Archive for the 'Wine Country Living' Category
Welcome 2012 in Sonoma County with a Guide to New Year’s Celebrations
Welcome 2012! from Sonoma County
One of my favorite local Sonoma County Guide sites, “Sonoma Uncorked”, appears to be active again with a nice interactive map guide to New Year’s Eve celebrations from Healdsburg to Petaluma.
Whether you choose to go out or stay in this evening, here is wishing you the best for a FANTASTIC 2012! from Wine Country and Horses.
National Geographic Travel names Sonoma County One of the Top Destinations in the World for 2012
Tucked between Costa Brava, Spain and the cottage country of Ontario is Sonoma County, one of the top travel destinations for 2012 according to National Geographic.
Why am I not surprised? I liked it so much that after many years of touristing trips and then horse boarding here, I moved here in 1999 from the Bay Area. Now I help clients and friends from all over the world find the perfect property here. Meanwhile I am constantly amazed at the beauty of Sonoma County, from the one of the most spectacular rugged coasts in the world to the redwoods, vineyards, horse farms and orchards from Sebastopol to Healdsburg to Glen Ellen and Sonoma.
Anyway when I heard the news that National Geographic named Sonoma County as one of the top twenty places to visit in 2012, I couldn’t agree more. I am a shameless booster! ( and I have to say some of those other spots look pretty tempting as well! The Virunga Volcanoes!….Take a look!
(West Sonoma County photo courtesy of Autumn Photo Blog)
The Most Beautiful Time of the Year in Sonoma County Could be Now
Typically we think of springtime or summer as the most beautiful time of the year but for all of October and now November here in Sonoma County wine country of Northern California it feels like right now is the best time of year. We had some early rain (after six typical dry months) in September. The grass has gone from golden brown to emerald green. The vines and trees throughout the county are turning red, gold and orange. The skies have been brilliant blue and the weather has been delightfully warm but not too hot. LOVE IT. Maybe that is part of the reason why the real estate market has been so active this fall. Much busier than the typically busy summer months. Perhaps it is 30 year fixed rate mortgages at 4 percent? Ten year fixed jumbo loans at 3.75%!!! Perhaps it is health of many tech companies and startups in Silicon Valley and San Francisco. Who knows for sure but it has been a great time to be showing and selling property and out and about on these beautiful days. Has kept me away from the blog for a bit. I apologize, and I am back!
A brilliant November day and old vine zinfandel in the Russian RIver Valley appellation of Santa Rosa, Ca
One person’s artistic vision is grounded in Graton
Hollynn D'Lil in her Graton Garden courtesy of the Press Democrat
My friend HolLynn D’lil is like many of my friends and clients who have moved to Sonoma County from successful lives elsewhere. She had a vision, a feeling, a sense of the possibilities that her new life could be in our pocket of country paradise a short hour north of San Francisco. She wanted room to garden and a studio for painting and a home environment that nurtured her creativity.
More so than many, she did not allow a bare flat patch of dirt and a dated home deter her from realizing her vision. Now she lives in a creekside sanctuary in the heart of the small Sonoma County community of Graton. I first walked on to HolLynn’s property for a dinner party last fall, which was my first meeting with her as well. Within five sentences I said to her–have you ever thought of having your home on the West County Garden Tour ? (a benefit for Food For Thought in Forestville). She said–I have always wanted to do that but didn’t know who to approach. This May 15th she was one of eight gardens and homes in West County featured on the tour. Yesterday, the Press Democrat newspaper did a feature story on HolLynn’s journey. I thought I would share it with you as a wonderful example of the creation of a dream in Sonoma’s West County.
Check Out This Impromptu Singalong at Petaluma Whole Foods Market
The Heritage Music Theatre at Cinnabar Theatre in downtown Petaluma created a great guerrilla marketing event at the local Whole Foods Market. Imagine a fruit aisle stocker spontaneously bursting in to song from behind the pineapples and a bass player emerging from the cooler. Imagine yourself minding your own business shopping away when a half dozen singers burst into Woody Guthrie’s stirring “This Land is Your Land” from over by the papayas and you get the idea.
Woody Guthrie’s American Song opens December 31st and runs through January 23 just down the block from the fruit aisle!
