Where to rest your head on Westside Road

When travelling one of the most important decisions to make is…where are we going to stay? In an unfamiliar area it’s all about location, location, location. You want to be close enough to town to enjoy the restaurants and bars but also be able to enjoy the scenery and surroundings that are unique to the place that you are visiting.

Westside Road in Healdsburg in the Russian River Valley is world renowned for producing some of the best Pinot Noir and Chardonnays. It’s winding roads and beautiful, panoramic views of wine country make it an popular place to visit. After living on this road for 25+ years I’ve had a lot of time to think about where I would want to stay should I visit this area. Here are my picks for the best places to stay on Westside Road.

B&Bs are where it’s at. There are several absolutely charming B&Bs on Westside Road that are truly not to be missed. My top choice would have to be Madrona Manor. Right at the crossroad of Westside Road and West Dry Creek, this place is a must visit in Healdsburg. I have memories of coming here since I was little and every visit is better then the last. Our family has a tradition of having brunch here ever Easter Sunday. The eggs benedict are my personal favorite. The best seat in the house would have to be out on the patio which overlooks the beautiful garden area.

Joseph Bain is the wine director at Madrona Manor and treats us like family every time we visit. My grandfather use to tell me stories about how some of the rooms  in the Carriage House where haunted. So if you are superstitious, dwellers beware!  The inn is an ideal site for weddings, photos and special events and was just awarded One Michelin Star from the 2009 Michelin Guide, San Francisco.

Next on my list is the FarmHouse Inn. Technically located in Forestville but still in the Russian River Valley and at the end of Wohler/Westside Road. What I like the most about this place is that not all the awards and accolades, although these are very impressive ( it also has been awarded One Michelin Star) but that it is family owned and operated.  Owned since 2001 by a brother and sister pair whose family has farmed in this area for five generations. Coming from a family who has similar longevity in the farming community I always admire and like to support family businesses. Between the spa treatments and their celebrated cuisine, I warn you it will be difficult to leave.

I also recommend the Raford Inn. Tucked away and literally overlooking Russian River Valley this beautiful villa is a great location to just get away from it all. Originally built in 1880 this estate manor is a historical landmark. All rooms are individually decorated and are named after medicinal herbs, representing their healing properties. Your stay includes a wine reception and full breakfast. Voted best sunset by Lonely Planet!

Let me know where you like to stay in Russian River Valley, we can comapre notes!

Mustard time

 If you’ve driven through wine country lately there is probably something in the vineyards that you have noticed. This is the time of year that mustard plants are thriving in the vineyards. Their colors in the setting of the vineyards are particularly beautiful but did you know that there is also a benefit to using mustard plants in the vineyard. I sat down with my dad, John Bacigalupi and talked with him about the advantages.

“You can actually eat the bloom of the plant. It’s kind of hot and spicy like eating a radish. My understanding is it started out as a government subsidy to farmers who planted mustard in their vineyards. The tap root (a long root) of the mustard plant would open up the soil and aerate it. The plant produces a great amount of green matter that would be disked into the soil to replace organic matter. Farmers have been experimenting with planting mustard in vineyards for many years to get the natural chemicals from the plant into the soil and lower the Nematode counts. Nematodes are microscopic worms that live in the soil; some are beneficial and some are harmful and can carry diseases. We use mustard as a cover crop in several of the vineyards that tend to have more nutrient deficient soils. The plants will be present in the vineyards through late March.”

Every year the Napa Valley Mustard Festival celebrates the mustard plant featuring fine foods, local wines and of course all kinds of mustard.

So gentlemen…… how would you describe your woman as a wine?

With the movie He’s Just Not That Into You hitting theaters an amplified interest in the single life is occurring once more, similar to when that other show on HBO debuted all about 4 single women and the dating world: Sex and the City. Written by the same creators (imagine that!) as a dating guidebook to the secret (or not so secret) actions by men that say “Don’t date me, I’m trouble” and then follow with the line: “If …, he’s just not that into you.” For example, a simple one is:  ”If he is married, he’s just not that into you.” Kind of a no brainer to me–but hey, I don’t judge.

