Women-Owned Businesses That We're Inspired By
As March is Women's History Month, at Sonoma Syrup Co., a woman-owned business, we would like to express our gratitude to all the women-owned businesses we work with and support. We take pride in celebrating and acknowledging these businesses, ranging from a French boutique in Sonoma with a carefully curated collection of new and vintage, to an innovative spirit company that is revolutionizing the upcycling of whey for a sustainable future.
We would like to highlight these amazing women who inspire us with their vision, empower us with their strength, and indulge us with their exceptional products and services. We recognize and applaud their dedication to operating sustainable, eco-friendly, organic businesses. So, whether you want to honor a special woman in your life or simply indulge in a little luxury, we encourage you to consider supporting these women-owned businesses that we proudly endorse.
Aline Buzzarello - Taart
Before settling down in Napa and opening Taart, Chef Aline Buzzarello explored many facets of the culinary world. Notably, graduating from Le Cordon Bleu Culinary School in Madrid and training at Michelin-star restaurants such as El Celler de Can Roca, Benares, and Tasquita de Enfrente. While her cooking techniques were polished by renowned chefs, she credits the women in her family with teaching her the mastery of baking and hosting.
Aline’s exclusive use of local produce, respect for the land, and artisanal approach evolved from watching her grandmother baking in a wood fired oven, crafting cheese, and foraging wild berries for custard tarts.
Sourcing organic ingredients from nearby farms and collaborating with local women-led businesses to develop new recipes contribute to making Taart unique. The signature All Things Lavender Cake from Taart’s Gâteaux de Voyage Series is a perfect example of this synergy. Aline bakes this scrumptious cake made with pure extracts and natural infused syrups from Sonoma Syrup Co, and honey from the Fifth Street Farm.
Moreover, Aline gets the joy of hosting from her mother. Carefully setting the table with silverware and hand embroidered linen was a loving ritual performed every Sunday at her home in preparation for the family luncheons. Sweet memories from Aline’s childhood in Brazil inspired her to create a business that reflects and expresses the values she grew up with: food is as much about deliciousness as it is about affection and beauty.
Aline is now celebrating two years of baking seasonal cakes, European-style pies, specialty cookies and confectionery from her kitchen at the Victorian farmhouse, also known as the Palm House Napa. She is also expanding the business to offer culinary experiences, classes and events. You can follow Aline’s work on Instagram @taartbyaline.
Photo by Robbi Pengelly - The Sonoma Index-Tribune
Brenda McNeill - The Art of Leisure
Brenda has lived, worked, and raised her family in the Sonoma Valley for the past thirty years. Her deep appreciation for the Valley lies in the area’s ability to be both raw and vital, fresh and beautiful. Throughout her career, Brenda has always focused on hospitality and the art of curating the leisure lifestyle.
When she moved to the area from San Francisco, Brenda built her first hospitality business, nestled between three vineyards atop Moon Mountain Drive. Since then, she has expanded her reach to include real estate, helping clients discover their dream wine country retreat, or stage and sell their home to someone new. The relationships she has built with artisans and institutions throughout the Valley along with her involvement in Sonoma’s natural surroundings and vibrant community, have given her a deep understanding of the area and made her an expert in the art of leisure.
What is the art of leisure? It is a sensibility: A home in the country where you can hear the wind through the oak trees. Vegetable and herb gardens that grow a homemade dinner. Flowers tilting their faces toward the sun, buzzing with bees and butterflies. The harmony of crickets and frogs croaking in unison at dusk. Red tail hawks soaring through the immense stretch from mountain peak to valley floor. Space, where you can take a deep breath of clean air. And of course, enjoying all the simple pleasures with family and friends.
Brenda and Karin met soon after moving to Sonoma Valley and connected immediately over a shared outlook on life. Every Earth Day, they work with mentees at the Sonoma Valley Mentoring Alliance to create pollinator garden seed packets and distribute them within the community and local businesses. The circular nature of working with Sonoma’s children and growing a lively environment for the pollinators in Sonoma County is quintessentially the art of leisure.
Carole Addison-Goyne - Nomad Botanicals
Carole has an impressive journey spanning over three decades in the aromatherapy, botanical perfumery, and natural products field. During this time, she has distilled essential oils in Northern California and played a vital role in bringing to market medicinal and aromatic plants from Morocco through a USAID project. Carole's passion for this industry led her to earn an MBA while also serving as an executive leader with Aveda for 15 years. Through her collective experiences, the concept of Nomad Botanicals was born, where she and her team handcraft luxury aromatherapy lifestyle products for home and body.