For a taste, the video below is really worth watching to see the involvement of the shoppers grow as everyone gets in to this “Random Act of Culture.”
PS If you want to check out the latest homes for sale in this town of spontaneously musical produce aisles, you can see them on a map by clicking the link on the right, or here.
A New Look in the Wine Country
If you don’t live in Northern California you might not be aware that we don’t have rain for about six months of the year, from April to October. Plant, animal and human life has adapted to drought conditions during the hottest months. But early October everything starts to look pretty parched and dusty. The hills are golden and brown, we have some of our best warm weather, but it is time for rain. Everything feels thirsty.
Then the first rains come. Everything is transformed.
We have probably had about four inches in the last few weeks. Now the hills are turning emerald green and they will stay that way till May or June. The trees and vineyards are turning all sorts of orange, red and golden tones. Every year I am surprised again about the incredible range of colors on our sunny days, from the emerald grass, to the colorful vines and the amazingly clear blue sky. I took this shot last week as I walked my dog. These colors inspired the new version of my blog design that you see today for the first time. After 3 and an half years, we were definitely due for a freshening, both of the design as well as some good new tools. Now it’s back to writing about real estate and life in Sonoma County. Happy Autumn and thanks for visiting!
Harvest Crush: a big Rush after a Long Wait
Harvest in the wine country is a long drawn out affair, beginning in August in the eastern vineyards of Napa, and with the grapes going to sparkling wine. The long harvest season closes with the old vine zinfandels in my part of the Russian River Valley in October. If your grapes are in a cool spot like mine are, that could even mean a Halloween harvest, with prayers that the rains wait till the sugars get up there.
This year harvest got started late due to an exceptionally cool summer. Tomatoes are barely ripening, let alone wine grapes. Then the frigid days were interrupted by two days of SEVERE heat, which saw the temperatures rise from 48 degrees to 108 degrees in only a few hours. This left grapes, trees and many plants in shock and with sunburn. Some growers told me they have lost as much as 30% of their crop to sunburn–let’s hope those earlly estimates were pessimistic and not accurate.
After the mini-heatwave, we immediately returned to ten days or so of cool weather, and only now are we experiencing consistent lovely warm (but not too warm) days with our typical cool evenings. The scent of autumn, and the crush, are definitely in the air. I love this time of year!
Don't Miss Sebastopol's Gravenstein Apple Fair this Weekend!
This year marks the 100th! Anniversary of Sebastopol’s first ever Gravenstein Apple Fair in 1910. Billed as “The Sweetest Little Fair” in Sonoma County, it is a celebration of Sonoma County’s long tradition of agricultural delights. Now many of the apple orchards have given way to vineyards, and Sonoma County apples have long been less competitive on the world markets than those from Washington State and China, but the early ripening Gravenstein apple is still a hallmark of the best in local farming and fruit! Thanks to Sonoma County Farm Trails for keeping this tradition alive! If you can’t make it to Sebastopol this weekend, Sonoma County Farm Trails offers a great on-line and printed guide to year round food tasting activities and events at Sonoma County’s many small farms and markets.
Finally the grapes are ripening
If You Lived Here You'd Be Home by Now–Scenes from Barrel Tasting Weekend
Today’s rain should clear up and bring sunny skies and warmer temperatures for the second weekend of this year’s Barrel Tasting Event sponsored by WineRoad, a group of northern Sonoma County wineries from the Russian River, Dry Creek and Alexander Valley appellations. If you are like me, perhaps your first exposure to the Sonoma wine country and our gorgeous back roads came from visiting friends during tasting events such as this. After many repeat visits, you begin to think, after a long weekend of wine tasting, gee, if I lived here, I’d be home by now. Last year, hundreds of home buyers in Sonoma County shared that sentiment, moving here from the Bay Area to Los Angeles, New York, Japan and Europe. I love to work with out of town buyers seeking the wine country lifestyle, feel free to contact me if you would like to explore the possibilities, and cheers!
Meanwhile–this video does a good job of capturing the flavor of barrel tasting weekend, and has scenes shot last week at Joseph Swan, Bella, Stryker and other Sonoma County wineries.
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