Wine, Chocolate Cohabitate at Healdsburg Plaza Tasting Room

Most winery tasting rooms are pretty much about one thing: wine. But at Seasons of the Vineyard, the Ferrari-Carano satellite shop on the Healdsburg Plaza, there’s a lot more going on.

Gifts abound, of the sophisticated sort designed to catch the eye of well-to-do shoppers. Mirrors and gilt create attractive sparkle wherever you look. Seasons emphasizes the gift items even in its name, which in full reads Seasons of the Vineyard(TM) Tasting Bar & Boutique.

Of course, at the long tasting bar, the available (and even affordable) wines are from the Ferrari-Carano – a 28-year old winery based in Dry Creek, where the palatial garden grounds, business office and winemaking facility are located. There’s a tasting room there as well, two in fact, one upstairs in a room similarly dominated by gift items, and another downstairs in the rich men’s club atmosphere of the premium Prevail label.

But back in Healdsburg, a new display adds another dimension to Seasons: chocolate.

Not just any chocolate, but Scharffen Berger artisan chocolates, from the  San Francisco-based chocolatier founded in 1997. Their bean-to-bar premium chocolates, proprietary bean blends from up to nine different cacao-growing regions throughout the world.

"I have always had a fondness for delicious chocolate, as my grandmother was a chocolatier,” said Rhonda Carano, co-founder of Ferrari-Carano Vineyards and Winery. “Some of my happiest memories are of watching her dipping chocolates on a marble slab.”

As of July 2, the shop has become the flagship store for Scharffen Berger chocolates in Healdsburg Plaza. It offers a range of gourmet chocolate for sale, wine and chocolate pairing events and a fun educational experience about bean-to-bar chocolate making.

Of course Scharffen Berger chocolate's gourmet assortment of products, including gifts and baking chocolates, will be available for purchase in the boutique. Additionally, the Seasons of the Vineyard tasting bar will also feature the Scharffen Berger chocolate in coordinated wine and chocolate pairing events.

Seasons of the Vineyard also plays host to a series of jazz and wine events during the summer, in association with the Healdsburg Jazz organization. The hosted one such during the Jazz Festival itself, with Mad and Eddie Duran. Next up is July 20, with the Greg Hester Quartet. The rest of the shows are also on apparently random Saturdays, 4 - 6 p.m. 

The tasting bar and boutique is located at 113 Plaza St.