Lodging & Leisure
Calistoga Ranch: luxury in Napa Valley's most rustic hamlet
By WOLF SCHNEIDER
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Calistoga Ranch's rustic-luxe Estate/Owners Lodge has hosted Mick Jagger, Ashley Judd, and Bono.
Of all of Northern California's Napa Valley wine towns, Calistoga is the most remote, the most Western, and the most laid-back. Not quite 30 miles north of the city of Napa at the top of the valley, Calistoga looks a lot like it must have when it grew up around Samuel Brannan's 1860s vision. California's first millionaire — his many business ventures included publishing and railroads — Brannan bought more than 2,000 acres here with the idea of turning the geothermally rich area into a spa reminiscent of Saratoga, New York. Even if sophisticated dining and wineries are much in evidence a century and a half later, Calistoga is still known for its hot springs — including its own not-so-reliable Old Faithful geyser — and has retained much of its frontier character.
No big-box anything here. There's an eight-block main street, some of it covered with Old West wooden canopies; mineral springs both for soaking and for bottling; and three gas stations. The population: 5,200, plus the deer and raccoons. The style: open-air Jeep Wranglers and cowboy boots. The wow factor: the lavish Calistoga Ranch.
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The resort's Lakeside restaurant serves fine food, fine wine, and good cheer.
Opened in 2004, the Calistoga Ranch offers 48 cedar-shingled lodges on a sprawling 157 acres among old-growth oak and redwood trees. At the ranch's swanky Estate Lodge — where Mick Jagger, Ashley Judd, and Bono have reposed before me — there's a spacious indoor and outdoor living room, kitchen, and two bedrooms. Most important, the outdoor living room opens to a forest filled with towering 125-foot Douglas fir trees, live oaks, California bays, and leafy maples. The deck was even designed with cutouts to accommodate a live oak that grows up right into the room. Indoor-outdoor is the lifestyle theme here: Roughly one-third of each lodge is outdoor space, and that includes a private outside shower (there's an oversize bathtub inside).
Mornings here are the most magical time, and I luxuriate. I pad out onto the deck of my outdoor living room, brew coffee, and peruse the day's San Francisco Chronicle. No city din, no motor sounds — just the chirping of birds. They say the finches, hummingbirds, and robins here get drunk on berries in the woods. What I find intoxicating are the fresh scent of eucalyptus and the way the dew illuminates when the sun comes over the mountain, warming the deck and releasing more woodsy fragrances.
Scents of cedar, redwood, bay laurel — I could nature-out all day. But I've booked some spa time and head to The Bathhouse spa for a soak in the mineral pool and an Ultimate Ranch Facial with Naturopathica pumpkin-enzyme peel, carrot-seed protective serum, and cooling collagen mask. Food for the face is followed by lunch at the resort's Lakeside restaurant, where I chat with chef Eric Webster over a salad of exotic greens.
"I cook seasonally, so it's whatever's good — fava beans, English peas, and asparagus in spring," he says. To drink? Calistoga water, of course. Calistoga was settled in 1873 at the terminus of the Napa branch of the Pacific Railroad. By 1924, they were selling Calistoga Sparkling Mineral Water here, bottling the bubbly that emerges from 350 feet below Calistoga. It's still the in drink all over Northern California.
Here, if you're not drinking the mineral water, you're drinking the wine. There are more than 35 wineries in Calistoga, including the showy Castello di Amorosa and the intimate Casa Nuestra. Inside Casa Nuestra's little yellow farmhouse, I do some wine-tasting. The winery emphasizes organic agriculture and sells 100 percent direct to customers, Napa's acclaimed French Laundry among them.
My favorite is the fruity Tinto Classico field-blended red, with its butterscotch aroma and $40 price tag. "Our little Tinto Classico is next to Screaming Eagle and Harlan in the famed Oakville district — the land of the $200 cabernets," manager Stephanie Zacharia tells me. No wonder I love it.
Outside, we hand-feed sprigs of rosemary to the winery's two cognac-and-white-colored goats. As we stand there sipping the Tinto Classico, petting the goats, and savoring the relaxation of a day in California's glorious Western wine country, I can understand exactly why devotees of the good life decamp to Calistoga.
Info:
• Calistoga Ranch
www.calistogaranch.com, $550–$4,000 nightly
• Calistoga
www.calistogachamber.com
WINE-PAIRING SUGGESTIONS
Cooking Calistoga Ranch's Tai Snapper with Fava Beans and Roasted Asparagus with Paprika Crostini at home? Casa Nuestra winery suggests pairing its 2007 Dry Chenin Blanc Old Vines Napa Valley Estate ($29) — with hints of anise and green apple — with the snapper. If you're dying to make Casa Nuestra's Tinto Classico field-blended red a centerpiece of a meal, try serving it with steak and potatoes. Or if you're eating BBQ ribs, crab cakes, or grilled salmon, the Casa Nuestra Dry Rosado makes a nice choice.
• Casa Nuestra: 866-844-9463, www.casanuestra.com.
— W.S.
Issue: April 2009
