Read Ranch & Coast Virtually Anywhere
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fruit, honeycomb, and house-made pinot gris mustard, or caviar with crème fraîche and crispy potato chips (also made in-house). e tasting rooms are open daily from 10:30am to 5pm but reservations are recommended. Be sure to book ahead for the popular "Hummer Tour and Tasting," available from ursday to Sunday at 10:30am. A short drive took us to downtown Healdsburg, a bustling burg at the center of three wine regions: Alexander Valley, Dry Creek Valley, and the Russian River Valley. It is also steps away from restaurants, tasting rooms, shops, and a charming town square which hosts concerts and other events. We checked into Hotel Les Mars, a chic Relais & Châteaux boutique hotel on a tree- shaded street. Hotel staff greeted us with a glass of wine upon our arrival before whisking our bags upstairs. On the main floor, there is a comfortable living room and wood-paneled library for relaxing and wine tasting, and the recently opened Arandas, an upscale restaurant and bar named after a picturesque town in Jalisco, Mexico known for producing tequila. Arandas serves a variety of tequilas and mezcal, and both modern and traditional Mexican cuisine with Chef Adrien Nieto at the helm. e hotel offers elegant guestrooms decorated with French-style furniture with white marble baths, walk-in showers, and fluffy robes. Comfortable beds are covered in white duvets that make you feel as if you're wrapped in a cloud. e next morning, we lingered over room service with café au lait, of course. We enjoyed Hotel Les Mars' intimacy and proximity to all that Healdsburg has to offer. e highlight of our trip was dinner at Singleread, the acclaimed three-Michelin-Star restaurant which is also ranked 46th on the 2024 "World's 50 Best Restaurants" list. Owners Kyle and Katina Connaughton, who grew up in California, have known each other since they were 15. Chef Kyle apprenticed at one of the oldest Japanese restaurants in Los Angeles as well as Spago, Beverly Hills, e Ritz-Carlton, and the now closed Lucques before cooking in Japan with top toque Michel Bras, and later at e Fat Duck outside London. Katina, the head farmer, manages the nearby Singleread Farm, where much of the restaurant's fruit, vegetables, herbs, and all of its flowers are sourced. She has an equally impressive résumé, having worked as a farmer in Japan and at California wineries, a culinary gardener at an English estate, and a greenhouse manager at Santa Rosa College. Singleread takes its name from the onion, the only vegetable that can be grown at the farm and served all year long, the single thread that connects everything. Fittingly, an image of an onion flower is the logo of both the farm and restaurant. OPPOSITE The expansive Chalk Hill Winery in Healdsburg offers wine tastings and Hummer tours of its vast vineyards, garden, and groves TOP Wine paired with caviar and house-made chips at Chalk Hill Winery MIDDLE The chic Relais & Châteaux Hotel Les Mars is just steps from all that Healdsburg has to offer BOTTOM Sip wine and savor farm-to-table food at Hazel Hill Restaurant overlooking the vineyards at the Forbes Five-Star Montage Healdsburg >> @ranchandcoast RANCH & COAST MAGAZINE OCTOBER 2024 107