of its produce. What they plant is inspired by local chefs’ needs via a constant Slack communication using sustainable farming practices, with a deep connection between the land and award-winning cuisine.
Kyle began his culinary career in L.A. with an apprenticeship at one of the oldest Japanese restaurants in the city and continued training in both pastry and savory at Spago Beverly Hills, The Dining Room at Ritz Carlton, Lucques, Hama Sushi, and A.O.C.
Ariel Adair at SingleThread Farm (Michele Stueven)
The SingleThread Farm offers tours of the lush fields of fava beans and greenhouses, floral and agriculture workshops in its gift store space and a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program that shares the harvests in a new way, extending the community beyond the walls of its kitchen and dining room and offering farm fresh food to others in Sonoma County.
The regenerative farm raises about 300 different rotating crops, including up to 40 different varieties of tomatoes and other herbs, flowers, and fruit from the heritage cherry, peach, and plum trees that came with the property. Blackberries and blackberries run along the fence line and eventually make their way into cocktails at Lo & Behold. The local chefs are instrumental in the crop plans for occasional customized planting and utilize everything from baby sprouts as garnish to tomato leaves, and pea tendrils.
Where To Shop
Falling for Dainty is a fine and semi-fine contemporary jewelry brand that bridges the gap between quality and affordability. Their collection is a blend of both their own handmade pieces and carefully curated creations that include a wide variety of earrings, bracelets, and necklaces.
Through the vision of owner Erika Dawkins, Bon Ton Studio was born in Healdsburg in 2016. Inspired by a decade of experiences and adventures from around the world, the shop is an evolving collection of wovens, apparel, soft goods, and beautiful designs from artisans all over the world.
Nicole White at La Ruche (Michele Stueven)
Honey-tasting at La Rouche (Michele Stueven)
La Ruche is a unique beacon for honey enthusiasts and curious explorers alike. Owner Nicole White has collected an expansive sweet and savory collection of honey products and artisanal meads for tasting in her Alice In Wonderland-like shop. From France to Portugal to the creamed ginger honey from the Redwoods Abbey in Whitehorn, California, each jar tells a tale, and each sip of mead is an experience waiting to unfold. For White the La Ruche (which means hive in French) dream was to create a space where education and enjoyment intertwine, where visitors can savor the rich diversity of honey and dive deep into its history and significance.
With original one-of-a-kind clothing, Kimono silk and vintage Japanese textiles, Yasuko is a destination for quilters, crafts people and fashionistas alike. The recently opened boutique offers pure silk Kimonos, obi sashes, and custom designed vests made from kimono remnants.
The Lucky Heron is a charming and quirky gift shop with everything from tea towels and books to jewelry and just the right souvenir for the right person. Owner Michelle Schulz also features an eco-friendly section of the store that includes a robust selection of sustainably made products.
Melissa Yanc and Sean McGaughey at Troubadour (Michele Stueven)
Laura Sanfilippo, left, and Tara Heffernon at Lo & Behold (Michele Stueven)
Healdsburg (Michele Stueven)