Healdsburg

Why come to wine country after crush has ended, and before the summer months are here?

To give just a few reasons:

There are less people traveling, meaning: less traffic on the roads, fewer customers in the tasting rooms, smaller tour groups, and more attention from winery staff. It also means you’ll spend less money on lodging/dining out if you cash in on off-season special offers. Many inns offer multiple night stay or mid-week rate specials. Restaurants offer locals menus (pre-fixe menus including multiple courses and dessert) at great prices and are also much easier to get into without reservations or with less advanced reservations.
A few examples of the these specials are:

Right in the center of Healdsburg, the Hotel Healdsburg (Chef Charlie Palmer’s hotel which is adjoined to the Dry Creek Kitchen Restaurant) offers up winter specials, with 50% off a 2nd nights stay, Dinner and spa packages, and more…….. Go to: http://www.hotelhealdsburg.com/home.php

Then there’s the Honor Mansion in Healdsburg-the picture of elegance and luxury, that is currently offering buy one get one free for any mid-week 2 night booking. They will have more off-season rates and specials which will start November 16th and run through April 14th (many of these are internet only-so make sure to book online). Go directly to the Internet Specials page at:
http://www.honormansion.com/member/firstTimeSpecials.jsp

How about this special at Haydon Street Inn - the shopper’s special  Stay at Haydon Street - stay in one of the beautiful KING rooms Sunday-Thursday in November or December, 2008, and get the second night at 50% off.  And that incudes a 3-course breakfast & a great wine hour each evening!  Click here:  Haydon Street Inn.

Santi Restaurant (fine dining/traditional Italian) in Geyserville has Locals nights all year on Wednesday evenings, Half-off wine Tuesdays, and Supper Club pre-fixe menu evenings featuring a different region of Italy one Sunday a month.

The list goes on…………….. The point of my rant is that there is a LOT of great stuff to do, eat, taste……………in wine country and you can cash in on the best deals during the late Fall and Winter months.

Come on Up and taste the bounty-and share with us any of your favorite hidden secrets in the comments!

Changes is constant here at Michel Schlumberger. As we are nearing the end of our Friday Night Courtyard Music Series (we’ve two more to go!), I’d like to thank all of the musicians who came early and stayed late to play here.   We’re obviously not a big venue drawing thousands of fans but I’ve heard many a musician say that there’s no finer place to play.  Once it gets dark and the courtyard lights come on, it truly is a special place.   One of our main goals here at the Estate is to support our local economy by supporting local charities, artists and of course musicians.  Most of these guys and gals have day jobs, so it takes a lot of work to make it up here and then turn on the amps.  As a fellow musician, I know it takes a lot of prep work but once you’re here, it’s a blast. So Big Thanks from us at Michel Schlumberger!

Jay Kell

You can’t knock around Healdsburg, California too long before Chef Charlie Palmer’s Dry Creek Kitchen hits your “good meal” radar. When it opened a few years back, most of us in the town felt the place was out of place. A restaurant of uncommon quality tucked beautifully into a hotel that was best discovered in a faux town of recent origin. The restaurant was too fancy, too well-done, too big city and just too big. It even had “soft” flooring, what interior designers call a rug, and a good bit of etched glass - so that we couldn’t really see into the kitchen. This restaurant just wasn’t Healdsburg.

And, within what seems like five seconds, Dry Creek Kitchen is completely part of our town constitution and a stalwart anchor at the end of the Plaza. We fit it and it fits us – not every night – but often enough that locals and visitors alike feel they have experienced a fine meal well-served when they want a special dining celebration or prefer to tuck into a table for two and hide from the hurly burly just outside. Charlie Palmer, one of America’s leading chefs and owner of the highly acclaimed Aureole in New York, has come directly to the source – Northern Sonoma County – for the finest fresh seasonal produce, gourmet food purveyors, and fine wines, when he launched Dry Creek Kitchen. His staff is town friendly, Wade runs the room with the deft attention of a man who really does love hospitality, and Drew is a Wine Director always interested in learning the last nuance of a newly released wine or telling you a story about a Cabernet well-aged. Besides, the restaurant is called Dry Creek Kitchen, named after a world class wine growing appellation with a bent on quality, a growing interest in green-farmed vineyards, and distinctive wines framed by tradition. Jump in for lunch or dinner and order a single course or a banquet for ten - it will satisfy your craving for fine dining and allow you the very best view of the Healdsburg town plaza - a visual respite to savor along with a fine bottle of wine.  

Road Warrior Jerry

Yes, harvest is over. Pretty much everyone in Sonoma County is finished bringing in their grapes if they aren’t doing late harvest wines……
However, don’t let this fool you into thinking that wine country goes to sleep from October-January. The creeping of the seasons towards the end of the calendar year-just brings the beginning of the year that much closer and already we’re all hard at work planning our late Fall and Winter parties, tastings, and special events.

First up-we’ve got a BIG cellar sale on the 1st Saturday in November.

Then there’s the BIG Pig Party in November (we had over 100 people at this last year-and had to stop taking reservations!).  And then we’re still putting our heads together over the Holiday Event we’ll have for our Wine Club members in December……….

