Mendocino County wines meet Danish ancestors on the Wilderness Road to Nowhere

Friday, 5 October.  Today was our planned trip over to Mendocino County wine country, especially the Anderson Valley region, well-known for their Pinot Noir, Gewürztraminer, and off-dry Riesling wines.  Pinot Noir, however, is what’s making the Valley famous - it now ranks as one of the top Pinot Noir regions in North America. While production is not huge, quality is soaring, as the Valley becomes more and more known for producing sleek, powerful Pinots.  So, what’s making this happen, you might ask? Well, an unusual transverse appellation, cuts laterally through the coastal range rather than lying between ridges; Anderson Valley is also only 10-15 miles from the cold Pacific Ocean. These factors result in a wide range of daily temps, with daily highs and lows diverging up to 40 or 50 degrees. This enables Pinot Noir growers to keep acid development in line with sugar and flavor formation through long, warm Indian summers.  Anyway, I digress; back to today’s outing. To get us to the coast and through the Anderson Valley, my brother, Laren, tipped us off to a very picturesque route we could take, Hiway 128 out of Cloverdale that connects Hiway 101 with California’s coastal Hiway 1.   If ever in this region and looking for some beautiful scenery – especially the coastal redwoods and huge stands of Douglas firs  – then 128 is the way to go.  An added plus is the wonderful wine country of the Anderson Valley.  This fertile valley of rolling hills, about 20-miles in length, has literally dozens of wineries – and tasting rooms – that can be accessed directly from 128.  A word of caution: the first 25 miles of 128 from Cloverdale to Boonville (the beginning of Anderson Valley) is VERY twisty and curvy, including some hairpin turns.  And this wasn’t even the worst road we were on today – but more on that later. 

Anderson Valley viewpoint

The Valley is a sparsely populated region in western Mendocino County, located about 100 miles or a two-hour drive north of San Francisco. Once we reached Boonville, we began seeing one winery after another.  This pattern continued throughout the rest of our trip through the Valley as we cruised through the small towns of Yorkville, Philo, and finally Navarro, which marked the end of Anderson Valley.  The highway more or less follows the Navarro River and its tributaries until it empties into the Pacific Ocean at the junction of Hiways 1 and 128.  There are any number of websites that offer plenty of info on the Anderson Valley; here’s one that I like:  Anderson Valley Appellation.

Our first wine tasting stop today – and it was a beautiful, low-70’s day, with some low clouds – was at the Breggo winery.  Breggo, BTW, means “sheep” in “Boontling.”  And what is Boontling you may ask?  Well, basically it’s a made-up folk language by the residents of Boonville.  While based on English, Boontling's unusual words are unique to Boonville. Scottish Gaelic and Irish, and some Spanish, also influenced the vocabulary of the language.  Boontling was invented in the late 19^th century and had quite a following at the turn of the 20^th century. It is now mostly spoken only by aging native Anderson Valley residents. Because Boonville only has about 700 residents, Boontling is an extremely esoteric dialect, and is quickly becoming archaic. It does have, however, over a thousand unique words/phrases.  If interested, here’s the Wikipedia entry for Boontling: Boontling Wikipedia , and here’s something from the Anderson Valley Historical Society.

But back to the wines we tasted at the Breggo winery.   We were their first customers of the day, so the tasting room lady spent quite a bit of time with us, chatting as we sampled the wines.  We ended up buying two bottles of wine: a very nice Chardonnay and an excellent Gewürztraminer.  This latter purchase would prove to be our best bet of today’s wine tasting adventure, since we ended up with a total of four different Gewürztraminers.  After Breggo we stopped at Goldeneye, which turned out to be a gem of a wine tasting experience.  While we bought no wines, we thoroughly enjoyed the whole encounter with this winery.  A tip to my brother, Laren: if ever through this area, suggest stopping at Goldeneye and opt for one of their wine flights.  We took the combination of whites and Pinot Noirs – a good choice.  The charge is $15, but we shared the wine, so not so expensive.  The entire experience was first class all the way.  The winery has beautiful landscaping and an outdoor wine tasting patio, with a wonderful view of their vineyards and the surrounding hills.  One of the most beautiful wine tasting settings I’ve come across – and I’ve been doing this for a number of years.  We were served individual glasses of each wine, accompanied by individual coasters with info on each coaster about that wine.  We were also served small bowls of dried cherries and toasted almonds to accompany the wine tasting.  Like I said, first class from the wine tasting room to patio to panoramic views.  Check out these photos from the winery,

 

 

That's me on the left, blue shirt, sipping a glass of wine and enjoying life!

From Goldeneye we continued our journey to the coast on 128 and stopped at the Toulouse Vineyards in Philo, CA.  Toulouse is a smaller, more Mom-and-Pop, boutique winery, but very friendly.  They are apparently re-doing their tasting room, so we were ushered into some sort of wine warehouse that contained bins and bins of freshly picked grapes.

Toulouse Vineyards

 

 





Toulouse wine casks waiting the aging process

We ended up buying another bottle of Gewurtz, along with two boxes of delicious crackers that were served while we tasted the various wines.  I simply have to “plug” these crackers since they were very, very good.  The brand is John Wm Macy’s Cheese Crisps (all natural sourdough); this particular cracker flavor was Cheddar and Asiago. If you can ever get your hands on these puppies, try a box.  We bought two and I’m sure we’re going to wish later on we had purchased more!  Oh, I almost forgot: We were greeted by the winery’s official greeter, Tess, a golden lab.  Very friendly, a beautiful animal!

