Inside Napa Valley - Spring Summer 2018

inside

napa valley Spring/Summer 2018

The

bounty of

summer 1

In this issue

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A mother-son bond The road to happiness A faithful journey Living the life Sharpie takes a turn How ‘bout them apples The art of terroir Women in the firehouse History comes alive in cemetery Getting to know you Where in the Valley Crossword Puzzle Great estates A helping hand to independence Napa’s historic landmarks Meet the experts “Peaking” your interest Brewing estate beer Atlas Peak rebounds Wining and dining in Napa Valley

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To advertise in Inside Napa Valley, please call us at 707-256-2228 A publication of the Napa Valley Publishing Company

Some good news for Inside Napa Valley NORMA KOSTECKA Advertising Director

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ormally, we talk here about what makes the Napa Valley so special.

But for just a minute, I want to talk about what makes Inside Napa Valley magazine itself so special.

In April, the California Newspaper Publishers Association gave out its annual awards for quality work by newspapers across the state. The Napa NORMA Valley Register KOSTECKA and its sister papers were honored a number of times, but one stood out for all of us who work on this magazine. In the “Special Sections” category, Inside Napa Valley

came in first place in its category among smaller-circulation daily newspapers.

“This guide provides an awesome snapshot of the Napa Valley — from the story content & photos to the advertising,” the judges wrote. “It’s an extremely quality publication. I’m ready to book a flight.”

That means a lot to us. Over the last few years, we’ve spent a lot of time and effort making this the best lifestyle magazine covering Napa County, bringing you stories of the people, places, businesses, events and ideas that make this such a special community to live in and to visit.

We’ve gotten a lot of feedback from readers and advertisers that suggests that we were hitting that mark just about right. It’s nice

to know that the CNPA judges agree.

In this latest edition, we’ll bring you some Mother’s Day treats, including a mother-son retail team that’s shaking up what fashion means in Napa and the stories of two single mothers who do it all for the love of their kids.

But as always, there’s much, much more. We’ll look back again at Napa history, with the story of how some familiar Napa landmarks came to be, and we’ll gaze up into the hills to understand those mountains a little better. We’ll have a look at Atlas Peak, which is rising again after last year’s fires, and we’ll explain what wine experts are talking about when they say things like “terroir” and “microclimate.”

We’ll visit with Napa County’s

small, but mighty, ranks of female firefighters, and we’ll learn about our community’s growing interest in cider making. We’ll take a taste of one of the world’s few experiments in “estate beer” and we’ll meet the man behind the voice, KVON DJ Larry Sharp, who’s making a major life change.

In addition to our regular Great Estates and Getting to Know You features, we’ll add a puzzle for your enjoyment.

So please join us in celebrating our success in celebrating you who live in the Napa Valley, with the latest edition of the award-winning Inside Napa Valley magazine.

On the cover: Photo courtesy Bob McClenahan Photography. www.bobmcclenahan.com.

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A display at Scott Lyall Clothes for Men at The Riverfront in downtown Napa.

J.L. Sousa, Register

Bonding IN STYLE Mother and son deliver high-end fashion in downtown Napa

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ISABELLE SCHMALTZ

ellow pants paired with the perfect shirt seemed like an ideal match to Napa clothing store owner Scott Lyall.

But for the male customer who was expected to wear it, the boldly colored ensemble was far outside his comfort zone.

That’s when Lyall made an interesting bet.

Wear the outfit to dinner tonight, Lyall proposed, and if the man didn’t receive more than five compliments, Lyall would take it all back.

The bet was a risk for the clothing store owner.

The outfit, like all the clothes in Lyall’s store, was Please see Style, Page 6

J.L. Sousa, Register

An assortment of belts at Helen Lyall Clothes for Women at The Riverfront in downtown Napa.

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STYLE From Page 5

high-quality, high-end fashion and would be hemmed to fit the customer.

The man took the bet, went to dinner in his edgy new outfit and called Lyall the next day: At least a dozen people had approached him with compliments.

“After so many years in the business, you know what looks good and what doesn’t,” Lyall said. “I’ll never let you walk out of my store looking bad.”

Scott Lyall Clothes for Men is located on Main Street in Napa’s Riverfront district. Next door is a women’s clothing store owned by Scott’s mother, Helen Lyall.

Both clothing stores are renowned for high-quality clothing, ideal for the fashion-conscious customer. While the stores sell a few basics, they are best known for following the most current fashion trends.

The clothes are unique, edgy and personally selected by each store’s owner.

“I handpick all of it,” Helen Lyall said of her store’s merchandise. “The minute a new fashion comes in, I hop on it. Our store is known to be the first in fashion.”

When Scott Lyall selects merchandise for his men’s store, he looks for distinctive clothing that stands out from typical menswear.

His number one line is Robert Graham, a popular men’s clothing brand known for its color and eye-catching detail.

For Helen Lyall, an interest in merchandising and fashion began early as she witnessed the daily operations of her family’s store, which sold everything from thread and fabric to work boots and baptismal gowns.

Lyall grew up in eastern Arizona in a small copper mining town called Superior. Her parents, who immigrated to the U.S. from Lebanon, had nine children and owned a dry goods store, where the family also lived in a few shared rooms in the back.

“It was crowded,” Lyall said.

“But we were a very close family.

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A display at Helen Lyall Clothes for Women at The Riverfront in downtown Napa.

J.L. Sousa, Register

An evening gown at Helen Lyall Clothes for Women at The Riverfront in downtown Napa.

“

The mother and son bond is wonderful” — Helen Lyall

We had a great family.”

Lyall credits her hard work and knowledge for her success in the fashion industry.

She began her fashion career in New York City and later moved west to the Bay Area. She worked at The City of Paris, an upscale department store that first opened in San Francisco’s Union Square. She then worked at James Sears in Vallejo, where her influence in fashion began to grow.

She soon opened her own clothing store in Vallejo, which she ran successfully for 35 years while earning a loyal Napa Valley following in the process.

In 2010, Lyall moved her store to Napa’s riverfront. Scott opened his men’s clothing store next door shortly thereafter.

Both Scott and Helen Lyall know their reputations are tied to the clothing worn by their customers. It’s a responsibility they

J.L. Sousa, Register

take seriously.

Scott and Helen are frequently in their stores, weekends included, chatting with customers and providing wardrobe consultations.

“We love to coordinate people’s wardrobes,” Helen Lyall said.

Serious shoppers will spend hours in the Lyall’s clothing stores, where customers are often treated like royalty.

“You can have the best store in the world, with the best merchandise and the best location, but if you don’t have the best customer service you’ll never make it,” Scott Lyall said.

Both stores are accustomed to special orders, overnight shipping, gift wrapping and altering clothing to best fit their customers.

Helen Lyall said it is not uncommon to offer wine and, sometimes, lunch to shoppers who are working on coordinating a wardrobe.

“We make it fun for them and us,” Helen Lyall said. “Our customers are very, very loyal.”

Scott Lyall said he and his mother both have a strong work ethic, and he credits her for teaching him “absolutely everything” about the clothing business.

“The mother and son bond is wonderful,” Helen Lyall said.

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MOTHER’S DAY

The road to

happiness County supervisor balances public service with the life of a full-time mother

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VA L E R I E OW E N S

he life of a hardworking single mother is built on love, dedication and perseverance.

For the District 5 Napa County Supervisor Belia Ramos, the key to balance is prioritization and family.

Raised in St, Helena, Ramos is an advocate for the community and a full-time mother.

“Luckily I have an amazing family that helps me at a moment’s notice,” said Ramos. “Being a single mom is challenging but it also forces me to prioritize my time and efforts on what really matters. Kids always come first.”

The first in her family to attend college, Ramos graduated from Saint Mary’s College of California and UC Hastings College of the Law, where she found her passion for public service.

“My first job out of college was working for Congressman [Mike] Thompson in 1999. I got the public service bug. Volunteering and being an active part of my community is simply part of who I am,” said Ramos. “Public service was always calling my name, even when I was an attorney in San Francisco and when I saw the opportunity to run for city council in 2010 [in American Canyon], I didn’t think twice. I did it and I am so glad I did.”

With a flourishing career in law, business and public service,

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Ramos’s commitment to her children is inspiring. What is the most important aspect to being a mother? “To teach your children to be happy,” she said. “If you don’t like your outfit—change it until you are happy. If you don’t like the book, find one that makes you happy. Find happiness in your routine and in your goals.”

For Ramos, happiness is found within raising her children and pursuing her love for volunteering, agriculture and farming.

“I am passionate about raising good stewards of the land,” said Ramos. “Volunteering is such an important part of my life (and my family’s), that I refer to volunteerism as the new black.”

Though a positive outlook on life has given Ramos wings to fly, her heart and work ethic has set the standard for women aspiring to engage, do and live. It comes as no surprise that when her duties involved loss and heartbreak due to the recent fires, Ramos was first in line to offer support and guidance.

“There is no doubt that October 2017 impacted my personal and professional life in ways I am still trying to wrap my mind around,” said Ramos.

“As the county’s designated representative on fire recovery as it relates to the federal government, I continue to work on advocating for regulatory changes to increase the resilience of communication

Submitted photo

Belia Ramos and her children: Liliana, 7 (left), Sofia, 10 (standing middle), and Lucas “Dude,” 5 (right).

Submitted photo

infrastructure and to create redundancy in our emergency communications system.,” she said. “As a rural county with peaks and valleys, we have geographical and service challenges that will require to think outside the box. I am honored to be involved. I carry our heartbreaking loss of life and property with me each and every day. I share our stories each time I testify to ensure that best practices and improved policy will be the result.”

Submitted photo

A steward to the community and a dedicated mother, Ramos’s legacy will leave a footprint for generations to come. But as for what she considers her greatest accomplishment?

“Well, certainly it’s the three humans I am raising,” she said.

“My goal as a mother is to raise happy, responsible humans. With the help of a tremendous village, including my family (and especially my mother 1.0), it looks like I’m on track to achieve that goal.”

MOTHER’S DAY

journey The faithful Through hard work, love and religion, a Napa single mother perseveres

B

VA L E R I E OW E N S eing a single mother is a courageous badge of honor. Whether co-parenting or raising a child alone, the emotional aptitude required is not for the faint of

heart.

For one local mother, the love of her son lead to a journey of faith, hope and love.

Born and raised in Indiana, Jennifer Dobbs grew up in a warm and loving home. With a foundation of trust, love and commitment, Jennifer followed her heart and accompanied her boyfriend to Fairfield in 2007.

“I had great hopes and dreams of having more opportunities for our family,” said Dobbs.

“I believed in the promises that were made to me, because I knew that anything was possible if you believed in it enough.”

Unfortunately, the relationship eventually dissolved and the road following was arduous.

However, there was a silver lining. An extraordinary gift had been created during the relationship: a son.

Now faced with the challenges of co-parenting and building a life in a foreign environment, Jennifer’s devotion to her son, Jordan, enabled her to endure.

“Every time I looked at my son, I realized the love I had for him would grow every day.

I loved the moment I laid my eyes on him. I loved the moment I first heard his sweet voice in the form of a cry. I loved the moment he began teething and drool flooded his chin daily.

I loved his beautiful smile glistening when I’d crawl after him and him squealing in delight as he crawled from me,” said Dobbs.

Unable to return to Indiana, Jennifer adhered to the custody arrangements. After months of heartache, time spent in a homeless women’s shelter, and several court proceedings,

Lindsey Schuh, Triple Lux Photography

Jennifer Dobbs with her son Jordan, 11.

Jennifer was able to find a job to support her son and build a home.

“The hardest part about being a single mom is the single bit,” said Dobbs. “Typically, it is two people sharing in the journey of raising a child — from finances to having a sounding board.”

Eventually, she started to get back on her feet and moved to Napa to start a new chapter.

“I moved into an apartment complex directly across the street from First Christian Church of Napa. I was living there for a short time, when my Mom suggested that I go check out the church across the street,” she said. “I could feel God calling me to him, though I didn’t know it was him at the time. And so I went.”

“I heard the worship leaders sing. Tears just flooded my face. I had never felt lower in my life, but the sweet release of being in a place that

felt safe overwhelmed me. That’s when I began my walk of freedom with Jesus.”

Through faith, Dobbs found peace and hope for a brighter future.

Today, Jennifer and her son have been living in Napa for almost nine years. Together, they attend First Christian Church of Napa, where Jennifer is an integral member of the worship team offering her musical gifts to the congregation.

“I love praising God,” said Dobbs. “I love the sounds and people’s creativity to create a language that everyone can understand, feel, appreciate and relate to.”

A musician since her youth, Jennifer eventually went back to school for music to pursue her dreams. She attended Napa Valley College, where she graduated with two associates of arts degrees in music, and one semester later, earned two certifications from the Child Development Program.

Within a short time, Jennifer accepted a position with the Napa Valley Language Academy teaching saxophone part-time, and as of next year, will be the instrumental and vocal director of the music program.

“Now I have about 750 plus one (my own) kids, and I love each and every one of them tremendously, like they’re mine. Children are such a joy,” said Dobbs.

Living by the mantra, “I live in God’s providence,” Dobbs has come full circle. An incredible mother, a gifted teacher, and a devoted friend, she has faced adversity with grace and dignity.

“I thank God every day of my life that I have been provided with all the tools I need, including living and networking in the community of Napa,” said Dobbs. “The beauty of it all? My son is amazing.”

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LIVING THE LIFE

SMALL-TOWN MODULATOR COLIN MACPHAIL “Burn The Witch!” Out come the pitchforks, the torches are lit, and the mob moves off. I ran a historical walking tour business in the Old Town Edinburgh in Scotland and read the accounts of how witches were treated.

Beginning in 1589, about 5,000 were tried and 1,500 executed. Much of it was driven by fear, suspicion, and animosity within small communities.

We live in Calistoga. A small community and it’s more than 400 years later, and we’re civilized… aren’t we?

Calistoga, and most small towns, can have a calibrating effect on your response to the many small social upheavals that occur in our lives. I used to tell my oldest son that it was all about “Milk and CalMart.” If you fall out with someone so badly that you cannot be in the same space as they are, it makes getting milk from the market a constant ordeal. Hiding in another aisle till they have left and are headed to Jen at the checkout.

If you “hate” your plumber because of words you had regarding some leaky U-bend he glued, way back when, you are going to be dodging him in the dairy aisle for a decade or more. Turns out it’s easier to be civil, bury the hatchet, and find a way to shop in the same space.

Then there’s the pie dish problem. In small communities, people sometimes gift or lend you things but then you owe them, and you are going to see them around town.

Worse, you still have their pie 10

Colin MacPhail

dish after having eaten the pie.

Not long ago, Kate gave our family a lovely peach pie, which we devoured the same evening.

But you can’t put the pie dish away in a cupboard because it’s not your dish. Leaving it out on the table and not knowing when you can drop it off slowly becomes irritating.

Then you see Kate at Clive’s and you say, “Oh, I will get you that pie dish.” Suddenly, a month goes by and the pie dish is still in some Bermuda Triangle between your cupboard and the hall table.

This did happen to me. I finally decided to move it to the front seat of my truck where it was a nuisance for another couple of weeks. The pie dish was weighing heavier and heavier on my conscience. Maybe the next time she offers a pie I’ll “just say

delightfully local way, and just before I had to start avoiding Kate in the milk aisle.

You may have your own stories of this ilk. The tempering of passions in a small town, or a small valley, because we are conscious of co-existing.

What a rude awakening it was when a friend of mine very recently made a passive observation on a point of fact on an emotive local subject on Facebook.

The string of comments quickly became abusive and intemperate.

Commentators did not bother to read the original post and reacted indignantly on their own agendas. The comments strayed far from the original thought, even though it had not been any declaration of position. The worst thing was that these were local people I knew.

The only difference was they were now communicating in the digital universe rather than the CalMart universe.

Four hundred years have passed, and it may well be that we are actually not much more civilized. The digital mob were fired up and blind to reason.

It was a small, but disturbing, reminder that the small-town modulator is not that powerful.

The veil between pitchforks, torches, the mob, and Facebook and a keyboard is a thin one. It was a sobering day to be a drop of humanity living in a small town in Napa Valley.

no,” I remember thinking.

One day, I pull up at the stop lights on Lincoln Avenue in order to turn left toward the Post Office. Kate pulls up on the other side in her van to turn right to go toward the Town Hall. I beckon her to roll down her window then hand her the pie dish across our two vehicles.

All this just as two local notables, Gayle and Alex, pass in front of us on their well-trod route between Hydro and All Seasons Bistro restaurants. It’s a perfect small-town moment, a confluence of familiarities.

“Here’s your bloody pie dish, Kate!”

Finally, the monkey is off my back. She had generously gifted me a pie and a tiny part of me Colin MacPhail is a wine was starting to almost resent her consultant and writer who lives for it. But, it’s all resolved in a in Calistoga.

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ANCHORS

AWEIGH Local radio host Larry “Sharpie” Sharp’s next adventure

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TIM CARL

F

or more than 40 years, radio listeners up and down the West Coast have been listening to Larry Sharp’s voice.

Since 2012, Sharp, best known by his listeners as “Sharpie,” has been broadcasting over the local airwaves as the GM and one of the DJs of Napa Valley’s 99.3 FM KVYN and its sister station, 1440 AM KVON. But now Sharp is saying goodbye to the station, leaving behind the microphone and replacing it with the helm of a boat.

“I will miss radio, but I’ve had an amazing run and now it’s time for something new,” Sharp said. “I’ve always loved the water, and since I was 15,

I have had some sort of boat. My next adventure is to host guests on charter trips down the Napa River and into the Bay.” What seems like a huge departure might actually be more similar than different.

“Running a radio station is not too dissimilar from running a ship,” he said. “There’s a lot of dials, turning can take longer than you think and the seas can be either rough or calm, but you have to be ready for both.”

DISASTER COVERAGE DURING ROUGH SEAS Days after the 2017 wildfires started, the San Francisco Chronicle wrote about the Napa radio stations’ “heroic” efforts to keep people informed when nearly all other forms of communication were down.

“The cellphones were not working, the Internet was out and the power was spotty at best,” Sharp said. “That pretty much left people one option: radio. We all worked hard to keep things going, providing disaster coverage and interviews with community leaders, including the fire chief, police, sheriff and Rep. Mike Thompson.”

Earlier, when the 2014 earthquake struck the region, Sharp and crew once again worked through the tragedy, bringing local news and some occasional music to help residents through what was another challenging time.

“The value of a local radio station comes into focus during a disaster,” Sharp said. “Sometimes it’s the only option for news and connection, as we have all recently witnessed.”

SHARP’S PATH TO RADIO Growing up near Seattle, Washington, Sharp originally intended to become an actor, but one local disc jockey caught his attention and shifted his focus toward radio.

“I took some time off from taking acting classes in college and was hanging cabinet doors in mobile homes when I heard this DJ named Steve Slaton,” Sharp said. “He was playing this great

Tim Carl Photography

Radio personality and former GM of KVYN/KVON Larry Sharp at his new office, a 34-foot cabin cruiser.

Blue Sky Napa River Cruises For information about Blue Sky Napa River Cruises, visit www. blueskycruise.com.

rock music and being cool and I thought, ‘That’s it!’”

Slaton had become an influential hard rock DJ in the Seattle area starting in the early 1970s, often playing bands such as AC/ DC, Van Halen and Def Leppard.

Sharp figured out where Slaton had gone for radio training and enrolled, hoping to follow in his footsteps.

“I learned that Slaton had gone to Bates Technical College in Tacoma,” Sharp said. “So I applied and was accepted. There were about 12 of us in that class, and two of us went on to have full-time careers in radio.”

After graduating, Sharp found radio work at a country-western station and then bounced around for a few years before eventually going to work with Slaton at KISW in Seattle.

“Larry has mad people skills,” Slaton said. “You know when you meet someone and you feel like you’ve known them forever? Yeah, that’s Larry. This worked great in

Tim Carl Photography

Larry Sharp in his office at KVYN/KVON, where he served as both GM and one of the DJs since 2012.

radio because it’s our job to attract and keep an audience. In fact, Larry made history in 1981 when, as our midday anchor, KISW became the first FM station to be number one in Seattle.”

The admiration flows in both directions.

“It was pretty crazy to be a part of that scene up there in Seattle at the time,” Sharp said. “It was wild — here I was working with a guy who basically introduced AC/ DC and Van Halen to the world, and I was meeting bands and also girls; I worked only a four-hour shift, and I was having way too much fun.”

WHAT MAKES A GOOD DJ? By his mid-20s, Sharp had achieved his goal of becoming a radio DJ at a reputable radio station. His on-air presence was that of a “cool guy,” and he played what is now referred to as “classic rock” but at the time was cutting-edge music.

“I always thought I was OK on air, but it was tough to stand up against someone like Steve,” Sharp said. “To be a great DJ like him you need to be relatable — build a one-on-one relationship with the listeners — know the music inside and out and also be confident and Please see Sharp, Page 14

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SHARP

now he’ll be the captain of the river waves.”

From Page 13

WHAT’S NEXT FOR SHARP? “My new company, Blue Sky Napa River Cruises, will host guests on my 34-foot cabin cruiser,” Sharp said. “I’ll do the driving while our guests relax on my boat as we travel into downtown Napa or even head toward Vallejo, Benicia or Martinez. Each trip can be customizable and can include throwing out an anchor and having a barbecue or heading into Napa where we can dock and head into town for lunch.”

Pausing for a moment, Sharp gazed around his office. On the wall were dozens of photos, awards and knick-knacks that have accompanied his life in radio. The photos, each taken with musical stars such as Billy Joel, Huey Lewis and the News, Julian Lennon, the Rolling Stones and Tina Turner — crowded the wall, some of their black-andwhite images fading to sepia.

“The team and this station have been truly the icing on what has been a long career in radio,” Sharp said. “Some DJs say that they have this business ‘in their blood,’ and that’s fine. But for me I am ready to move on to my next challenge, and I look forward to watching what happens with the new owners — they have a lot of energy and ideas, and it will be fun to see how things evolve.”

authentic at the same time. It’s hard enough just to be good on the radio, but there are only a few out there that are the greats.”

CHOPPY SEAS Beyond just becoming a better DJ, as a young man thrust into a world that included hanging out with rock stars, getting preferential treatment at concerts, finding himself backstage and often surrounded by his own radio fans was its own challenge.