During which time the vineyards will be turning from yellow, gold, and orange to purples, and reds and then to naked, dormant vines waiting out the crisp winter weather to awaken once again in the Spring…….
I’m caught up in appreciating the beautiful Autumn ’scapes right now in Dry Creek Valley-I take a camera with me to work each day in case I see a view I just have to capture on film. Stay tuned for more updates on our event calendar, or just give me a call anytime if you’d like to hear about any new fun things we’ve got going on here at the Estate………..

Now that harvest 2008 is complete, I’m inspired to chat about our Clone 6, or ‘Jackson’ clone Cabernet Sauvignon.  There is something about our little corner of the world, this unique side-pocket sticking out of the west side of Dry Creek Valley, that seems to lend itself so well to Clone 6. 

Well, it lends itself well to the quality statement, that is, but frankly, the yields are pretty horrible economically speaking.  Yet as poor as the yields are, I’m not sure there is a richer clone qualitatively.  Tiny, tiny berries…more like little blueberries than grapes - this clone produces a simply stunning, and very identifiable wine…especially when it comes from the benchland vines clinging to the hillsides of the Michel-Schlumberger estate.

As the story goes, this clone was transported to the U.S. from Bordeaux in the mid 1800’s and planted for study by the U.C.  Along comes phyloxerra in Europe and the world is turned upside down.  European vineyards are devastated…and after a few ‘Hail  Mary’s’ viticuturally speaking, order comes back to the world of wine. 

Meanwhile, this plantation of Clone 6 outside of the little town of Jackson in the Sierra Foothills is forgotten. 

In the mid 1950’s or so, some UC researchers figure out that this plant material still exists somewhere and set out to find it.  Lo and behold, they find some wild vines and scrape some plant material to propagate this now ‘heritage’ clone.  And as it turns out, this clone seems to create something magical on the Michel-Schlumberger Estate. 

So when you taste our Cabernet Sauvignon…and especially the Deux Terres (our ‘reserve’ equivalent), taste the wine, close your eyes, and transport yourself back to Bordeaux in about 1850…that’s pre-European phyloxerra…and experience a wine that perhaps is reminiscent of the right bank maybe from a time forgotten.  From a time before any of us were born and when the glory of Bordeaux was born.  Imagine it — now taste it.  How cool is that?

Steve Pile

Last Friday was the first significant rain we’ve had this season.  It was nice to finally see some moisture in the sky.  We had to scramble a bit for our Friday Night Music and move the festivities into the salon. Steve Pile played and he put on a great show.  One of the benefits of the indoor action was the salon was transformed into more of a cozy wine bar. We brought the couches in and rearranged the funiture a bit.  Our “bar” was moved into the kitchen like old times and everyone who’d been here before remembered the good old days of tasting in there. We liked the salon lay out so much we’re keeping the setup.   My question is to you is what type of music is most condusive to wine enjoyment. I know what I like and I think Steve Pile fits the bill well but I wanna know what you prefer.

“Weekend warriors wax poetic about this woodsy retreat tucked away in the Russian River Valley that’s worth the drive on a foggy curving highway for superb French-accented California cuisine and wines from a great, very local, very exclusive list served by a knowledgeable, helpful staff; the warm welcoming and ultraromantic setting “make it a fabulous over night destination.” - Zagat Survey

That I have known my good friends Jim Carron and Darryl Knotter, proprietors of Applewood Inn, for 18 years gives me the cred to jump up strong and tell you that everyone I know agrees wholeheartedly with Zagat. Applewood is an Inn of the highest quality. It has been consistently offering an attractive lodging and dining experience since 1986 and is the very best place to visit in western Sonoma County if you are looking for elegance, tradition, beauty, and delicious food and wine. Why wander about looking for more, when this bucolic, six-acre, wooded setting, complete with pool and country gardens is available just for you and your best mate out for a weekend date, or celebrating a life-long commitment?

The Inn has three charming buildings that evoke early California Mission architecture: the original mansion house built in 1926, two newer buildings with well-appointed guest rooms inspired by the architecture of Michel-Schlumberger - this is a true fact, and a very cool wooden structure that mimics a rural, barn-like building where the restaurant and bar are located. Even more important, for those of us who enjoy a serene, rejuvenating, guest experience, you will find the  Innkeepers and staff are available, hospitable, knowledgeable, but never intrusive. Who wants to be jabbed in the ribs by an info-mercial first thing in the morning? They will, however, direct you to Michel-Schlumberger if you inquire about wineries to visit which have a similar eye on quality and guest experience.  

Meanwhile, the restaurant, under the command of Executive Chef Bruce Frieseke, offers exceptional Sonoma County fare and is very well priced according to the service and quality that rings through the room. Full of country charm, but appointed with the cleverness of a personality well-schooled in another era, the Applewood Restaurant serves up satisfying portions of well-flavored dishes inspired by local ingredients and a creative kitchen team. The wine list, always changing with the seasons, is well-up to the challenge of pairing with Chef’s fine cuisine. Even better, if you want to enjoy just a glass or two before dinner or with your main course, please order the Michel-Schlumberger Merlot. This is real Merlot which strikes an accurate, California challenge to the famous right-bank wines of Bordeaux. It is rich, distinctive, and currently featured at the restaurant. It layers perfectly with Chef’s savory stews and vegetable offerings that kick off this harvest time of year.