In our post of last Monday, we reviewed Iron Horse Vineyards in the Russian River Valley, one of our favorite wineries in Northern California. Combine the below itinerary with a visit to Iron Horse or any of the other RRV wineries, and you’re guaranteed a postcard perfect wine country visit.
1. Wine Tasting: Begin in the early afternoon by visiting a couple of area wineries. We recommend Iron Horse Vineyards and Porter Creek Vineyards, which are both low-key, but high quality, operations. Note, however, that there are many other wineries within the RRV and in the nearby Dry Creek and Alexander Valleys. E-mail us if you need more recommendations.
2. Accommodations: After wine tasting, head over to Raccoon Cottage, a tiny bed and breakfast located amongst the apple and pear orchards of Sebastopol. We first learned of Raccoon Cottage from a travel guidebook, and although we had only the guidebook’s recommendation to go on — at the time the cottage had no Web site – we decided to take a chance and stay for the night. Luckily for us, our stay was a smashing success.
The cottage consists of three rooms that, with their cozy, dark wood interiors and country-style furnishings, feel more like a family retreat than a bed and breakfast. These rooms include a bedroom with a skylight, a living room with both a day bed and a cushy chair, and a full bathroom. Outside of the front door is a small deck with two Adirondack chairs and a view of the luscious yard, which contains a variety of fruit trees and a small creek. It’s the perfect setting for enjoying a book and a glass of wine. Adjacent to the cottage, but a few yards away, is the house of the delightful innkeeper, Jeannette.
Truthfully, we were initially dubious of the idea of staying overnight on the property of a (then) stranger, but any dubiousness we had vanished after our first night’s stay, during which our newborn cried frantically throughout the early a.m. hours. At breakfast, when we apologized to Jeannette for the noise, she assured us that she hadn’t heard a peep. We took this response as solid reassurance that privacy there runs both ways (i.e., in favor of both the guest and host), and I think it makes a good illustration of how the experience of boarding at the Raccoon Cottage is almost akin to having your own countryside retreat.
Best of all aspects of Raccoon Cottage are (1) the price ($130, inclusive of breakfast), and (2) the absence of a minimum-stay requirement. The latter, especially, is a godsend for people that live in the Bay Area and don’t feel like fighting the Route 101 traffic on a Friday evening after work. As you can probably tell, Raccoon Cottage is truly a hidden gem.
3. Dinner: After dropping your bags at Raccoon Cottage, head over to the grand metropolis of Graton (which consists of one block!) for dinner. For as small as it is, Graton makes a disproportionately large culinary footprint. There are four or five restaurants, all of which are supposedly fantastic, but our favorite is Willow Wood Market and Cafe. The inside oozes charming wine country style, but better yet, there’s outdoor seating in the rear garden. With a wine list containing only regional wines, and seasonally-inspired food to die for even by San Francisco or New York standards, this place is ideal for a memorable but casual evening out with your significant other.
4. Morning Coffee: After finishing breakfast at Raccoon Cottage, it’s time for a kick of caffeine from Hardcore Espresso. Hardcore is the type of establishment that can only exist in a warm weather climate like California’s: it’s essentially an open-air, wooden shack covered with sheet metal and sitting in the middle of a gravel parking lot. Never-mind its minimalist appearance: Hardcore’s coffee is phenomenal, and its sun-filled, laid back and eccentric atmosphere is exemplary of the Northern California experience.
