Sonoma County is producing wonderful, award winning wines at staggering rates. The surrounding landscape is full of sweeping views of vineyards between all of the popular destinations along the major thoroughfares. However, guests at the Raford Inn don’t have to go any farther than a short jaunt down the front steps of the Inn to find our own private vineyard given careful attention daily by owner, Dane.
After our hearty gourmet country breakfast guests are invited to go on a private vineyard tour at 1o:30– the perfect time of day for a stroll through the vineyard. Here are some highlights from Dane’s tour:
Here Dane is showing one of our guests sun-ripened Pinot noir grapes. It’s a beautiful little cluster and will be just perfect for harvest time in six weeks!
Here is Dane showing a huge cluster of Zinfandel grapes. Impressive, but still have a long way to go to become the perfect wine. Dane will insure these grapes will continue to get all the loving care they need to make that happen. Dane explains on the tour that when he and Rita purchased the Inn six years-ago, the vineyard was in sad disrepair. Dane had essentially inherited a failing crop that had been ignored for years. However, after all the care and love Dane has shown the vineyard over the years, it continues to produce two hundred and fifty Zinfandel vines, a hundred Primativo, thirty Pinot noir, twenty Cabernet Sovereign, and five Gewurztraminer. The vines in the vineyard are as young as four months old and as old as twenty-five years. Here is one of our “Old Boys,” as Dane would call them:
Isn’t he beautiful? Dane explains that he uses no pesticides or anything to prevent any damages to the grapes. He feels it’s worth the 5 to 10% loss every year to make sure the natural balance of nature within the vineyard isn’t disturbed. The vineyard is truly bio-dynamic and thrives accordingly. Here is an example of the balance in the vineyard:
On the left is a leaf where a bug has eaten and sucked the juice from the stem leaving nothing for the leaf. You can see a little bulb a couple of inches from the leaf where the bug chose to feed from. On the right, on the same stem, is a healthy leaf with a happy, beneficial lady bug.
Because the vineyard is bio-dynamic, Dane has no problem letting guests sample the fruits right off the vine!
Sweet, ripe, and juicy! You can tell they are shaping up to be a clean, bright, and drinkable as it is edible, Zinfandel.
Right now in our wine cellar is a 2009 Zinfandel that is incubating. It takes careful observation and sampling by Dane daily to ensure it’s quality:
Wine can only be officially monitored in the most optimal of settings. Although, it’s not just up to Dane to decide how great the wine is, but our good friends!
Salud!
Please, we invite you to be our guests on our vineyard tour and at the Raford Inn!
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