Inspired Travel Requires Luxury Villas

HinsdaleCellars.com, the online source for premium wine collection services, has entered into a promotional agreement with luxury vacation homes management agency BeautifulPlaces. The alliance encourages Hinsdale Cellars’ connoisseur clients to choose from among 35 premier wine country villas and chateaus when planning travel itineraries across the major winemaking regions of northern California and France. A 10% discount on weekly published rates is extended to referral clients who secure a reservation with BeautifulPlaces using promotional code HCELLARS.

“Serious collectors of premium wine maintain very high standards when making plans to visit and become fully immersed in the world’s leading wine regions,” said Hinsdale Cellars co-founder Steve Woodward. “We know that any luxury property selected from the BeautifulPlaces roster will meet or exceed our customers’ standards every time.” Former brand marketing executive Patrick Smith created BeautifulPlaces: Vacation Homes of Distinction in 2003. The homes, principally in Sonoma County wine country, are not simply “rentals” in which typical tourists sleep off a day of overindulgence.

“We combine the services and amenities of a small luxury hotel with the comfort, splendor and privacy of magnificent Wine Country homes to create a truly unique and memorable vacation or business meeting experience,” Smith explains.

The homes are beyond exceptional in terms of location, design and furnishings, but that’s only one part of the equation. The core of BeautifulPlaces’ success is its zealous attention to detail and service, from arranging credible nannys, to scheduling private chefs or assuring exclusive access to a private winery or spa, to scoring a tough tee time for a memorable round of golf. Presently, there are 35 homes available to lease through BeautifulPlaces and its co-brand, Country Sojourns. Rates per week range from $2,500 to more than $60,000. At the higher end, choices include the 18-room Chateau Villette near Versailles in France on 185 acres. The entire lineup can be reviewed at the BeautifulPlaces or Country Sojourns web sites.

Hinsdale Cellars clients who reserve and stay in one of these inspired properties before the end of 2007 also will be eligible to earn a $100 gift certificate when referencing promotional code HCELLARS.

About HinsdaleCellars.com
HinsdaleCellars.com was created specifically for individuals who share an unwavering pursuit of lifestyle excellence rivaled only by a passion for supremely well-crafted wine. HinsdaleCellars.com is the essential destination on the internet for anyone inspired by fine wines and enriched by knowledge about the industry and its influencers. Members have access to a wine selection that is limited, carefully assembled and unparalleled, and a wine universe that is constantly patrolled by our Private Stewards. Site content features clarity, depth and relevant, timely dispatches by legitimate insiders.

About BeautifulPlaces.com
BeautifulPlaces was created to serve discriminating vacation and business travelers to Northern California’s renowned Wine Country. Our value proposition is simple. We combine the services and amenities of a small luxury hotel with the comfort, splendor and privacy of magnificent Wine Country homes to create a truly unique and memorable vacation or business meeting experience. Through our Vacation Homes of Distinction program, BeautifulPlaces is opening the door to some of the world’s finest, private, wine country homes and estates. Our properties range in size from a 13,500 square foot architectural statement on a 1,700 acre estate to an elegant two-bedroom villa nestled amidst vineyards. They range in location from Healdsburg’s Dry Creek Valley in the North to Carneros in Southern Sonoma and Napa counties. And they range in style from historic Napa residences to Tuscan villas and modern architectural masterpieces. BeautifulPlaces is about much more than elegant accommodations. It is, first and foremost about service. Whether you require a nanny to look after your children while you enjoy an afternoon of wine tasting or a round of golf, or you wish to relax in a spa or hire a private chef to prepare a special meal for a small group of friends, we can assist you.BeautifulPlaces is changing the way discriminating travelers experience the many splendors of the Wine Country.

 

Perfecting Pinot Takes Work

Peter Work is, without a doubt, one of the most fascinating people we’ve met in the wine industry since we launched HinsdaleCellars.com. When you listen to the Princeton-educated native of Denmark and former corporate technology consultant talk about his vision for his Ampelos Pinot Noir you quickly sense he is not in this for kicks.

With wife Rebecca (above) and son Don, the Work family literally has learned the art of winemaking from square one in less than a decade. While living in Los Angeles where he was an executive with a sizzling hot human resources outsourcing company (Exult), they acquired 82 vineyard acres, planting at first 15 acres and later 10 more in Santa Barbara County in 1999, in an area that in 2001 became known as Santa Rita Hills. They chose well, buying their vineyard in a “neighborhood” surrounded by the likes of Fiddlestix Estate, Sea Smoke, Melville et al.

Then Sept. 11, 2001, dawned. Peter and his wife had flown on a red-eye into Newark International Airport that morning from L.A., even as terrorist hijackers were preparing to board aircraft along the East Coast that would become their apocalyptic weapons. Peter was due to take a train to the one of World Trade Center towers that morning for a meeting. But the meeting had been cancelled. He never boarded the train into Manhattan.

As soon as they could get back to southern California, following days of suspended air traffic in U.S. skies, Peter said, “we went up to the (Santa Barbara) property, spent some time in our travel trailer (no home had been built yet), and thought about life.”

Check back here for more later about their decisions, the origin of Ampelos, and the latest vintage of Pinot Noirs, but let’s just say major life changes happened.

“We sold our Mercedes and bought a John Deere tractor,” he said. “And the tractor is more fun to drive, by the way.”

– Steve Woodward

 

Insist on Beautiful Places

Marketing executive Patrick Smith recognizes luxury travel, if it is truly that, is a total experience, not merely a destination or a physical property. With an extensive background in brand positioning and marketing — as well as 25 years of international travel — as a foundation, Smith in 2003 created BeautifulPlaces: Vacation Homes of Distinction. The homes, principally in Sonoma County wine country, are not simply “rentals” in which typical tourists sleep off a day of overindulgence.

“We combine the services and amenities of a small luxury hotel with the comfort, splendor and privacy of magnificent Wine Country homes to create a truly unique and memorable vacation or business meeting experience,” Smith explains.

The homes are beyond exceptional in terms of location, design and furnishings, but that’s only one part of the equation. The core of BeautifulPlaces’ success is its zealous attention to detail and service, from arranging credible nannys, to scheduling private chefs or assuring exclusive access to a private winery or spa, to scoring a tough tee time for a memorable round of golf.

Presently, there are 35 homes available to lease through BeautifulPlaces and its co-brand, Country Sojourns. A property that typifies the homes under management is pictured above, revealing a stunning vineyard view from the infinity pool. Napa Valley’s Domaine Beau Soleil is a 5-bedroom Tuscan-style villa with a guest house on an 80-acre parcel north of Calistoga, Calif. It is surrounded by south facing vineyards and 500+ fruit trees.

Rates per week range from $2,500 to more than $60,000. At the higher end, the correct designation is “chateau”, such as the 18-room Chateau Villette near Versailles, occupying only a fraction of its accompanying 185 acres.

Check out the entire lineup at the BeautifulPlaces or Country Sojourns web sites. We are honored to announce Hinsdale Cellars’ alliance with BeautifulPlaces, through which visitors to and clients of HinsdaleCellars.com who reserve a BeautifulPlaces home of distinction are eligible for a 10% discount on published weekly rates. Guests who reserve and stay in one of these inspired properties before the end of 2007 also will be eligible to earn a $100 gift certificate.

– Steve Woodward

 

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