“My ego got a little carried away and I struggled to figure out exactly who I was for a time,” he said. “I took a year off, settled down and came back to work for another Seattle station (KZOK), where I eventually became the program director, and for the next nine years I helped build the program up into one that I was really proud of.”

Submitted photo

Larry Sharp (far right) and the J. Geils Band, taken in the 1990s. Seattle DJ Steve Slaton is third from the right.

“Me and Him, two pronouns in the morning,” where the two would come and talk about random topics in what has become a kind of “shock-jock” edgy-style program. One morning when Sharp was reviewing the show, Kimmel lifted his feet and placed them on Sharp’s desk. On the bottom of his shoes the young radio personality had written an expletive directed at Sharp.

“It was a year of hell,” Sharp said. “I’d write what I thought were constructive memos about their shows and then he’d read them on the air. It just got to be too much and I eventually FIRING JIMMY KIMMEL had to fire him. But he seems to “In 1989 at KZOK corporate have done fine and now my joke called me to tell me that they’d is that, ‘Boy, do I know how to be sending me two guys for a spot talent.’” new morning show,” Sharp said.

“These two kids show up, one of REACHING NAPA whom is Jimmy Kimmel, who Sharp would eventually find was at the time a sassy 19-year-old himself, his wife and two children who wasn’t particularly funny.” moving for radio jobs to San Jose, They’d created a show called Sacramento, San Francisco and

eventually to Napa. Along the journey, he’s taken a few short breaks from radio, including a time working for the Napa Valley Register as audience development manager.

In 2012, Sharp was hired by the then-owner of Napa’s KVYN/ KVON, Roger Walther.

“We felt very fortunate to have discovered Larry, a highly accomplished radio professional right here in Napa,” Walther said in an interview. “He had diverse and extensive experience in all aspects of radio management that made him the ideal candidate in handling the diversity of roles needed to run a local station.”

In 2017, Will and Julissa Marcencia purchased KVYN/KVON. “We have had a good relationship with Larry and value his experience,” Will Marcencia said. “We’ll miss him, but we’re super excited to see him embark on his new adventure. He’s been the captain of the airwaves, and

Tim Carl Photography

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people | sights | events | wine | food bobmcclenahan.com

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Sawhorse

CIDER

Napa winemakers branch out to apples TIM CARL Although his days are spent with high-tech gadgets all meant to improve a wine’s quality and profitability, Will Drayton’s off time is in pursuit of something less futuristic — hand-crafting small lots of locally picked apples into “hard” cider.

“I have always loved cider,” Drayton said. “When I first moved to America in 2005 there were a bunch of apple trees where we were staying and all the fruit was just falling to the ground, so I started

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making cider and I found it to be pretty intriguing.”

Drayton, who grew up south of London, England, has always had a fond appreciation for fermented beverages, and that interest led him into the world of winemaking.

After college in his native country, Drayton moved to California, where he obtained a master’s degree in agriculture from UC Davis in 2009. Since then, he’s worked with Treasury Wine Estates (the parent company of Napa Valley wineries such as Beringer, Beaulieu Vineyard, Sterling Vineyards and Stags’ Leap), eventually becoming

their director of technical viticulture and research winemaking.

Since his first experiments, Drayton has made apple cider every year, refining and expanding his collection of like-minded cider enthusiasts so that by 2014 he and his cohort had grown to five.

“We met during a cider tasting, and I roped Jason (Price, assistant winemaker at Robert Craig Winery) into it at first,” Drayton said. “My wife [ El l e n ] w a s happy I

had someone else to help press the apples, and by the end of that year we had a cider tasting. Three other locals showed up and were, like, ‘Dude, we love this and we want to help out.’ So we thought, well, why not just make a company out of it?”

And they did, forming Sawhorse Cider with five young partners, each with experience in fermentation science and each with a keen interest in exploring more than just grapes. The five partners include Erik Goodmanson (assistant winemaker at Bouchaine Vineyards ), Jeff Sharp (brewer of beer) and Jay Turnipseed (winemaker at the Rutherford Wine Co.).

CIDER POPULARITY GROWING The popularity of hard ciders continues to grow. According to Forbes, often citing Neilson data, interest in regional craft-cider producers has gained the attention of younger drinkers who are looking for a lower-alcohol alternative to wine and spirits.

Most ciders fall between 5 percent and 8 percent alcohol, whereas wine is often anywhere from 9 percent to 15 percent.

Many consumers appear to appreciate the option of having something that’s just different and novel when they are either drinking at a restaurant “on premise” or buy bottles or kegs for consumption “off premise.”

Sawhorse is available only on premise at local restaurants and bars, but the group has plans to sell bottles of their cider at some point in the future.

“After tasting Sawhorse Cider with our guests and staff, everyone loved it so it was just easy to bring in and add to the menu,” said Mike Lee is the beverage director and manager at Napa’s La Taberna. “Cider is really coming into its own. We have 11 different ciders on our menu because they work so well with our food, which is northern Spain inspired.

We serve Sawhorse cider on tap.

Having ciders made from local apples by local people makes it even that much more personal.”

they are washed and allowed to rest until being ground (scratted) and then put through a press and fermented.

“It’s a lot like winemaking,” Turnipseed said. “We’re all pretty good at fermenting and blending stuff, and so we’re always trying to make something that’s really a harmonious whole, which is what I think we’ve done. Our cider is different than most in that it’s really just pure fruit expression — it doesn’t have a ton of oak, if any; the flavor profile is clean and fresh.”

Tim Carl Photography

Owner of one of the apple orchards used to make Sawhorse Cider, Ray Krauss and his partner Barbara Shumsky planted 35 different types of

Sawhorse Cider More information can be found on their website, sawhorseciders.com. Sawhorse cider can currently be found at Norman Rose Tavern, Palisades Saloon and La Taberna, all of which are in Napa.

FINDING APPLES IN A SEA OF GRAPES As the demand grows, the Sawhorse crew continues to seek out sources for locally grown apples.

“We’ve planted some of our own trees, but most of our apples come from small growers that might only have one or a few trees,” Drayton said. “That means that we spend a lot of time traveling around and picking mostly in Napa and Sonoma.”

The goal, according to Price, is to keep local apple sources that represent a range of flavors and profiles to help build complexity and texture, which can often be found in older orchards such as Ray Krauss’ just off Spring Mountain Road between Napa and Sonoma counties.

“My wife (Barbara Shumsky) and I planted our orchard back in 1974, and we are pleased that the trees are now being used to make this cider,” Krauss said as he held up a small wineglass filled with a pale-golden liquid that shimmered with tiny bubbles.

As we talked, we strolled through a grove of fruit trees at the crest of a mountain. Around

us, the trees, still leafless in their winter hibernation, appeared vastly different from one another: some tall with silvery bark and wiry branches, while others were squat and thick-barked, peppered with tiny holes made from the local woodpecker population.

To the west, Sonoma County stretched toward the Pacific and wispy fog gathered for its nightly migration to blanket the region.

“We planted 35 different kinds of apples, and for a while we were picking them and my wife sold them at the local farmers markets.

But for the last few years, until these guys came up and started picking them again, they were pretty much just feeding the birds and raccoons.”

CIDER MAKING IS SIMILAR TO MAKING WHITE WINE At present, the Sawhorse Cider team is making a blend of their various lots. As with many winemakers, the cider is made in small batches from separate orchards.

Made in the manner of white wine, the apples are brought into the cidery (at this point actually the Robert Craig Winery), where

EXPERIMENTING AND REFINING “Like the early days of winemaking in California, we are experimenting and refining our approach as we go along, but, to me, our recent vintages are really nailing it — I’d hate to change things too much, because I am really happy with what we have at this point,” Price said.

THE CIDER We tasted the 2016 and 2017 vintages of Sawhorse cider, and I was struck by how delicate and aromatic each offering presented itself. Completely dry, both vintages only flirted with sweetness and carbonation and were unlike many of the hard ciders I’ve had in the past, which can be cloying with hard carbonation. These were more like a frizzante-styled wine made with a compelling mix that vaguely resembled a low-alcohol blend of Viognier and Riesling wine. The flavors of both were complex, and the aromatic tended toward green apple and pear mixed with a stony earthiness, the bright acid refreshing. Beyond the initial general impressions, these ciders opened to reveal depths that bordered on astounding.

Beeswax, sage, petrol, chalk, peach, lime, leather and rose petal are often terms associated with some of the world’s finest wines, but here in these ciders they took on new nuances, ones enhanced by the accompaniment Please see Sawhorse, Page 18

17

Tim Carl Photography

Mike Lee is the beverage director and manager at Napa’s La Taberna Spanish pintxos wine bar and restaurant

SAWHORSE From Page 17

of malic acid, the predominant acid in apples (also found in grapes, although at a lower concentration). The low alcohol of the ciders, their slightly spritziness coupled with a dizzying array of flavors and aromas, was brought into focus with crisp acid and made me understand why cider might find favor with sommeliers who seem always on the lookout for something to pair with light

summer fare or as a pre-dinner libation that cleans and refreshes the palate without clouding the mind before a dinner dedicated to more robust wines or cocktails.

THE FUTURE OF WINEMAKING MAY INCLUDE APPLES AND OTHER FRUIT Fermenting grains (spirits and beer), fruit (wines and cider), vegetables or other sources of sugar (like honey in mead) has seemingly always been a part of the human experience. Leave out a container of any of these long

enough, with enough water, and voila, with some luck, you have yourself a concoction that has the potential to enthrall and delight.

For the last few decades, winemakers have poked and prodded grapes both in the vineyard and in the winery. The result has been that the general quality of wine has improved to the point where having a flawed or technically “bad” wine is much rarer than it has ever been. Now a winery can be found in every state in America, and wine is made in nearly every country.

But in recent years there seems

to have been a yearning to return to more natural expressions of place through other sources beyond grapes.

“We all have full-time jobs, so this is a little bit of like escapism from our normal lives,” Drayton said. “We’re all in the wine industry and we’re all totally involved with what’s going on in Napa and we are seeing a lot more experimentation. For us, I am really happy with what we’re producing — this is some of the finest cider I’ve ever tasted, and even so I think we can continue to improve over time.”

Aerial view of Puff Lane Organic Farm off St. Helena Road in the mountains between the Napa Valley and Sonoma County.

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The

science of

poetry Tim Carl Photography

Napa Valley Winemaker Russell Bevan

Winemakers master the details of “terroir” before creating their liquid art

I

n their seminal book exploring the geology, history and environment of the Napa Valley, “The Winemaker’s Dance,” geologists Jonathan Swinchatt and David Howell chronicle how such a small piece of the globe is able to consistently produce such wonderful wine.

Paraphrasing the French saying “Wine grapes are a tool for extracting flavor from the soil,” they broaden the concept to explore how even smaller regions — “microenvironments” — contribute to a wine’s quality.

“Microenvironments, including soil and sun, are often the key defining characteristics in determining a wine’s quality,” said Glenn Salva, estate manager for Antica in the Napa Valley’s Atlas Peak region. “Without a clear understanding of the particulars of a site it is nearly impossible to grow grapes that are a true expression of a place, or what is often referred to as ‘ terroir.’”

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TIM CARL “TERROIR” DRIVEN BY DIRT AND MOTHER NATURE The word “terroir” is a derivative of the French word “terre,” meaning land or earth, and is often used to define characteristic taste, flavor and texture imparted to a wine by the environment in which the grapes are grown.

The concept of terroir goes back at least to the ancient Greeks but was brought into focus in France when the Benedictine order of monks emerged in the sixth century. The Benedictines (and later the Cistercians in the 11th century) were dedicated cultivators of wine grapes throughout the church’s vast landholdings in Burgundy.

Beyond just growing grapes and making wine, they conducted large-scale studies to determine the influence of various parcels of land on the wines they produced, eventually establishing the boundaries for many of the Grand Cru vineyards that still exist today,

forming the basis of France’s “appellation d’origine contrôlée.”

“Without terroir, wine is nothing,” said Russell Bevan, owner and winemaker of Bevan Cellars. “As winemakers we are not artists but instead caretakers of terroir, and the best wines allow for the pure expression of place. For me terroir is a function of dirt and Mother Nature.

Everything else — microbes, yeast, oak, punchdowns — is a type of manipulation.”

Others disagree, suggesting that terroir is more a marketing trick than something rooted in science, such as in Mark Matthews’ book, “Terroir and Other Myths of Winegrowing,” published in 2015.

Nevertheless, everyone seems to agree that wines grown in different places taste different.

And to figure out the key drivers of these differences scientists have used chemical analysis, Please see Poetry, Page 22

ABOVE: Glenn Salva, wine estate manager for Antica in the Napa Valley’s Atlas Peak region, has been farming and managing the site since the mid-1980s.

LEFT: A photometric elevation model of one of the oldest vineyard terraces at Antica Napa Valley in the Atlas Peak region. The dark blue is at 1,800-feet elevation and the red represents 1,700-feet elevation. The entire block of Cabernet Sauvignon is 26.5 acres and represents a range of microenvironments in a single vineyard.

Tim Carl Photography

Yountville vineyards on the Napa Valley floor near the eastern slopes of the Mayacamas Mountains often have a variety of localized microenvironments.

21

POETRY From Page 20

examined microbe DNA, and experimented with different rootstock, varietals, trellising, row orientation and other variables in the name of understanding how to grow better grapes to produce better wine from a particular region.

Ultimately, it all seems to come down to microenvironments.

DEFINING MICROENVIRONMENTS Micro-environments (often used interchangeably with “microclimates”) are defined

by Swinchatt and Howell as, “referring to local climatic or environmental conditions in an area of unspecified size that generally does not encompass more than a single vineyard.”

This definition is broader and more vague than other authors on the subject, such as Australian viticulturists Richard Smart and Mike Robinson. In their influential book on the subject, “Sunlight Into Wine,” they refine microclimates down even further into “micro, meso and macro,” but for our purposes we’ll stick with the broader definition.

DIRT AND LIGHT “Soil supplies all the major components for plant growth (water and nutrients) except light,” said Paul Anamosa, owner of Vineyard Soil Technologies, a Napa-based company that provides services for vineyard development and management. “Even minor variations in soil properties influence vine growth and performance.”

As a part of the process to understand a vineyard site, Anamosa and his team dig pits into the earth to conduct dozens of tests that highlight everything from pH to the micro-porosity of each substratum of dirt, be it sand, silt or clay.

“One of the key elements in understanding a vineyard site is determining the water-holding capacity of the soil,” Anamosa said. “One of the keys to making quality wine is ensuring that the fruit ripens uniformly across the block (a defined section of vineyard).”

Anamosa explained that once a vine goes through berry set a vineyard manager wants to withhold water just enough so that vines are stressed so as to produce the highest-quality grapes. Whereas over-watering can cause the grapevine to produce more fruit that can ripen fully, under-watering too severely can cause the grapes not to fully develop. Beyond water, understanding the makeup of the soil’s nutrient profile allows for additions of natural elements to ensure the nutritional needs of the vines are met.

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The floor of the Napa Valley, although seemingly flat and uniform, is actually full of a vast diversity of localized microenvironments.

BEYOND DIRT Once the soils are understood, the light goes under the microscope.

“We know that berries (grapes) in direct sunlight can have temperatures 7 to 15 degrees higher than ambient temperatures,” Anamosa said. “We also know that berry temperatures greater than 107 degrees cause physiological damage to enzymes responsible for phenol and anthocyanins (flavor, color and aroma chemicals) development in the skins. Therefore we design vineyards so that the grape clusters are naturally shaded during the hottest days of the year.”

Taking into consideration the slope, elevation and site conditions, Anamosa uses azimuth data (the angle along the horizon with zero degrees corresponding to north and increasing in a clockwise fashion) to calculate both the direction and angle of the sun so that vines might be oriented to shade their fruit during the hottest days of the year.

According to Anamosa, knowing all elements of the soil — structural and nutritional — and creating a plan to protect the grapes from becoming sun-damaged are the basis for understanding a vineyard and its unique microenvironment.

TAKING MICROENVIRONMENTS BEYOND SCIENCE “When Piero Antinori first purchased this site in the mid-1980s there were not many people growing grapes up in this area of the Napa Valley,” Salva said. “It wasn’t like we could just ask a neighbor what they’d been doing, so we ended up doing a lot of experimentation, finding exactly what might work best, where.”

Antinori, from the famed Italian winemaking family, had 26 generations of experience growing grapes in Italy. Nevertheless, when they purchased the 1,200-acre estate — now called Antica — in the eastern mountains of Napa Valley, they faced new challenges.

According to Salva, Antinori knew that the property’s Atlas Peak location with its rocky soil and high elevation above the fog line had great potential for growing quality wine grapes, but exactly what grapes might grow best would need to be tested over time.

At first, they primarily planted a grape near and dear to the Antinori name, Sangiovese, which grew well but produced wines that were distinctly different from those same vines in Italy. Over the decades they’ve refined and replanted, explored the soils and tested

Tim Carl Photography

Vineyard and soil expert Paul Anamosa, owner of Vineyard Soil Technologies, has been evaluating microenvironments in the Napa Valley for decades.

alternatives that have included different trellising techniques, clonal selections, row orientation and vine spacing.

“Understanding the site, we’ve come to realize that whereas we (and nearly everyone else) used to plant 1,000 vines per acre now we are planting up to 2,500 vines per acre,” Salva said. “We’ve also moved toward the clones derived less from UC Davis and moved toward those from the French ENTAV clones, which often seem better suited for our site.”

Over 30 years, they’ve come to know their site to the point where their 500 acres of planted vineyards include blocks of nearly a dozen varietals, ranging from Cabernet Sauvignon on the rocky benchland to cooler-loving varietals such as Chardonnay and even Pinot Noir in the lowest sections of the estate that have deeper soils.

ANTICA WINES — A STUDY IN MICROENVIRONMENTS Tasting Antica wines at their mountain estate is an experience unlike many others in the Napa Valley. First, the drive to the winery, which travels up Soda Canyon Road, is like traveling back in time as you leave the valley floor and head upward into often steep rocky

chaparral land. Eventually the valley opens and the road ends at the winery’s gate. Once inside, the Atlas Peak high-plain plateau stretches eastward. Hills, mountain slopes and benchland speak to the land’s rough and varied nature.

Once at the winery, guests are warmly invited to enter a working kitchen where longtime staff might be cooking a simple, aromatic pasta dish made with garlic, olive oil and spicy chili flakes to serve for their lunch.

Tasting wine at Antica feels refreshingly authentic, like one has entered a longtime friend’s home and been asked to share a glass or two. The experience was so different from what I’ve come to expect that I nearly lost my bearings. “Wait, am I at a wine tasting or with some long-lost family friends somewhere in the hills of Tuscany?”

Most of the grapes are sold to other wineries, but for the wines made for the Antica brand they are “estate” in that they are grown and made on-site. I tasted the Chardonnay (4,000 cases made at $35 a bottle), a Rosé made from Pinot Noir (100 cases made at $28 a bottle), the 2014 Townsend Cabernet Sauvignon (400 cases made at $110 a bottle) and the 2016 Sangiovese (100 cases made at $42 a bottle).

Each wine displayed unique characteristics, often with distinct bright fruit flavors, complex aromatics that included stony earth and dried sweet herbs, and finishes that left a distinct impression of earthy elements such as stone, truffle or sandalwood. All the wines were what I refer to as “value wines” in that they over-delivered for the price.

But it was the Sangiovese that grabbed my attention and would not let go. This wine spoke of both place and history. According to Salva, Antinori brought cuttings over from Italy and planted them. The wine they produced was good but different from what he’d expected. Over time, much of the Sangiovese vineyard has been replaced with Cabernet Sauvignon. The reasons are many — the quality seems more in line with current consumer interest, the price per ton of grapes is vastly better for Napa Valley Cabernet compared to Sangiovese, and the wine is just so different from that in Italy — all reasons that scream “microenvironment” and “terroir” in my mind.

With fingers crossed, my hope is that Antinori and crew continue their courageous journey to explore their estate with an open mind and a nod to both the future and the past. Or as the authors of “The Winemaker’s Dance” remind us: “Thus the bottle of wine that we might be drinking tonight can, with a little effort on our part, reconnect us with both its roots and our own, for we both, ultimately, come from the Earth.”

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J.L. Sousa, Register

Captain Sharon Quick of the Napa Fire Department has been a firefighter for 29 years. She works the B shift at Station 3, located on Trower Avenue.

A woman’s place is in the

FIRE HOUSE K I R K K I R K PAT R I C K

Female firefighters prove they can do the job as well as anyone

Y

oung women can grow up to be pretty much anything they want to be these days, so why not a firefighter? Or even better, a fire chief?

Six local women have proven it’s more than possible, and they’d 26

like nothing better than to see more able-bodied young women in the area join their ranks.

According to the International Association of Women in Fire and Emergency Services, females account for only 11,000 of the nation’s 350,000 firefighters, a number that has jumped from near zero forty years ago. Access to the career is opening up gradually, however, and in the most open departments, the number can reach as high as 17 percent for

women.

Although local departments aren’t that high, the women in the ranks say they see the picture getting better in Napa County.

“I feel that today women are fully integrated in our department, and I don’t feel it’s any tougher for a female entering this department than it would be for a male,” said Cal Fire Chief Gabrielle Avila.

Here are the stories of three women from the city of Napa Fire Department and three from the

district Cal Fire team out of St. Helena. Every woman has a story all her own, but all have proven satisfying careers in firefighting with the city of Napa or Cal Fire are there for the taking.

Capt. Sharon Quick (City of Napa) Now celebrating 30 years as a firefighter, Capt. Sharon Quick of the Napa Fire Department remembers when it all began.

“I was a lifeguard and ranchhand for Gil Pridmore when I

was a senior in high school,” she recalled. “He was a fire captain at the Gordon Valley Station and I would often go down to the station with him. He told me one time ‘you need to be a firefighter,’ and I told him I didn’t know anything about it.”

“He wanted me to get on with the California Department of Forestry (as Cal Fire was known then) because he knew I would be a good fit.”

Pridmore helped Quick fill out the paperwork, and before long she was going to her first fire with him.

“We went all the way from Gordon Valley to Mt. Diablo and there were big flames and helicopters, I helped fight the fire and I was hooked. I thought it was the greatest thing ever.”

“At the end of that first season, Gil sent me down to the city of Napa, which was hiring reserves.

