Sonoma-Bodega Adventure 7: Benziger Winery

 

The last winery that we visited was the Benziger Family Winery in Glen Ellen, and getting there was a bit of an adventure. It’s the only winery that I actually planned to visit and unfortunately, I didn’t really play that close attention to the iPad map.

The wife was no help, she’s about as directionally deficient as anyone on earth. Plus, she’s a technophobe and can’t handle anything computer-related, even an iPad. As a consequence, I ended up driving back and forth a bit once I got to Glen Ellen. Plus, we were trying to figure out where our friend worked. 

To make a long story short, I finally spotted a directional sign with the Benziger name barely discernible, and that pointed back the way we had come. Driving very slowly, I finally saw another sign pointing to our left. Turn there … quick! Made it.

So we drove on and on and on, making only one false stop when I saw a bunch of parked tour buses. Nope, not that one, there’s nothing but a house there. Drive on, sir, drive on. Eventually, we found the entrance to Benziger, parked our car, and began our wandering.

 

The people there call themselves a biodynamic, organic winery, meaning that they utilize sustainable farming methods and rely on good old-fashioned methods, using insects that naturally prey on the bad guys, and owls that naturally prey on the larger bad guys.

 

The winery offers a tour at $20 a head, which I grabbed ahold of, asking the Chris, our tour driver, to please wait while the wife took her own sweet time in a restroom. When she emerged, I enthusiastically waved her over to the tram so the nice couple already there could finally get on the way after waiting a considerable time.

 

It was a great tour. A little tractor pulled two trams with us aforementioned four tourists, in and around the vineyard, stopping at appropriate spots for pictures and little lectures on the techniques they use to farm the grapes. Chris plucked a few and we were able to sample the sweet little grapes.

He pointed out little black boxes situated here and there amongst the vines.

They were put there to attract little owls that settled in and hunted mice and rats that ate the fruit. He also pointed out trees used as insectaries, and a big hole showing the various layers of soil and the underground irrigation system that they use. That’s a lot of little plastic tubes they used.

 

 

Leaving the vineyard, Chris took us to the grape harvest assembly area where workers were stirring the crushed grapes in huge metal drums. Some containers of grapes had arrived from just being picked, so we got to sample those as well (much sweeter than the somewhat dried ones he had given us in the trams earlier).

 

We then proceeded into the Benziger caves for a lesson on how the barrels are made, and a remarkable view of row after row of aging casks resting there in that cool and humidity-controlled environment. Quite a sight indeed, with tunnel after tunnel looming before us.

Let me tell you, I didn’t want to go back outside in the glaring hot sunlight.

But, all good things must end, and Chris left us at the wine-tasting room and the gift shop. I actually had a small glass of their Chardonnay … not much, after all, I did have a lot of driving to do. I’ll tell you about that next.