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The Farmhouse

This is a beautiful luxury inn and restaurant on River Road, about three or four miles west of the Martinelli winery. It's quite romantic, has impeccable service, delicious food and an impressive wine list. One of the friends eating with us was a vegetarian and the restaurant put together quite a remarkable vegetarian spread. My wife and I started with Ahi tuna tartare then had the local lamb and grilled octopus, all impeccable. I don't eat desserts, but they looked quite refined and appealing.

Our sommelier, Allyson Gorsuch, was also top-notch. Our wines included the Carlisle 2011 Gruner Veltliner, which I loved. It's good to see Mike Officer producing this naked, stainless steel white wine from a varietal that has won considerable praise (and justifiably so) in Austria. We also had a reasonably priced 2009 Châteauneuf du Pape Bois de Boursan from the wine list. We ended up having several bottles of that, and at only $78 a bottle, it was a steal compared to some of the other high-end red wines available.

This is not as casual as other Sonoma restaurants, but at the same time it is not pretentious in any way, but rather has a wonderful, laid-back wine country feel. Given the high-quality food along with top-notch service and the pleasant ambiance, this is definitely another place I'll go back to on future visits.

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