There weren’t many women in the fire service back then. They gave me an application and then I got on with the reserves here in Napa in 1987 … I was Napa’s only female firefighter for the majority of my career.”

Quick said she and other women felt they had to prove something back in the ‘80s when she joined.

“I came in the ‘affirmative action’ era where there was a

push to hire women whether they could do the job or not,” she said. “I didn’t realize there would be resentment towards me and I really didn’t understand it. But I quickly proved I could do the job physically and that set me apart.

I was even dominant in some of the things I could do, and that made the guys put their prejudices aside.”

“The truth is, I felt early in my career I had to do more than the men,” she said. “So, whatever they did, I would have to do twice as much. Now that I’m a captain, those days are over.”

“I knew early on in my career that I stood out. When I would get off the rig, take off my mask and helmet and I would hear people say: ‘Look, it’s a girl. Look, it’s a girl!’ I might be in uniform in the grocery store people would say: ‘Do they make you cook?’ or ‘Do they let you drive the big fire engine?’”

Quick soon realized she could use these as teaching moments.

“I didn’t take it personally,” she remembered, “but I did realize that people’s eyes were on me.”

She was also grateful she had the opportunity that many older women did not.

“I’ve talked with many older women who were in World War II in either the military or industry, who were not allowed to do those

The pump panel on an engine at Station 3.

J.L. Sousa, Register

kind of jobs in peacetime. They would have loved to have been a firefighter when they came back had they been allowed.

“I definitely felt like I was carrying the banner or paving the way when I was a young firefighter, and I still feel like that.

The fact is, there just aren’t a lot of women interested in the career.

Our department would love to have more women but we can’t get them to test,” she said.

It’s not for everyone, Quick said, because you must pass tests that measure your ability to do the difficult tasks firefighters are asked to do.

“You do have to be physically strong,” she pointed out. “There are a lot of women who come through with a lot of heart, and can mentally do the job, but you have to be stronger than the average girl. I would hate for the standards to be any less, and I have always prided myself on the fact that Napa doesn’t have a different standard for women. The standard is the standard.”

As everyone knows, firefighters might be called to put their lives on the line any given day as first responders.

“I’ve had times when I thought my life was in danger,” Quick said. “There was a gas leak at a gas station in the Napa earthquake of 2000, which was very scary. And

there have been several instances in a structure fire where the ceiling has come down, and I was lucky to get out. There was a Taco Bell fire 20-25 years ago where the air conditioner fell through the roof and we got out just in time.”

But Quick says most firefighters know it is just part of the important job they do.

“The danger is just part of the deal,” she said, “I don’t think about it when I go to work. But one thing people don’t realize is about 80 percent of our calls are medically related, and those can be just as dangerous as a fire. You can get stuck with a dirty needle and lots of other things.”

CAPT. STEPHINE CARDWELL (CAL FIRE) Proving you can rise quickly in the ranks of Cal Fire, Capt. Stephine Cardwell, a born and bred Napan, is entering her 13th fire season at the tender age of 30. And she’s doing a job not many would volunteer for, man or woman.

Cardwell works out of Cal Fire’s Delta Conservation Camp in Suisun City, which is run by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

“It’s not a fire station, it’s an inmate camp, essentially a prison,” Cardwell said. “So I work with and Please see FIRE, Page 28

J.L. Sousa, Register

Napa city firefighter Hattie Borg has been with the department since July 2017.

27

FIRE From Page 27

supervise inmates who fight fires. Typically, 12 inmates make a unit and we can take them anywhere in the state. We hike these male inmates into some of the most rugged terrain that bulldozers and fire engines can’t get to and we cut a fire line around the fire’s perimeter.”

Cardwell admitted this is something new to her.

“I started the first of the year and it’s very challenging,” she said. “I’m accustomed to fighting fires with water from an engine and this is a whole different way of fighting fires.

We’re using hand tools, and on top of that, I am working with inmates who don’t want to listen and struggle to take direction.”

Like many, she followed a roundabout path to end up in the career she now loves.

“I went to Butte College near Chico; a friend of mine said his brother was a firefighter, and he could see me driving a fire engine. So, I took an ‘Intro to Fire Science’ class and it was cool. I really loved it.

“The next semester,” Cardwell said, “I applied for the Butte College Fire Academy. I was accepted and it blossomed from there. It was a 22-week intensive academy, a boot camp, in my opinion, for something I had never done. I didn’t know what I had got myself into.

There was only one other woman in the class and we still talk all the time.”

Cardwell’s friend is now also a captain with Cal Fire and she also supervises an inmate crew.

“I feel there is a little more pressure on women to succeed,” she said. “If we don’t, it stands out more than if it’s one of 30 other men. So, when I don’t do something well, I think people tend to remember that instead of all the good things I’ve done.”

The young Cal Fire captain believes that to be well rounded and a good supervisor, she needed to work in a variety of positions.

“Cal Fire will promote you quickly if they see potential, and they will push you to try and get you ready for the next job,” she said. “Captains are in charge of engineers and firefighters and often run the stations. There is so much responsibility with what we do, and we need to get it right.”

Calling for aircraft, for example, she said, “That’s big money and I have to justify why I needed that or I don’t have a job. If I call in a VLAT (very large air tanker) for a small fire, they’re going to ask some tough questions.”

She said people still haven’t come to grips with the idea that women can be just as effective as men at firefighting.

“When people I don’t know see me in my uniform, they think I work in the office or 28

J.L. Sousa, Register

Capt. Laurel Chamness at Station 4 near a vintage fire truck from the former Firefighter’s Museum.

something,” she said. “They have no idea I’m driving inmates around who are in prison for assault, not to mention supervising them during fires.”

Firefighter Hattie Borg (City of Napa) At 30, Hattie Borg is the newest and youngest female Napa firefighter.

“I don’t think of myself as a female doing a man’s job,” she said. “I see myself as doing a job that I am very capable of. In this department, I have never been treated as anything less than an equal and I’m very grateful for that.”

Borg got interested in firefighting early — at age of 13.

“My mom worked as a dispatcher for the city of Napa Fire Department and told me about the ‘Explorer Program’ and I thought that sounded like fun.” Explorer programs, Borg said, are designed to train teenage firefighters and are a great opportunity for experience and to show a department what you are made of.

“I fell in love with it,” she said. “It was very physical and very team oriented, and I knew right away I would love to do this sort of work in the future so I pursued it. I was born and raised here, so the city of Napa Fire Department made the most sense. I applied last year.

It’s a long process, about eight months, and they have a lot of applicants.

Before you even apply, you have to pass a CPAT test (California Physical Ability) to make sure you are physically fit to do the job based on things you do as a firefighter.

“Then there is an online component, any mistakes and you are immediately eliminated,” Borg said. “After that, you have a phone interview, and if you pass that, you move on to a panel interview with a three-person panel. You get scored, and ranked, and you have to fill out a background packet.”

Borg recalled the next step was an interview

with the chief, where they go through the packet together.

“Then there’s a polygraph test, a psych evaluation, followed by a thorough medical examination. If you make it through all of that, then you get an offer. Even though the process was long, it was totally worth it,” she said. “I knew a big part of the job was becoming an EMT and a paramedic, I was certified as a paramedic last year.

Being a firefighter is not a 9-5 job by any means. “My shifts are 48 hours straight,” Borg said, “and then I have four days off. We sleep at the station in quarters that are like a small bedroom with a curtain that can be drawn. But you can be awakened and sent out at any time when there’s a call.”

“There’s a lot I like about this job, but my favorite thing is working as a team,” Borg said.

“This is a field where you are depending on other people constantly. It’s a rare community of people who believe in the concept of ‘we have your back.’ It’s like working with a family.

I’m never on my own, I always have my team with me.”

CHIEF GABRIELLE AVILA (CAL FIRE) Known as “Gabby” to her associates, Chief Gabrielle Avila took a slightly different route to a firefighting career, and is the highest ranking female in the Napa area.

“When I was close to graduating high school I thought I wanted to become an attorney. Family legend has it my grandfather was the first Hispanic firefighter in the San Francisco Fire Department. He suggested I use the fire department as a means to pay my way through law school.”

“So while taking classes at Chabot College, I applied to a number of units at what was then California Department of Forestry,” she recalled. “I got hired in 1991 in the St. Helena

Cal Fire unit and was initially a firefighter at Spanish Flat station. In 1994, I was promoted to engineer and my first temporary captain assignment came in 1999. I was 26 at the time so I was young, but I’d been a firefighter since I was 18. The next year, I was promoted to permanent captain in the Spanish Flat station.”

Avila is glad she’s been able to stay close to home her entire career, but admits there were challenges when she began in 1991.

“Being a female firefighter, I certainly felt like I had to prove myself and earn respect.

“Cal Fire has 7,000 people in this organization and there were women there long before I started; that helped pave the way,” she said.

“I’m going into my 27th season, and I can say we’ve continued to evolve and fully integrate women into the workforce … Still, we don’t see the number of female applicants that we’d like to see. I don’t think it’s an option that is put in front of girls at an early age.”

The Cal Fire chief said that a firefighter’s schedule might rule a lot of women out.

“Our schedules are pretty demanding, I spent a lot of time gone on assignments and I think that sometimes, for women who want a family, it appears to be a difficult career path to navigate.”

She is now the division chief overseeing administration in her unit, which encompasses personnel, finance and Human Resources with a $55 million annual budget for more than 500 people.

“I like the flexibility of the job. I could transfer anywhere in the state if I wanted to,” she said. “I also like the variety of assignments that are available to me in Cal Fire. I took advantage outside of fire suppression because it was what worked best for my family. A career in the fire services is very fulfilling.”

Avila says people are becoming more accustomed to seeing female firefighters these days.

“I’ll be at a store getting my lunch and people will stop me, shake my hand and thank me for my service. Early in my career people, would assume I worked in dispatch or something, but you don’t hear that so much anymore.”

CAPT. LAUREL CHAMNESS (CITY OF NAPA) Laurel Chamness grew up in Glen Ellen in a firefighting family.

“I wasn’t planning to be a firefighter, but my six brothers had all worked for the volunteer fire department in Glen Ellen and my dad was a battalion chief there. So when I turned 18, I volunteered also.

“While going to college, I later became an EMT,” she recalled, “and worked on an ambulance before moving on to paramedic school, which is the next higher level above EMT. After I became a medic and finished college, I

thought, ‘What am I going to do?’

Although Chamness didn’t plan it this way, she ended up becoming a full-time firefighter back in Glen Ellen while waiting for a better opportunity, which came in 1998.

“They had an opening with the city of Napa and everything worked out for me.”

Chamness became the city of Napa’s second female captain and couldn’t be happier.

“I love this job and I’m very happy in my position. I like training the new people and trying to teach them the ropes. I’m now at Station 4, which is great because it’s my favorite station in Napa. I’m still learning after three years in the job.”

What she likes best is being able to go in and establish order in a chaotic situation, while helping people in their worst-case scenario.

“Being able to provide some comfort and direction to people at those times is very rewarding. I have a degree in psychology from Sonoma State, and I like that I am able to use that knowledge I gained in these difficult situations.”

Firefighters have to always be on their toes, Chamness said, because any situation can turn dangerous in a heartbeat.

“A lot of times you don’t know what you’re walking into in this job. We deal with the homeless, people who are on drugs and some situations seem to be routine but they turn out to be anything but. As a captain, I get to step back and be the eyes for everyone else and look at the big picture. Even in a vehicle accident, there’s a lot of chaos going on around you.”

Chamness noted that firefighter ranks are still mostly occupied by men. “There are not very women in any fire department. I’ve have had the opportunity to go to some women firefighter conferences and learn about why that is and try to figure out how to get more women in here.

“If you back to when kids start thinking about what they want to do when they grow up,” she said. “Not many girls want to be firefighters but lots of boys do. I didn’t think about it either, and I had fire trucks and firefighters all around me when I was growing up.

The message, ‘you could be a firefighter too,’ has never really been there for girls because there aren’t many role models for them.”

It’s a demanding job, Chamness observed, and not everyone is up to it.

“You’ve got to be able to be physically capable of doing the job, and I know we’ve had some applicants not make it through because of that. Others were interested, but didn’t apply because they knew they couldn’t do the job. We try and get out to the schools and get in front of young women so they can see us and know this is available to them. I tell them it’s a fun job, you work as a team and it’s a little different every day. We’re just starting to make

the push, but we have to start young.”

“I really appreciate the city of Napa, because I’ve worked in other places that aren’t so fun because they have an old-school mentality and women aren’t exactly welcome. Here, I’ve always felt welcome. I learned a long time ago I’m not here to prove myself, or to prove I can be better than a man, I just do what I can do,” she said.

FIREFIGHTER EMILY AGNEW (CAL FIRE) Emily Agnew is the youngest woman involved in firefighting in the area, and wears many hats.

“I have a closet full of uniforms,” she said: “American Medical Response, county firefighting volunteer, city of Napa reserve, and Cal Fire. In addition to city of Napa reserve, I’m in my third season as a seasonal firefighter for Cal Fire. As a seasonal, you begin when fire season starts and end when fire season is declared over.

It can be as few as four months or as long as nine, but usually goes from spring until fall.”

Agnew came to firefighting because she was trying to find a job where she could help the community she’s lived in her entire life. But as a longtime athlete, she also wanted a career where she was challenged both mentally and physically.

“I was always involved with sports growing up, but I tore my ACL my freshman year at Vintage and that ended my basketball career, but I always liked that sense of family, of being on a team and pushing myself for the benefit of others.”

Like city of Napa firefighter Hattie Borg, Agnew was introduced to firefighting through the local Explorers program, at age 14.

“From Day 1, I knew this was what I wanted to do,” she said. “It felt like home right away so I knew this was it.”

But it would be a couple of years before the right opportunity came along for Agnew with the city of Napa.

“After I aged out of the Explorer’s at 21, I spent the next couple of years volunteering in the Carneros district and working on an ambulance crew. Then an application opened up for a reserve firefighter position with the City of Napa. So I applied and I’ve been doing that for five years now, which has been pretty exciting,” she said.

Agnew likes that she is treated no differently than any other firefighter. “The other firefighters treat me like one of the guys, I am no different. We all help each other out and take turns cooking and doing chores.”

This is the first of a two part series. Next issue, we’ll bring you the striking recollections of these women as they fought the 2017 firestorm.

29

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Touring

Tulocay

Napa history comes to life in the land of the dead

‌W

ho founded the city of Napa?

Who operated the first commercial winery here? Who were the first couple married in Napa? What infamous former Governor of Missouri is buried here? Why was a famous civil rights worker buried here?

All this and more can be seen and discovered on a guided tour of Napa’s Tulocay Cemetery, conducted monthly by the Napa County Historical Society. Here, the notable and the notorious lie side by side.

If you enjoy nothing more than walking around old cemeteries wherever you find them, this is the perfect activity. There are so many things to see and learn here. “It’s a virtual tour of the history of the American West,” said Napa County Historical Society (NCHS) Executive Director Nancy Levenberg.

Levenberg and Presley Hubschmitt, research librarian for the NCHS, conduct the monthly tours. About 20 people typically brave the morning chill to come along on the fascinating and informative tours. It’s great exercise; too, walking up and down the hills Tulocay is built upon.

Napa has been around a long time, and a large majority of its historical residents rest in peace in the sprawling facility. And yet, only 20 of the cemetery’s 48 acres 32

K I R K K I R K PAT R I C K

The grave of Napa County pioneer James Clyman

are in use, according to Levenberg, so there is plenty of room to grow.

First stop on the tours, appropriately, is the family plot of Don Cayetano Juarez of Old Adobe fame. Don Juarez donated 48 acres of land from his Rancho Tulucay, which was deeded to him by General Mariano Vallejo in the mid-1800s. Juarez is buried here along with his wife Maria,

and several family descendants.

An interesting feature of his plot is a large, above-ground cement and brick vault, which cemetery records show but have no information as to who might be inside. There are other nameless vaults like this around the cemetery, as we would discover, along with many other interesting facts, on our tour. Hubschmitt said that over 200 Juarez

Kirk Kirpatrick‌

descendants still live in the Napa area today.

But Juarez was not the first recorded burial at Tulocay; that distinction goes to a 1-year-old child named Ester E. Hatton, who was laid to rest in 1873, according to cemetery director Peter Manasse. He also pointed out that as the cemetery opened in 1859, other burials likely preceded Hatton’s but were not

in Napa, the first being located on the other side of town in the Browns Valley area.

“The old cemetery became overcrowded, and in 1858, the city of Napa formed a committee to determine where to put a new cemetery,” she said.

According to a book about the history of the cemetery by noted local historian, Nancy S. Brennan, the original cemetery was located “near the intersection of Browns Valley Road and a road leading to the ‘Kilburn tract,’ and was situated on the sunny side of a hill.”

According to the book, during heavy rains the road to the cemetery became not only impassable, but bodies were also occasionally washing down the hill.

The next stop on our Tulocay tour was a plot whose occupant is a name many Napans would recognize immediately: Boon Fly. If you have wondered about the “Boon Fly Café” west of town on the Sonoma highway, and thought it a curious name, you might be surprised to learn the name is actually referencing a Napa historical figure. The restaurant says their name honors Fly’s pioneer contributions to the Carneros District, once known as the “Fly District.”

He was originally from North Carolina and literally walked from there to Napa via Missouri and Salt Lake City, according to Hubschmitt. He became a sought-after carpenter in the area. “Not everyone rode on a wagon in a wagon train,” she said. “In fact, very few did.”

A former governor of Missouri buried in Tulocay?

Yep: Lilburn Boggs, who served from 1836-1840.

Boggs infamously issued an executive order in 1838 ordering all Mormons be driven from the state, and later, though seriously wounded, survived an assassination attempt before fleeing West in 1846.

Among Boggs’ party of emigrants was the infamous Donner Party, who unwisely split from the main group to take the dangerous Hastings Route to California, and everyone knows what happened to them.

“Many rescue attempts, including the successful one, were mounted right here in Napa County,” said Levenberg. “A number of the survivors ended up settling right here.”

Boggs served as the first alcalde, a Spanish-era position equivalent to mayor or chief magistrate, of Sonoma before later moving to Napa. Boggs second wife was Panthea Boone, a granddaughter of the famous mountain man, Daniel Boone.

James Clyman, another mountain man who traveled with the likes of Jim Bridger and others, is buried here. Clyman famously survived a vicious grizzly bear attack on the way to Napa where he settled in 1845. The following year, he was guiding a wagon train west and fell in love with 26-yearold Hannah McCombs.

Clyman, 30 years her senior at the time, and McCombs were married in what is said to be the first wedding celebrated in Napa.

Their first house, built in 1857 at 2243 Redwood Road, still stands today, according to Hubschmitt.

An imposing headstone belonging to early Napa winemaker John Patchett, was the next stop.

“Patchett bought land in the Napa Valley after coming west for the Gold Rush,” Hubschmitt said. “He became the first person to plant vineyards for commercial purposes, not just personal use.

His vineyards were located where the Embassy Suites sits today. In 1858, Patchett hired a winemaker whose name is well known today, Charles Krug, to help him. Krug brought along his cider press which was used instead of stomping the grapes.”

Hubschmitt next led our tour group into an area with beautiful and ornate family mausoleums.

Several well-known Napa family names are represented here, including the Migliavaccas and the Goodmans.

Levenberg pointed out that well-known developer George Altamura is currently constructing the largest mausoleum ever built at Tulocay.

Kirk Kirpatrick

Presley Hubschmitt, research librarian at the Napa County Historical Society, leads a historical tour at Tulocay Cemetery in 2017.

The Coombs family crypt

Kirk Kirpatrick

Kirk Kirpatrick

Please see Tulocay, Page 34

A stained glass window in the Migliavacca family mausoleum.

33

TULOCAY From Page 33

“The vaults were meant to be mansions for the dead,” Hubschmitt said, and indeed they are every bit as elaborate as any grand home, just on a smaller scale. Some of the finest examples of stone carving and stained glass you will see anywhere are found on and in these vaults.

Goodman, of course, constructed the old Goodman Library downtown, only now reopening after extensive earthquake repair.

Giacomo Migliavacca was an award-winning winemaker in the late 1800s, his operation being located where the Napa County Library stands today. His descendants are still operating a green grocers in Napa today.

No tour would be complete without a stop at the crypt of the man who founded the city of Napa, Nathan Coombs. Literally carved into a rock wall facing, appropriately, Coombsville Road, the crypt holds many of his early descendants. Curiously, as Hubschmitt pointed out, Coombs himself is buried in an above-ground vault just outside the crypt.

A second tour, led by Levenberg, featured two Scandinavian boat captains who plied the Napa River in the late 1800s. One was Captain Andrew Sampson from

The Migliavacca family mausoleum.

Norway, whose beautiful house still stands across the street from the Napa County Library. No coincidence that the home was located just one block from the Napa River, Levenberg said.

The other featured boat captain was Niels Hansen Wulff from Denmark. He was involved in ferrying people and goods aboard his river steamer, the Zinfandel, up the Napa River from the Bay. Wulff ’s home still stands at 549 Brown St., even closer to the river than Sampson’s home.

A large monument erected

Kirk Kirpatrick

in 2003, appropriately featuring a large sloop carved into a giant stone imported from Norway, honors two Norwegians buried at Tulocay who came to America in 1825 on the sloop Restauration.

Jacob Anderson Slogvik and Serena Madland were part of the group known as “sloopers,” and are distinguished as the two Restauration passengers who traveled furthest west. The ship was nicknamed the “Scandinavian Mayflower.”

There are also some prominent plots in the cemetery belonging

to early Chinese immigrants to Napa, including the family Chan, who Levenberg noted are considered to be the first Chinese family to settle in the Valley. The Chans owned several retail businesses, including a bank, restaurants and, yes, a Chinese laundry in what used to be known as China Camp in Napa. The flood bypass project made the land China Camp was built on disappear.

The Chan family also built the first Napa’s first Buddhist temple in 1886. There are many Chan descendants buried in the large Tulocay plot, and the gold Chinese characters, which are status symbols in Chinese culture, distinguish all headstones. The family is still present in the Napa area today.

Another stop featured the grave of an African-American woman who was prominent in the Civil Rights movement in California, although she was not particularly connected to Napa other than being buried here.

Mary Ellen Pleasant died destitute in 1904, but her friend, Olive Sherwood of Napa, had her interred in the Sherwood family plot at Tulocay. She was known as the “Mother of Civil Rights in California,” and won a famous lawsuit that desegregated public transportation in San Francisco after she and a friend were unceremoniously kicked off a streetcar.

