A chorus of French-accented ahhhs fills the room, as two dozen eager novice cheesemakers scoop fresh curds into cloth-lined colanders. It’s ricotta time, baby, and our minds are officially blown. Not 20 minutes ago, our fresh cheese was but a jug of milk.
It’s a sunny Saturday in Sonoma, and we’re standing in the industrial kitchen of Epicurean Connection with a slew of new friends — and what might well go down as the classiest bachelor party in the history of stag dos. A dozen French guys have gathered to fete their soon-to-be married ami. Perhaps there’s some clubbing and carousing in their future, but at the moment, they’re happily sipping rosé and chatting with the rest of us, as they zest Meyer lemons to add a little je ne sais quoi to their fromage.
It’s been a wine- and cheese-centric couple of days for us, what with the ricotta making, rosé and pinot sampling and stracciatella savoring — and a vineyard tour that is going to use up an entire thesaurus’ worth of superlatives.
More than 60 immense art installations are displayed on the grounds of the 200-acre Donum Estate in Sonoma. (Courtesy Donum Estate)
There may have been some manchego involved too, but it wasn’t cheese that brought us to The Donum Estate for a morning of wine and food pairings and a tour of the 200-acre expanse. It was the spectacular art. This Sonoma vineyard estate holds one of the world’s largest private sculpture collections open to the public. More than 60 massive installations are dotted across the property — if you can use that term to describe a five-story-high, polished mirrored steel heart that seems to float above a hill, and an entire army of life-size bronze soldiers who stand in ranks, terracotta-warrior style.
Your first heads up that something extraordinary awaits comes almost immediately, when a disembodied voice at the gates tells you to hang a right at the head: Sanna, a sculpture by Barcelona-born artist Jaume Plensa. Its elongated, alabaster-hued face towers before you, gazing serenely down the lane as you wind your way up and yes, turn right.
There’s no denying the draw of Donum’s wine — award-winning pinot noirs and chardonnay, served with small, perfect bites. The 2021 Anderson Valley Pinot Noir is paired with chanterelles, pomegranate and manchego, for example, and a 2021 Home Ranch Pinot Noir with honeynut squash, almond crumble, urfa and maple.
At Sonoma’s Donum Estate, wine tastings are paired with delicate small bites, a Russian River chardonnay, for example, with cured kanpachi, pears and chardonnay gel. (Jackie Burrell/Bay Area News Group)
Gorgeous wines, beautiful food — but the thing we can’t stop talking about is the art.
Some of the sculptures evoke not just awe but familiarity — their artists are icons — Yayoi Kusama’s spotted pumpkin, for example, a Louise Bourgeois spider and a Fernando Botero bronze. Some, such as Gao Weigang’s Maze, draw you inside to wander pathways of brass-coated stainless steel tubes, looking for a way out or perhaps in.
And then there’s the new Hyperspace, a genre-defying work by Yang Bao that was unveiled last summer. Music wafts from the immense, 24-karat gold-coated pyramid and the nine mirrored, upside-down obelisks at its heart — organ pipes from some future Earth, where tech lives to support art. And the sound cloud mixes with ethereal harmonies emanating from obelisks nearby, the music “composing itself,” Bao says, and evolving with the wind and air.
We’re still talking about it over dinner at Golden Bear Station, a charming Cal-Ital restaurant in nearby Kenwood. Chef Joshua Smookler and his wife, Heidy He, opened it last December, after closing their critically-acclaimed, Korean-inspired Animo, named one of Esquire’s Best New Restaurants in America in 2022.
Golden Bear offers tempting pastas, Italian-inspired mains, wood-fired pizzas and starters with a twist. An ahi starter ($24), for example, gets its sizzle from chile peppers, cooled by a pool of tomato water and drizzled with basil oil. And who can resist a Hot Honey pizza ($26) topped with soppressata, habanero-spiked honey and buffalo stracciatella? (Turns out the creamy mixture you find inside burrata is every bit as decadent on a pizza.)
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It’s a special spot, with an open kitchen, high ceilings and a rustic-chic wine country feel, a place to linger as you relive the sounds and sights of the day — the art, the wine, the experiences.
Those French groomsmen would have loved it, we’re sure.
If You Go
Epicurean Connection: Award-winning cheesemaker Sheana Davis and wine expert Ben Sessions teach cheesemaking classes ($125, reservation only) Thursday-Saturday at 19670 Eighth St. E in Sonoma; https://theepicureanconnection.com/.
Golden Bear Station: Open from 4:30 to 9 p.m. Thursday-Sunday at 8445 Sonoma Highway in Kenwood; https://goldenbearstation.com.
The Donum Estate: This Sonoma winery is open by reservation between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. daily at 24500 Ramal Road. The 1.5-hour Discover Experience ($150) includes a guided walking tour of the open-air art collection and a tasting of four wines paired with canapés inspired by the estate gardens; www.thedonumestate.com/.
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