Thursday Mar 28

DSC_0387 Grapes are much older than we are. Fossilized grapes have been found in Eastern France that are thirty seven million years old. Humans have been drinking wine for at least seven thousand, six hundred years. The first traces of wine produced and stored in pottery were found in ancient Mesopotamia and were dated to 5600 BC. From there, viniculture spread in all DSC_0452 directions of the known world and wine became one of the first trading commodities along with grain. By 500 BC, wine was the most important crop in Persia and there is much evidence to suggest the ancient Persians drank it to great excess. It is safe to say, we have been drinking wine pretty much since we were walking upright. Our opposable thumbs that separate us from the animals are perfect for holding a wine glass. And if you follow Scripture, you know that the first thing old Noah did when the flood waters receded from Mount Ararat was to plant a vineyard.

DSC_0480 The history of wine making in California goes hand in hand with the history of the Golden State itself. In 1849 there were only 14,000 people living in the state when gold was discovered in the hills above Sacramento. Thousands flooded into California to stake their claim, and the population increased twenty fold in just four years. The Gold Rush created a moneyed class in San Francisco and these people soon demanded the good things in life, including wine. By the mid 1850's, after failing to make their fortune in the gold fields, some of these pioneers turned to the old profession of making wine. They found fertile land for their grapes in the Napa and Sonoma Valleys about an hours drive North East of San Francisco. The first winery opened in the Napa Valley in 1859 which was soon followed by Charles Krug and the Beringer Brothers, whose wineries are now household names. By 1880 there were forty nine wineries in the Napa Valley. Six years later, there were one hundred and seventy five.

DSC_0384 In 1906 the calamitous earthquake struck San Francisco. The city was the main port for shipping and storing wine, and thirty million gallons were lost on that fateful day in April. In that same year, an Italian immigrant called Cesare Mondavi started a grape shipping business with his wife and sons, and others soon followed suit. Wine making families arrived with their vines from Italy and France and began transforming the Napa Valley into the largest wine making region in the United States. By 1919 they had produced the greatest grape harvest of all time. Then as luck would have it in this bountiful year, the Senate declared Prohibition. Federal agents descended on the area and thousands of gallons of wine were emptied into the rivers and creeks. The winemakers had to decide whether to give up their idyllic way of life or break the law for the sake of their livelihood. Fortunately, with the efforts of these families and some sympathetic local law enforcement officers, the beloved tradition was saved.

In 1943 Cesare Mondavi's son Robert bought a derelict winery in Napa and soon became the California wine trade's most persuasive pitchman. The self styled "Emperor of Napa Valley" brought the winemakers in the area together to form a community. Unlike the French, the new California wine makers had no traditions to rely on, and as a result, they became experimenters. They shared their successes and failures with each other and many new techniques were invented and perfected.

DSC_0472 Then in 1976 something incredible happened. At the Intercontinental Hotel in Paris, the worlds best sommeliers gathered to judge a number of wines in a blind taste test. They were asked to rate the wines on four criteria: Eye, Nose, Mouth and Harmony, and then give each a score on the basis of twenty points. The judges comments came flowering out. "Soars out of the ordinary"..."Nervous and agreeable" ... "Bottled poetry".... To their collective shock and horror, the six judges found that they had given their highest scores to a 1973 Chardonnay from Chateau Montelena in Napa Valley, California. A couple of hours later the results of the red category were announced. Another Californian had taken the top spot: A 1973 Stags Leap Cabernet. The hippies from California had beaten the French at their own game, and the wine world would never be the same.

DSC_0460 Today of course, Californian wines are appreciated all over the world just as Robert Louis Stevenson predicted in 1880. He was on his honeymoon in the Napa Valley and observed the fledgling wine business taking shape. He wrote "The smack of the California earth will linger on the palate of your grandson". And of course he was right. And not just the wine, but also the food. Many of the best restaurants in the world have sprung up in these rich valleys. The fabled French Laundry is widely considered the best restaurant in the United States, with its three month waiting list. The Napa Valley is without doubt an international destination, and therefore fitting to be the first American place to be Discovered in my column.