Being a single, 25-year-old women living and working in Wine County, this movie got me to thinking about men, women, dating, relationships and then eventually wine. I started an investigation of asking men to describe their ideal woman as a wine. Vintage, varietal, appellation, it’s all relative information to how wine eventually turns out.

I recently went to visit a friend in San Francisco and thought what a perfect place to start my inquiries. We visited several bars and I wasn’t picky about my interviewees. I talked to a variety of men from different ages, ethnicity, and relationship statuses. Here is what I discovered. I hope you enjoy it!

Andrew, 31 from Tornado, CA.
Relationship status: Currently dating a women but not in a serious relationship.
Ideal wine/woman description: A blend of Sangiovese, Cabernet and Petite Sirah, 1/3 of each. Characteristics of ochre and earth tones. Medium bodied with a smooth finish.

Sydney, 26 Hometown is Johannesburg and currently resides in San Francisco.
Relationship status: Single
Ideal wine/woman description: 1995 Pinot Noir from the Russian River Valley. Slightly full bodied with short tannins. Slowly opens up over several courses. Must pair well with steak.

Matthew, 30 from San Francisco
Relationship status: Single but dating
Ideal wine/women description: Older vintage of Malbec. Full bodied and robust, good wine for the price. Appropriate no matter what the meal. A wine that you would bring home to share with the family.

Mike, 40 from the Midwest
Relationship status: Single but dating
Ideal wine/woman description: A Syrah, spicy and unpredictable. Pairs well with Middle Eastern food

Andy, 34 Sebastopol CA
Relationship status: Married
Ideal wine/woman description: 1976 Zinfandel from the Alexander Valley. A little blend of Petite Sirah to add color. Full bodied with deep ruby and strawberry characteristics. Nice combination of spicy and sweet.

So gentlemen…… how would you describe your woman as a wine?

How much does it really cost to start a winery?

It always sparks my interest when people ask me about getting into the wine/viticulture business. Just yesterday my finance and I were in a tasting room in Healdsburg, I like to check out other tasting rooms to get ideas for our own which is starting construction soon.  I pulled out my John Tyler business card and the couple standing next to me were curious about my name. It is a conversation starter anywhere I go pretty much. Once I said that my family owned vineyards they couldn’t stop asking me questions about growing grapes. The couple was from LA and come up to wine county once a month, they confessed they would really like to live here but their jobs prevent them from moving out of the city to the country.

“What do you think about growing grapes verses owning a winery?” asked the husband. Wow, where do you start with that question? Neither of course is easy by any means, I said. But if I had to think about which one was more cost effective I would have to say growing grapes. With a winery you spend literally millions on equipment that basically stands idle for more than half the year, except for when you are crushing.  Lets just say you spend 3 million, on a small winery. Then if you don’t own your own vineyards you must go out and by grapes. Depending on the wine you want to make, Two-Buck-Chuck verses a 45$ bottle of Pinot Noir will dictate how much you spend on the grapes.

In our area, (the Russian River Valley), it is not unheard of to charge $4,500 a ton for high-end Pinot Noir or Chardonnay grapes. So right there you are looking at a nice chunk of change on buying grapes. Lets just say you spend $27,000, which would buy you about 6 tons, not a lot but enough to do a few hundred case of wine.

So you have your winery, and your grapes but what about a winemaker? Unless you plan on making the wine yourself you will need a hire a wine maker, running you approximately $85,000-$100,000 a year, maybe more.

Unless you are planning on bottling the wine in glass bottles and making a homemade label on your PC, you will need to develop a label for your wine.

If you are talented enough that you don’t have to hire a graphic designer you can save a bundle there. Hiring a designer for a wine label can run you $4,000-$10,000 dollars, this might include the development of a website too, which is crucial it you want to sell this wine.

