Six places to drink wine in Napa Valley and Sonoma
NAPA Valley and Sonoma County, the most popular destinations for those travelling to Northern California wine country, are full of alluring restaurants. But wine lists that offer both wide selections and good values are not so easy to find.
Some lists are boringly predictable. Others are simply too expensive. That’s not surprising, as Napa Valley and Healdsburg, California, a Sonoma city that approaches Napa in luxury and pricing, are difficult to navigate without deep reserves of disposable income. You can’t blame the restaurants if they emphasise top local wines. Good Napa cabernet sauvignon, the Valley’s signature wine, starts around US$100 a bottle. You are simply not going to find inexpensive examples.
Press in Saint Helena, for example, a one-time steakhouse with a far more interesting menu nowadays, has perhaps the greatest list of Napa wines in the world, with many oddities and older examples that you won’t find elsewhere. But unless you can drop a few hundred bucks for a bottle, the point is lost.
Top-echelon restaurants, such as The French Laundry in Yountville and Single Thread in Healdsburg, have wonderful selections. But these are special-occasion places, where you plan months in advance, spend hours over a meal and likewise expect to spend a small fortune.
Most of the time, as a traveller, I want something far less august. I look for an intriguing list with good values, terrific food and a welcoming, relaxed ambience. These sorts of places are there, but not as easy to find.
I’ve been travelling to Northern California as a wine critic for nearly 20 years and have developed a collection of favourite restaurants. Not all of them are wine-centric, though.
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Here are six of my favourite places to find an excellent glass with your meal, places I’ve visited multiple times and have always left happy. The first three are in Sonoma, the remaining three in Napa.
Glen Ellen Star
If you are curious about where the locals eat, or looking for a place without the ostentatious trappings of wine country wealth, consider Glen Ellen Star in a small village just north of the city of Sonoma. It’s a rustic, genial spot, with little decor beyond strands of tiny lights on the ceiling. Along with lovely outdoor seating, the restaurant has two wings – aim for the area with the lively open kitchen and wood-burning oven, so you can watch the cooks working.
An emphasis on fine ingredients, simply prepared, sums up the cooking, with occasional Middle Eastern touches and plenty of vegetables, like a crunchy and refreshing radish salad with chicory, dill and trout roe. I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve had that was made in the oven, whether it was margherita pizza, with its blistered crust, roasted whole fish or crisp-skinned chicken roasted under a brick, served over polenta with roasted winter vegetables and a caramelised orange slice – a delicious touch. Even house-made smoked trout salad benefits; it came with crisp flatbread straight out of the oven, glistening with olive oil and sesame seeds.
The wine list emphasises local bottles, mostly from small producers. The selection of reds is particularly extensive, with many reasonably priced options alongside older vintages for those wanting to splurge. I drank a 2017 Royal Saint Robert from Raen Winery on the Sonoma Coast, a sun-kissed but beautifully restrained pinot noir.
13648 Arnold Drive, Glen Ellen, California, 707-343-1384, https://glenellenstar.com
The Matheson
In Sonoma County, Healdsburg is about as close as it gets to the ostentatious wealth of Napa Valley, as new boutique hotels and expensive clothing shops seemingly open every month. The Matheson, with its rooftop cocktail lounge and sleek, stylish, street-level restaurant, might comfortably fit into Yountville.
I can’t think of a better place in wine country for a lone business traveller than The Matheson. Along with comfortable seating at a handsome, slate-covered bar and excellent California cuisine, the restaurant offers an astounding, futuristic wall of wine, a sort of wine-automat with 88 choices, which you can order by the splash or the half- or full glass.
I chose a glass of dry, focused 2021 Calandrelli Vineyard gewurztraminer from Halleck in the Russian River Valley and an appetiser of deeply flavoured corn soup, with Oaxacan cheese, cilantro and a fritter that tasted like the essence of a corn tortilla. I added a glass of 2020 Les Noisetiers Sonoma chardonnay from Kistler, with halibut served with pole beans and squid in a mild Thai curry sauce.
The selection of California wines by the glass includes a few too many staid producers, but I’ve always found things I’ve wanted to drink, and the bottle list is far more extensive. For dessert, why not a glass of Sauternes? The last time I visited, Chateau Rieussec was US$24 a glass.
106 Matheson Street, Healdsburg, California, 707-723-1106, https://thematheson.com
Valley
Valley, on Sonoma Plaza, is the sort of place I’d love to have in my neighbourhood. It’s a wine bar with a terrific, thoughtful list that leans towards the natural side. It sells bottles retail, too, and it serves a small, seasonal menu of simple foods that are beautifully prepared.