Tess

Our final wine tasting for the day – not by design, but more on that later – turned out to be at Navarro Vineyards, one recommended to us by several local residents in this region.  Navarro was pretty busy when we stopped by, so this wasn’t a very personal wine tasting where one can chat with the wine servers in a more leisurely manner.  But we tasted the full suite of whites, including several Gold Medal winners: two Chardonnays; a Sauvignon Blanc; an off-dry Riesling; and an Edelzwicker. While all were quite good, we once again ended up buying the one very nice Gewurtz that we tried.  Go figure.  BTW, Navarro uses Babydoll sheep to weed its vineyards throughout the year.  Originally a coastal English breed, these miniature sheep are quite thrifty and don’t require grain or supplemental feed; the cover crops in Navarro’s vineyards provide ample feed.

By the time we finished our wine tasting at Navarro, time had once again slipped away from us.  We had things to do and places to be, so we pointed the Saturn west and headed for the coast.  We reached the junction of 128 and 1 a little after 1:00, so we thought we’d look for a place to eat in nearby Mendocino.  Well, let me tell you: I couldn’t find a restaurant or café (other than a burger joint) to save my life.  I did spy a couple B&B’s and inns as we were leaving town that might have offered a bite to eat, but nary a dining establishment that suited our desires – mainly seafood.  So, it was off further north to Ft. Bragg.  Once again, it was hard to find something other than fast food on 101 that runs through this coastal town.  So, we turned around at the far end of town, and were heading south when Lynette suddenly spotted a small sign pointing to “The Harbor.”  I made a sharp turn and we followed this rather non-descript road, winding our way down to a tiny, but very picturesque, and busy harbor. We ended up for lunch at Silver’s at The Wharf where Lynette FINALLY (she’s been looking for some while) had her Crab Louie salad.  I opted for an equally-satisfying crab melt sandwich.  Very tidy lunch indeed, even if it did take us a while to find a place to eat.   After satisfying our hunger pangs, we headed south on 101 (and later 1) to hopefully locate some trace of where Lynette’s great-great-grandparents Pedersen had lived and were married.  Somewhere near present-day Elk should be what remains of the town of Cuffey’s Cove.  The current California State Hiway map shows a Cuffey’s Cove and Cuffey’s Inlet just a mile or so north of Elk – so that’s where we headed.  As a side note, I knew I needed gas, but opted NOT to fill up in Ft. Bragg, thinking I would find something in Mendocino or another town down the road.  This would come back to haunt me later.  As we neared Elk, we suddenly came around a sharp corner and there, glaring at us in cold hard steel letters were the words “Cuffey’s Cove” over the entrance to a Catholic cemetery.

As I slammed on the brakes, we suddenly saw a small dirt road off to our right.  I quickly pulled in and there is front of us, overlooking the mighty Pacific Ocean, with an absolutely spectacular view, was an old Protestant cemetery.  We were shocked – the old Cuffey’s Cove cemetery was still in use.  And this location must be very close to where the actual town once existed before Elk’s thriving lumber industry doomed it into oblivion. 

Coffey's Cove Protestant cemetary, looking out at the Pacific Ocean

 



A view from the cemetery looking across the water to the town of Elk.

 We must have walked around both cemeteries for over an hour, looking for any “Pedersen” that might be buried there.  We knew Lynette’s great-great-grandparents had separately migrated from Denmark to this part of California, married, and then moved on to Washington State; we also knew that her great-great-grandfather, Neils Pedersen, had an uncle who also lived in the Cuffey’s Cove area.  Ergo, the reason we looked at all the gravestones.  We did find a “Charles Petersen,” and although the spelling is not exactly right, it could be a relative.  The dates are about right, so this will require additional genealogy research.  But Lynette was sky-high that we’d found the cemetery and couldn’t wait to tell her Mom.  What luck!

By now it was getting late, so we decided to forgo any more wine tasting on the way back to Cloverdale and head back to our campground.  But first I needed some gas.  Alas, we drove down the coast for some time and I began to seriously worry.  I knew Point Arena was several more miles south (opposite direction that I wanted to go), so I made the decision to trust our luck.  And YES!  Point Arena had one measly service station where I filled that tank at – now get this – FIVE DOLLARS a gallon!  Cost me over $70 to fill up the Saturn!  But, hey – I figured I probably would have paid just about ANYTHING at that point.  Lesson learned: fill up when you have the chance.

So, now we headed north on Hiway 1 again, and eventually east to Cloverdale.  I checked our map and found a small road that ran east to Boonville, where we could pick up 128 again; this could save us some time.  I should have paid attention to the name of the road and concluded there might be a logical reason it was named Mountain View Road.  I have NEVER, EVER driven on a more twisty, curvy road than this one.  At times I was gripping the wheel in the standard “10 and 2 o’clock” fashion, turning the steering wheel this way, then that way, then left, thn right, and then left again.  I felt like I was playing the Nintendo Mario Cart video game with my granddaughter, Rayne, or grandson, Ben – both are so much better than their PaPa, BTW.  At times this road just hugged the ridge line, as we moved in and out of one stand ofHUGE redwood trees to another, often creating a dark canopy above us as we continued to weave our way through this nightmare.  We passed very few signs of civilization, and the road often became one lane.  Thank goodness the road was paved, although “paved” is used loosely in describing the road.  We were both very glad indeed to finally come out at Boonville – and very relieved to reach our campground just before dark.

All in all, today turned out to be a really great day of wine tasting, sightseeing, exploring the redwoods of Mendocino, and of course, the exciting genealogy discoveries.  Did I mention exhausting?  Oh, yes – we decided today’s excitement and adventure were enough for the time being.  Believe tomorrow just might be a “down day” and we’ll just be lazy.  Might take in a movie or just stay put and do some reading.  More to come….

P.S.  I found out later that the “infamous Mountain View Road” is one leg of the four to six day, 250-420 mile Mendocino bicycle tour.  No wonder I gripped that wheel so tightly!