Since we were in the Napa Valley and ostensibly on a food and wine tour, we thought we should go visit a winery or two. Just before we left on the trip, we happened to see a show on one of the cable channels we don’t normally watch and it was about several businesses in the Napa Valley, one of which was a winery called Frog’s Leap. It was well done and the owner was interviewed and it seemed like he had such a fun time running his business that we decided to remember the name and go when we got here. One of the things he said was that any business decision they made while sober, had to be reviewed later over a glass of wine.
Frog’s Leap was on the list of the MANY wineries in the area and it was a simple matter to plug it into our GPS and just go. We drove up the scenic Silverado Trail to the area called Rutherford and found it with no problem. As we drove on to the grounds however, we saw a sign that said “tours by appointment” and we almost turned around, since we didn’t have an appointment. Were we ever glad we didn’t. Driving in the long driveway, we passed a pumpkin patch and saw the big red barn we had heard about in the show. We saw some workers doing something with big pieces of equipment and waved and them and they waved back. We turned toward what looked like the wine tasting rooms, and noticed a sign at that junction that said to the right “play”and to the left “work”. So we turned right of course!
When we got to the beautiful wine tasting and offices building, we asked about the tours thing and they said that we could just wander around the grounds as much as we liked on our own and we were welcome to a wine tasting if we liked. Of course we said “yes!” and signed up for the tasting. It was about $15 each and we got four different wines, three red and a white. We also got water and bread and cheese and some fruit, to go with the different wines. Yet another very nice young woman told us about the wines and answered any other questions we had. We enjoyed ourselves tremendously, with no pressure from anyone to do anything.
After, we asked about walking the grounds and they told us that nowhere was off limits and we could take our time and look at anything we wanted. It sounded too good to be true but it wasn’t. We headed off the back porch where we had had the tasting and into the gardens. Of course, we were surrounded by vines but closer to the house, they had planted fruit trees and vegetables and herbs and flowers. I was in heaven. It was the kind of garden I have always dreamed about, except perhaps on a larger scale. We walked by a water garden too, with koi swimming in it, and passed a chicken coop with real chickens hanging about and a rooster to crow over them. Even though it was the afternoon, he was busy crowing the whole time.
And then we had the great good fortune to meet Brad. He was walking by as we were peeking into a building and answered whatever our question was and then he said, “well let me show you this …” and we ended up being taken on an hour long private tour of the facility, and he showed us all the things he had built there and told us so much about the place. He was educated as a mechanical engineer but he has the facility to build or invent whatever is necessary and is hired by the owners of Frog’s Leap to do whatever needs to be done.
He showed us the machine he made to separate the grapes from their juice and a staircase he built to the lower levels of the winery. And he showed us the barrels and barrels of wine being matured. He showed us a stainless steel vat that he built for the white wine to mature. It was amazing.
He also told us that Frog’s Leap is one of the few truly sustainable and organic wineries around. None of their vines are irrigated. When they are planted, they are stressed so their roots go down many feet and therefore, they don’t need to be irrigated. They have also installed solar panels and try to be free of the grid as much as possible.
At the end of our informal tour, when we were feeling guilty about keeping Brad from his work, I decided to mention in my effusive thanks to him, that one of the reasons we were there at all was because this was my “reward trip” for having endured chemotherapy. It turned out that he had just finished radiation for prostate cancer, having endured the surgery and complications. I don’t know if it made his part of the tour more meaningful but it surely did mine.
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