Clearly, Napa history is alive and well in this expansive province of the dead.

Kirk Kirkpatrick

Kirk Kirkpatrick

The grave of former Missouri Gov. Lilburn Boggs and his wife Panthea Boggs.

34

A marker to commemorate the Scandinavians who came to California aboard the sloop Restauration

Kirk Kirkpatrick

The Goodman family mausoleum

Kirk Kirpatrick

The grave of Napa County pioneer John Patchett.

GETTING TO KNOW YOU

Napa County Superintendent of Schools Barbara Nemko Favorite vacation spot? A beach, anywhere, with my granddaughters. There’s nothing more fun than playing with them in the sand and the waves.

Last vacation? Over the summer in Ocean City, Maryland.

What’s your killer recipe? I have a killer cheesecake recipe to challenge Napa Police Chief Steve Potter’s. Also my linguini with clam sauce, and lasagna soup recipes are quite wonderful, and very simple to make. And I share.

Favorite part to play on stage? Maria, the jealous Italian wife in Lend Me a Tenor. The play is a farce, and we had such fun doing it. I especially like the special bra they made for me so I could look voluptuous for the only time in my life.

Favorite class in school? English, because I was always a voracious reader.

Least favorite class in school? PE, because I was always a klutz.

What did you want to be when you grew up? From birth I knew I wanted to be a teacher, and never regretted that choice.

Latest earworm? “A Heart Full of Love,” from Les Mis. What song do you sing when you’re alone? I tend not to sing when I’m alone, because even I don’t particularly like to hear my singing voice. But if I have to sing for an audition, it will be a comedic song, like “Adelaide’s Lament,” from Guys and Dolls, or “If a Girl Isn’t Pretty,” from Funny Girl.

What makes you laugh? Our dog, Einstein, can always make me laugh with his antics, particularly when he is very happy and races around and around the house at top speed as if being chased.

What makes you cry? Hallmark commercials.

Favorite place you’ve lived? Napa is by far the favorite place I’ve lived. I grew up in New York, so I particularly enjoy the contrast of the small-town feel of Napa, and that fact that it’s such a caring and generous community.

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Where in the Valley?

How keen is your eye for Napa landmarks?

Our photographer J.L. Sousa travels a lot of miles in pursuit of his images and along the way he’s taken some shots of interesting, quirky, and unusual objects, many of them in plain sight from major roads.

But it can be surprisingly hard to identify these places when you zoom in just on the details, even if you pass by the spots every day. How many of these Napa County places can you identify?

ANSWERS ARE ON PAGE 95.

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The Puzzle Society Crossword “Sunday Freestyle VIII” by Andrew Ries, edited by David Steinberg

© 2018 Andrews McMeel Syndication

ACROSS 1 Look everywhere 6 Guys 11 Epitome of easiness 14 “Hold on” 16 Terse, so-so review 17 Nightclub performance that anyone can attend 18 Brown ___ (pub order) 19 2001, on a monument 20 Wall St. watchdog 21 “Nervous” one 23 Commoner, briefly 25 The dog who played him earned $125 per week 28 Hot streaks?

29 Wine also known as shiraz 31 “Gilmore Girls” daughter 33 Control+S, on a PC 34 2004 documentary with french fries on its poster 37 Beetles’ peers?

38 NBA All-Star Weekend event 39 Nose accessory 40 Straight (prefix) 41 Not live 45 Architect Saarinen 47 “___ it matter?”

49 Out of the office 50 Underground networks 52 House affirmative 54 Weight room surface

55 Brest friend 56 “Too bad” 60 “I think,” in tweets 61 Revolutionaries seek to overturn it 62 Bert Bobbsey’s twin 63 In a fitting way 64 Senses DOWN 1 Crocodiles’ homes 2 Without freaking out 3 More unctuous 4 Theater coach Hagen 5 Riches’ counterpart 6 Album spun at a ’70s club

7 Young ___ (tykes) 8 Verbal headslap 9 School founded by Henry VI 10 Underground network 11 Blends 12 Buy, metaphorically 13 String ___ (kids’ snack) 15 Shake hands with, perhaps 22 Beam battle 24 Kim of “L.A. Confidential” 26 Home to Canada’s CN Tower 27 “… as rumor has it” 30 Studly guy 32 “Good golly!”

35 ___ de gallo

36 Citrus flavoring 37 Military-grade weapon 38 Thorny problem 39 Stay behind 42 Salon ointment 43 Body’s hardest material 44 Puts off 46 Much, in slang 48 Circus barker?

51 Browse Amazon, say 53 Starting on 57 Have a role 58 Up to, in ads 59 Eur. realm until 1806

ANSWERS ON PAGE 95

43

GREAT ESTATES

Villa Mille Rose Oakville home offers an unparalleled Napa Valley experience S A R A J AC K S O N

R

ealtor Yvonne Rich isn’t shy about the virtues of the stunning Villa Mille Rose estate.

“Truly one of the most extraordinary estates in the Napa Valley,” she said, “with 360-degree views of vineyards and mountains,” It is, she said, a private and secluded villa, with unmatched architectural authenticity, striking landscape design and organic gardens, but right on the Valley floor in the Oakville Appellation Villa Mille Rose was built in 1994 by owner Maria Manette Farrow.

Upon her visits to the Napa Valley, Farrow would dream of one day owning a place there, because it reminded her so much of the Tuscany region of her beloved Italy. She named the estate

44

Submitted photos

Villa Mille Rose, which means villa of a thousand roses.

The 10,215-square-foot, seven-bedroom, nine-bath, authentic Tuscan-style villa was designed by Italian architect Dante Bini.

The home and its surrounding gardens sit on two separate parcels, totaling 19 acres.

Also on the property, there is a separate guest house and caretaker home, 6.5 acres of Oakville vineyard planted in 2015.

In keeping with the theme, Farrow has 15 acres of organic vegetable and rose gardens, two barns and 100 fruit trees, along with a 2-acre Gold Medal olive orchard.

And the interior is just as exquisite as the exterior, Rich says.

“Villa Mille Rose reflects Michelangelo Buonarroti Tuscan villa architectural design, with the two side wings and front loggia. The two side wings signify that guests are welcomed and embraced,” she said.

The home also has an authentic Tuscan-style salon for grand-scale entertaining.

There are two seating areas, one at each end with dramatic wood burning fireplaces.

There is an enormous kitchen, whose design is taken from the Frescobaldi estate in Tuscany, complete with authentic Tuscan fireplace and oven.

All this could be yours for $26.5 million.

So, why would the owner want to put this beautiful Tuscan estate up for sale? Farrow decided to sell the property to allow herself more time to travel with her husband and to simplify life a little bit.

“I am thanking God it materialized,” the owner says regarding her dream of owning a place in the Napa Valley.

45

A helping hand to

INDEPENDENCE I S A B E L L E S C H M A LT Z St. Helena’s V. Sattui Winery, famous for its idyllic picnic grounds and artisan deli, provides everything visitors need for a wine country picnic. But behind the scenes, V. Sattui is providing perhaps an even greater service to a group of young adults.

Anyone who has picnicked at V. Sattui has likely purchased the winery’s picnic pack: plates, cups and utensils for two.

Each pack also contains a unique note: “A special thank you to the dedicated developmentally-challenged students at the Napa valley Unified School District (NVUSD) Post-Secondary Project for packing this planet-conscious ‘Green Picnic Pack.’”

The young adults behind the V. Sattui picnic packs are a group of 35 students, ages 18 to 22. The disabilities they live with are wide ranging but can include neurological issues, autism, speech and hearing impairments.

All of the students are NVUSD high school graduates.

Because of their disabilities, they are offered the option of the district’s post-secondary program until they are 22.

“Our day is built around preparing our students to be adults,” said Cory Roche, a teacher for the post-secondary program. He said less than 50 percent of the students’ days are spent in the classroom.

“We’re out a lot,” Roche said.

“We think of the community as our classroom.”

The students work on the V. Sattui picnic packs two hours a day, four days a week. They work offsite assembling the packs at two different locations: the senior center and the Boys and Girls Club.

46

A group of picnickers are seen on the grounds of V. Sattui Winery on Highway 29 in St. Helena.

J.L. Sousa/Register

Classified as “student-learners” under the U.S. Department of Labor, each student earns a wage from V. Sattui.

“They appreciate the opportunity to be treated like everyone else,” Roche said, adding that the partnership with V. Sattui has been “invaluable” to the special education program.

Earning money helps the students to set goals. With their paychecks from V. Sattui, the students can save money for something they need or want, said Stephanie Solberg, vocational specialist with NVUSD. “It’s purposeful work,” Solberg Contributed photo said.

Brandon Sakata, a 19-year-old Students assembling the V. Sattui picknick packs: left to right, Carlo student currently enrolled in the Barrera, Nicole Greco, Jennifer Calderon, Daniela Duran, Jason Weiner, Abe

program, said he enjoys assembling the packs with his classmates each week and saves the money he earns for Friday luncheons and other class activities.

The students’ employment encompasses a lot of different life skills, including math, social skills and independence, Roche said.

In addition to assembling the picnic packs, the students are also learning how to count inventory and work in small groups. As part of the job experience, the students learn how to get to their work site on time, fill out time sheets and sign for their paychecks, Roche said. When they get paid, they learn how to access the bank.

“It’s a real job for them,” said Tom Davies, president of V. Sattui Winery.

V. Sattui has partnered with NVUSD special education for about 30 years, Davies said. He remembered the partnership formed thanks to a V. Sattui employee’s mother, who worked in special education.

“I look at it as a great, longterm partnership,” Davies said.

Before collaborating with the school district, the picnic packs were assembled by V. Sattui employees during slow business hours.

“V. Sattui is so important to

Contributed photo

Nicole Greco, right, prepares plates for the picnic packs.

us,” Solberg said. “Tom (Davies) has been a steadfast partner for a couple of decades. I can’t say enough how much we appreciate their support.”

The “picnic packs” include two of everything: plates, forks, knives, cups, and hand wipes. All of the materials are compostable.

Last year, V. Sattui sold 30,000 picnic packs, averaging 2,500 packs sold per month, V. Sattui’s Marketing Director Ali Paterson said.

The family-owned V. Sattui estate is one of the Napa Valley’s more distinctive destinations. With an extensive deli and

Contributed photo

Contributed photo

Eric Araujo displays a completed picnic pack.

Lesdy Barrera Hernandez prepares bags for the picknic packs.

marketplace and more than two acres of shaded picnic grounds, V. Sattui provides the ideal setting—and all the supplies—for an outdoor meal in wine country.

At the marketplace, guests have a choice of freshly made sandwiches, 200 different cheeses, salads, pastas, desserts, and of course, wine. Picnic tables outside are surrounded by giant oak trees, flowers and vineyards.

Once a year, V. Sattui hosts a luncheon for the students in the post-secondary program, who are given a full tour of the winery, including the vineyards.

“The students are great,” Davies said. “They’re so enthusiastic.”

Recently, Solberg received an envelope in the mail from a complete stranger who had visited V. Sattui from Livermore. Inside the envelope was the ‘thank you’ note from the picnic pack, where the visitor had written a personal ‘thank you’ and a smiley face.

Solberg said she was touched that someone would go out of their way to track down the school district’s address, and mail a hand-written ‘thank you’ to the students.

“We are very grateful for our partnership with V. Sattui,” Solberg said.

Contributed photo

Zerah Carlisle staples shut the picnic packs sof V. Sattui

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Atolegacy be

remembered Napans owe much to the Don of Rancho Tulucay KIRK KIRKPATRICK (The previous edition of Inside Napa Valley featured a story on Don Salvador Vallejo, whose large rancho encompassed a massive area of north Napa from one side of the valley to the other. This story features a different area Don of the same era who also had a huge impact on the Napa area, and whose legacy has carried on to current times, Don Cayetano Juarez.)

Imagine if there were no Tulocay Cemetery. No Napa State Hospital. No “Old Adobe” for that matter. What a different place Napa would be today.

Many present-day Napans know that the “Old Adobe” building at the intersection of Silverado Trail and Soscol Avenue, currently undergoing a renovation, is the oldest building still remaining in Napa. But they don’t know much, if anything, about the man who built the home in 1845 where he and his wife, Marie de Jesus Higuerra, raised 11 children.

That man was Don Cayetano Juarez, one of the “Californios” who had an enormous impact on the fledgling city of Napa in the mid- to late 1800s.

Like his good friend and neighbor, Don Salvador Vallejo to the north, Cayetano came from a military background, and according to the National Park Service was awarded a giant land grant in Napa by General Mariano Vallejo, Salvador’s brother, who was based 50

J.L. Sousa, Register

Roy Cayetano Juarez Stephens, the great-great-great-grandson of Don Cayetano Juarez, sits on the steps of the Old Adobe on Silverado Trail and Soscol Avenue in February 2018 as he paid a visit to the home his ancestor built in the 1840s.

in Sonoma.

Another source says the 8,866acre land grant was given to Juarez in 1841 by California governor pro tem Manuel Jimeno.

Regardless of who is primary benefactor was, his home constructed in 1845 from adobe bricks still stands, and his substantial contributions to present

day Napa carry on today.

Appropriately, Juarez, his wife and many descendants of the couple are buried at Tulocay Cemetery in a large plot near the former cemetery offices.

In the late 1800s, the city leaders of Napa were looking for a new cemetery location. The old site, on a forgotten hill in Browns

Valley, frequently was victimized by heavy rains that washed out roads, and on one horrifying occasion, washed bodies and markers down the hillside.

A committee of our city fathers realized this was not a proper long-term solution for the area’s deceased.

In the late 1850s, after the

committee weighed its options in a hastily called Christmas Eve meeting, Juarez stepped forward to donate 50 acres of his rancho to the citizens of Napa to create a cemetery for the ages, which opened in 1859. So large was the parcel that as of today, 20 acres (or 40 percent) of the original land donated remains undeveloped.

But that was not the only institution that continues to thrive today thanks to the generosity of Don Juarez. In the early 1870s, the State of California was looking around for a site to build a new asylum for the insane to ease overcrowding in its Stockton facility. Once again, it was Juarez who rode to the rescue.

He sold the state a 192-acre parcel at a bargain price and in 1875, the massive European-style brick castle opened its door.

Sadly, that fantastic structure was leveled in the mid-1900s due to earthquake and fire concerns, but the institution, now known as the more politically correct Napa State Hospital, continues to serve the needs of the state and remains one of the area’s largest employers.

Juarez, who reportedly has hundreds of descendants still living in the Napa area, was born a Spaniard in Monterey, California 1809. At that time, pre-Mexican revolution (1822), this area was still the province of Spain. There, he was taught by the same tutors as his future friend and mentor, Mariano Vallejo, who would one day become his commanding officer and benefactor.

Juarez later became a soldier and was posted to the Presidio of San Francisco, and ultimately was discharged from the army in 1836.

But that was not before Juarez was involved in several skirmishes with hostile Native Americans in the areas of San Rafael, Petaluma and Sebastopol in 1829. In the latter encounter, he was hit with two arrows, one in his leg and one that would have fatally pierced his heart had it not been for the seven layers of rawhide he was wearing.

In the winter of 1837-’38, Juarez and his family settled in Sonoma but brought cattle and horses into the Napa Valley, returning to Sonoma each evening

after tending his herds.

There’s also an historical account of Juarez in historian Lauren Coodley’s Book, “Napa: The Transformation of an American Town,” which has all the earmarks of a classic “tall tale.”

According the record, Juarez and his horse supposedly swam across the Carquinez Straits on a Journey to Monterey in 1837. Fact or fantasy? You decide.

It wasn’t long before General Vallejo called on his old acquaintance to help put down a mutiny in Sonoma. Juarez spoke to the mutineers and promised no harm would come to them if they surrendered, which they wisely did.

Two years later, it’s reported that Vallejo once again needed Juarez’s service, this time to round up a group of Indians that Vallejo had attempted to train as soldiers.

The Indians soon ran off to the Carneros area taking their arms and munitions with them and that’s when Juarez was called upon to round them up.

Later, Juarez served among other things as “alcalde” of Sonoma, a title many older Americans might remember belonging to several fanciful enemies of the television legend, Zorro. In fact, alcaldes were simply traditional Spanish municipal magistrates (sometimes called mayors), who had both judicial and administrative functions.

For his loyalty and service to Vallejo, Juarez was ultimately granted Rancho Tulucay He moved his family to Napa before the grant was finalized and commuted to Sonoma to attend to his duties as alcalde. No small commute by horseback that’s for sure, but at least then, the traffic was a little lighter along the Napa/ Sonoma highway than it is today.

California’s infamous and short-lived Bear Flag Revolt of 1846 presented another opportunity for then-Capt. Juarez to demonstrate his loyalty to Vallejo.

John C. Fremont had established the revolt to gain California’s freedom from Mexico, and men under his command attacked Vallejo’s stronghold in Sonoma and put him under arrest.

The revolt lasted but one

month until the U.S. Navy seized control of the area and the famous “Bear Flag” was replaced by the Stars and Stripes.

Curiously, the California Grizzly Bear celebrated on the flag is now as extinct as the movement.

Fremont planned to move Vallejo and other prisoners to Sacramento, then known as “New Helvetia” or New Switzerland, when the Capt. Cuyatano Juarez got wind of the outrage.

The following is an account from General Vallejo’s own journal, the True History of Californias: “On June 14, 1846, Captain Juarez was at his Tulcay (sic) hacienda, when he learned that a group of adventurers had assaulted the Sonoma plaza. No sooner did he learn of it than, arming himself, he came to an understanding with Citizens Victorino Altamirano, Antonio Wilson, Vicente and Francisco Juarez, Andres Vaca, Pancho Cibrian and others.

He went and took up a position in Portezuelo Pass, where he awaited the reply that was to be brought to him by a brother of his whom he had sent, disguised as a woman, to take up a position where I was to pass and ask me if I desired that he (Cayetano Juarez) should make an effort to snatch me from the hands of my guards.

“I do not recall what it was that caused me to refuse the generous offer of that devoted soldier who had made up his mind to risk his life to procure my freedom. I think that I was influenced, above all, by the thought I held as to the misfortunes that would inevitably overtake my family, if Captain Juarez and his friends had killed the comrades of those who had remained behind in Sonoma in possession of the plaza and war materials. (Later) I assure you, I regretted very much not having accepted the offer of that brave captain of militia, don Cayetano Juarez.”

Despite his rude and disrespectful treatment, Vallejo retained his American sympathies and after his release from captivity, serving in California’s first legislative body.

Cayetano Juarez lived out the rest of his life in Napa, ultimately raising 11 children in that Old

Adobe at the corner of Silverado Trail and Soscol Avenue. A recent visit to the building revealed an attic that extends virtually the entire length of the structure, and accessible only by ladder, where the children slept. One can only imagine how cramped and chaotic that must have been.

According to his newspaper obituary in 1883: “Don Cayetano Juarez, one of the oldest and best known citizens of Napa, died suddenly about six o’clock Sunday evening (December 16) at the residence of G.B Feroggiaro near the Depot in East Napa. (After eating) a hearty meal, Mr. Juarez was noticed to drop his head into his hands…and when Mr. Feroggiaro sprang to his side….he discovered that he was dead.”

One of early Napa’s greatest men, whose impact lives on today, died of a cerebral hemorrhage.

The obituary went on to say: “He was of a generous and open-hearted disposition, and in the pioneer days of Napa Valley extended a cordial hospitality to all who knocked on his door.”

The Don was granted his final wish, which according to the article, was to: “die eating with his boots on.”

Recently, the great-great-great grandson of Juarez, Roy Cayetano Juarez Stephens, visited Napa to pay his last respects to his roots, according to a Napa Valley Register article. When he visited his ancestor’s old home, he said: “It’s still here. I’m sad, yet honored.”

Stephens had watched the steady demise of the historic building over the years, and the worst thing, according to the article, in Stephens’ eyes “was the lack of any acknowledgement of his ancestors who had built the place.

Surely a plaque or marker could be installed let those walking in know who its builder had been?” he said.

There are many different accounts of the life of Juarez by various observers and historians, and not all agree on the details.

But one thing all agree on, and cannot be disputed, is Napa would not be the same place without his contributions and those of other Californios.

51

grapes to From

government Local professionals share how they teach about wine JESSICA ZIMMER

M

ost visitors come to the Napa Valley to drink wine.

But many come just as much to learn about wine.

That’s where the valley’s host of experts comes in. Winemakers, viticulturists, marketers and professors all play a part in teaching visitors – laypeople and professionals alike – what makes this such a special wine making region.

“For someone who’s brand new, I use a lot of analogies. I talk very simply, like how I would explain to a fifth grader,” said Sara Fowler, director of winemaking at Peju Province Winery. “I think people come to Napa Valley because this is the pinnacle of winemaking. They’re looking to see what makes Napa so good.

They want to see what kinds of experiments we’re doing to make things better.”

“I talk about terroir and what part of our vineyard the grapes come from. Each one of those areas has a distinct flavor characteristic,” said Fowler, adding that

52

Brooks Painter, winemaker at V. Sattui and Castello di Amorosa.

she knows many newcomers may not understand all the technical detail.

Brooks Painter, director of winemaking at Castello di Amorosa and at V. Sattui Winery, said the most commonly asked question is how you turn a potentially average wine into a spectacular wine.

The grapes “are not going to be really identical even if they’re the same varieties as in Italy. A few yards can make the difference between a 95-point and an

88.5-point wine,” said Painter.

Painter said excellence is defined by the details, like plant materials, barrels, yeasts, and soils.

“How do you add complexity to wines? I ask them the same question when I go over there (to Europe). I say, ‘Show me your grapes, root stocks, trellises, and pruning practices,’” said Painter.

One of the best ways for outsiders to learn about Napa wines is for a winemaker to share different vintages.

Painter said the wineries for

Submitted photo

which he works will regularly share wine and cheese with visitors and the crew.

“We compare notes and discuss our goals. We welcome it when people express their ideas and ask a lot of questions,” said Painter.

Paul Wagner, professor of wine marketing and sales at Napa Valley College, said wineries from other regions often need to understand that their wine may be wonderful but their location is not.

“The conditions required to grow grapes are actually quite

Sean Scully/Star

Sara Fowler, winemaker at Peju Province Winery in Rutherford.

