MENDON, Vt. - “Oh, wow, I really like this one,’’ says Arabella Stewart, a fork poised in one hand and, in the other, a glass of The Bookmaker, a California red blend from the boutique winemaker Parlay. Stewart, a physician who moved to Vermont from New York City last summer, is at a five-course wine dinner at the Red Clover Inn in Mendon, a tiny hamlet just outside of Rutland. She tucks her nose into the glass and inhales, furrowing her brow. “Mmmm, spicy,’’ she muses. “Is anyone else picking up thyme?’’
We have been here less than two hours and I am already inking The Red Clover Inn into my little black book of wonderful places to stay. The rambling 1840s-era farmhouse has an idyllic setting (cue barn, little pond, and apple tree out back), with 14 lovely guest rooms, no two decorated the same. Public areas are inviting and gracious, done up in buttery creams and sage greens, and furnished with simple pine antiques and built-in bookcases aplenty. There’s a sitting room for reading and playing board games and a lounge where comfy couches and a window seat flank a large fieldstone fireplace. Everything here says slow down, relax, enjoy.