And, this price does not include wine making supplies: yeast, dry ice, labor etc. Those can run you a few thousand dollars as well each year. Lets just say $10,000 a year. What about corks and foils? You will need those too… rough estimate for 500 cases, top grade corks and foils $5,000.

What about bottling this wine? Renting a bottling line can be very pricey and cost you a few thousand dollars, probably about $3,000 each time you plan on bottling.

How do you plan on selling this wine? And please don’t plan on just selling it to family and friends, it is not that easy. Especially if you want to build a brand. So you will need marketing efforts, sales people and travel expenses. If you are a new brand, be prepared to give a lot of wine away to competitions, media outlets and distributors to try and get your name out there.  This can be thousands upon thousands a year, lets just say $20,000 a year as an estimate, it could be more or less depending on your situation.

Needless to say, when you add everything up, starting a winery if not for the faint at heart. Nor is it profitable until you have been up and running for years.  I have heard the average is 10 years to pay off the cost of starting a winery and to become profitable.

With my calculations, just for one year of starting and operating a small winery you are looking at around $3,200,000.  Wow! We are not talking about a few pennies here, And keep in mind this is for your first year of operation, not to mention I am sure I have forgotten other misc things, like hiring an accountant, monthly electricity bills and other expenses that occur with running a business.

So overall starting a winery or planting a vineyard can be time consuming and expensive. But anything worth doing is worth doing right and if your passion and love lies within starting your own wine label or vineyard go for it!

What kind of wine drinker are you?

Open that Bottle Night is February 28th and to be honest, this is the first year that I have heard of this concept. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s a fantastic idea. Having a special night to invite all your friends over for a dinner party and finally open THAT bottle of wine that you have been saving, but you were not quite sure what you have been saving it for. Birthday party, anniversary, promotion; which occasion is special enough to open that prized bottle? But this got me to thinking… there are so many different ”kinds” of wine drinkers, and what kind of wine drinker am I? These are the categories I came up with:

1. Build the cellar

This wine drinker is the collector. Much like I collect shot glasses this is the person who likes to acquire wine purely for the sake of looking at it. Their wine cellar can range from a 2007 Geyser Peak Sauvignon Blanc that retails at $10.00 a bottle to the coveted Screaming Eagle Cabernet Sauvignon that won’t go for less than $1,000; they collect wine. Now it’s not to say that these people don’t like to drink wine as well, it’s just a more difficult decision as to which one to drink. This is when the OTBN would come in handy. It gives these wine drinkers an excuse to open that special bottle, which they have plenty of.

2. Bottle to Bottle

These drinkers are the ones who can’t ever seem to fill their cellar because the moment they buy the wine and put it on the shelf it’s gone the next dinner night. They also tend to be the ones that when they buy a bottle of wine and like it they will buy another one. Every occasion is a good occasion to open a bottle of wine, no matter what bottle. Also storage comes into play with this category as some don’t have the room to store 200 bottles. They may cellar and age some exceptionally special wines but for the most part, the corks get pulled and the wine is drunk.

3. It’s all about the food

Our winemaker Tyler Heck came up with this category as he says this one describes him the best. He says from a winemaker’s perspective it’s difficult to drink a glass of wine without a meal in front of you.

“I tend to not treat wine like a cocktail. I’ll usually go for the scotch on the rocks or a beer if I’m just trying to relax from a hard day’s work. But with a nice dinner, I’m always reaching for the wine. I do cellar and age a lot of the wine in my collection because I know that most are released pre-maturely and will get better with some time. I have to admit that about 85% of the wines in my cellar are red. Wines in my collection include several bottles of Heitz Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon, a Charbono from On the Edge and M2, a private label from Mike Martini. What I am eating will dictate the bottle of wine that I open. Fish, or chicken I’m going with a white, otherwise it’s all about the red.