Nomad Botanicals reflects Carole's passion in supporting the wellbeing of the nomad in all of us through the various journeys of our lives. Her premium essential oil-based collection invites people to journey through aroma, sparking imagination, memories, and inspiration. Nomad Botanicals celebrates sustainable botanicals grown around the world, along with the traditions surrounding them. In a historical Sonoma County warehouse, her team of artisans and formulators bring these globe-trotting botanicals to new life before sending them back out into the world. Carole also loves teaching classes and workshops on botanical perfumery, honoring a timeless craft where scent and wellness converge. In addition to guiding people to compose captivating natural perfumes that smell beautiful, she also brings to life aromatherapy rituals that bridge the connection between the botanical sanctuaries we treasure in nature and the sacred space we hold dear in ourselves.
Outside of Nomad Botanicals, Carole is a Director on the Board of Directors for HenHouse Brewing Company, which she and her husband co-founded after converting some of their essential oil stills into brewing equipment. She has also dedicated herself to community service, from chairing the MBA Alumni Forum at Sonoma State University in recent years to her current stewardship, serving as Secretary on the Board of the Sonoma Valley Certified Farmers’ Market. Carole's involvement in her local community reflects her core values of being grateful and giving back.
Emily Darchuk - Wheyward Spirit
Emily Darchuk, Founder and CEO of Wheyward Spirit, forged her career as a food scientist in the natural food and dairy industry. She saw the problem of whey waste impacting small communities and the environment and knew she could do something about it. She used her experience to launch Wheyward Spirit, a specialty spirit distilled from upcycled whey.
Emily perfected the spirit through years of trials, mastering the distillation process hands-on to create a product for consumers who care about a unique experience and the impact of their purchases. It's versatile, sippable, sustainable, and bucking the status quo of standard spirit classifications.
Wheyward Spirit has already upcycled more than 1 million pounds of whey and is a 4-time award-winning spirit at some of the top competitions in the world. Consumers can feel good knowing they are getting a spirit where they can taste a difference and make a difference, from the first sip to the last.
We love collaborating with Wheyward Spirit to make delicious cocktails including this Meyer Lemon Mojito cocktail for International Women's Day! 
Erin Hines - Bitter Girl Bitters
Bitter Girl Bitters was founded by Erin Elizabeth Hines in December of 2013. Erin was born and raised in California and has been a bartender in the Bay Area for over a decade. Creating bitters was a hobby stemming from her love for her career in the service industry.
Bitters are concentrated flavor extracts for seasoning. Our fresh, homegrown, and locally sourced ingredients create a natural flavor that is visible in the color and wonderful for the tongue.
We use many ingredients from our own garden to make Bitter Girl Bitters. We grow pears, hops, roses, lavender, mint, walnuts, pomegranates, prickly pears, and much more. Our garden is organic, using chickens, ducks, and composting to fertilize.
Jayme Powers - SIGH. Champagne Bar
SIGH. was established in 2012 by Champagne aficionado Jayme Powers. Jayme is a native resident of Sonoma and an active participant in her community. After working for one of California’s finest Sparkling wine producers, Jayme turned her passion for Sparkling wine, along with her creativity and entrepreneurial spirit, into a business plan that she knew her community and its visitors would embrace. When SIGH. opened, its location was only 400 square feet and was originally located in Vine Alley. In 2017, Jayme and her passionate team, quadrupled. SIGH’s size, and curated the beautiful new location where we are located today. 
SIGH. proudly serves Champagne and Sparkling wines from all over the world. While Sparkling is our passion, we are pleased to offer a variety of artisanal beers, still wines and our famous SIGH. slushies. We also offer unique Champagne flights! This is a great opportunity for our guests to enjoy three specialty Sparklers from around the world. We work closely with our staff on Champagne education, and we welcome your questions and conversation. Feel free to stop in, and take items out on Sonoma Square while you shop and support our community!
Sarah Anderson - Chateau Sonoma
Sarah's beginnings were in Chico, CA where her Father was a chicken farmer. She learned about hard work at an early age with 9 siblings and lots of work to do on the farm and at home. She studied at UCSD and took off to Spain for a year to get a bigger picture of the world and learn Spanish. She worked for years in the financial world in San Francisco before getting the itch to do something completely different and started Chateau Sonoma when she moved to Sonoma in 2001.
Chateau Sonoma started as a far fetched dream and after taking some interior design courses at the Berkeley extension she started visiting stores on Sacramento Street in SF where she quickly discovered they all had a French connection. She met a salesperson in one of the shops and became friends with Carrie Miller who she ran off to Europe with to shop for antiques. Their first stop in France and they did not get much further than Paris and the south of France. They purchased enough antiques to fill a container and then headed home. Sarah scribbled the logo and name on the back of her cocktail napkin on the plane ride home and Voila!
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We are grateful for these inspirational women and their fabulous businesses! We hope that as you continue to shop, you support women-owned. Is there a particular women-owned business you think we should feature? Tag @sonomasyrupco on social media!
Cheers!
- Karin