Submitted photo

Paul Wagner of Napa Valley College

different from the conditions required to grow tourists. Good areas for wine tourism are all within about a 90-minute drive from a major metropolitan area.

Napa Valley fits into that perfectly. Valle de Guadalupe, that’s a long way from anywhere. Yet Cape Town, South Africa and Niagara, New York both have a booming wine tourism industry,” said Wagner.

Wagner, who is also the founder of Balzac Communications, a wine communications firm, said international students and winery interns aid in the exchange of information.

“More than half the students (at Napa Valley College) are already working in the business.

They’re not kids, but 25 to 40 years old. They’re interested in not just learning about wine but discussing it. We have a very strong international student body in Napa Valley College, with students from not just France, Spain, and Italy, but also Sweden, Israel, Turkey, China, Brazil, and Mexico,” said Wagner.

Emma Swain, CEO of St. Supéry Estate Vineyards & Winery, said Napa Green certification has fascinated international visitors.

“Napa Green (an environmental certification program for vineyards and wineries) provides a framework for the long-term sustainable care of our property.

It has an extensive listing of requirements for all actions in the vineyard and the winery, from energy to water use, compost to recycling. Recertification occurs every five and three years, respectively. Each cycle, we are required to achieve improvements and set

Submitted photo

Emma Swain, CEO of St. Supéry Estate Vineyards & Winery

new goals for continued progress,” said Swain.

Swain said St. Supéry recycles all of the water in the winery and generates 80 percent of its power through solar panels.

“Through Napa Green and the Napa Valley Agricultural Preserve, international visitors see us walking the talk, leading by actively caring for our environment, community, and industry,” said Swain.

Michael Scholz, winemaker at St. Supéry, said the exchange of information depends on the industry remaining friendly.

“That helps us tend to share ideas. What we give to others, they use to improve. For example, in the past, I was invited to speak at The International Sauvignon Blanc Celebration, a symposium in New Zealand. It was a little bit daunting because they are fantastic at (growing) Sauvignon Blanc.

Yet they were interested in the variation and differences in this vintage, and what is going in California and Napa,” said Scholz.

Scholz said everybody in the industry is trying to improve.

“It’s like golf. Just like there’s no perfect game, there’s no perfect wine,” said Scholz.

Rex Stults, government relations director for Napa Valley Vintners, said he enjoys sharing Napa Valley winemakers’ extreme efforts to improve the industry with outsiders.

“Free the Grapes! (a Napabased nonprofit) engages consumers and media as we seek to open up all 50 U.S. states to legal direct shipping of wine. This is something that affects and impacts regions all over the country. We’re now down to six states that don’t allow direct shipping,” said Stults

Submitted photo

Rex Stults of the Napa Valley Vintners

Stults said he also likes to showcase Napa Valley winemakers’ participation and involvement in the Wine Origins Alliance.

“The Alliance’s work helps protect winegrowing place names.

Members (of the Alliance) take pride in their viticultural areas and are seeking to build on the consumer awareness of those AVAs,” said Stults.

When it comes to on-theground expertise, “The Grape Doctor” has ideas about what outsiders need to see and understand.

Richard Nagaoka is a viticultural consultant who does property evaluations for buyers and assessors. Nagaoka said helping people who are not from Napa Valley understand the worth of a property usually requires that he walk the parcel.

“People who aren’t from here come here wanting to buy land.

They don’t know whether it will grow the appropriate variety of grapes and whether it needs replanting. I help them learn if a stream runs through it and what the usable acreage will be,” said Nagaoka.

Nagaoka, who is usually contacted during the escrow period, said after he counts the vines, he comes up with questions to determine whether the land can do what the buyer wants.

“I try to conceive of the questions I would ask (if I wanted to buy the property). They (the clients) are often pretty quiet. So we sit down, have lunch, and talk some wine,” said Nagaoka.

Decades of experience in Napa Valley help. Brooks Painter said working over 25 years as a winemaker in the valley has given him

Tom Stockwell, Star

Richard Nagaoka, a St. Helena-based viticulturist

a perspective of Napa’s “terroir” and the technical knowledge to answer detailed questions.

“I get asked, ‘Do your alcohols need to be so high?’ I answer, ‘We tend to pick ripe, with a longer ‘hang-time’, which often will result in 14.5 percent alcohol.’

That’s not always feasible in their climate with summer rains,”” he said.

“I get asked, ‘How do you get the density of color in your red wines?’ I answer, ‘A lot of that has to do with the growing conditions here and our bountiful sunshine.’

I think we are fortunate in this industry to have a lot of sharing of ideas. Wine is really an international community,” said Painter.

Fowler agreed that asking and answering questions like these helps everyone share how to overcome industry-specific challenges.

“Each (wine grapegrowing) location and area might have different issues we don’t have. For example, France gets a lot of rain during vintage. They have high levels of humidity. By learning more about that, (you gain information). You never know when that kind of issue may occur here.

In 2011, we had that cold, rainy harvest,” said Fowler.

Painter emphasized the idea that the tone and the comfort of a conversation form the basis for a good exchange. He said creating a welcoming space allows both parties to learn and grow.

“Find out what their interests are. Don’t preach, listen. Find common ground. Expand on things they have an interest in.

That way it’s a two-way street.

(Being an expert involves) being open to ideas and new ways of doing things,” said Painter.

53

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‘Peaking’ YOUR INTEREST K I R K K I R K PAT R I C K

A look at the mountains that ring the Napa Valley

F

or those of us who have been in the Napa Valley any length of time, it’s hard not to notice when you drive from one end of the valley to the other that there are prominent mountains and hilltops both to your west and your east.

Generally speaking, the high points to your west are the Mayacamas Mountains, and to the east are the peaks of the Vaca Range. Growing up here, I recall using neither name. My recollection is we lumped all the promontories around us into the “coastal range.”

Mountains, as you know, take up a lot of space, thus some of our bigger mountains spill into the neighboring counties of Sonoma, Solano and Lake. In fact, our tallest mountain, Mount St. Helena at the north end of the valley and technically part of the Mayacamas, actually has five peaks, with the tallest being in Sonoma County.

Mount St. Helena is seen from the Foote Botanical Preserve on Mount George.

J.L. Sousa, Register

56

Napa County claims the second tallest point at 4,203, which is also the highest point in the county.

For my entire life, I have pointed out Mt. St. Helena to my kids, grandkids and visitors and proudly proclaimed it the highest point in the Bay Area.

Well, that depends on what you consider to be included in the Bay Area, it turns out.

Some sources claim the king of the hill(s) is Copernicus Peak, which is part of Mt. Hamilton in the South Bay and tops Mt. St. Helena by just a few feet. I think I will pretend I never read that.

Calling Mt. St. Helena that tallest mountain in the North Bay, or second tallest in the Bay Area, just doesn’t cut it.

Growing up here, Mt. George looked as big as any given the view from the valley floor around Napa. Even in the horrific Napa fires of last fall, I was astonished a fire could consume the entire mountain. And yet it doesn’t even crack the top 10 of tall mountains in the county.

It’s true that everything is a matter of perspective. Some of the taller mountains you can’t even

see because smaller ones in the foreground block the view.

Some of us know a few of the names of these promontories, but very, very few. In fact, no one I could find could name them all, let alone tell me the history of their names.

Maps of the area showing mountains and elevations are hard to come by, although I checked with the library, a Cal Fire station, the Napa County Historical Society and, of course, spent more than a little time “Googling” the topic. Topographical maps aplenty are available, but are not for the faint of heart or geographically challenged.

I had hoped to discover the origin of the names of all these Napa Valley high points, but other than a handful, it was not to be.

However, more than a few interesting facts did emerge.

Mount St. Helena was actually originally named Mount Mayacamas. But, at least one legend has it, a Russian survey team out of Fort Ross in the early 1800s decided to score some points with their commanding officer and rename it after his wife, Princess Helena.

Milliken Peak

Where did the “saint” come from? Perhaps the princess was named for the historical figure St. Helena, who was born in Turkey circa 248 and is the mother of Emperor Constantine the Great.

Her other claim to fame is big as they come, as many believe she discovered the cross upon which Jesus Christ was crucified during a pilgrimage through the Holy Lands.

So, think about all that the next time you see that large mountain at the top of our valley.

Looking to east, Mount Vaca is the most notable of the high points at 2,822 feet. You might guess it could otherwise be called “Mt. Cow,” since vaca is the Spanish word for cow.

However, in fact, it is named for an early settler to the area known as Juan Manual Cabeza Vaca.

He owned the Rancho, which includes the

Kirk Kirkpatrick photos

Mt. George

mountain now named for him. No doubt he probably had cattle on the property, which is a nice bit of symmetry.

Other mountains and hills on both sides of the valley are likely named for people, or their appearance, Mt. George and Howell Mountain on the one hand vs. Sugarloaf Mountain, Baldy Mountain, Potato Hill and Haystack on the other. But some people call the range including George and Howell the Mt. George Range and others call it the Howell Mountains.

And, of course, since we are the premier wine-making region in the entire world, almost every area in Napa County is now an AVA, or American Viticultural Area, many of which are named for the mountains they include: Howell, Veeder, Diamond, Atlas and Spring Mountain to name a few.

While a map showing the location, name and elevation of every high point in the valley could not be located, here are the most wellknown high points on either side of the valley.

How many could you point out on a drive up the valley?: MAYACAMAS MOUNTAINS (WEST) Mount St. Helena – 4,341 feet Table Mountain – 2,865 feet Old Baldy —2,729 feet Mt. Veeder – 2,680 feet Potato Hill —2,529 feet Diamond Mountain —2,375 feet Mount St. John -– 2,339 feet Sugar Loaf Ridge – 2,225 feet Hogback Mountain – 1,753 feet Veterans Peak – 1,168 feet Arrowhead – 976 feet Milliken Peak—722 feet VACA RANGE (EAST) Mt. Vaca — 2,818 feet Atlas Peak – 2,661 feet Iron Mountain — 2,277 feet Baldy Mountain – 2,114 feet Mt. George – 1,877 feet Howell Mountain — 1,863 feet Greeg Mountain – 1,818 feet Haystack – 1,672 feet Castle Peak – 1,286 feet

Veteran’s Peak

Atlas Peak

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Brewing with

LOCAL

TASTES Tim Carl Photography

Mad Fritz Brewing Co. is now producing single-origin beers from the Napa Valley TIM CARL

M

ore than 1.5 billion cases ( that’s 36 billion bottles) of beer are consumed annually in the United States, according to Nielsen research. Most of these beers are made in enormous factories that use generic ingredients massfarmed in Midwestern states.

For these beers, similar to softdrink products such as Coca-Cola, the emphasis is on consistency of flavor and a steady supply.

But for the last couple of decades, a new type of beer has been on the rise. And as with many fine wines, the emphasis is on local ingredients and

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hand-crafted artistry.

The small Mad Fritz Brewing Co. in St. Helena is on the cutting edge of this brewing trend, producing beers made with only locally grown ingredients — such as barley and hops — malting its own grain and even sourcing water from regional artesian springs and aquifers.

“It’s pretty amazing how different a beer can be when it’s made from locally sourced ingredients,” said Nile Zacherle, co-owner and master brewer. “This is pretty much what we’ve been working toward for years, and it’s great to see things coming together.”

In 2014, Zacherle and his wife,

Whitney Fisher, set out to create Mad Fritz brewery. The couple is not unfamiliar with the world of fermentation: Fisher is director of viticulture and wine making at her family’s Fisher Vineyard and winemaker at Unity Wines, and Zacherle is director of viticulture and wine making at David Arthur Vineyards on Pritchard Hill in the Napa Valley.

The name of the brewery came from blending Zacherle and Fisher’s children’s names, Madeleine (Maddie) and Frederick (Fritz). The labels on each beer bottle are whimsical, with images often taken from “Aesop’s Fables,” with names such as,

“The Boy Who Cried Wolf— Biere de Garde,” “The Lion and the Mouse—Abbey Ale,” or the new “Terroir Series” of ales that source all ingredients from Napa or Sonoma.

A BREWING PASSION Brewing beer has always been one of Zacherle’s interests.

He started making beer in his garage when he was growing up.

Besides going through the winemaking program at UC Davis, he completed a Master Brewer’s program through the Institute of Brewing and Distilling, and he has interned at several small pub breweries and made beer at

Finding Mad Fritz beer The Mad Fritz Taproom will be serving beer from 11-6 daily. Mad Fritz brews more than 30 different beers, including the Terroir Series, and most are sold to club members or in 785-ml bottles ($25 per bottle) directly from the brewery or their new taproom in St. Helena.

Visitors to the taproom can purchase beer or taste 11 different taps or numerous bottle pours at 1282 B Vidovich Lane, just behind the Clif Family winery tasting room on Main Street.

To make an appointment to visit the brewery email nile@madfritz. com or call 707-968-5058. Customers interested in tasting the beers can also find them at local establishments such as Press, The Charter Oak, Farmstead, Auberge du Soleil, Two Birds One Stone, the French Laundry, and even at the Rutherford Grill and the Cameo Cinema in St. Helena. Mad Fritz brewery is located at 393 La Fata St. in St. Helena and can be visited on the web at www.madfritz.com.

Anderson Valley Brewing Co. in Boonville.

“There’s really something special about fermentation science, no matter what the source or even the product,” Zacherle said.

“Converting well-farmed and cared-for ingredients into something entirely new has always fascinated me. And the thing is that every time you do it, it’s different — the conditions are not exactly like they were before and the ingredients are different too, which make the process both a challenge and an opportunity.”

Besides crafting unique beer and wine, Zacherle also is passionate about helping build a community of local craftspeople.

“I love the idea of small farmers figuring out that their land might not be perfectly suited for growing Cabernet grapes but might be exceptional for growing hops or barley,” Zacherle said.

GROWING LOCAL GRAINS AND HOPS FOR BEER To brew locally, however, Zacherle needed to find the raw materials for beer, so different than the grapes for wine.

“We are seeing more and more local farmers begin to grow barley and hops,” Zacherle said. “It’s sort

Nile Zacherle in front of his new taproom in St. Helena.

of like what must have happened back in the day when grape varieties were being experimented with, people figuring out what works and where — it’s an exciting time.”

Farmer Paul Wilms was a convenient source.

“I’ve been farming in Pope Valley since 1971 and have just recently started growing hops and barley for beer,” Wilms said.

“Years ago this region was known for growing high-quality grains, and from what we are seeing it appears to also have near-perfect conditions for growing the types of hops we prefer — Chinook and Cascade, which are basically the cabernet and chardonnay of the hops world.”

Beyond hops and barley, Zacherle is seeking out and testing various local water sources to determine their impacts on flavor and texture. And he is not stopping there; he’s milling some of the grain at the Old Bale Mill just north of St. Helena, malting his own barley and even working with local restaurants to create unique and custom beers.

land, water, grain, fruit and the people of this place.”

Dorn, along with Kostow, his business partner at The Charter Oak, master Meadowood “mixologist” Sam Levy; and Zacherle have all worked together to craft unique beers that are served at both restaurants.

“We’ve collaborated with Nile and made quite a few different brews,” Dorn said. “In the past we’ve infused acorn meal, dried flowers and rhubarb. At the moment we are making a beer that includes wild plums from both Napa and Sonoma that Sam picked himself. We’ve never really done a fruit-infused beer before, but this is a way to highlight both the season in which the fruit was picked and a way to bridge us with our neighbors in Sonoma.”

According to Dorn, Kostow has final say on the added ingredients, working with all those involved to create something wholly unique and local to match his foods that often echo a hyper-local focus.

“Our first beer was infused with dried chrysanthemums, mustard flowers and rose hips. It was truly amazing how well it worked.

BUILDING ONE-OFYou only get a collection of flavors A-KIND BEERS like that from someone like Chef,” “Nile is one of the best beer Dorn said. masters that I’ve ever met,” said Nathaniel Dorn, co-owner of BEERS OF TERROIR The Charter Oak and director of BECOME A REALITY front-of-the-house operations at “We started Mad Fritz a few the Michelin three-star-rated The years ago with the focus to make Restaurant at Meadowood. “I exceptional beers in small batches appreciate his artistry and crafts- using local ingredients — and we manship. He makes beer like I can now say we are achieving that think of service and Chef [Chris- goal,” Zacherle said. “We can now topher] Kostow thinks of food spend our efforts refining, tweakbecause he takes into account ing and engaging with the comwhat’s in our own backyard, and munity in a way that helps create he shows an appreciation for our something sustainable.”

Nile Zacherle with some of the barley that will become the base of his beers.

BUT THERE ARE HURDLES TO BE CROSSED. “It’s not easy, and there are challenges — we lost a crop of barley this year and it can be difficult to find a combine to harvest the grain, but it’s worth it,” he said.

It’s rare for anyone in the U.S. to make beer like those produced at Mad Fritz, where using single-variety barleys and hops grown locally, searching out the perfect local aquifer, aging in barrels, bottling unfiltered, and engaging with the farming and restaurant communities have produced tasty results.

THE FUTURE OF MAD FRITZ: “ESTATE BEER” “Our Terroir Series of beers don’t necessarily taste like anything else out there — they’re something like a cross between a farmhouse, saison and pale ale,” Zacherle said.

“So far we have made them from Napa and Sonoma. In the future we will expand the offering to include Mendocino and perhaps other places, too. We might eventually even make an “Estate” beer where everything, including the water, comes from a single farm.

“We are one of the few brewers in the world that is growing, malting and brewing beers all from a single region,” he said. “We look forward to continuing to explore the vast landscape of flavors and expressions of this place. It’s an exciting new horizon because it just keeps growing, but also at the same time we are painting with a finer and finer brush.”

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Tim Carl Photography

An aerial photo of one of the Circle R Ranch vineyards and large grazing meadow that also functions as a wildlife corridor. Located in the Atlas Peak region of the Napa Valley, the blackened hills are a reminder of the fires that swept through the region in October 2017.

Atlas Peak

REBORN Hard hit by fires, mountain region begins return to normalcy TIM CARL For the Register With the glow of the fires clearly visible, Michael Parmenter and his wife and partner, Kiky Lee, proprietors of Atlas Peak’s VinRoc Cellars, thought things would be fine. They’d leave their home and winery and drive to where they might get better cellular reception. They didn’t pack. They’d be back soon enough.

At least that’s what they thought. But 62

as they drove, the fire swept behind them, blocking their return and forcing them to flee. Days later, they returned to find their home destroyed, with only their wine-cave winery remaining intact.

“We had bought the land in 1999 and then over the next decade we planted a vineyard, dug our cave and my wife designed our dream home,” Parmenter

said. “We will rebuild, but it is taking longer than we expected. We’re just happy that we got out OK and we still have the winery and vineyard, although some of the vines got damaged.”

Lee, originally from China, had designed the new home and done the architectural drawings. She and her husband had worked together as general

contractors for the work, and she had trav- support, encouragement and community. elled to China to gather and ship finishing “The most gratifying thing to arise from materials. the ashes has been the vast outpouring of love and support from everyone,” Tom Dinkel said.

BUILDING A DREAM “Our wine club members and mailing list folks “It took three and a half years to build our have been eager to help in the best possible home — it was finished at the end of 2011,” way — by buying our wine.”

Lee said. “We were hands-on everything. We knew every corner, every stone, nail, roof and LEARNING FROM THE FIRES tile for the whole house, in fact, for the whole “Everyone that is rebuilding and recovering property.” has been doing so on their own individual The couple built an oasis where they might learning curve without much sharing of knowllive out their days making wine and tending edge among others in the same, nearly exact their vines. Now they must almost completely situation,” Dinkel said. “It probably makes start over again. some sense on some level to try and share the “I am relieved that the winery is still usable learnings.” and the vines seem OK, but I wish we could “We have learned much from the fires,” said just start building again,” Parmenter said. “I Peter Read, owner of Circle R Ranch. “One thought we could just rebuild quickly, but important lesson is that we need to create betthere are requirements to conduct such things ter guidelines for forest management and help as geotechnical studies before we can even just people understand how better to avoid the pour a foundation where our old barn stood, devastating impacts of the recent fires in the and that really slows things down. I mean, I’m future. There is a lot of work to be done, but I just replacing what was there before — it’s am encouraged by the outpouring of support pretty frustrating, but we’ll get through it.” from the local community and beyond.”

None of the structures burned on the Circle LIVING THROUGH A R’s 1,600-acre property, including a beautiful HELLISH EXPERIENCE old barn that stands at the edge of a verdant Just up the road from the VinRoc Cellars meadow. That meadow and other habitats on — and like nearly everyone in the Atlas Peak the ranch serve to function as natural animal region — Dos Lagos Vineyards owners Mar- corridors that link with adjacent protected cie and Tom Dinkel had their own harrowing spaces, such as the nearby 1,318-acre Mead story.

Ranch and 1,380-acre Sutro Ranch preserve.

“We escaped with a convoy of cars over the “We allow grazing on our land, which top of Atlas Peak,” Tom said. “In our group helped suppress the spread of fire,” Read said. of escapees were four women who were in “And there are other elements, too: cleaning Napa to recover from the Florida hurricanes. away the brush from your home and removing I banged on their door, woke them up and any flammable material from under your decks, rousted them into action.” for example. That said, the recent fire was Their account of that night paints a hell- nearly unimaginable in terms of its ferocity.” ish scene with a caravan of cars huddled close The Circle R easement was created in enough to see the headlights through the thick collaboration with the Land Trust of Napa smoke, each twisting down a country road, County. As a part of the master plan for the each surrounded by fire and devastation. site, 300 acres of vineyard are planned or In the end, six Atlas Peak residents had per- already planted. The vines are there to “allow ished, hundreds of structures had burned to the the property to sustain itself over time,” accordground, thousands of acres lay scorched and ing to Read, with what will be primarily Cabnine wineries had been damaged or destroyed. ernet Sauvignon grapes sold to local wineries.

Now, traveling back up the same road, the According to earlier reports, Read is adamant signs of the fire are everywhere — charred that there will never be ranchettes or other subtrees such as madrone, blackened earth and division-like building on the site in perpetuity. hundreds of vacant lots scraped down to the ground by Federal Emergency Management THE WINES OF ATLAS PEAK Agency debris-removal teams.

