Friday February 17

Peju Winery & Inglenook Winery / Caves

Today was a great day in spite of the weather - the forecast called for 100% chance of rain today and we figured (a) it would be like our several trips to Alaska where "they say" it rains all the time but it's never, ever rained on us through four different trips there, or more likely (b) it would rain today but off and on at best.  Well, it was raining when we got up and rained until we went to bed.  Not a torrential downpour, but a steady rain all day.  Didn't bother us at all.  The day began with Kim and I walking across the street, just right across the street so she could get here daily cappuccino - so she was happy, so I was happy!  Then I worked on the journal and photos from the first day in the living room downstairs while she surfed the web, checked email, etc. until her twin sister Karrie got joined us, with husband Randy shortly thereafter.

At 8:30 am breakfast was prepared and ready for everyone so we moved into the dining area - which has three walls which are all glass and a ceiling of all glass!  The menu for today - Homemade yogurt and granola (original recipe from the owners); white wine poached pears - just to die for; fruit salad; maple walnut scones; corn souffle with an avocado and tomato salad on top, with chicken & apple sausage.  Hot coffee and/or orange juice finished the delightful meal to start the morning.  All prepared fresh by our host and chef, Max.

After breakfast I climbed to the third level of the outside deck and took this picture of the property.  You can see the glass ceiling of the breakfast room on the left just past the tree......

Peju Winery Tour & Tasting

The first outing of the day was to head to Peju Winery.  The twins and Randy had been here before but none had taken the tour.  We had an 11:30 am reservation for a "private" tour and tasting.  And trust me - after being on many winery tours recently, if you can, THIS is the way to go.  Just the four of us with our personal guide to take us through the history of the winery property, the family, and then the tasting.  The most interesting thing of the tour was when we discovered the the owner's family was originally from Iran - which is where the twins spent a good deal of their childhood and early teen years.

The multi-level facility was interesting to walk around and the process was similar but in many ways different from the French wineries we've toured in the last year.  As part of the tour we went through several different rooms and areas......

Close up of the detail in the stain glass mural

When it came time for the tasting we were escorted up to the very top of the tower to a private loft and were greeted by a table setting for four with a plate of appetizers specially prepared by the chef on the property specifically designed to go with the five wines were were going to taste.  And the food, oh my - it was so delicious.  So much so we asked to meet the chef to give him our personal compliments.  Half way through the tasting of the various wines I asked Chris, our guide if we'd be tasting any white wine or blush wines.  I explained these were my favorites.  So he paused, pointed at me and said, "I'm going to go get you three wines that will go with the food samples that you will LOVE."  When he returned he continued with the three last and most expensive red wines for the other three, while I had a white, a rose - DELICIOUS - and a "Provence" wine that was intended to be served chilled and was a special blend of three red wines and three white wines.  That was the best wine of the day and we WILL order several bottles of this!

Note the centered window - that's where we were

Inglenook Winery Tour-Tasting-Caves

When the Peju experience ended it was about 1:30 pm and we were schedule to begin our tour at Inglenook at 3 pm.  The other three had been here before.  We decided there was a lot to look at inside so we'd go ahead of time and explore on our own.  Which we did and then sat in their cafe area until it was time to start the tour.  Side story.......When we came out here for our oldest son's wedding I'd flown back to Florida to run the high school graduation.  But the twins stayed here in California with their parents, and our youngest son, to cruise up and down the California coast line.  Well one day they were HERE and went to the Inglenook Winery and were headed to the Peju winery next.  Between the five of them, a GPS, an atlas, and "Mapquest" on their laptop they set out to travel the distance between the two facilities.  Somehow - I can't explain this part because I wasn't there - apparently there was a GREAT DEAL of "discussion," let's go so far as to say "heated discussion" about which direction to go, turns to make, etc.  As the famous family story goes, they were on the road for some forty-five minutes before arriving the 0.1 miles it is  between the two wineries. That's right, they are nearly right across the road from one another, but somehow it took them nearly an hour of driving around to discover this :)

While, without question, the BEST experience of the day was at Peju, the best story of the day came here at Inglenook.  In 1879, Finnish sea captain Gustave Niebaum had amassed a fortune of over $10 Million - a huge sum in today's world, much less in 1879!  He wanted to build a wine estate that would rival Europe's best.  He took his wine to an international wine tasting and brought home all the medals that fulfilled his dream of producing world class wine.  There is a LOT to the story of the brand that makes the history fascinating, but the last and most recent part of the story of the property is the last part I'll share.  Famous Hollywood filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola was looking for a scenic piece of property to purchase in the area where he and his wife could settle and he bought this property.  He had no intentions of being a wine maker.  But when he met his neighbor Robert Moldavian he came to understand that some of the best wine in the WORLD was in the cellars of his property - some of the ORIGINAL WINE of that had been made by Gustave Niebaum some 85 years ago!  And so began the return to greatness of the Inglenook name and wines.  

We began our tour by climbing the grand staircase - made from Coppola's trees from a South American rain forest - and the second floor had been cut open to make room for the staircase.  After being given some of the basic history and some of the description on how the wines are developed we went back downstairs and our guide opened the front doors to reveal the wines on the front part of the property.  He said at this point, normally, the group would go out and walk the grounds.  But today with all the rain we were going to do something that is very rarely done (because rain is so infrequent in So Cal).....we were headed down to the caves beneath the mansion and would walk the length of those caves until we reach the opening on the back of the property where we'd see the backside vineyards and the personal home/mansion of Francis Coppola and his family!  What an amazing part of the day that turned out to be - check out the short video of this part of the day below.

Inglenook Caves

Next, after re-tracing our steps through the caves we went into a special tasting room and sampled four of the best wines they make - the last of which was a white wine, which was my favorite.  And in front of us were cheeses which were specifically selected to be paired with the wines we tasted.