4. To finish or not to finish? That is the question.

It’s common knowledge that a bottle of wine will typically be about 4 glasses. There are some, like my parents who want just a glass of wine with dinner but rarely ever finish a whole bottle of wine in one sitting with just the two of them. This is where half bottles become very convenient as they usually provide 2 glasses, perfect for couples. On the other hand there are those that just can’t fathom opening a bottle and not drinking the entire thing. Whether they think it won’t be as good the next night or as a child they were always taught to finish all the food on their plate, that bottle is getting drunk.

I’m sure there are many sub categories of wine drinkers but regardless, what ever kind of wine drinker you are there is room for us all. I’m already planning in my head the bottle I want to share at my Open that Bottle Night party. What wine will you be opening? Let us know!

Gettin’ cowboy and crabby

Nicci and Crab and Fennel Fest

Living in the country there is no shortage of excitement, mis-happenings and slip-ups, especially when you least expect it. It’s tradition that every year we attend the Sonoma County Farm Bureau Crab Feed.  Last Saturday night as my mom, dad and I head out the door, looking forward to cracking some crab we hear a clanking sound up in the barn that does just not sound right. After tromping up the hill in my cowboy boots I get to the top to see a female heifer poke her head out of the barn, she had somehow gotten out.

Now over the years this has happened many times so it’s usually no problem. We get a few bodies, post up at the gates and our German Sheppard and round them back into the pasture. But this cow was not having it. She ran around the vineyard for a few minutes, bloody nose and all. Finally we get her down to the gate and she is heading straight towards my mom, ready for a stand off.

We will never know why she chose to go through my mom and out onto the road, maybe she was just looking for a little excitement. Very rarely does one of the cows ever get on the road–I can remember only one other time that this has happened and it is never a good thing. Westside Road is known for wineries, pretty scenery and rolling hills–not three crazy people running around trying to find their lost cow. Finally we find her running back towards the pasture on the road being following by three other cars. I can only imagine what these people are thinking.  Eventually we get her back into the pasture, home safe and sound, I’m sure she is already planning her next escape.

Time for the main event. My grandpa is a seasoned veteran so he always remembers to bring the crab crackers and picks, it makes eating crab a lot more enjoyable. Following dinner is the ever popular live auction where you can bid on everything from  a trip to Las Vegas to a wilderness pig hunt to a dinner for 10 in the Kunde wine cave. Just be sure not to wave your bidder number if you don’t intend to bid… ops! The night’s emcee was Ziggy the Wine Gal, who I absolutely love and follow her “Wine of the Week” on Bob 96.7 FM religiously. The event’s auctioneer was Rex Williams. With 25 years in the business Rex is a respected fixture on the livestock and fair circuits.  We had our full of pasta, salad, clam chowder and of course crab. Looking forward to next year!

On a cold winters night

Mother Nature has been fooling us a little this year as there hasn’t been much weather that suggests its winter. But the recent rain (I have been doing my rain dance every night, religiously) has out me in the mood for a nice, hearty winter meal. This recipe is staple in our house and was crafted by my Grandma Helen Bacigalupi. My mom tells me that Buckaroo is also a term of endearment for a cowboy! Who would have thought that it is also a tasty bean? Enjoy this dish with a nice bottle of John Tyler 2004 Zinfandel!

To start you need 2 ½ cups dry pinto beans. Wash, and pick out any rocks or unsightly beans. Add 6 cups water to the beans and soak overnight. After soaking overnight measure the water the beans were in and then rinse. Add back in fresh water to equal the amount that was measured.

Place the beans with the water in a heavy gauge pot with:
1 large onion coarsely chopped
2 garlic cloves mashed
1 bay leave
1/2 pound smoked ham, salt pork or slab bacon. (Can put bacon rind or any left over bone in ham i.e.: honey sliced ham bone with some attached meat)
2 cups solid pack tomatoes
½ cup green pepper chopped
2 tsp chili powder or more
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
½ Tsp dry mustard
¼ tsp crushed oregano
1 tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper

*Cover and simmer for 1 ½ – 2 hours on the stove top or may also place in pressure cooker for 20 minutes.
Pressure cooking saves time by cooking a wide variety of foods in 1/3 to 1/10 time it would take for stove top cooking.

