Charlie Palmer’s Sonoma
A Wine-Growing Valley is Perfectly Paired with an Entrepreneurial Chef.
Early in his celebrated career, a mentor told Charlie Palmer that the sign of a great chef is the ability to take something that’s just okay and make it fantastic. “It always stuck in my mind,” said Palmer. “I thought, ‘That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.’” Instead, Palmer’s entire culinary approach is based on the opposite direction: seek the most pristine, exceptional ingredients possible and then not mess them up.
“Look, we’re practitioners,” said Palmer. “Our job is to enhance the ingredients, not manipulate them to the point where they’re unidentifiable.”
A visionary thinker and early advocate of farm-to-table dining, Palmer’s inventive methodology has made him one of the most highly regarded chefs in America. With awards from the James Beard Foundation, Wine Spectator and the Michelin Guide, Palmer was inducted into the American Academy of Chefs Culinary Hall of Fame in 2010. He now owns a collection of restaurants and boutique hotels in markets across the country, has authored five cookbooks and is a frequent guest on NBC’s “Today Show.”
His willingness to seek the best has also applied to geography. After a lengthy search, in 2004 he moved with his wife and four sons from Manhattan to Healdsburg, California, 70 miles north of San Francisco. “We looked at other places but we kept coming back to Healdsburg. We thought it was such a cool little town with its restaurants and shops that all radiate out from the square,” said Palmer.
After building a house and planting a vineyard on their Russian River property, the Palmers settled into a food and wine lover’s paradise with a small town lifestyle so laid back that some refer to it as the “Sonoma Coma.”
“We say that a lot in the restaurant kitchen: ‘No Coma! No Coma!’” laughed Palmer. “We will always have a home in New York so I always say I have the best of both worlds. It’s a good balance.”
Among the Vines
Stretching from the Pacific Coast in the west to the Mayacamas Mountains in the east, Sonoma Valley offers a meandering mix of world-class wineries, organic and locally sourced restaurants, vine-covered hillsides and 55 miles of rugged coastline. Together with its twin valley of Napa, the wine-growing region follows only Disneyland as the most visited attraction in the state.
“When you live here, you’re kind of immersed in the wine world,” said Palmer, who so strongly supports local growers that he only stocks Sonoma wine in his Healdsburg restaurant, Dry Creek Kitchen. “Here in Sonoma, most winemakers started out as farmers. First and foremost they’re grape growers who’ve had the same acres for generations,” he said. With smaller, family-based wineries, tasting rooms in Sonoma tend to be less crowded and more personal than in Napa. “People like to touch the guy who makes the wine and they can do that here,” said Palmer.
For those focused on the fruits of the vine, the master chef recommends limiting tastings to two per day to fully appreciate the experience. “I tell people do one in the morning, have a nice lunch and then do one in the afternoon,” said Palmer. “Even if you’re a guy like me who tastes wine for a living, you’re not getting the full effect after six different wines.”
A pinot noir aficionado, Palmer’s favorite is bottled at J. Rochioli Vineyards & Winery. “Making pinot noir is not easy. Growing it is even harder. To my mind Tom Rochioli is, in the purest sense, a true winemaker that’s a grape grower, and he’s the benchmark for anybody who makes pinot noir in the Russian River Valley.”
For quality chardonnays, cabernets and a full range of wines, Palmer highlights Chalk Hill Estate Vineyards & Winery as a not-to-be-missed stop. “It’s an amazingly beautiful property with a lot to see,” said Palmer. “They really respect the terrior. They produce really well-made wines and there’s a reason for everything they do.”
For those who favor highly extracted, strongly flavored wines, Palmer advises a stop at Mauritson Wines. “Their land has been passed down for generations and it’s on an extreme rock pile just above Lake Sonoma so the vines really struggle,” said Palmer. “The result is a really intense, over-the-top zinfandel and cabernet.”
Vine Dining
Even better than a great bottle of wine is a great meal to go with it, and Sonoma doesn’t disappoint when it comes to restaurateurs who share Palmer’s obsession with local ingredients. In and around Healdsburg, an eclectic seasonal small plate selection can be had at Willi’s Seafood & Wine Bar. For dinner, Palmer recommends Chalkboard Bistro & Wine Bar, or, if you’re in the mood for sushi, Sake ‘O.
A culinary star of Healdsburg is Palmer’s own Dry Creek Kitchen, where vaulted ceilings modernize the look of a wine cellar and glass walls casually open onto the town square. Palmer’s taken farm-to-table to an entirely new level by directing growers at the planting stage, rather than waiting for them to bring in something unique. “It doesn’t happen in many places in the world, but if we say we want you to grow this kind of green bean, they grow it for us. It’s very cool because it makes us better,” he said.
With scenery this lovely it’s tempting to gather some picnic fare and enjoy the day on a kayak, canoe or bicycle. Gourmet sandwiches from the award-winning Costeaux French Bakery or quaintly charming Jimtown Store perfectly compliment a float down the Russian River. The Palmer family makes a day on the water with canoe rentals from River’s Edge Kayak & Canoe Trips. “It’s always a competition to see who can get down the river faster,” said Palmer. “We never make it without turning over at least once.”
For a walk on the wild side, Palmer recommends Safari West, a 400-acre wildlife preserve featuring hundreds of African animals from giraffes to cheetahs. Or a drive out to the coast. “It’s stunning and just twenty-five minutes away,” said Palmer. At Bodega Bay, where Alfred Hitchcock once filmed The Birds, the Palmer family enjoys roasting oysters on the beach.
Beckoning the adventurous, it’s easy to see why the fiercely local small towns and green and gold countryside that make up Sonoma Valley won out as a noted culinarian’s spot to savor. “Even if there wasn’t wine here, it would be a pretty place to go. I couldn’t be happier being here, and no matter how much I travel, it’s great to be back home,” Palmer said.
Whether you decide to attend a seasonal festival, peruse an art gallery, unwind at a spa or explore the dramatic coastline, one thing’s for sure: with bounty like this, you’ll be back.
Barbara Wayman is the author of Living An Extraordinary Life: 9 Transformational Strategies for Living Your Best Life Now.