Grape Camp

July 24, 2008 | Uncategorized

If you drink only beer, water or fruit juice, you don’t need to rack your brain on this.

But for all you wine drinkers, here’s a good trivia question: about how many grapes does it take to make one bottle of wine?

Give it some thought, survey the audience, call your favorite sommelier.

Okay - time’s up. The answer: about 630.

No, this is not a pitch for a new television game show, but a segue into life in a vineyard during grape harvest. Which is probably the only place you’ll find people who would think to ask how many grapes go into a bottle of wine.

Years ago when I was an executive with Air France, I attended a wine “christening” for a vintage of the great Vosne-Romanée wines from the Côte de Nuits area of Burgundy. The spectacular was set in one of the wine caves and attended by perhaps a thousand people, with the sumptuous dinner prepared by the greatest chefs of Dijon. I and my colleague Rosario — both of us in our dark business suits — had wangled invitations and were seated for away from the grand events at the other end of the cave.  In fact, we were at the very back of the cave. But little did I know that I would find this the best seat in the house.

There were only four of us at our long table until just before the music and dinner began. Then, slipping through a doorway to our near-empty table came a half-dozen local farmers with rumpled pants, old tweed jackets, hands and faces crevassed by the years, looking as if they had been brought out of central casting. They sat down at the table — the eldest sitting across from me — each placing a brown bag on the floor beneath his chair.

When dinner ended, and the celebrities up front wooing and swooning over one another, the real magic at my table began. Down at the far end one farmer pulled an old bottle of Vosne-Romanée from his bag, pulled a corkscrew from his jacket pocket and asked us all if we’d like a taste of his 1974 vintage. Over the next half hour or so, each farmer produced his own gift for the table, each successive vintage more aged than the previous, each farmer nodding approval after a sip or two, and ending with, if I remember correctly, a 1955 vintage.

After we had tasted one wonderful glass after the other, there was silence at the table. Then all eyes turned to the patriarch sitting across from me as he reached into his bag and brought out a bottle covered with decades of dust. He leaned slightly over the table to me and said, “Monsieurre, would you like to taste my 1934?” To this day I can say it was the only time in my life I felt as if I were drinking liquid velvet.

You can’t have these experiences in your local tavern or restaurant, but only out in the valleys and vineyards of grape country. Which is one of the reasons why Sonoma County California has hit a home run with “Grape Camp” (it would probably be better to use a wine or food, not a baseball, analogy here but I can’t think of any right now).

Grape Camp is a three-day behind-the-scenes wine adventure for 25 people who want to explore the art of winemaking, literally from the ground up, vine to bottle. It is the brainchild of the aptly named Larry Levine (pronounced “lee-vine”), a former Los Angeles public relations executive who specialized in wine and food, and had a career in the wine and restaurant industry for 20 years before that.

I spoke with Larry on the phone about an hour ago and he told me that although people in the vineyards are great to talk with the rest of the year, during the harvest they focus 24/7 only on the grapes. Grape Camp, though, provides the opportunity to speak with them at this critical time of year. “After wine people experience the harvest, it affects how they drink wine for the rest of their lives,” he told me.

The camp — produced by the Sonoma County Winegrape Commission and Relish Culinary School – provides not only a hands-on grape-harvesting experience, but also allows attendees to enjoy the fruits of their labors by blending a wine to take home. And having access to some of the top winemakers in the country would seem to be a very good way to help ensure the success of your first bottle of Chateau Jones.

What is nice from a food perspective — camp also includes a “Cooking with Sonoma Wine” workshop, as well as other culinary activities — is that you’re also provided access to influential chefs who, along with the guys in the vineyards, have helped kick Sonoma up a notch or two as a tourism destination.

Now in its second successful year, Grape Camp was such a hit last year that 94% of those who attended said they would come back for a reunion camp. Now that’s customer satisfaction.

This year’s activities — which take place September 29 - October 1 — also include a private dinner feast in a wine cave, an outdoor vineyard reception-dinner overlooking the Dry Creek Valley at Frei Brothers Reserve Winery — featuring a kickoff toast by Gina Gallo, winemaker of Gallo Family Vineyards — a picnic lunch featuring a top local cheesemaker and an optional special “all Pinot Noir” graduation camp dinner.

Tuition is $1,500 per person for each couple and includes two nights stay at the Vintners Inn, all meals, tastings and transportation during camp (the optional celebration dinner is $115, tax and tip included).

Now, I shall break your heart — it’s all sold out for this year (well, come on, it’s almost August already) –  but Larry has told me that he is continuing to take names in case of cancellations.

And, of course, there’s always next year.

Jim Ferri