What’s in a name? Well….quite a lot

Natale Bacigalupi's General Store circa 1906

My great, great Grandfather was the brave immigrant, leaving home to travel to places unknown in search of a new life. Natale Bacigalupi was born in 1861 in a small town in the province of Genoa; Italy in the region Liguria called Cicanga. He came to the US in 1875 as a young boy and settled in San Francisco. Natale’s last name was originally Bacigalupo but changed it to the plural spelling (Bacigalupi) once in California.

For a short while he worked in the vegetable fields (I know–vegetable fields near SF?? who would have thought?). Soon enough he saved some money and bought a small fishing boat. Using the skills he learned in Cicagna as a fisherman he started fishing in the SF bay, selling his catches every morning to the fish market. After several years he made the trip north to Santa Rosa. Here, he did a variety of trades including running a shoe store, a coal yard and finally opening up the family market, following the earthquake of 1906.

He named the store N. Bachigalupi, Groceries and Provisions at 4th and Davis St. Over a period of time he also purchased land in Sonoma County, mostly apple orchards and several acres of vineyards. Natale was also on the board of the first Bank of America branch in Sonoma County. Natale and his sister ran the store together until one of his sons Al and my great grandfather took it over at the ripe age of 17.

I was lucky enough to visit Cicanga on my semester abroad in Italy. The town is mostly a small village, very reminiscent of what I think Healdsburg would be like if it was an old Italian town. Good thing I had learned plenty of Italian because the people did not speak much English. The town was small with several houses, a library and a river running through it. I spent some time walking around the town, trying to imagine what it must have been like for my great great grandfather to live there. Bacigalupi, like many Italian based names translates into a meaning or saying. “Bacio” is kiss and “lupo” is wolf, put it all together and you get…. kiss of the wolf. 

Four Generations. From left: Al, Natale, Charles and John Bacigalupi (age 4). Photo was taken at Natale's 100th birthday.

I am lucky enough to have a  fantastic generational photo of my father, his father, grandfather and great grandfather. Four generations of our family all together in one photo. Pretty amazing!

Zaptastic!

 The ZAPtasting for 2009 at Fort Mason has come and gone and what a good time it was. From several perspectives and from someone who has been to her share of wine tastings both as a producer and as a consumer I have to say that this was a pretty great tasting. In the past ZAP has gotten a bad rap as a tasting focused on Zinfandel but at the end of the day turns into a “drunk fest”. Now with 275 wineries pouring Zins you can see how this would be an easy thing to have happen. This I would have to say that this is actually true for some of the past events but there seemed to be a different vibe among the 8,000 plus people that attended this tasting. There will always be that small group of people who don’t know when to put the wine glass down but this year, that group was much smaller then it has been in the past. With the exception of the guy who grabbed the wine bottle off our table and started pouring it for himself people where generally well behaved.
            For once I noticed a much higher presence in the 20-30 something age category. We all know that this age bracket has become a big percentage of new wine consumers and drinkers in the past few years. Being someone who falls into this category I also know that they are stereotyped into the group of wine drinkers who want to taste but never buy. This year I would have to say that there were more 20 something’s actually genuinely interested in the wine, our family story and signing up for the mailing list.  Wineries are more and more looking for new ways to pull in that millennial purchasing power and I think that tastings like these are a great place to start, especially in a city like SF. We poured both the 2004 and 2005 John Tyler Zinfandel (our new release).
            Tasting events like these are great opportunities for wineries to talk directly with consumers about their products. For smaller wineries who don’t have a tasting room, these venues are often the only time they get direct to consumer contact. After the success at SF ZAP we will also be heading to Austin, Texas for their ZAP event in May. Watch out Texas, we’re coming to your city!