Tag Archives: Benziger Family Winery

California, Harvest Hosts

Rendezvous in Napa

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Back when we were planning our trip west, Diana asked her cousin Nancy if she and her husband David would be interested in meeting us in either Napa, Yosemite, or Oregon.  The former worked out better (lodging-wise) for them, so our rendezvous dates of May 15th through the 19th were set!

On our way north to Napa from Three Rivers, we spent the night at a Harvest Hosts location in Lodi; Jessie’s Grove Winery.  Home to the oldest Zinfandel vines in the Lodi area, the land this winery is located on is a fifth generation ranch.  We purchased a bottle of one of their old-vine Zinfandel wines, which was excellent.

Here we are with current owners Wanda and her son Greg.  We enjoyed listening to Wanda tell the story of how her great grandparents met.  Joseph Spenker first saw Anna at a wedding and told her he would pick her up the next day, as he was going to marry her.  True to his word, he came with his wagon while she was in the middle of doing laundry and off they went…tossing her wet clothes in the back.  They were married before the sun set and raised two children on this farm, Jessie and Otto.  Jessie was the glue that held the business together through Prohibition and The Great Depression; hence the name on the winery is hers.  A delightful story from a charming woman that made for another wonderful Harvest Hosts stop…a ‘must’ if you are ever in Lodi.

We arrived in Napa on Monday, May 15.  After setting up, we spent the evening with Nancy and David.  Over dinner and a bottle of wine, we plotted our next four days.  We decided that we would alternate days of driving and planning, which ended up working out tremendously well!

Tuesday was theirs to plan.  We started out in downtown Napa at Capp Heritage Vineyards’ tasting room.

We spent darned near an hour with Gary going over some of their offerings.  He was extremely entertaining!

After lunch, we headed to  The Hess Collection.

Situated high on Mt. Veeder, this winery occupies the land and a wonderful old 1903 building that is leased from the Christian Brothers.  Several of the buildings on the property were damaged in a 2014 earthquake, along with thousands of gallons of wine being spilled into the courtyard.  Renovations are still underway.

We were part of a semi-private chocolate and wine pairing, which was coupled with a tour of Donald Hess’ collection of contemporary art.  Our tour mates were Mike and Jenna from Boston.  Jenna writes an excellent lifestyle blog called Boston Chic Party.  We toured some of the old Christian Brothers vines, the barrel cellar, and then the art collection.

These two large images appeared to be photos, but are actually paintings!

In this piece, the artist left off the heads… as she felt that when people are in a group, they don’t use them.  

The tasting itself consisted of these handmade chocolate truffles that were paired with four wines.  

It was definitely first class!

Wednesday, Diana and I took our turn and we all headed over to Santa Rosa. Our destinantion was the Charles Schultz Museum.

This giant mural is actually made up of hundreds of four panel Peanuts comic strips.

David…an excellent cartoonist himself…couldn’t resist having at Snoopy’s typewriter.  😊

This is the studio where Charles Schultz composed his Charlie Brown cartoons we all loved so much.

They also had this large sculpture showing the progression from young Charles’ actual dog Spike into the final version of Snoopy.

From Santa Rosa, we headed to Sonoma Valley and toured Benziger Family Winery.  

Diana and I actually took this tour back in 2005 and loved it.  It was still as good as we remembered it to be.

Thursday, David and Nancy took us on a cave tour at Failla Vineyards in Napa Valley.

Their wines were elegant…which we translated to having a lighter taste to them.  Definitely a nice tour!  

Our second and final wine tour of the week was a curvy trip to the top of Spring Mountain to Pride Mountain Vineyards.

Their winery is housed in this picturesque timber frame structure.

That brick inlay in the concrete is the Napa/Sonoma county line.  It bisects their cave and creates an extra layer to their business, as the tax accountant has to figure what percentage of the product came from each county.

We explored the many arms of their cave, tasting different varietals along the way.  Jay was our outstanding tour guide, who was a fountain of knowledge.  We were surprised to learn that Napa and Sonoma’s total production only accounts for 4% of all of California’s wine!  Pride’s offerings were more robust.  Definitely worth the winding trip up Spring Mountain!

On Friday, we capped off our week with a trip to Muir Woods and Sausalito.

The trees in Muir Woods were amazing, but we came away with the feeling that the place was being loved to death.  The crush of tourists (including us) really distracted from the natural setting.  There were upwards of six tour busses in the parking lot at any given time.  We did get out to the Muir Beach Overlook, which had a fantastic view over the Pacific Ocean.

After lunch in Sausalito, we walked the docks.

This funky town is known for its crazy houseboats.  Yep…that’s a floating Taj Mahal.

And with a cloudless sky, we couldn’t resist taking a trip across the Golden Gate Bridge!  It was a fun way to cap off a really great week with Nancy and David!

