Fun is an understatement. Probably one of the most educational wine days I have ever had. Will Bucklin was a great host at Old Hill Ranch. A true organic farmer who believes everything has a purpose. Dino from Pagani is not the public speaking type. He lets the grapes speak for him. Tegan was a pure pleasure to listen to as we toured Fredericks Vineyard. He is loaded with great ideas of how to farm. Morgan is Morgan, I’ve met nobody more passionate about his craft and Bedrock Vineyard is a true gem in the valley.
I’ll toss out some photos I took:
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Will Bucklin of Old Hill Ranch and Bucklin Wines
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120 year old Grenache Vine at Old Hill
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Will took Old Hill from a vineyard in disrepair that was overgrown with blackberries to the delightful vision is now takes on. The only thing different now from when it was planted is the use of the combustion engine to draw the plow. Planted in 10 x 7 spacing it is unique in the valley as well as being the oldest vineyard in the Sonoma Valley.
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Pagani Ranch
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Old vine Lenoir has an unusual leaf shape. The fruit is red skinned and red juiced and is used for color more than anything else.
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View looking west from high up on Fredericks Vineyard. It was a glorious day in the valley.
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They brought in some very impressive looking olive trees that lined the road from the house to the tennis courts
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Looking SW towards the Golden Gate
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Tegan talking about their farming practices at Fredericks which includes hand spading the soil around the vines.
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A real pretty vineyard
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Old Vine Carignane at Bedrock
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Morgan beams when he talks about his vineyard
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The Derivative white from Carlisle was awesome. A Semillion blend from Monte Rosso
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Fredericks
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Joel Peterson welcoming and entertaining the crowd
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Carole Meredith told a great story of her pursuit for the origin of Zinfandel and how she ended up finding it in a 9 vine vineyard of Crljenak Kaštelanski on the coast of Croatia that was an exact DNA match to what we have here in California
It was great to finally meet you Carole!
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Just to show they do not discriminate they invited Bob Biale and his Napa Zinfandel
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The food didn’t suck either
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Bedrock Zinfandel
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Prepared for the long haul
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Our hosts: Mike Officer, Joel Peterson, Mike Dildine, Tegan Passalacqua, David Gates and Morgan Peterson. The men of the hour!
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Sunset on Bedrock
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Old Vine Barbera
Lots of good people, good food and good wine. Not pictured was the 10 Bedrock Compagni Portis, 09 Buclkin Grenache, 01 Ridge Buchagnini Ranch Zinfandel. Left crowd shots out to protect the innocent. Can’t wait for next year!