Go! Taste! - Sonoma Sun

Photos by Ryan Lely
Items have been dribbling in lately from up valley, where an inn and a restaurant have just won accolades, a new store opened two weeks ago and tasting rooms are moving in at the rate of about one a month. It seemed time to pay a visit to our neighbor to the north.
Our last road trip for Go! involved an excursion to The Big City to tour the new California Academy of Sciences, so Sun photo editor Ryan Lely and I thought we’d stay closer to home this month. While venturing into the great known may not sound like much of a challenge, we figured touring a boomtown would up the ante. So we headed up to Kenwood, which is so far-flung that even the Sun’s otherwise intrepid circulation team dare not venture.
And so it was that on a recent Monday, Flash and I could be found leaning on the bar at the Kenwood tasting room shared by Ty Caton Vineyards and Muscardini Cellars, coordinating our watches and deciding that no, 11:30 was not at all too early to sniff, swirl and sip (okay – and, occasionally, to swallow).
According to Michael Muscardini, whose background is in art and construction, Ty Caton approached him about two years ago with the idea that they team up in a joint tasting room where they would focus on direct sales. “It’s a great combination,” Muscardini said. “We’re not competitive.”
Muscardini is focused on Italian varietals, including a Rosato di Sangiovese that would have been great with Thanksgiving dinner and should be remembered for similar occasions, while Caton makes French wines – notably cabernet sauvignon from his vineyards next door to Monte Rosso in the Agua Caliente hills. His signature wine is Tytanium, but he also produces a stellar red Field Blend as well as a super petite sirah port.
Caton and Muscardini opened shop a little more than a year ago, joining the burgeoning ranks of tasting rooms that line a roughly one-mile stretch of Highway 12. There seem to be more wineries and tasting rooms per capita in tiny Kenwood than anywhere else in the country. From the big guns such as Kunde Family Estate, owned by the same family for more than a century, and Kenwood Vineyards, which opened in 1970, to the Family Wineries tasting room, which has five small wineries including Meredith Wine Cellars (annual production: 500 cases), you can’t travel 50 feet without an opportunity to sample wine.
Another group tasting destination, the Wine Room, is undergoing some changes, losing three of its five participating wineries. Priscilla Cohen, who with her husband owns Moondance Cellars, Orchard Station Winery and the Friendly Dog Winery, is relocating to Sebastopol after Dec. 7.
That leaves Sonoma Valley Portworks and Remick Ridge, the winery owned by the Smothers brothers (who also own the building where the Wine Room is located). Bill Reading said he hopes to stay but is “not 100 percent certain.” At press time, there had been no response from the Smothers.
Meanwhile, Paradise Ridge, a winery in Santa Rosa, opened a tasting room just north of Caton-Muscardini three months ago. ”Fountaingrove is a destination you have to seek out,” manager Randall Dunn said, in an understatement. “We wanted a presence on a more convenient wine road.”
But wait, there’s more: Enkidu Wines plans to open a tasting room in the Kenwood Village Marketplace, probably in January. The winery, named for a figure in an ancient Mesopotamian epic poem, is on Eighth Street East; check the Web site for updates at enkiduwines.com.
Of course there’s more to do in Kenwood than sip wine – there’s also eating. Café Citti has been a big draw since the day it opened 20 years ago to serve a limited Italian menu and infuse the entire neighborhood with the aroma of garlic chicken.
Another local favorite is the Vineyards Inn Bar & Grill, which was recently named “greenest of them all” in a Bay Area contest. In addition to energy-saving and recycling practices, the 27-year-old restaurant (at the corner of Adobe Canyon Road) uses organic self-farmed and other local produce. Its menu spans Basque, Italian, Mexican and Chinese dishes, and its margaritas alone are worth the drive.
Shopping opportunities also abound. In the Kenwood Village Marketplace are Vita Bella, a furniture and home décor store, and its sister, Vita Bella Too, a gallery and showroom.
Swede’s Feeds is a must for pet and garden supplies, including statuary. Aspen Mayers (who owns Swede’s along with her partner Michael Scheffer) opened the Kenwood Farmhouse two weeks ago in the former Jonathan’s location across the street from Swede’s. She carries gift items along with some clothing, table-top items, chimes, jewelry and kids’ stuff, as well as cards and seasonal merchandise.
After wine tasting, dining and shopping, don’t forget the spa services available at the Kenwood Inn & Spa, recently selected as the top resort in the mainland U.S. by the readers of Condé Nast Traveler.