Next up, a trip up the coast to see the coastal redwoods!  In addition, we will reveal the first of our two gigs we have planned for the summer.  We are extremely excited to be able to share this with you!  Take note that our internet connection and cell service will be spotty at best, so bear with us.  Be sure to stay tuned!

California, Throwback Thursday

Central California – Throwback Thursday

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“The mountains are calling, and I must go.”

John Muir

Yosemite National Park has always been high on our list of places to visit, but seemed out of reach for an RV trip in our working days.  In early 2005, we happened upon round trip tickets to Sacremento from Chicago Midway on Southwest Airlines for $99 each, so we made plans to head west and check it out without the RV. After touring the California state capitol, we headed to Yosemite.  Our base while we were in the area was the unique Penon Blanco Lookout bed and breakfast in Coulterville.  One of the great features of Penon Blanco was the stocked refrigerator in our room.  Each day, we would head out with our cooler packed with their drinks, and they would refill the fridge each day…no additional charge.  They would even replace the beer and wine!  (That policy appears to have changed since then, per their website). We stopped at the local deli each day to stock up on food, which allowed us to picnic outdoors.  As a result, we felt like we were still on an RV vacation!

When we arrived in Yosemite Valley, we were awestruck.

  

Yosemite was everything we had hoped it would be.  The vistas were simply amazing.  As a bonus, we were fortunate to be able to experience the valley with the waterfalls flowing heavier than they normally would be in the summer months.  This was due to the heavy snowpack in the Sierras from the previous winter. What a difference between then and the drought conditions that exist now!

  

Here is El Capitan standing proud against a gorgeous blue sky.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with Yosemite, El Capitan is the largest granite monolith in the world.

  

From the lookout at Washburn Point, visitors really get a sense of the magnitude of the valley.  Here is a profile photo of Half Dome as viewed from the west.

  

Looking north from the northern edge of Glacier Point, Yosemite Falls can be seen across the valley.

  

Looking back east, the valley appears in all of it’s grandeur.  It is easy to see why Ansel Adams loved to use Yosemite as a subject of his photographs.

  

Yosemite is also home to a stand of Giant Sequoia trees.  Some of the trees in the Mariposa Grove are 3000 years old.  Looking up at one of these beauties really puts things in perspective, in terms of a human’s lifespan.

While we were there, we decided to spend one day exploring the eastern side of the Sierras.

  

On our way across on Tioga Road, we saw this view of Half Dome from it’s eastern side.  Most Yosemite visitors don’t get to see this side of the landmark.

  

Heading across Tioga Pass, we encountered leftover snow from the previous winter.  It is always fun to see the white stuff in mid summer!

  

Our destination for the day was the old mining town of Bodie, California.  Now a state park, Bodie is well preserved by the dry conditions that exist on the east side of the Sierras.  We definitely want to spend more time in this town!  On our way back, we encountered a young couple who were hiking the Pacific Crest Trail.  They had gotten off the trail to get supplies, and we’re trying to get back to camp before sundown.  We had rented a Ford Expedition and had plenty of room, so they got a ride from us back to camp.  They were fairly ‘ripe’ from hiking, but it was fun to talk with them about their experience. We don’t usually pick up hitchhikers, but it seemed pretty obvious to us that they were thru-hikers.

Once we left Yosemite, we headed to San Francisco for a few days.  Our base in the City By The Bay was the Marriott Fisherman’s Wharf.

  

Here is Lombard Street, which is billed as the ‘crookedest street in the world’.  It was fun to walk down the sidewalk, and was even more fun to drive!

  

Getting a chance to ride one of the famous cable cars was a special treat for us Midwestern kids.  🙂

While we were there, we ventured up Columbus Avenue to a restaurant called Mama’s.  Our breakfast that morning became the benchmark to which all others are measured for us.  Simply outstanding.

  

Across the street from Mama’s is Washington Square Park.  Each morning, the local residents begin their day with Tai Chi.  It was fascinating to watch.

Once we left San Francisco, we headed north along the coast.  The coastal fog was very thick that day, so we asked a local if there was any chance at seeing the sun.  We were told to drive north to Tomales and if the fog hadn’t lifted by then, head east to Sonoma Valley and skip the coast.  That is what ended up happening.

Sonoma was enchanting, and we thoroughly enjoyed our time there.  We toured many of the shops in the area and visited a couple of wineries.

  

We took a tour of the Benziger Family Winery, which was very interesting.  Here is a photo of their cellar.

  

It was here that we learned how a winery uses the topography of it’s property to produce various types of grapes.  It all has to do with the amount of sun a vine receives each day as to what variety is grown on a specific parcel.

After we finished up at Sonoma, we headed to Napa Valley to tour more wineries.  Once we got there, we realized that Napa was geared more towards production and was not as quaint.  Next time through, we plan on focusing more of our time in Sonoma.

So thanks to some great airfare, we made a trip that might have otherwise been delayed until our retirement.  John Muir’s words struck a chord with us, and we are glad we followed in his footsteps.