(FORTUNE Magazine) – Mild-mannered Healdsburg, Calif., in the heart of Sonoma County, has always been a slightly frumpy wine-country cousin to the flashier towns of Napa Valley. Until last summer, that is, when a strange and lovely inn called Duchamp opened. Peter and Pat Lenz (he's German and runs the place; she's a sculptor and designed it) bought this wedge of land overlooking a weed-choked creek in 1997. They renovated four buildings into "artists' cottages," installed a handsome, austere lap pool, and built six sand-colored bunkerlike villas with corrugated metal roofs, concrete floors, and enormous bathrooms.

The Lenzes, who used to own a restaurant and winery on Long Island, have furnished with restraint and wit: Pillows are labeled "DaDa" and "MaMa," and in-room reading includes volumes like The Deluxe Transitive Vampire, a humorous book on grammar. Breakfast--granola, goat cheese and dates, and sticky buns from a celebrated local bakery--is served on a long table in the lobby. There's excellent local Zinfandel in the minibar, and everything, including the fireplace, can be operated by remote control.

--Jennifer Reese