DSC_0356 Freddie and I spent our own honeymoon here after we were married in San Francisco City Hall in 2004. We loved it then, and we love it now. The wine country of California seems to have aged to perfection. Of course, on this last trip in July, we managed to up the ante from our previous visits. Our travelling soul mates Jeff and Erik arranged our three day visit to include the best wineries and restaurants in the area, and hooked us up with a friends house high in the hills and overlooking the valley.

DSC_0380 We left the perpetual fog of the San Francisco Bay, crossed the Golden Gate Bridge and made our way through the rolling hills of Marin County. An hour later we began driving though vineyards, and it was time for our first stop. The Matanzas Creek estate is known for its fragrant fields of lavender as much as its vineyards. Bees buzzed in the purple fields and bunnies darted in and out of the bushes. We sampled some of the latest harvest and left with a couple of bottles of excellent Chardonnay and a pot of lavender honey. We crossed another range of hills and then descended into the warm and fertile Napa Valley. Napa is made up of acres and acres of vines and a few small towns with sweet names like Saint Helena, Calistoga and Rutherford. The towns seem frozen in time. No one is in a hurry here, as it is just too idyllic to be rushed. Visitors are the only ones that seem busy, tasting wines and choosing restaurants.

DSC_0378 On the far side of the valley is a gorgeous five star resort called Auberge d'Solei. This splendid hotel caters to the rich and famous and offers peaceful hillside bungalows and a first class spa. The Bistro restaurant on the terrace serves some of the finest cuisine in Napa, and it was our first meal of the trip. I ordered the shredded duck breast with poached eggs. Every dish was poetry on a plate, the wines sublime, and the views across the vineyards below made it all taste even better. The four of us agreed, it was one of the best meals of our lives. We reluctantly left this perch above paradise and made our way to the old fashioned town of Calistoga DSC_0400 to stock up on supplies for the house. Calistoga is famous for its mineral waters and thermal mud baths. Californians have been easing their aches and pains here for over a hundred years, and not much has changed in that time.

DSC_0412 In the hills that rise above Calistoga lies the twenty five acre site and the 3000 square foot villa that would be our home for the next three days. A brand new architectural masterpiece in steel and glass with a sixty foot pool, set above the forest line and overlooking the valley. We took our time to get to know this house. As the sun gets low on the horizon, the shadows of the forest are cast over the angles of the house giving it more dimensions. We cracked open a couple of bottles and settled into the Jacuzzi to toast our very good fortune.

DSC_0433 We woke up to the first lazy light coming over the hill behind our bedroom. We watched it stretch down into the valley and illuminate the morning fog to a soft pink. On the terrace, all was perfectly still and I considered how wonderful and rare it is to experience absolute quiet. Then I saw a young deer in a thicket about twenty feet away. His black button nose and his long delicate ears twitched to determine if I was friend or foe. And as the sun came up in full, the wave of fog rolled out to expose the landscape and I saw what looked like peacocks strutting about. They were in fact wild turkeys that are native to the area, foraging over the grassy spaces between the trees. We spent the whole day at this gorgeous house enjoying the slow progression of the warm summer day. Later we fired up the BBQ and grilled some steaks and vegetables over the flames, and of course the wine did not stop flowing. At dusk, graceful black hawks appeared in the sky above the valley, riding the invisible air currents. It was hard to tell their size until one flew directly over us, looking down into the pool. He had a five foot wingspan, and I am sure he was checking us out to see if we were edible.

DSCN0154 We spent the following days doing exactly what you are supposed to in the Napa Vally: We did a little shopping in St Helena, we stopped at a few wineries for tastings and we ate at some fabulous restaurants. It is a gorgeous part of the world that Freddie and I will always return to. And I am certain that once "the smack of the California earth" is on your palate, you will do the same. If you have dreamed of visiting Tuscany, and don't have the time or budget for a trip to Italy, then the wine country of California is a blissful alternative. Bacchus himself could not ask for a more perfect place in the world to enjoy the fruits of the Earth. 

And if you are still dreaming of Tuscany, then visit Discovered again next month.