Wine Tasting and Travel: Sonoma Valley, Sonoma Mission Inn and Spa

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The WINE WRITER: George Medovoy

SONOMA MISSION INN & SPA IS A GREAT BASE FOR SONOMA WINE TOURS
By George Medovoy

SONOMA - It was one of those memorable moments you want to capture with a camera…but, alas, you've left it in your room.

In the early morning before breakfast, you're out walking and you spot two figures moving silently, gracefully, in the pool, shrouded in steam rising into the cold air. It's a guest and a therapist. The guest is having a water treatment outside the new spa at the Sonoma Mission Inn Spa & Country Club, one of the relics of the Roaring 20's up here in the gentle hills of the Sonoma Wine Country.

If you're out combing the countryside for a relaxing spa experience and looking for wineries to visit, the inn has a long history as a wine country getaway. The spa's healing tradition goes back to the early Native Americans, who first discovered the area's underground springs. Then, in 1840, an eccentric California physician named T.M. Leavenworth capitalized on the legend and established a small health resort here. Near the end of the century, Captain H. E. Boyes, a young Englishman, made his own discovery of the 112-degree waters and built the Boyes Hot Springs Hotel, the ancestor of today's inn and spa.

Fast forward to the '20s, when San Francisco's wealthy would come to "take the waters." Their modern hotel, built in 1927, even featured electric lights, running water, moving pictures and a glass-enclosed swimming pool, which people called "the largest mineral tank in the world."

Today's inn still retains its early ambiance and grandeur…marked best of all, I think, by the regal lobby and a magnificent roaring fireplace. You can just imagine all those folks gathered around the fireplace, ready to have a good time.

Located about a mile from the town center of Sonoma, the inn replicates the design of the early California missions. Its new 27,000-square-foot spa features herbal steam, individual mineral baths, private whirlpools, Watsu treatment pools, a thermal-water King's Bath for couples, special Swiss and Vichy showers, treatment rooms for couples, and a Rasul Chamber featuring an Arabic-body-care ceremony, combining a mud bath with an herbal-steam bath. The spa also has a lounge with wood-burning fireplace, a resting room, a snack bar and special mineral-water fountains.

Of course, a spa in the wine country would be incomplete without the Grape-Seed Body Polish! Spa director Leslie Wolski likes to stress the healing value of the spa
on mind and body.

"We owe it to ourselves," she says, "to experience all the pleasures a spa has to offer, treating both our mind and body."

For those seeking more than your normal spa experience, the inn also will arrange for a la carte offerings, like guided wine country tours, bike tours and a wide range of fitness classes. The inn's 18-hole golf course, about a mile from the inn, is bordered by vineyards and landscaped with mature native oaks, eucalyptus and redwood trees, three lakes and a rushing creek.

The inn's Grille Restaurant features local Sonoma ingredients and over 200 premium Sonoma and Napa Valley wines!

There are 10 Historic Inn rooms, 70 Wine Country rooms, 30 Wine Country suites, and 30 new Mission Suites.

The historic inn is now featuring a "Holiday Cheer" Spa package. The deal includes three 50-minute spa treatments per day, accommodations in a Historic Inn Room and valet parking, with rates beginning at $471 per night, single or double occupancy. Guests can select their personal spa treatments from a multitude of services at the state-of-the-art spa.

This winter the inn announces a "Holiday Cheer" Spa package. The deal includes three 50-minute spa treatments per day, accommodations in a Historic Inn Room and valet parking, with rates beginning at $471 per night, single or double occupancy.

Information about the package or general inn information and reservations: 1-800-862-4945 or visit www.sonomamissioninn.com

Sonoma Valley boasts 36 wineries, most of them small and quite a few family-owned. For tour information, contact California Wine Tours & Transportation at (707) 938-4248, or visit www.californiawinetours.com.

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