In 1992, Atlas Peak became one of the Yet at the same time there are signs of sub-Appellation Viticultural Areas within the regrowth and a return to normalcy — green Napa Valley. Located on the western slopes of shoots and fields of spring Fremont’s death the Vaca range that separates the Napa and camas flowers are emerging after the recent Sacramento valleys, this AVA reaches a peak rains, and vintners are eagerly awaiting the first elevation of 2,663 feet. The volcanic soils in signs of bud break. this hilly region are thin and sparse, and the But just as the residents of Atlas Peak have temperatures can be 10 to 15 degrees cooler stories of loss and sadness, they also seem to than they are on the valley floor. have a wellspring of optimism and tales of The wines grown and made in his hilly

region are different from those made from valley-floor fruit. Whereas the wines of the valley are often silky and heavy with dark-berry fruit, the wines of Atlas Peak are of a heartier stock, often displaying mouth-coating tannins, dried herbs and red-fruit characteristics such as raspberry and cherry. Many of the wines can take time to age before they reveal their true complexity and depth.

What I find most compelling about the best wines from the Atlas Peak region is that they can showcase the particular site where the grapes have grown unlike any other location in the Napa Valley, except perhaps those wines from the Pritchard Hill region.

Tim Carl

Michael Parmenter, proprietor of Atlas Peak VinRoc Cellars, stands where his home stood prior to the 2017 wine country fires.

REINCARNATION Atlas Peak was one of the hardest hit areas in the 2017 fires. How they’ve come together as a community is often inspiring and speaks to many of the best elements of the broader Napa Valley community: cooperation, innovation and dogged determination to protect and strengthen what we all hold dear. I look to them to continue this tradition because they hold the highest of standards, commensurate with their wines.

After the fires, Parmenter and Lee stood at the location of where their front door had been and surveyed the devastation around them.

Determined to rebuild, they looked first to their community, but also to ancient traditions to provide solace and direction.

“It was very uplifting to me that after the fire, although our new home, guest house and all three outbuildings had burned, Michael had reminded me of the old Tibetan mandala — the detachment celebration of sweeping away the Tibetan monks’ sand paintings, erasing months of work.

“It is a rebirthing, a blessing of reincarnation,” she said. “We are looking forward to moving upward and moving forward.”

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Coffee + cookie dough =

A SWEET TREAT I S A B E L L E S C H M A LT Z b us i ne s s @nap ane w s . com

The classic combination of coffee and cookies is now being served up at the Napa Premium Outlets.

Brewed, one of Napa’s newest coffee shops, is owned by local mother and daughter Laura Saunders and Lisa Saunders Blanc.

The shop is clean, warm and inviting with an extensive drink menu, freshly baked cookies and edible cookie dough.

Brewed opened its doors on Thanksgiving night in 2017.

Expecting just a trickle of shoppers, Laura Saunders said they were overwhelmed—and overjoyed—by the steady stream of customers. The early-bird shoppers who flocked to the outlets for Black Friday sales made their unofficial opening a huge success.

“We had no paid staff lined up yet, so our amazing family and friends volunteered to be part of our first weekend,” Laura Saunders said.

“We all put on our brewed aprons and simply opened the doors! It ended up being a crazy, fun, and very busy night.”

The coffee shop is still awaiting its grand opening, which is scheduled from noon to 5 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 24. Brewed isn’t inside the food court — instead it’s located next to the Gymboree outlet store, on the north side of the mall.

Big, rich, flavorful cookies have always been a specialty within the Saunders’ family — long before Laura and Lisa turned it into a business.

“We were almost always asked to bring cookies to family gatherings and celebrations,” Laura Saunders said. “The response was always, ‘you could sell these, they are so good!’”

Brewed serves organic coffee, roasted locally in Sebastopol, and offers a wide assortment of cookies: chocolate chip (with or without nuts), snickerdoodle, oatmeal raisin, sugar, peanut butter,

J.L. Sousa, Register

Brewed has recently opened at the Napa Premium Outlets by co-owners and founders, Laura Saunders and her daughter Lisa Saunders Blanc.

They serve small batch cookies, cookie dough, coffee and other treats.

double chocolate, ginger molasses and white chocolate chip macadamia nut.

A sugar cookie covered in colorful sprinkles is popular among brewed’s youngest customers.

Organic versions of all the cookies are available by special order.

Perhaps the most unique feature of brewed is its cookie dough bar.

By adjusting their traditional cookie recipe—using pasteurized eggs and flour to eliminate any harmful bacteria—the cookie dough is edible and safe for consumption, the owners said.

Brewed offers eight or nine different types of dough each day. The dough is scooped like ice cream into a small bowl and drizzled with chocolate, caramel or other toppings.

Some of the most popular dough flavors are s’mores, coconut bar, snickerdoodle, chocolate chip and peanut butter.

“When we were making cookies at home, we had a few friends ask us if we could save some cookie dough for them. They wanted to eat the dough in addition to eating the cookies,” Laura Saunders said.

“After all, most of us grew up tasting the dough or batters that our parent’s would make!”

While scouting locations for their new coffee shop, Saunders said the Napa Premium Outlets was always near the top of the list.

“We studied the demographics, traffic, consumer trends, and community access,” she said. “We literally showed up in the parking lot at different times of the day, on different days of the week and physically counted cars while watching traffic patterns.”

After meeting with the management team of the outlets and negotiating a space, the building process still took several months to complete—because the previous tenant at 865 Factory Stores Dr. was a clothing store.

“It took a while to open, since we had to rip out concrete, dig huge trenches for water and electrical, build a barista bar, bathroom and commercial kitchen,” Saunders said.

While brewed gets its fair share of tourists at the outlet mall, most of its customers are locals.

“That makes our hearts sing,” Saunders said.

Brewed offers a customer loyalty program as well as a meeting package for a busy office: 10 cups of coffee in a to-go container, (along with cups, sleeves, a variety of sugars,

cream, napkins, and stir sticks) and a choice of cookies and pastries.

Coming from a close family, Laura and Lisa have been able to collaborate fairly easily — despite having different ideas and areas of expertise.

For about 25 years, Laura Saunders and her husband provided care and supported living services for people with developmental disabilities. Saunders has an extensive background in business, administration and marketing.

Lisa Saunders Blanc worked with her parents as the director of human resources and has technical expertise. She said she also knows the ins and outs of running a coffee shop.

Saunders Blanc discovered her love of coffee while working as a barista at Caffino in Napa during high school and college. Her coffee cup has remained within arm’s reach ever since.

When the funding model changed for their work with the developmentally disabled, the family looked for a new opportunity.

Laura and Lisa decided to create an entirely new career for themselves by combining their love of coffee and popular family cookie recipe. The idea for brewed was born.

Laura Saunders said working alongside her daughter has been an amazing experience.

“We have been able to share the triumphs, frustrations, and struggles of developing and running a business together and still garner tremendous respect and admiration for each other.”

For details, call 707-637-4858 or visit brewed on Instagram and Facebook. On Thurs., Feb. 15, the Napa CHP, along with Napa Police and Napa Sheriff, will be at brewed from 8 to 10 a.m. for “Coffee with a Cop.” 67

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Chef Greg Weiner Submitted photo‌

A culinary

journey to Napa Valley

70

Chef Greg Wiener finds a home in Yountville

‌W

hen chef Greg Wiener moved to Napa Valley recently, a few days after he arrived, his best friend and companion, his dog Bronson, disappeared. Wiener spent days looking for him, driving up and down the valley following leads from the community on social media.‌ “People were very supportive at this time,” he said. He would get calls at all times from random numbers with reports of Bronson sightings.

The chef and dog were reunited 20 days later when Wiener found Bronson on top of Mt. Veeder.

“Quite the journey: Bronson traveled from Washington Street in Yountville to the east vineyards and ended up atop the mountain,” Wiener said.

The community threw a party to celebrate the return of Bronson.

Wiener is enjoying his new home in the Napa Valley, where his first impression was certainly of a helpful and close community.

He relocated in early January to accept the culinary director position for the Estate in Yountville. His new role includes overseeing the multiple outlets at the property, which is going through major renovation. The Lobby at Vintage Inn and Villagio, the pool menu and the banquet area are now his domain.

With a confident smile, he is ready to take on the challenge.

Wiener’s career has taken him from a small family restaurant to running large properties throughout the U.S. It began at the age of 15, when he got a job at the Wendy’s hamburger joint in Wisconsin where he grew up.

A year later, his parents acquired a restaurant, which served as a platform for his career. The 60-seat eatery was both a celebratory and everyday gathering spot. The food was an Americana collection that included a chicken night, pastas, sandwiches and other comfort food. It was here that Wiener held his first managerial position as a chef.

“My brother and I used to run the kitchen,” he said. “A long leash allowed me to learn by making mistakes on my own. This was a family affair. My parents, brothers, sisters pretty much ran the place, which filled up on a daily basis.”

After running his family’s restaurant, he knew the kitchen was where he belonged, and he enrolled at the Culinary Institute of America’s Hyde Park campus. There, he learned

E D UA R D O D I N G L E R skills that opened doors to great opportunities. His first position after graduating was with chef Marcus Samuelson at Restaurant Aquavit in New York City. During this time, he lived in a one-bedroom apartment with four other kitchen guys.

“We used to eat, breathe, sleep food, always discussing recipes, all day,” Wiener said. They all slept in sleeping bags on the floor. Pay was minimal and included working an average of 80 hours and six days a week.

Still, he said it was a wonderful experience that allowed him grow.‌ His next step was his first corporate position at the Minneapolis Marriott. After a few days, he said, he started to doubt the drastic move from Restaurant Aquavit to a hotel. In spite of it, he stayed and it turned out to be a gateway for bigger things in his career. ‌ Someone mentioned to him a JW Marriott at Desert Springs opening in California, and he followed that lead. He was flown there to do a cooking presentation, which resulted on an offer for the chef de cuisine position in the fine dining restaurant. He accepted the new role and relocated.

This step, he said, changed the way he operates in a kitchen. Mentored by chef Oliver Reschreiter, the culinary director who hired him, Wiener learned the business side of restaurants, as well as leadership skills.

Six months after assuming his new role, he was promoted to senior sous chef for the entire property. He ended up in charge of eight outlets that included a diverse group of restaurants serving Japanese, Mexican and Italian cuisine; it’s one of the largest banquet programs throughout the Marriott Group.

The time came when he felt he was ready for his next move, and he got it. The new role was executive chef of banquets at the Camelback Marriott, a five-star property in Arizona. This playground was not what he expected. “Going from elaborate dishes served in custom plateware to a simpler approach on round dishes wasn’t my realm,” he said.

He found a new position at the Waldorf Astoria’s The Boulders Resort in Scottsdale Arizona, a five-star, five-diamond location. At this property he worked under Michel Piton, a French chef who became another mentor.

At The Boulders, he oversaw the fine dining and banquet departments and enjoyed the freedom of a non-corporate environment with full control and room for creativity.

After three years in this position, he felt he needed to run his own program and found it

at The Buttes, another Arizona property that had recently been purchased by the Waldorf Astoria Group. Wiener said this is where his culinary career really took off. The property went from making half a million dollars in sales to more than $12 million while he was there, and established The Buttes as one of the lead resorts in Arizona.

This position allowed him to broaden his horizons. He got to sit on the board of directors at the Arizona Culinary Institute as well as the Art Institute of Phoenix. He was nominated and won the Manager of the Year award from the Arizona Lodging Tourism Association. He was nominated for Chef of the Year by the Phoenix New Times.

The thing, however, that he is most proud of is The Buttes winning the Arizona Lodging Tourism Community Service Award twice in a year. In 2010, when Arizona suffered from wildfires resulting in big loses, Wiener and his team started a special tasting menu, and donated a portion of each sale to help families in need. In the first year, he said, the project generated half a million dollars, on top building three homes in partnership with Habitat for Humanity and creating clothing and furniture drives for the community.

“All good things come to an end,” Wiener said. After six years at The Buttes, the property switched hands to new ownership and after much thought, he decided to move on.

Because of his involvement in the executive committee, he received a part of the proceeds from the sale, which allowed him to travel the world after 23 years of working non-stop.

His plan was to see the world and visit a number of culinary landmarks. His travels took him through Japan, France, Mexico and New York City. After visiting a good number of the top 50 restaurants in the world, he focused on returning to work — with a fresh approach.

He searched for jobs in Arizona, where he was well known, and ended up consulting for a handful of independent restaurants in throughout the country. In October last year, a friend texted him about an position available in Yountville. He visited in November and knew it was the right move. He finished his consulting obligations, sold his house, packed and relocated early January to hold his current role at the Estate Yountville overseeing food and beverage operations.

With an energetic personality and a strong team that has followed him from past positions, I believe chef Wiener will certainly be a benefit to the valley.‌ 71

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Charlie Palmer prepares a beef dish at his newest Charlie Palmer Steak Napa located in the new Archer Hotel.

TIM CARL PHOTOGRAPHY

Napa’s newest

GATHERING HUB Charlie Palmer Steak draws locals and visitors alike

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S

TIM CARL

ix weeks after devastating fires swept through Northern California’s wine country, the Charlie Palmer Steak house opened in Napa as the first major outlet within the nearly completed 183-room Archer Hotel. Since then it has quickly grown into a hub for locals and tourists alike, serving breakfast, lunch and dinner and also providing a place to gather, unwind and commune.

Launching a restaurant is never an easy endeavor, but given the added complexity of natural disasters (construction of the Archer has been delayed by earthquakes, floods and fires) and shifting consumer trends, what you need is someone at the helm who has the experience, good sense, creativity and a strong work ethic to navigate in what are challenging seas.

CHARLIE PALMER Charlie Palmer might be the hardest-working chef in America. And unlike many “celebrity chefs,” even with a dozen restaurants around the country that he visits on a rotating basis, he finds time to sit as a board member for the Citymeals-on-Wheels charity and the Culinary Institute of America. He often appears as a guest on NBC’s “Today” show, has authored six cookbooks, and is a husband for 25 years and father to four grown children.

“At our restaurants, I think it’s important to be involved and available, but mostly as a mentor and guide — when you’ve hired really good people it’s important to let them know that we are all working for the same thing,” Palmer said. “Occasionally someone will say that they work for me, but that’s not exactly right. They are working for themselves, the customers, the team, and when they understand that, things can work out well for everyone.”

I have known Palmer since first meeting him at his Michelin-starred restaurant, Aureole, in New York. He started the restaurant in 1988 before he was 30 and quickly gained the attention of reviewers and the public for his dishes that often featured regional American ingredients served in creative and colorful patterns on large white plates.

By the end of the 1990s, he had been featured as one of the chefs on the PBS

TIM CARL PHOTOGRAPHY

The bone-on “cowboy cut” 18-ounce Ribeye ($65) with a side of Béarnaise sauce, truffle and bacon twice-baked potato ($15) and roasted mushrooms ($10).

TIM CARL PHOTOGRAPHY

Roasted baby beets, whipped ricotta, satsuma mandarin, pistachio and aged balsamic ($15) at Charlie Palmer Steak in Napa.

series “Cooking With Master Chefs: Hosted by Julia Child,” named New York’s Best Chef by the James Beard Foundation, and started the expansion of his culinary empire that now includes a dozen restaurants in locations such as New York, Las Vegas, Reno, Washington, D.C., Healdsburg and now Napa.

He has also had and sold restaurants and hotels in other locations, including Los

Angeles, St. Helena and San Francisco.

Beyond the quality and consistency of his cuisine, probably the most mind-boggling aspect of Palmer is that he remains a calm presence at all of his restaurants. And when I say presence, I mean present. In a period of little more than a single week, I’ve seen him working Please see Steakhouse, Page 76

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STEAKHOUSE From Page 75

working the kitchens in New York, Las Vegas and Healdsburg.

Then after he returned to his home and vineyard in Sonoma County I bumped into him at a Cardinal Newman High School event where all his sons and my daughter attended. He always has the same easygoing smile, and he’s never glued to a cellphone or buried head-down in some report, but instead talking and cajoling with those around him.

CP STEAK The newest iteration of Charlie Palmer Steak is now here in Napa (there are five throughout the country) and is what Palmer calls “ a modern steakhouse.”

“Many people now want freedom when they eat — not forced into a composed dish, but instead able to pick and choose from ingredients that are of the highest quality but minimally garnished,” Palmer said. “For dinner they might just want a protein (beef, chicken or fish) prepared simply, served with a side of vegetables with a great bottle of wine. It’s a way of dining that we feel is a perfect match for the Napa Valley.”

Although Palmer is often working at his various restaurants, each location has its own talented team, and many of those people have worked at other Palmer locations.

Executive chef Jeffery Russell is no different — he transferred to Napa straight from the DC Charlie Palmer Steak restaurant in Washington, D.C., where he was also executive chef. Russell worked his way through the Charlie Palmer network, including time at the New York Aureole.

“I’ve been with Charlie for over 10 years,” Russell said. “He’s taught me a lot, and one of the biggest things is that during that entire time he has never once yelled at me. He’s taught me how to manage a team, consider the business, maintain the highest quality while attempting to exceed our customers’ expectations day in and day out.”

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Seared Hudson Valley foie gras with blood oranges, kumquats and cocoa nibs ($24) TIM CARL PHOTOGRAPHY

not enough there are easily a dozen sides that range from $10 to $15 and include classics like creamed spinach or a decadent truffle and bacon twice-baked potato.

Dessert, for those with the stamina, include classics like butterscotch bread putting with bourbon ice cream ($12) or “death by chocolate” cheesecake with blood orange sorbet ($12).

TIM CARL PHOTOGRAPHY

Butterscotch bread pudding with Buffalo Trace bourbon ice-cream and caramel ($12).

THE FOOD The 4,000-square-foot restaurant seats 120 and spreads into the hotel lobby with a 48-seat lounge and 12-seat circular bar, plus a patio dining area.

The dinner menu has a variety of hot and cold appetizers, ranging from $11 to $24, and the main menu features items such as salmon ($33), ricotta agnolotti ($25) or Mary’s roasted chicken ($29).

But this restaurant and menu are really built for carnivores who appreciate the finest cuts of beef.

A few offerings include locally sourced ingredients such as the 5 Dot Coulotte (otherwise known

as a sirloin strip) for $33. Other options come from farther afield, like the highly regarded A5 Wagyu steak that is imported from Japan, 4 ounces of which go for $100, or the Mishima American flat iron from Seattle, Washington, ($50) or the Snake River Farms strip from Boise, Idaho ($74).

If these were not enough to get your Paleo soul singing, couples can order the sharable porterhouse ($125) or bone-on tomahawk steak ($130), which somehow reminded me of watching “The Flintstones.”

To augment what are hearty, meaty plates, diners can choose from six sauces, and if that were

THE WINE The wine list, created by food and beverage director Peter Triolo and Sommelier Brian Kulich, bucks the current trend toward smaller lists and instead brings diners back to a time when wine lists were more akin to small phonebooks. This one has nearly 400 different wines, most of which come from the Napa Valley.

“I believe that people come here to drink wines from Napa, and besides, we want to support our local vintners,” Palmer said.

“Beyond our extensive list, for anyone who brings in a Napa Valley wine, we’ll waive the corkage.”

The full bar includes interesting cocktail offerings. My favorite is the Corpse Reviver No. 2 ($15) made with Hendricks gin and a blend of savory and sour components with a splash of carbonation.

Other options include local beers, their own CP IPA ($7) and wines by the glass.

For those unwilling or unable to splurge on the normal dinner menu there are other less-expensive options. A $12 breakfast is offered every morning, and there is a daily happy hour in the bar from 4 to 7 p.m. that features discounted wine, beer and snacks from $4 to $7 (including lobster corn dogs).

THE CHALLENGE If there is one person on the planet who can make a new steakhouse in the Napa Valley wildly successful, I’d put my money on Charlie Palmer. His experience and history will go a long way in helping to advance the cause of creating an environment where tourists and locals alike can feel both comfortable and satisfied in the semi-urban environment of the Archer Hotel. When the rooftop lounge and restaurant open in April, I expect the vibe only to increase.

But here are some hurdles that I believe Palmer and crew will face. First, the menu is solid and will attract a clientele who are successful and well-dressed.

I am less sure it will attract those diners who frequent the Oxbow, for example, who might find the space and approach less inviting. If Napa were closer to the Bay Area, had more international traffic and the downtown were, say, 10 years more developed, the current approach might be enough.

Beyond these challenges, the hotel is still under construction and it, and the surrounding First Street area, will eventually have more than 45 retail shops, as well as a half-dozen new restaurants.

The vision, although possibly dated, is impressive — create a central hub for folks to come and enjoy a Napa Valley experience that centers on food, wine and shopping. But the problem is that the Napa downtown is not like other locations (Aspen, New York, Las Vegas) in that it’s not the destination but instead mostly functions as a distant entrance to the destination within.

Couple this with the fact that what has historically been the solid and lucrative retail model of the past has nearly vaporized in the last few years and what you have is a collection of pressures that will be difficult to overcome, no matter how good the food, the wine and the leadership.

My hope is that CP Steak Napa and the Archer find a way to become a destination in their own right, luring people from the surrounding environs to enjoy what is a beautiful and tasty expression of what some hope Napa might become.

Charlie Palmer’s Sky & Vine Rooftop Bar opens Chef Charlie Palmer officially opened ramp remoulade; Mufaletta Panini with his second restaurant in downtown Calabrese salami, black forest ham, Napa, Sky & Vine Rooftop Bar, a 7,000 mortadella, spicy olive relish, smoked square-foot bar, restaurant, and lounge gouda sourdough, crisp fries; Crispy atop Archer Hotel Napa on April 15.

Chicken Sandwich on a focaccia roll, Sky & Vine serves food and drinks spicy avocado aioli, heirloom tomato, daily from 7 a.m. through closing. With wild arugula, crisp fries; and Charlie’s 360-degree panoramic views of the val- Chipwiches with house churned vanilla ley, Napa’s only rooftop bar is an open- bean ice cream, and fresh baked chocoair space for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and late chip cookies.

Sunday brunch, and also serves cocktails, Every Sunday, from 11 a.m. to local, domestic, and international wines, 3 p.m., Sky & Vine hosts a bottomand craft beers. less brunch for $38, which includes a The 11,000 square-foot space doughnut wheel or charcuterie board for includes areas for eating beneath wooden the table, unlimited bloody marys and trellises as well as lounging seats with mimosas (for two hours), and a choice fire pits and a chef ’s show kitchen and semi-private event space. Sky & Vine’s total footprint includes 90 dining seats, 14 bar seats at the main bar, 14 bar seats at the chef ’s show kitchen bar, and more than 70 full-service lounge seats.

