Montage Healdsburg – a resort built to vanish into its own vineyard

Montage Healdsburg sits on 258 acres of oak groves and vine rows at the point where the Dry Creek, Russian River and Alexander Valleys converge, a short drive from Healdsburg's historic plaza. It is the only Montage Hotels & Resorts property built from scratch in wine country, part of a hospitality brand founded in 2002 by Alan Fuerstman. The resort opened to guests in the first weeks of 2021, after a limited December 2020 debut, its low bungalow-style buildings of stone, wood and copper deliberately sited so the architecture sits lightly on the land rather than rising above it. The MICHELIN Guide gives it Two Keys. With 130 rooms and suites spread across the property and a 15.5-acre estate vineyard supplying its own label of wine, it is built less like a conventional hotel than like an extension of the surrounding farmland.

01The house

Montage Healdsburg was designed by GlazierLe and Delawie Architects, with interiors by EDG, for owner Ohana Real Estate Investors and developer The Robert Green Company. Construction began in spring 2018 and was complete by 2020, the finished resort built around a main lodge with its guest bungalows and food and beverage venues. The brief, as the architects set it, was never to compete with the landscape: rather than a monolith, the buildings sit lightly on the hillside and blend into the oak groves and rows of Cabernet Sauvignon around them. Fifteen and a half of the resort's 258 acres are planted as working vineyard, the fruit going into Surveyor, Montage Healdsburg's own estate-bottled label made with Sonoma winemaker Jesse Katz of Aperture Cellars.

02Rooms and suites

The 130 bungalow-style guestrooms and suites are grouped in low clusters among the oaks and vines rather than stacked in a single block. A third of each room's floor space is typically given to the outdoors, with rooms opening onto their own balcony or terrace. Inside, stone, wood and copper surfaces and floor-to-ceiling windows frame the hills, while custom honor bars and furnished patios with fire pits complete the detail. Standard rooms run from around 600 to 1,178 square feet, and the property's most private address, the Guest House, has a wraparound patio with more than 1,200 square feet of outdoor space of its own. At the top end sits a 4,600-square-foot presidential suite.

Insider tip

Private wine tastings in Dry Creek, Russian River and Alexander Valleys can be arranged through the concierge.

03Where to eat

Hazel Hill is the resort's main dining room, built around a terroir-to-table philosophy that pairs French technique with Sonoma and Napa ingredients, and Montage Healdsburg named Sergio Howland its Executive Chef in August 2026. Howland, a Mexico City native who began his career with an apprenticeship at the Four Seasons Hotel Mexico City, is a Culinary Institute of America graduate who has cooked at the James Beard House and appeared on Top Chef México; he arrived from Sonoma's Vintners Resort and is working towards a WSET Level 3 wine certification. Winemaker Jesse Katz, whose Aperture Cellars crafts the resort's own Surveyor wines from its estate vineyard, counts Hazel Hill's vineyard-facing patio among his own favourite places to eat in Healdsburg. Poolside, Hudson Springs Bar and Grill serves lunch with a children's menu between the resort's two pools, while the Healdsburg Country Store handles grab-and-go breakfasts and weekly artisan pop-ups.

04The bar

Scout Field Bar occupies the centre of the lobby, built around a fireplace and a list of craft cocktails, local beers and Sonoma and Napa wines, with live music drawing guests at sunset as part of the resort's outdoor and evening programme.

05Spa and pools

Spa Montage sits across the lobby from the pools, raised 20 feet above the vineyard rows in a treatment building designed to reflect Sonoma's landscape through its therapies. The 11,500-square-foot spa opens daily from 10am to 6pm. Outside, two pools overlook the resort's Cabernet Sauvignon vines and the silhouette of Mount St Helena: a zero-edge, adults-only infinity pool watched over, informally, by Jesse Katz's own vines, and a family pool with its own hot tub, both served by private cabanas and open from 6am to 10pm.

06The neighbourhood

Healdsburg Plaza, the town's square of restaurants, tasting rooms, boutiques and galleries, is a ten-minute drive from the resort gates. Montage Healdsburg's own position, at the point where the Dry Creek, Russian River and Alexander Valleys meet, makes it a natural base for private tastings arranged by the concierge across all three regions, and for the Healdsburg Wine & Food Experience and Sonoma County Harvest Fair that punctuate the local calendar.

07Making the most of a stay

Beyond wine, the resort's acreage is built for movement: hiking and biking trails loop through the oaks, and a Compass Sports hub adds pickleball to the roster of outdoor activity, alongside live music at Scout Field Bar. Families tend to end the day at the fire pits for Sunset S'mores, while the two pools, open from 6am to 10pm, bookend most itineraries.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.