Healdsburg - a tiny gem in California wine country

I just placed my final club membership order for the year with Seghesio Vineyards, a wonderful little zinfandel-focused winery in Sonoma that has been vinting for more than a century. My wife and I discovered Seghesio during a visit to Sonoma last year, though we had to make the trek out to the charming little town of Healdsburg, forty-minutes north, for the pleasure of tasting Seghesio's zinfandels. And it was worth every minute. 

So, I was not surprised to run across this article in Travel & Leisure in my Apple news feed this morning, which states, "This Tiny Town Is the Jewel of California Wine Country, With Some of the World's Top Restaurants and Resorts."

Healdsburg could fairly be described as the jewel of California Wine Country. “It’s a charming little town where you can eat incredible pastries on a park bench under redwoods in the morning, taste wine and spirits at the source, grab an organic burger or wood-fired pizza for lunch on a patio, detox with a shrub or tea tasting in the afternoon, and dine on three-Michelin-star cuisine at night before walking back to your hotel—all without getting in a car,” says Healdsburg expert Lisa Mattson, a Sonoma County denizen of more than 20 years. (She's also the author of “The Exes In My Glass: How I Refined My Taste in Men & Alcohol” and a food and wine contributor for Wine Country Table.)

It’s the only town in wine country that sits at the epicenter of three different wine regions—Russian River Valley, Dry Creek Valley, and Alexander Valley—each with unique climates and grape varietals, Mattson adds. This distinctive year-round destination is home to just over 11,000 residents. Healdsburg is a true epicurean hot spot with an extremely charming town square, around which some of its best hotels, restaurants, and shops sit, not to mention approximately 40 tasting rooms. “The culinary scene has the kind of diversity you find in a big city, but it's all centered around this quaint town’s park-like plaza,” says Mattson, adding that “Valette [is] the poster child for what a local wine country restaurant should be.”

For people who appreciate wine, regions like Napa and Sonoma and Santa Barbara and Willamette certainly ring a bell, and they might even know towns such as Calistoga, Yountville, Solvang, Santa Ynez, and Dundee Hills. But the wonderful towns outside of Sonoma -- specifically Healdsburg -- are known to the true wine afficionados. And if Healdsburg isn't on your wine radar, it should be.