Living the good life in Sonoma

Our rental house nestled into a hillside garden above a valley full of grape vines.

Surrounded on three sides by a deep, covered veranda framed with wisteria, and dotted with clusters of generously-cushioned furniture, there was enough room for our group of six to spread out and lounge without ever bothering each other. The outdoor dining table on one side could seat 12, was already dressed with cheerful linen and festooned with chunky candles. It sat next to a broad patio with a double barbecue built into a stone wall restraining a steep hill. If, for some strange reason, we didn't want to be outside, there was another massive dining table indoors, beneath a cathedral ceiling that also sheltered an open kitchen, overstuffed sofas and a fireplace "nook" bigger than some British bedrooms.

It wasn't a house as much as a compound. Below, at vineyard level, a separate cottage housed the owner's winery on its ground floor and guest accommodation above. No veranda here ... just an enormous screened porch complete with hammock and other furniture deigned to while away a sultry afternoon. Between the cottage and the main house, terraced herb and vegetable gardens offered produce to add to our meals all week. On the other side, the hill by the dining patio led down to more vegetable gardens and up to a large pool surrounded by cushioned seating areas, another dining table and an outdoor kitchen. If you weren't transfixed by the view of the vineyards below, you could climb further to find a bocce court beneath Spanish-moss draped oaks. Climb further still through the woodland to gather branches for the barbecues, or settle on a deck to watch the sun set. While watching the hummingbirds and sipping a chilled glass of something local, of course.

Welcome to Sonoma.

I know that not everyone lives this way in Northern California's wine country, but our experience over a week there certainly made it seem like the whole place had been conjured out of a spread in Martha Stewart Living. Clearly, when you have high-quality wine country within an easy drive of one of the global economy's most dynamic engines, reality gets a bit skewed. Heaven knows where the people who do the hard work in all those lovely fields actually live, or how they can afford to get by in a place that made English prices seem quite reasonable.

We chose Sonoma over Napa because its image is a bit more laid back, less pretentious, and cheaper.
Though the two valleys run parallel to each other, and it's quick to hop back and forth between them, those anticipated differences did indeed prove true. From cars to shopfronts to people, everything seemed gilded with a bit more bling along the Napa road. The landscape is broadly similar, though I thought there seemed to be more woodland on the Sonoma side. Land is a bit less expensive in Sonoma, so it hasn't become as much of a high-end winery mono-culture. They still grow other crops here, and are wildly enthusiastic about them in restaurants and markets.

Towns we drove through in Napa all had the feel of Rodeo Drive moved to the country, with exquisitely high end shops behind perfectly polished windows, with signage so tastefully matching I suspected zoning laws included type face specifications. Sonoma is built around a large, green square called The Plaza. There's a pleasing historic vibe here, with a mission and a complex of colonial buildings preserved on one side. The combo of hotels, bars, restaurants and boutiques around the Plaza is still upscale, but it's also more friendly and a bit sleepy. You could actually imagine someone in a pickup truck pausing for a drink here.

Just north of the Plaza you'll find Sonoma Market, a local version of a Whole Foods (although there's one of those in Sonoma, too) that will fulfill every supermarket fantasy. Superb produce, magnificent meat and fish, upscale prepared foods and desserts to take away. With an expansive local wine selection, of course. Between the facilities at our house and the quality of the raw ingredients, is it any wonder we cooked half our meals in? I'd happily pit the salad I assembled from an enormous, roasted golden beetroot, greens, goat's cheese and toasted walnuts (all local) against 80% of the dishes we had in restaurants. Meanwhile, the boys did a magnificent job barbecuing a variety of meats and fish over aged oak collected from the property. We were all used to cooking with charcoal, but had to admit that the smoke imbued by pure, old wood was magnificent.

We even did a couple of blind wine tastings. We took turns organising, each person buying three reasonably-priced bottles, covering the labels and pouring the tastes. In addition to a fun way of organising drinking for an evening, it was a good method of sampling some of the areas more affordable offerings. As we were to discover at the wineries, the people most highly recommended for tastings tend to have lofty prices. Of that, more in the coming entries.

As wine regions go, both Napa and Sonoma are hot, dry places. In late June, a deep golden brown was the predominant colour of anything not under careful cultivation. Clearly, the vines need to push deep here to find water, to the benefit of their fruit. The temperature and colours reminded me far more of Central Spain than Italy or France, where the wine regions share space with more trees and rivers. A particularly striking difference from Europe: most of the vines are on the valley floor, rather than the best fruit coming from the free-draining heights. In California, it's just too hot up there.

For me, however, the biggest difference from Europe was in how the whole area is managed as a holiday destination. Upscale holiday rentals are abundant, sandwiched between retirement cottages of San Francisco executives and the weekend homes of Silicon Valley tech gurus. Hotels and B&Bs all seem to be in the trendy, boutique category. We were sternly warned to avoid weekends, when the pleasure-seeking masses bring the main roads to gridlock. Every winery is a wedding venue, every restaurant does special events. The area is clearly as much about family reunions, significant birthday parties, girls' trips and anniversary celebrations as it is about wine. Being able to play the local card in a country where people have very little vacation time, the California wine country is able to offer an elegant, luxurious, European-style getaway to people who don't have the time to go to the original.  Wine is just one part of the lifestyle getaway they're offering.

That realisation is at the heart of how I felt about Sonoma. As a wine holiday, it was pleasant ... but not as good as France or Italy. But as a lifestyle destination, it was unparalleled; a magnificent place to embrace the good life with those near and dear to you.

To rent our amazing holiday property for yourselves, check out the property description on VRBO. Quite by accident, it turned out this was the same company from which we rented our holiday cottage in Gascony in 2015 ... up until Sonoma, that had been my best holiday rental ever. Clearly, VRBO will be my first stop next time.