Chateau Sonoma wins Best Antique Store & Best Home Furnishings
in the 18th Annual Best of Napa & Sonoma Valleys!
Chateau Sonoma's Sarah Anderson, Where I Live by Pottery Barn's Style House
In Wine Country TV Special Report
Romantic Country Magazine - Fall/Winter 2009
"Chateau Sonoma is pure escapism. Step over the threshold and you might as well be browsing the stalls of the weekly Paris Marais Market... Part showroom and part series of fascinating vignettes, Chateau Sonoma encourages homeowners and professional decorators to pair interesting treasures into thought-provoking tableaux. 'Every room should tell a story,' says Sarah Anderson."
It starts with the land itself. Rolling hills scattered with vineyards undulate across the valley floor, and deep woods of oak trees rise gently to the very top of the property. An 18th century French bell tower of dense limestone graces the promontory. Is this France, or is it California wine country? It’s a bit of both, and it serves as an inspiration for Sarah Anderson, an importer of French antiques that fit as neatly into Northern California’s landscape as they do in their point of origin.
When good Americans die, they go to Paris,” Oscar Wilde famously wrote of our romance with that celestial city. But Sarah Anderson, the proprietor of Chateau Sonoma, is proving that it’s best to visit the City of Lights in the prime of one’s life. Anderson travels to Paris and throughout France several times a year in search of architectural artifacts and vintage items for her antiques emporium in Sonoma.
"If I buy a chair, it won't be a normal chair," says Sarah Anderson, owner of Chateau Sonoma. "It'll be something a little more intriguing." Anderson travels to France to hand-select "pretty, painterly furniture" and one-of-a-kind objects. The mainly nineteenth century pieces are shown with the Parisian dinnerware line Astier de Villatte, Mistral soap from Provence and Juliska glassware, although the antiques remain the focus. "If they could talk, it'd be an interesting story," says Anderson.