A 5,000 square-foot space includes a sunning pool, cabanas, spa, and fitness studio. The spa is scheduled to open the week of April 16.

Sky & Vine also will be offering live music on Sunday afternoons and Thursday Andy Berry Photography evenings as well as games The Sky & Vine Restaurant on the rooftop of the including Connect Four, Archer Hotel in Napa.

Jenga, and Corn Hole.

The culinary program is led by Executive Chef Jeffery Russell of a brunch main. who also oversees Archer’s ground floor Sky & Vine also serves a reverse restaurant, Charlie Palmer Steak Napa, happy hour nightly from 9 p.m. to close with the support of Chef de Cuisine with $5 beers, $9 cocktails and wines by Francisco Lopez, Jr. General Manager the glass, and snacks ranging from $4 to Ray Guzman manages the bar program $10. and the wine list has been created by Sky & Vine hosts Brown Bag WednesCharlie Palmer Steak’s sommelier, Brian day once weekly where the wine team Kulich. hand selects a bottle of wine, brown bags Breakfast, served 7-11 a.m. includes it, and pours it in a blind tasting format.

Farro Breakfast Bowl, Greek yogurt and Guests have the opportunity to guess the Avocado Toast. “three Vs”: Vintner, Varietal and VinLunch and dinner is served Sunday tage. When you guess 1 of 3 correctly through Thursday, 11 a.m. to midnight, you’ll get 10 percent off the bottle; 2 of and Friday through Saturday, 11 a.m. 3 correctly, it’s 50 percent off the bottle; to 1 a.m. The menu includes Deviled all 3 correct, the bottle is just $1.

Eggs with tasso, pimento cheese; Chilled The Rooftop at Archer Hotel Napa is Castroville Artichoke Salad with spring on the sixth floor, 1260 First St., Napa. vegetables, watercress, quinoa puffs, fines For information, call 707-819-2490 or herbes; Lobster Corn Dogs with pickled visit skyandvine.com.

77

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A master

M I XO Vincent Lee mixes up magic at Goose and Gander E D UA R D O D I N G L E R

N

apa-born and raised, Vincent Lee has come a long way with plenty of accolades at for his young age. The passionate mixologist is also a talented artist as well as a musician. He also counts with a witty floor presence that can light up a crowd like fireworks on the Fourth of July.

Vince, as we’ll call him, stumbled across the art of bartending helping out a local chef with a catering in Calistoga. He was tasked with handling the makeshift bar at a rental home. A guest approached and asked for a martini, Vince looked at the guest and pondered for a few seconds that seemed like a lifetime, he looked at me, and we both wondered how to execute. All we knew were quotes from James Bond Films.

Vince worked for a few years at Belle Arti Trattoria, a downtown Napa fixture that was tucked by the river behind the Opera House for a number of years.

After his tenure at the Sicilian outpost, he ventured Upvalley to the Auberge du Soleil resort. Little did he know this would change his life giving him direction and an outlet for his creativity. He was hired as 80

r

XOLOGIST a server for the pool bar. Lucky for him, the bar had almost no business during his first months.

“I had access to the bar, a bounty of ingredients and I had nothing but time,” he says with a smile. A light switched on, and he became passionate about the cocktail world that summer.

Eight hours a day experimenting with cocktails became the foundation for his newfound craft. He had a great team that supported his creative side including pastry chef Paul Lemieux who would always give an honest opinion and input on the creations.

A co-worker handed him a book by renowned mixologist Scott Beatty, which launched his excitement even further. “I started playing with different ingredients that just weren’t being used then in your backyard” he said.

As he dug deeper into the art of cocktails he found it more and more intriguing. During his seven-year employment at Auberge du Soleil, he climbed into the bar manager position and led the program, but the most important achievement happened when a pool guest tried one of his cocktails, immediately asked the server to call the person responsible for crafting the cocktail as he wanted to meet him.

The cocktail’s main spirit was Michter’s Rye Bourbon, and the guest was the owner of Michter’s Distillery. That day, an important and memorable relationship was created. Vince started to work on concoctions for his new friend, and he even visited New York City in a few occasions as

BEE REAL • ‌1.5 ounces Martin Millers Gin • .25 ounces chamomile-in• .75 ounces honey syrup fused dry vermouth* • .5 ounces yuzu juice • A few dashes of Calabrian • .25 ounces lemon juice chili oil • * Use 2 tablespoons of chamomile tea per 750 ml. of vermouth.

Let infuse for 1 hour and 45 minutes, then strain.

a thank-you for developing the cocktails.

His next adventure took him to the Bardessono Resort in Yountville where he was in charge of the bar. This is where he started to receive national acclaim for his take on mixology as he was featured on several publications and shows including Esquire Magazine, Wine Spectator Magazine, Imbibe Magazine and Good Morning America Show.

After a couple years at Bardessono, he took a leap of faith and decided to join the Michter’s Bourbon team. Although he found it fun and exciting he decided to go back behind the bar and found a position at Farm Shop in Marin where he worked for about a year.

He then decided to return to Napa. He had a brief stint at Uva Trattoria before he came across an opportunity at Goose and Gander in St Helena. “This was a dream come true” he says. This Goose and Gander cocktail program had been created by Scott Beattie, whom he looked up to and respected. At the time, it was run by Michael Padzon, a fellow

bartender who had made a name in the valley by winning cocktail competitions right and left. Vince was offered the lead bar position.

He couldn’t say no.

The bar that he considered the top destination for cocktails in the Napa Valley was now his responsibility. He learned and grew into the position; the training required weeks as a barback or bartender assistant which gave him perspective.

He started helping out the Bardessono Resort, an old stomping ground that needed a hand.

After a while of doing both he stayed with Bardessono for some time. His next step became Farm Restaurant at the Carneros Resort in south Napa where he led the bar program, making full use of the resort’s gardens to incorporate into his drinks. He started conducting classes on mixology offered to the hotel guests: the guests started at the garden, choosing a variety of herbs, fruits and vegetables and used them to craft cocktails under Vince’s guidance. The program was even featured on local TV and gained popularity.

His next move took him to Carpe Diem in downtown Napa, a hip and lively meeting spot, during this time Vince had a fun time participating in cocktail competitions including the first place for the Campo de Encanto Pisco competition.

The next move was inevitable; he returned to Goose and Gander in St. Helena where he feels at home. “Andy, Goose and Gander’s proprietor, is a great friend, feels like family” he says. He has become a true fixture alongside the team. It doesn’t matter if you are a St. Helena local or a tourist passing by, walking into the bar at Goose and Gander offers a rustic elegance with exposed rock, leather booths, a well-stocked bar, fresh ingredients and most importantly a welcoming and hospitable staff cracking friendly jokes.

A true statement of their appeal happened a few days ago when basketball star Lebron James invited the Goose and Gander team, Chef and Bar to Los Angeles to entertain a collection of high profile guests after the All Star game. “It was a fantastic and surreal experience” Vince said.

“Having a number of basketball players and actors enjoying our cocktails is just humbling.”

Aside from the magic behind the bar, Vince is a big music fan, with Ben Harper high ranking in his books.

Curiously enough, he is quite shy and quiet outside of the confinements of the bar where he lights up the audience while building balanced and timeless pieces of art in a glass.

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ACME Fine Wines

TURNS 15 TIM CARL tf carl@g mai l. com

Williams searches for new, exciting cult wines

K

aren Williams and her then-business partner, David Stevens, started selling Napa Valley’s small-production wines from mostly unheard-of wineries at a time when such things were just not being done.

The year was 2003, and at that time the Napa Valley “cult-wine” phenomenon was relatively new, with many of such wines often exceptionally difficult to find but even harder to purchase.

Hence, ACME Fine Wines was born — a new model of wine shops that focused on finding, procuring and doling out some of California’s rarest and most highly sought-after wines to a clientele of luxury-seeking collectors and enthusiasts.

“It was an exciting time — the world had come to desire ‘cult wines’ from the Napa Valley, and because we were local and knew most of the producers we had a unique position,” Williams said.

“The original list of cult wines never changed that much — Screaming Eagle, Harlan, Bryant, Abreu, Araujo, Colgin and a few others — but there were other wines out there that we called ‘contenders’ that were certainly cult-worthy wines.”

But back then, because many of these new “contenders” were ultra-small operations — often

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Karen Williams is the owner of ACME wines in St. Helena. The wine-retail shop turns 15 this year.

If you go ACME Fine Wines 1080 Fulton Lane St. Helena, CA

707-963-0440 acmefinewines. com

making less than a few hundred cases of wine with limited access to wine-buying clientele — winemakers had few options when it came to finding buyers who might pay hundreds of dollars for a little-known and unrated wine at the time from producers like Hourglass, Switchback, Bob Foley, Lail, Realm, Hundred Acre, Herb

Tim Carl Photography

Lamb, Schrader, Paloma, Orin- of high-end Napa wines beyond Swift, Tor and many others. the first wave of ‘Cult Cabs.’”

Jennifer Lamb, co-owner of A MOVE TO EXCLUSIVE Herb Lamb Vineyards, adds, LUXURY WINE SALES “ACME was (and remains) the “To me, it (ACME) repre- only cutting-edge, Napa producer sented a concerted move to the retail wine shop around. They luxury Napa wine market by actually sought out the smallretail,” said Dan Dawson, former er-producing, cult and off-the-wall owner of Back Room Wines retail varietal producers that no one had shop who now runs Dan Dawson’s yet heard about.”

Wine Advisor. “From my recollecMuch of ACME’s initial suction, they were the first retailer cess stemmed from where the two to successfully cater to the high- business partners had originally end wine buyer with tastings and met and worked. luxury customer service. They did “I had come to the valley to their part in expanding the success learn more about wine,” Williams

said. “I had been working as a sommelier in Colorado and San Francisco but really wanted to become immersed, so I moved to St. Helena and got a job with Kent Rasmussen at his winery cleaning tanks and hauling hoses.”

In order to make ends meet, Williams also began working as a bartender at Tra Vigne restaurant in St. Helena, where Stevens also worked.

“People don’t realize just how important Tra Vigne was to the Napa Valley,” said winemaker Russell Bevan. “It basically served as a hub for winemakers, owners and customers in the know who were looking for something that had a ‘wow’ factor.”

Williams and Stevens had come to realize that the customers at Tra Vigne had a real desire for finding and purchasing many of the wines they were serving.

“The clients would come into the restaurant — Danny DeVito or Drew Bledsoe or they didn’t have to be famous but just really interested in wine — they’d come in and say, ‘Hey, where the heck can I buy this wine?” Williams said. “But because we were tasked with helping to serve them food, coffee, drinks, what we decided was that these customers needed more attention and time dedicated just to wine, and so that was the real motivation to strike out on our own and open ACME.” At first, they rented a tiny space in the old stone Pritchard Building in St. Helena, where they converted an old tool shed into a wine-storage room. There was no sign outside, and the only way to know about ACME was to be so into wine that through word of mouth you learned about this tiny, hidden gem where you might find a few bottles of the newest cult-worthy wine from the Napa Valley.

BEFORE EMAIL AND SOCIAL MEDIA ACME opened during a time when keeping in touch meant phone calls, faxes and printed newsletters — and, of course, faceto-face meetings.

“We had a growing list of clients that always were looking for

boutique approach.

After arriving in the Napa Valley, Amanda McCrossin, who is now one of the valley’s most influential sommeliers, found ACME’s approach to wine sales unfamiliar but compelling.

“I wandered in one day in search of wine and was greeted by one of the ladies,” McCrossin said. “It was an environment I was unaccustomed to, having Tim Carl Photography been fresh off the boat from NYC, Michael Hirby, proprietor and winemaker of Relic Wine Cellars, sold some where the wine-buying experience of his first wine through ACME. is quite different. What I quickly came to realize was that this was a store intent on having a conversation and a relationship with the consumer.”

Tim Carl Photography

Napa Valley architect-designer-artist Michael Roché provided the distinct look and feel to ACME, a St. Helena wine retail shop that is celebrating its 15th anniversary.

the next great wine,” Williams said. “But because we’d left Tra Vigne we decided that taking a winemaker or winery owner to lunch every week would allow us to keep in touch with the new producers.”

On e o f t h o s e m e e t i n g s included Jennifer Lamb. She and her husband made only a few cases of Cabernet Sauvignon from their own grapes, which they’d been selling to the likes of Colgin for years.

“I remember tasting Jennifer’s wine — it was spectacular,” Williams said. “Then she told me they only had 50 cases and I thought, ‘I hope there’s more of this in the future.’ When I mentioned my concern to Jennifer about having left Tra Vigne and losing that space, she told me something that

really helped: ‘It’s not the place, it’s the people,’ she said.”

SUPPORTING EMERGING BRANDS “In those days, there were more locals and struggling winemakers present at the tastings to sample wines than purchasing clientele, so it was always fun to see who would show up and what their opinion was of our wine,” Lamb said. “The eclectic array of wines that ACME promoted was amazing, even to a local, to the point that we actually joined one of their ‘local find’ monthly wine clubs early on so that we could see who was producing wines in the neighborhood.”

The ACME model of wine retail sales included something uncommon at the time: a luxury

THE ACME MODEL CONTINUES TO EVOLVE “The time of cult wines is not what it used to be,” Williams said.

“Our customers are still focused on small producers of excellent wine, but the focus has shifted toward people looking to be educated on the wines and more eclectic varietals — where and how they were grown and made, the stories behind the wines and discovery. Scores are less important while these other things are becoming more important to many buyers.”

Customers can stop in the ACME shop and pick up a bottle of hard-to-find wine or become a member of their wine club, which has various options — from the $500 per month “Big Kahuna” that focuses on collectors interested in Napa Cabernet to the $95-$107 per month, “Under the Radar” collection that includes two bottles of new, recently launched domestic wine. Of course, those interested in purchasing wine can do so directly from their website, (acmefinewines.com) too.

“Although our business continues to evolve, the core of our philosophy is that we know each of our clients’ preferences and proclivities when it comes to wine,” Williams said. “We also never repeat a wine in any of our wine clubs and are constantly on the search for what is new and exciting. The way we think about it is, we do the searching, you do the discovering.”

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The kitchen crew at Acacia House, which is located in the 68-room hotel, Las Alcobas in St. Helena.

Tim Carl photography

Upping the ante Acacia House refining what it means to be a sophisticated-casual restaurant

yet again

TIM CARL

W

hen chef Chris Cosentino and partner Oliver Wharton opened St. Helena’s Acacia House in May 2017 expectations were high and they delivered, quickly being listed as one of San Francisco food critic Michael Bauer’s 10 best restaurants of 2017.

Less than a year from opening they’ve continued to innovate, refining what it means to be a sophisticated-casual Napa Valley restaurant, part of which appears to include an increasingly plantbased focus.

Cosentino, known for his creative use of every part of the 86

animals he serves, is continuing to showcase an underlying theme of his overall culinary philosophy: Wasting any food — be it animal or plant — is unacceptable and unwise from a business, environmental and culinary point of view and is just not in this chef ’s DNA. LOCAL FORAGING AND LIMITING WASTE “Growing up in Rhode Island, we would spend a lot of time in the woods or at the beach gathering food — wild blueberries, mussels and clams — or even making dandelion wine in our basement with my great-grandmother,” Cosentino said. “Waste

was just not acceptable for those older generations.”

As he grew up, Cosentino learned the value of foraging in his local environment for food while limiting waste — traits that were reinforced during his culinary training at Johnson and Wales University and under chefs in the United States and France.

“In culinary school my instructors would come and check my pile of discarded food scraps before they even looked at my mise en place (a cook’s prepared items for service),” he said.

After school Cosentino traveled the world cooking, finally ending up as the chef at Incanto in San

Francisco and then opening his own restaurants, Cockscomb (in San Francisco) and then Jackrabbit (in Portland), both of which have decidedly meat-focused menus, often including all parts of the animal in what is referred to as “snout-to-tail” cooking.

“People think that I am all about meat, but that’s not true — my first cookbook was focused on salads,” he said. “For me it’s all about respecting and honoring whatever food is served. I mean, the farmers can work just as hard to grow a carrot as they do to grow a cow. It’s our job to see to it that each is brought to the table in a satisfying way, no matter what it

is.”

ROOT-TO-LEAF COOKING The results of Cosentino’s approach can be stunning, often causing a shift in perception, such as serving an entree of tender roasted carrots topped with crunchy granola or grilled leeks served with freshly gathered miner’s lettuce, sorrel and mustard flowers. Many of his non-meat menu items can be as satisfying as a plate of pork ribs, such as a juicy plant-based “hamburger” that is nearly indistinguishable from one made of ground beef.

The point of Acacia House’s food seems nearly manically focused on highlighting simply prepared foods that feature a range of textures and flavors of often what are single items or a small collection of like items.

There are no tablecloths or salt and pepper shakers. The tables are simple, clean hardwood with single candles. Servers pour wine into delicate, elegant glassware whereas menu items are served on earthen-toned plates that match the color scheme of the room, the plates appearing more akin to unobtrusive blank canvas then what has become a trend of many new restaurants where dinnerware can often verge on being an artistic distraction.

FEW DISTRACTIONS “We are focused on highlighting the food and our guests with very few distractions,” said food and beverage director Michael Ploetz. “The goal is comfort and for our guests to be cared for in a deliberate and careful manner but that is not distracting.”

Hearing this makes many of the restaurant’s design features come into focus. Similar to the walls and dishes, the waitstaff are dressed in soft grays. The space is small — around 50 seats — and cozy but not constrained, with wide doors that open to a lounge filled with windows that showcase additional seating on the outdoor wrap-around porch.

From the dining room, visible behind a wall of thick glass, the chef and his team can be seen working nearly unheard as they

have fast become iconic cocktails, such as the salt-foam-covered Las Alcobas margarita ($15). I’ve written about this drink before and I will likely write about it again, but if you haven’t tried this concoction of sweet, sour and salty, then for this alone I encourage you to rush out and experience it.

TIM CARL PHOTOGRAPHY

An increasingly plant-based Acacia House is focused on simply prepared foods with a range of textures and flavors.

The Las Alcobas margarita.

cook and prepare. Unlike many “open” kitchen restaurants, this one seems less about the show and noise of a working kitchen and more about a sense of comfort, knowing the food is being carefully prepared by professionals without an air of entertainment-type showiness.

The wine program has a similar approach. Overseen by local sommelier Zoe Hankins, the list is focused, with most offerings coming from local vintners, but it also includes wines from Sonoma and some from Europe. The wine menu includes short stories of some of the featured wines that are both entertaining and informative.

LOCAL WINES DOMINATE THE LIST “There are some amazing stories out there that help highlight how special these wines really are,” Hankins said, “When only a few

TIM CARL PHOTOGRAPHY

hundred cases are being made or the winery has a long history in the area or the varieties are different, it’s fun to share this information with our guests, many of whom have come to the valley in search of such experiences.”

Beyond the compelling stories, Hankins has crafted a wine list that mirrors the ethos of the restaurant in both the simple focus on quality and value with many of the wines in the $30-50 range.

The list digs deep into the valley’s history, uncovering some offerings such as the wonderful Larkmead Tocai Friulano ($85 per bottle).

Or the Smith-Madrone White Spring-Mountain Riesling ($60 per bottle), a wine that sang when paired with the baby chicory salad served with candied kumquats and a toasted sprinkle of quinoa ($14).

Besides an interesting wine list, the bar offers locally made beers (including their own) and what

INNOVATIVE DISHES AND SATISFYING ENTREES Dinner entrees range from vegetable-centric dishes such as the surprisingly satiating carrot a l’orange with a date soubise and cumin-scented grains ($23) to meat dishes that highlight Cosentino’s artistry, such as the lusciously crispy fried Iberico pork schnitzel ($59) with Brussels sprout petals and what to me is an unneeded but nevertheless interesting caviar dressing.

The desserts ($12 each) are artistically inspired by pastry chef Curtis Cameron. All of Cameron’s offerings are mind-bending visual collections of flavors and textures, and each is stunning to look at, with some appearing as if they might have defected from some modernist kitchen — think Spain’s elBulli — like the cubist dark chocolate, cream and raspberry shortbread and icy black licorice combination. This dish in particular would be a stunning addition to any art collector’s wall but would never make it that far because its flavors are scrumptiously too compelling not to devour.

I have only been to dinner or sat at the bar at Acacia House, but they also serve breakfast and lunch. I hope to try these other options at some point, and Ploetz tells me that they’ll soon be having a happy hour with $5 options of wine, beer and food.

As is the case with many new restaurants there have been changes to the team’s initial lineup.

Cosentino has recently brought in a new executive chef, Cole Dickinson, who is coming to Acacia House by way of Los Angeles (having worked at Ink, Bazaar and with Wolfgang Puck).

Dickinson is no stranger to Please see Acacia, Page 88

87

ACACIA From Page 87

Wine Country, having spent time in Sonoma County cooking with Charlie Palmer and Mark Stark.

After, he headed to locations around the United States and the world, cooking and honing his culinary skills with chefs such as Mark Purdy.

Besides the list of luminary chefs on his resume, Dickinson has an exciting list of accomplishments. While working with chef Michael Voltaggio, he was named a “young gun” by Eater in 2012, one of Zagat’s “30 under 30” in 2013 and that same year won on the Food Network’s “Chopped,” then went on to earn a StarChefs Rising Star Chef Award in 2014. I look forward to watching and tast- Chef Chris Cosentino ing as Dickinson brings his own influence to the Acacia House the focus seems more on creating menu. a sophisticated yet casual dining experience that is real and honest, AN HONEST RESTAURANT one that is constantly seeking to Is the Acacia House a perfect maintain a healthy integration restaurant? Absolutely not. On the into its environment. night I ate there both the chicken and monkfish were a little rubbery, LOOKING DEEPER although the flavors remained What Cosentino is showing fresh and complex. A dish of oth- the Napa Valley is that his being erwise wonderfully cooked risotto a celebrity chef with three restautopped with an innovative mound rants and a reputation for being of chewy mushroom “hay” made primarily meat-focused is not a from dried enoki mushrooms constraining or negative aspect of was the perfect balance between his history to be overcome, but creamy and chewy but was disap- instead may actually have propointingly underseasoned. vided a push toward innovation Many of the low-backed chairs and advancement. As a part of are uncomfortable to sit in for that, Cosentino and crew do not long, and after the lights went seem to be saying, “Look at us,” down in the dining room I felt but instead seem to be saying, like the space might be anywhere “Look at you.” with little on the walls or in the “I’ve learned from my mentors decor of the room that said, “Hey, that, ‘What grows together goes I’m in St. Helena,” or even in the together,’” Cosentino said. “It’s Napa Valley. The concept of the not that I’ve changed anything space is for guests to feel like they really, but I think people are just are eating at a friend’s or family starting to ask the right questions. member’s home, but I’m not sure We have a responsibility to our who — at least nobody I know — guests and also to the future gendecorates their walls with rows of erations. Yes, it must taste good, plates. There’s also a historic but but it has to work in other ways, sadly nonfunctional fireplace that too.” remains filled with never-to-beutilized logs.

