The Kenwood Inn and Spa

Between Santa Rosa and the Napa-Sonoma Marsh, California State Route 12 goes by “Sonoma Highway” — a promising route through the fertile slopes on Napa/Sonoma wine country with a catchy name to boot, peppered here and there with roadside wineries and tasting rooms. Such establishments keep great company with equally great accommodations; there’s a strong argument to be made that contemporary American rustic-chic design principles were born here. Right in the middle of the idiom sits the Kenwood Inn and Spa, eschewing the impersonal resort and the perhaps excessively intimate B&B alike. The Goldilocks philosophy pays off, appealing to ruddy-cheeked cork-chasers and smitten weekenders alike.

We attribute the Kenwood’s charm to its Mediterranean signifiers, above and beyond rural California’s typical sun-lazy style: the honey-toned, ivy-swathed edifices, enclosing three flagstone courtyards, clearly channel the archetypical villa. 29 rooms and suites, each with a private entrance, put on ornate, antique airs — fireplaces, bespoke furnishings, and California queen or king featherbeds with Italian linens set the mood nicely against a backdrop of chandeliers and earth-tone flooring. Higher-tier rooms add private balconies overlooking the gardens (and, further, the region’s trademark vineyards) as well as jacuzzi tubs; in any case, the bath amenities in the walk-in showers remain a luxury unto themselves.

The food and wine offerings, as one one might expect, reflect the valley’s abundant natural bounty and bucolic pace of life. Each day begins with an impressive breakfast spread and winds down with a wine and cheese tasting come 5 pm, fortified in the meantime by an all-day menu of small bites. And the spa sensibly incorporates vinotherapy among an entire range of glow-inducing massages and infusions; if aquatherapy’s more your thing, a heated outdoor pool and two hot tubs await. Much better than a wine-tour crash pad, wouldn’t you say?