Our favorite California wine country houses

Ahh, wine country. Though our weekly original home tours series, House Calls, has taken us to New York, Chicago, Paris, Berlin, and other metropolises worldwide, the homes we’ve visited in California’s wine country have a special allure.

For starters, there’s the sun-kissed setting. Then there are the houses themselves: A classic ranch on a tight lot that hides a verdant escape; a stately Victorian painstakingly restored; and a prototypical wine country retreat, where a pair of interior designers indulge every sense.

As we celebrate the magic of Northern California’s wine country region, we felt we’d be remiss if we didn’t serve up some of our greatest hits from the region.

Jake Stangel

A couple turns modest ranch house into wine country retreat

When interior designer Jay Jeffers and creative director Michael Purdy went in search of their slice of wine country heaven, they’d set their sights on something with land that sprawled. What they found (and fell in love with) was a 1,200-square-foot ranch house on a relatively tight lot in St. Helena, California, not far from the town’s main thoroughfare. It had vineyard views without the hassle of vine upkeep—and a pool around which the couple has oriented their home life here.

Kim Carroll

An 1870s Victorian farmhouse finally shines in Northern California

Every couple of years, we’ve followed a home’s renovation process from beginning to end. Our first ever, in Brooklyn, New York, whet our appetite for more, and in 2016, we tracked progress as a couple revamped their circa-1870 Victorian farmhouse—which the couple described as an “extreme fixer”—in Healdsburg, California. The final installment of that edition of our Renovation Diary series revealed a warm, eclectic home with no shortage of paint-color inspiration.

Growing a California wine country dream home

Interior designers Jeff and Tray Schlarb’s sprawling escape, also in the town of Healdsburg, ticks all the boxes when one thinks of the quintessential wine country property. Acres of grapes? Check. Rustic interiors with exposed-beam ceilings? Check. Ample space outside for entertaining and relaxing? Check. Turning around the farmhouse and vineyard here took the couple only 12 months.