RIGHT: Acacia House pasta dish.

But I sense perfection is not TIM CARL PHOTOGRAPHY the goal at Acacia House. Instead, 88

TIM CARL PHOTOGRAPHY

TIM CARL PHOTOGRAPHY

Grilled leeks are served with freshly gathered miner’s lettuce, sorrel and mustard flowers and roasted carrots topped with crunchy granola.

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A new beginning for Sullivan D AV I D S TO N E B E RG e d i tor @s the le nas tar. com‌

Torres-Padilla brings passion and vision to Rutherford estate ‌If nothing else, Juan Pablo Torres-Padilla is a passionate guy.

Otherwise, why would he have spent the last two years visiting some 100 Napa Valley wineries? And why did he spend three months working in winery cellars in Burgundy and Bordeaux?

In mid-January, Torres-Padilla became managing partner of Rutherford’s Sullivan Vineyards & Winery after the U.S. Bankruptcy Court accepted the offer tendered

by VITE USA. Torres-Padilla is the public face and CEO of VITE USA, which he describes as a family investment fund. At first, the group sought wine properties in France, but more than two years ago they set their sights on wine property in the Napa Valley. The sale closed in early January and Ross Sullivan was named general manager.

Sullivan said his parents came to the Napa Valley in 1972 and after many years of making wines from regions throughout California, all roads led them to Rutherford. “That’s where my parents were focused very early on and wanted to be,” Sullivan said.

In 1978, Sullivan’s father, James O’Neil Sullivan, bought 26 acres of land from Virgil Galleron – his wife, Alice, still lives in the family home – and created a family estate with two buildings, both designed at the same time. One is a winery and the other is a hospitality center and family home. Combined, they are less than 10,000 square feet.

The winery produces between 5,500 and 6,500 cases. Sullivan said, “We have enough capacity to manage the estate and there’s a little bit more room. With modern winemaking and some of the new techniques, we tend to fill up that space.”

Sullivan and his siblings grew 90

patient. “I love the connection between this liquid and the fact that it comes from the earth and Sullivan Vineyards & Winery you see that. In a lot of industries, 1090 Galleron Road you don’t see the whole thing, you Rutheford just see part of it,” he said.

(707) 963-9646 Sullivanwine.com The second thing he likes Current releases about wine is that it is a world-2016 Rutherford Sauvignon Blanc wide commodity. Wine is shared -2016 Estate Chardonnay throughout the world, especially -2015 Merlot in Europe. “Every single family, -2013 Cabernet Sauvignon, Rutherford even if they are in the middle of -2014 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon nowhere and don’t even produce -2014 “Coeur de Vigne” Red wine blend wine, drink wine as part of their -2014 Estate Petite Verdot culture,” Torres-Padilla said.

It is the same with heads of up on the property and started state, presidents and prime minwork there early. isters or farmers and workers — they all enjoy wine.

JP HOLDS COURT‌ It was raining the day of the SULLIVAN PROPERTY interview, as Torres-Padilla, Sul- IS UNIQUE‌ livan and others toured the winThat love of wine and the conery … and decided to forgo an nection between it and the land outdoor tour when the cold rain has guided the native of Mexico turned to hail. We settled into a in his search for a winery propprivate wine tasting room where JP erty. Once he found the Sullivan held court. property in Rutherford, he was He has been involved in wine impressed with its uniqueness and for many years and during time beauty. spent in Burgundy and Bordeaux, “When we were looking for he spent three months in the cel- land, we were expecting good land, lars, cleaning tanks, doing pum- because in Rutherford most of the povers and punchdowns and clean- land is good,” he said. “But you ing the bladder press. He called it always have a certain percentage of a “very exciting and educational land that is not that bad, because experience.” It was also very hard by definition you cannot have 100 and rewarding in Torres-Padilla’s percent of land that is excellent, mind. He also harvested grapes in anywhere.”

September and October and went Torres-Padilla was surprised through the different steps of pro- that when his analysts looked duction, including fermentation. at the land they found 75 to The days were long and the 80 percent of it to be excellent, work never ends, Torres-Padilla rather than the expected 30 to said, “especially during harvest. 40 percent. Of the 22 acres that Some days I tried to work only are planted, the excellent land is eight or nine hours but some of “much higher than average,” he those days started at 7 or 8 a.m. said. “So we believe that together and finished at 8 or 9 p.m. But it with the location, this place is was worth it.” really unique. And Ross and his He added, “At the end of the family and the winemaker team day, you see the link between the have been working toward the land, the terroir and this, the wine. creation of excellent wines. Some There are two things I really enjoy of them are really first-world label, about wine.” The first is that wine but somehow they haven’t been comes from a vine, which doesn’t appreciated.” grow quickly and one needs to be For a variety of reasons,

If you go

Torres-Padilla said Sullivan’s wines have not had a widespread exposure, nor the recognition they deserve in terms of quality. In the recent past, he has been putting Sullivan wines in blind tastings with iconic Napa Valley and French wines. He said a lot of people, including local sommeliers and winemakers, asked him what the wine was and why they didn’t know it.

“I like sharing the wines with friends and the people I have gotten to know in the past two or three years,” he said. “A lot of people have told me, ‘I can’t believe I did not know this wine, given the quality of the wine, the estate and its location, which is between St. Helena and Yountville, in the middle of Rutherford.”

JP’S OVERALL VISION‌ Torres-Padilla vision is to create iconic Napa Valley wines and a top destination, in terms of experience.

“We believe the quality of the wine is unique,” he said, “but we also have the philosophy that it is always possible to do better. Even if it is incremental, even if it’s gradually and slowly, you can always do better. In this eternal pursuit of excellence, you can always go and improve, whatever you’re doing.”

To achieve his vision, Torres-Padilla is defining what he needs, including people, leadership, energy, vision, advisers, partners and capital, as well. But, he adds, the most important part of the long-term plan is a vision, the leaders and a team to create that vision.

“One of the objectives of what’s next for Sullivan is to continue to focus more on the personal experience (for our customers), which allows us to share our passion,” he said. “We are living in an experience generation. Everything is about the experience. We want every single person who is coming to have a memorable experience.

Obviously, it starts with the wine, but it goes far beyond that.”

From DJ to

WINE CARRIER SALES K I R K K I R K PAT R I C K b us i ne s s @nap ane w s . com

Kawalek finds career with Transbottle Anyone who lives in the Napa Valley tends to carry a nice bottle of wine or two when they travel, either to gift lucky friends or for personal consumption.

And, unless you are very lucky, you’ve likely had an entire suitcase full of clothes stained with Cabernet when a bottle wrapped in socks and underwear somehow broke along the way.

But with Transbottle wine carriers, broken wine bottles and broken-hearted travelers may be a thing of the past.

Napa’s Jimmy and Kate Kawalek acquired the U.S. distribution rights for the polypropylene, reusable wine carriers that come in one-, three- and six-bottle (including magnum) carriers.

“My wife and I travel a lot for business and often carry wine in both directions,” said Kawalek.

“We always had trouble finding the right packing materials, until one trip to Paris when we were directed to a shop selling Transbottle carriers. We used them flawlessly on the way home, then we took a six-pack to Mexico, and again, flawless.”

Kawalek secured the rights to distribute the lightweight and durable carriers in the U.S. after eight months of negotiations.

“People see the benefits and understand the concept the minute they see them. Anything with liquid has to be checked on airlines now; these carriers are approved by the TSA (Transportation Security Administration)-approved and have locks that are TSA-accessible.

A six-pack with six full bottles weighs just 20 pounds,” Kawalek noted.

He then demonstrated the

J.L. Sousa, Register

Jimmy Kawalek is the exclusive United States importer and distributor of Transbottle products, which he describes as “the easiest, most lightweight travel accessory for wine.” He is seen standing on a six-bottle unit, while shouldering single- and three-bottle units.

strength and resilience of the carrier by standing on one, an impressive demonstration by a man who claims to weigh in at 185 pounds.

At present, the wine carriers are available at transbottleUSA.com.

Single bottle carriers cost $70, the three-bottle size costs $85, and the six-bottle, the largest size, costs $170.

Kawalek said that wholesale prices are available for potential resellers. He hopes several area wineries will offer the wine

carriers for sale noting that they can easily be rebranded with the wineries name and logo.

Kawalek said they also make a great premium item for the valued customers of wineries. At present, they are available at Yao Family Wines, the Napa Valley winery started by former NBA star Yao Ming.

Kawalek, a former Bay Area club DJ who achieved fame under the name “Jimmy K,” said his target market is the growing

population of people who travel with wine.

“One of the things I learned at a German trade show in Dusseldorf recently,” said Kawalek, “is there is a global aspect to the wine business and wine tourism is growing. Travelers want to move around with their newfound treasures and that’s not going away anytime soon. For example, a recent customer of ours was attending an important dinner in New York and wanted to bring along a very special and expensive bottle of wine. He knew he could trust our carrier to deliver it safely.”

The Napa Valley-based distributor says he has a plenty of product warehoused here so orders can be fulfilled within 48 hours. They can also be delivered locally to area hotel guests.

“It’s a fun project,” the local entrepreneur said. “We’re really excited to get it launched. It’s going to be a great thing for the industry, as well as a good business for us, hopefully.” He hopes to grow the business through word of mouth and public relations.

Kawalek also does consulting work for wineries on national sales programs and distribution channels. He also just completed four years as president of the Coombsville Vintners and Growers, and serves on several committees for the Napa Valley Vintners.

In addition, Kawalek serves as a commissioner on the Bicycles and Trails Commission for the city of Napa. He also pointed out his wife, Kate, is the financial brain behind the couple’s fledgling business.

During April, Transbottle is offering a 25 percent discount and free delivery on any of its products to locals in the 94558 or 94559 ZIP code.

For details, visit TransbottleUSA.com or call 707-501-7447.

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Celebrating

50 YEARS FOR INSIDE NAPA VALLEY

Maldonado family builds businesses, launches new companies Fifty years ago the Maldonado family moved to California from Mexico. Today the family is celebrating five decades of living and working in the Napa Valley wine industry as well as launching a new business to go with their existing enterprises.

“A strong work ethic and passion for the wine industry runs in the family,” said Luz Maria Maldonado.

Luz Maria Maldonado is the matriarch of the Maldonado family and co-founder/owner of Maldonado Vineyards, Maldonado Bottling & Packaging Services and their newest offering: MBS-Express.

“My husband Lupe Maldonado and I moved to California from Atacheo, a small farming community in Michoacan, Mexico,” recalled Maldonado.

“We made our home in St. Helena where Lupe worked over 45 years mastering his vineyard and winery skills for prominent wineries in the Napa Valley until we eventually started Maldonado Vineyards which we own and my husband runs today with our son,” she said.

From the start, Lupe and Luz Maria had a dream for their family to embrace a hard work ethic and build upon the opportunities and their passion for the wine 94

Submitted photo

Luz Maria Maldonado, co-founder of Maldonado Bottling & Packaging Services, is pictured here (middle) with her daughter, Judith Hurtado, and her son-in-law, George Dominguez.

industry, they said.

This passion drove Luz Maria to co-found Maldonado Bottling & Packaging Services and MBS-Express with her son-inlaw, George Dominguez.

For more than 15 years, Maldonado Botting and Packaging Services, also known as MBS Napa, has provided skilled labor to Napa Valley wineries needing additional staff for seasonal bottling, specialty packaging projects, and fruit sorting during harvest season.

Dominguez is the visionary, operations expert, and client interface of the company, according to a news release from the business. “He continually works on efficiencies of the business, staying competitive in the market, and seizes opportunities for the continued growth of the company.”

Maldonado manages the business and leads the staffing

teams with her entrepreneurial spirit, strong work ethic and a “no-nonsense let’s get this done!” attitude.

Maldonado’s daughter, Judith Hurtado, also lends her skills to the family business.

She started working the bottling lines and specialized in hand-dipped waxing wine bottles. Today she is Dominguez’s right hand person and office administrator. Hurtado makes sure daily schedules and operations are running smoothly and takes care of all the employees, many who have worked more than 10 years for the company and are like family, said the news release.

The family’s newest company, MBS-Express, offers “fast and reliable courier and wine transport services for businesses and professionals throughout the Napa Valley.”

MBS-Express services include

transport and delivery of documents, packages and dry goods, delivery of wine pallets, pick-up and delivery of high volume goods and supplies for bottling runs, smaller van deliveries for small wine shipments or to access small country lanes where larger trucks cannot go and barrel transport.

Dominguez said he is always looking for ways to improve customer service as well as identify new business opportunities. After helping out a few of his wine clients with last minute transport challenges, he realized there was a greater need for a local transport service in the wine industry and beyond.

“Wine and dry good transport is one of the many challenges wineries face in adhering to production schedules,” said Dominguez.

“If wines or other materials aren’t readily available for bottling day, it impacts the crews and production schedules which may result in staff downtime, production delays, or late deliveries, which can be costly for companies,” said Dominguez.

“It’s exciting to think about what the next generation of Maldonados will bring to our family businesses or what new opportunities for growth they will introduce,” said Maldonado.

“For now, we are excited to launch MBS-Express and provide a much needed delivery service to our clients and local businesses in the Valley,” she said.

Info: mbsnapa.com, MBS-Express.com

THE ANSWERS

Pizza Guys at Pueblo Avenue and Jefferson Street for Where in Napa Valley.

Here are the answers to our Where in the Valley quiz from Page 42.

J.L. Sousa, Register

J.L. Sousa, Register

Hillside Christian Church for Where in Napa Valley.

CROSSWORD ANSWERS FROM PAGE 43

J.L. Sousa, Register

Napa Valley Moto at Third Street and Soscol Avenue for Where in Napa Valley.

The Dollar Tree store on Jefferson Street.

J.L. Sousa, Register

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OLD SCHOOL, CUTTING EDGE Vincent Arroyo Winery honors traditional wine culture with high-tech flair

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incent Arroyo Winery is not your typical Napa Valley winery of late. It is a throwback to the simpler beginnings of wine in the region, but with a modern-day twist.

While plenty of Napa Valley wineries spend money, energy and time creating wine tasting experiences – “experiences” are what some might call the industry’s new buzzword – with expensive décor, fancy glassware, and hefty tasting fees, Vincent Arroyo Winery keeps things simple.

Simple plywood walls, wine barrels and a retro table standing welcomingly in the room provide the décor in the winery’s tasting room. The winery dogs – one of whom is a ball-hog — provide the entertainment. And longtime, knowledgeable tasting room employees provide the education.

What’s most unusual about Vincent Arroyo Winery is the tasting room fee. There isn’t one, said Matt Moye almost sheepishly.

Moye is the co-proprietor along with his wife, Adrian, who is the daughter of the founder Vincent Arroyo. The couple, who met in law school, took over ownership in 2012. Moye said he practiced law for a while, but shuddered at the need for “billable hours” and decided wine was more his style. His wife, coming from that background, agreed, and now they run the winery together hoping to prepare it for the next generation – one of their

A N N E WA R D E R N S T ed i tor @we e k lycali s tog an. com‌

Anne Ward Ernst, editor@weeklycalistogan.com‌

Matt Moye, second from left, co-proprietor of Vincent Arroyo Winery, looks on as a guest and wine educator interact in the winery’s no-frills tasting room.

three boys.

While other Wine Country wineries escalate tasting fees, or “experiences,” to $50 for a standard tasting, or more for such things as “reserve” tastings, and even higher for vineyard or cellar tours or food pairings, Vincent Arroyo holds out — providing a free experience tasting Napa Valley wine to keep things affordable

and approachable.

Forget “perceived value” – the concept that if you pay a lot for something, it’s got to be great, and if you pay little to nothing, it’s not going to be good – the wines at Vincent Arroyo Winery are coming from the same exemplary terroir as other wines whose grapes are grown in Calistoga.

Some of the juice from Vincent

Arroyo Winery is sold to other Napa Valley wineries, Moye said.

Plus, public perception and reviews are responsible for an honor Moye said he hadn’t known was taking place behind the scenes.

Travel+Leisure.com named it the No. 1 vineyard last year based Please see Winery, Page 98

97

WINERY From Page 97

on analyzed Yelp reviews, which compared quantity and quality of reviews. Other local vineyards on the list include Hendry Vineyards in Napa at number 3, B Cellars in Napa at 5, Pride Mountain Vineyards in St. Helena at number 7, and Palmaz in Napa at number 10.

“We didn’t even know about (the review) until a customer brought it to us,” Moye said.

Beyond the “authentic experience” of a family winery that millennials seek, Moye has found something to go beyond the “farm to table” concept, with a French barrel wood-to-bottle concept that brings the barrel project to the intersection of 200-year-old French oak trees with 21st-century technology.

Moye went to France last March to select the trees that would eventually become barrels in their wine program.

“The way barrels are made, they’re usually seasoned for 36 months. So, they cut the wood into staves and they put them out in the elements, outside … to age … to try to get the greenness out.” He picked out the wood, and it’s the same area as where his current barrels are from.

“I have wood aging in France now for another two years, and then that wood will come over and we’ll make the barrels,” he said.

But what really brings it home is the ability to incorporate the old with the new. The 12 barrels they purchase have the coordinates of where they were grown stamped on the barrels.

“Now, here’s the coordinates of that tree, where this wood came from,” he said, tapping on the barrel that holds the winery’s Rattlesnake cabernet.

“What I’m really excited about is I’m going to barrel taste with customers on this wine, and I’m going to be able to pull on my phone – Google Earth – and we can see where this tree was harvested, and I can point across the 98

Anne Ward Ernst, editor@weeklycalistogan.com

Matt Moye stands next to barrels that are made of trees in an area of France where he has selected specific trees to be made into barrels for the Vincent Arroyo Winery program. In the top left section of the barrel are the coordinates of where the tree for the wood that went into that particular barrel was grown.

way and show where those grapes came from, and it’s all here. So, we’ve now taken it a step further, and taken it from the wood all the way into the bottle.”

Sales at Vincent Arroyo have always been direct to consumer, and their thousands of loyal customers look forward every year to their “futures” sale, Moye said, where the winery offers a 50 percent discount on purchases of wines that are still in barrel and haven’t been released yet.

It’s a sales tactic that is a win-win for wine collectors and wineries alike. The upfront sale of wines that haven’t yet been bottled or released gives a winery money to work with sooner rather than later, and it gives consumers a deep discount. It takes some faith on the consumer side to trust that the wine they taste in barrel will continue to taste to their liking when the wine is finally bottled, but it’s been a successful business model for the winery for some time, Moye said.

Not using distributors is another way the winery keeps cost down, he said.

“We’re not trying to be someone we’re not,” Moye said. “We’re farmers first; winemakers second.”

Farmers who are also winemakers are the backbone of the Napa Valley, and it’s a philosophy employed by those who consider themselves caretakers of the land, rather than land- or winery-owners. They are always searching for best practices and experimenting, but as any farmer knows, Mother Nature likes to be in charge.

For example, Vincent Arroyo Winery has employed a variety of farming practices with a particular block of Malbec, one year getting a good crop, the next year, not so much. But the Malbec vines across the street, which are on different clones and grown in different soil types, produce more consistently; examples of what makes farming, and wine, so intriguing.

They are proud of their longstanding local connection to Calistoga, Moye said, pointing to the vineyard across the way from the Greenwood Avenue property that they lease from the Enderlin family. (Some may recognize the Enderlin name through Calistoga natives Roy Dean Enderlin, who was born in the Calistoga Hospital and died this January at the age of 92, or his son Dean Enderlin who portrays Calistoga founder Sam Brannan at events and historical reenactments.)

Vincent Arroyo Winery also produces a single-vineyard petite sirah and tempranillo from the Rattlesnake property, Moye said, and a single-vineyard petite sirah from the Greenwood Avenue property. Sangiovese, merlot and syrah are grown there, too. They make olive oil, from Calistoga – one from their estate and another from their neighbors. A balsamic vinegar is also from their cabernet sauvignon grapes, something Moye said he has a little trouble swallowing because they are “intentionally turning good wine into vinegar.”

“It’s one of the worst days of

my life,” he said.

Wines are sometimes named for the winery pets, such as “Nameless,” their cat. She makes a cabernet sauvignon-tempranillo blend. Nameless the cat arrived at the winery as one of six siblings and their mom.

“They were dumped on our driveway and they were feral, and we had to catch them by trap to be neutered and spayed, and the coyotes got all but her,” Moye said. She didn’t have a name, she was just “kitty.” At about the same time they were making a wine blend with “no name” on the barrel.

“So, we had this cat that doesn’t have a name, and we had this wine that doesn’t have a name, and all the animals here have a wine, so we said we’ll call her Nameless, and she has a wine,” Moye said.

She’s been there for about 14 years now, so she’s an older cat.

She is joined in “making wine” by her canine sisters: Rosie the dog makes a rose, and a chocolate lab named Bodega makes a big Bordeaux blend.

Matt and Adrian got married in Bodega, and the chocolate lab was a wedding gift, so that — coupled with the fact that the Arroyo family is Spanish and in Spain wineries are called “bodegas” — is how the dog came to be named.

The winery has been approved for increased production and visitation, Moye said, but they “probably won’t ever reach” what he asked for in terms of production or visitation. He is hoping that at least one of their children will be interested in taking over the family business and asked for the rights from the county so that the future generation would have the option of expansion.

“I don’t think I’ll use it, but I always try to be forward-looking in terms of the next generation, and that’s what Vince did,” he said. “We’re a family winery, we don’t want to sell out to a corporate-whoever. And we’re fortunate we have a loyal following that we can do that. … We thank our lucky stars every night that we have our customers that we do.”

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