The interior holds just a few tables and a tiny bar. I prefer the tented back patio, a pleasant outdoor space that feels relaxed and welcoming. Valley offers an ever-changing, always-excellent crisp, roasted half-chicken. I’ve had it served with greens and chilli oil, and with Jimmy Nardello peppers and garlic yogurt. In March, I had a wonderful appetiser of charred calcots, slender Catalonian spring onions, served with nutty, tangy romesco sauce. The braised pork was full of flavour under a tangle of leeks and greens.
The list, emphasising conscientious farming, is roughly divided between small producers from Europe and California, with many bottles under US$100. The 15 or so wines by the glass are well-chosen. Among the California bottles on the list, I would covet two Central Coast wines: a savagnin-and-chardonnay combination from Phelan Farms in Cambria, and a counoise from Margins in the Santa Clara Valley.
487 First West Street, Sonoma, California, 707-934-8403, https://valleybarandbottle.com
The Charter Oak
The Charter Oak in Saint Helena in Napa is another warm, inviting bar with an expansive dining room. The food is simple, often grilled over coals in a hearth in the open kitchen, with an emphasis on vegetables grown in the restaurant’s organic farm a few miles away.
Considering the farm, I like to start with a plate of crudites, served with a tangy fermented soy dip. Steaks and fish are terrific, though if I’m on my own sitting at the bar, I might opt for a truly great burger, two patties with cheddar and onions, or terrific pork-collar tacos.
Wines by the glass include California options like a good sparkling rose from Schramsberg, or a Mendocino pinot noir from Lioco, as well as more rarefied wines, like a 2011 Biondi-Santi Brunello di Montalcino, or a Maybach Napa Valley cabernet sauvignon, each for US$45 a glass.
You can drink comfortably for under US$100 from the bottle list, equal parts California and Europe. But if you want to splurge on grand cru Burgundy, Napa cabernet, or perhaps explore a vertical of Harlan, a cult Napa cabernet, this is a good place to do it.
1050 Charter Oak Avenue, Saint Helena, California, 707-302-6996, https://thecharteroak.com
Compline
When Compline opened in the city of Napa in 2017, it immediately became a destination for wine lovers. This petite restaurant, in a sort of urban shopping complex, offered the type of thorough, deep wine list that you’d expect to find in any wine-oriented population centre, but that wine country was sorely lacking. Plenty of restaurants offered lists rich in trophy bottles. Some specialised in California, others in France or Italy. But no place offered the comprehensive panoply found on Compline’s list, including many great values.
You want a great Napa chardonnay? How about a 2020 Kongsgaard for US$185, a lot of money but a great price for a wine that routinely retails for around US$150. Don’t want to spend that much? Try a 2021 Matthiasson Linda Vista Vineyard for US$68. If you want a great older bottle regardless of cost, order a 2008 Philip Togni Spring Mountain cabernet sauvignon for US$580.
Maybe something more obscure, like a Napa aligote, or an El Dorado aglianico? They’re here. So is Burgundy, whether an excellent village Chablis from Moreau Naudet or a grand cru from Raveneau. You get the idea: plenty to drink from all over the world, both under US$75 and more than US$750.
What makes Compline wonderful is that it’s so unpretentious and welcoming, and the food is great, whether you want a midday hamburger or fried chicken sandwich, or an evening bavette or duck confit.
Compline also offers an appealing outdoor courtyard and, a few doors away, one of the best retail wine shops in Napa Valley.
1300 First Street, No 312, Napa, California, 707-492-8150, https://complinewine.com
Torc
Torc, a Celtic word meaning boar, is another favourite in the city of Napa. It’s an airy, open room with plenty of stone and timber and a handsome bar, and food that defies categorisation.
Is it contemporary American? California cuisine? I’m not sure, but it’s awfully good, with little South Asian touches, like a papadum wafer with a lovely beet salad, or coconut basmati rice with grilled scallops. I loved a dish of lumache, snail-shaped pasta, in a sumptuous Mornay sauce with Comte and shreds of ham in a drift of black truffles.
The wine list, nicely divided between American and European selections, offers terrific values at every price level. I can’t imagine another restaurant in wine country, or anywhere, really, with such an enticing selection of bottles under US$60. Torc is also the rare restaurant with great selections of half-bottles – you can have a lovely dinner for two with a half of Puligny-Montrachet from Domaine de Montille, and another of Mineral Springs Ranch pinot noir from Soter Vineyards in the Willamette Valley in Oregon – and a terrific list of sweet wines, by the half-bottle or by the glass. For me, that’s a perfect way to end a meal.
1140 Main Street, Napa, California, 707-252-3292, https://torcnapa.com
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