jessicapecota.com

This time of year in the Napa Valley, crews are busily pruning the vines.

They then burn the big piles of clippings.

Our first winter season living here, we were quite surprised by this. It just didn’t seem to fit in with the earth-friendly, eco-conscious attitude that dominates daily life in a rural area devoted to agriculture.

We were told that this burning is necessary to prevent the spread of bugs. And there are some nasty bugs that could completely wipe out acres and acres, if not all, of Napa’s vineyards.

The burning is carefully monitored and controlled. We were told that only a certain number of wineries can burn so much on any certain day. Some days no one can burn.

Now, to us, those first fires are actually a welcome sign of the coming holiday season.

The smoke you see in the photo above is from the burning at Schweiger Vineyards a few weeks back. At first I was a bit surprised to see this since it seemed so early in the season. I actually thought it was leftover morning mountain fog.

But now that it is almost December, we’ll likely be experiencing the burnings on a just-about-daily basis.

Growing up in Wisconsin, we’d see tractors on a daily basis. In fact, I can remember certain drivers cursing at them when trying to pass on the highway.

Here in the Napa Valley, we see tractors on a daily basis. And, I know of certain drivers who curse at them when trying to pass on Highway 29.

When we were at Schweiger Vineyards last week, they had two of their tractors just parked right there in the vineyard. I really enjoyed the juxtapostion of the heavy machinery against the colored grape leaves and blue, blue sky.

When I was a little girl, my mom worked in a dental office (well, periodontal office).

On all those random school holidays, we ( = my older sister, younger brother and I) would go along to work with her. There was a special little room we’d camp out in, complete with TV & mini-fridge.

Still, we’d get bored. I remember running through the office, flirtatiously hiding from staff and patients alike. Flying in that dental chair up & down. Up & down. Playing with that gun that shoots air and water.  Cold air & cold water.

In one of those almost-blinding, mind-smacking moments, I was abruptly brought back to those days while we were at Schweiger Vineyards this past weekend.

It happened when the young Schweiger daughter, Christina, nonchalantly walked through the barrel room/tasting room (with kitty in tow in that classic kid-about-strangling-the-dear-so-patient-animal way).

She walked right past us, so casually, incidentally, and went directly into the case storage area and climbed up at least five stacks of case boxes. 

In case you can’t picture that, five stacked case boxes is quite high. Probably about 5 feet or so. High for a kiddo who’s 3 feet high.

Right at that moment, I think I said: “What a cool place for a kid to play.” And I meant it.

How cool.

As part of our reviewing family-friendly wineries project, we’ve often looked to the Napa Vintners Association website for guidance. They have a Winery Finder tool on there and, behold, one of the search options is family-friendly (others are dog-friendly, wine caves, picnic areas, unique architecture, et cetera).

Today, due to their family-friendly listing on the Vintners’ site we visited Schweiger Vineyards. Located just 15 or so minutes up Spring Mountain Road west of downtown Saint Helena, this winery certainly lives up to the classification.

After a lovely, twistyturny drive into the mountains, we pulled up to their gate and this view of their terraced vineyards and Mount Saint Helena:

We continued up the long gravel driveway until we came upon the winery buildings and a blonde woman, a blonde little girl and two dogs–one, yes, blonde; the other black–came out to greet us.

After kindly introductions to Diana Schweiger and her daughter Christina–and Blitzen and Sid–we tasted their Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay–both excellent, and we even generally aren’t Chard fans–right there at a nice, small wood bar in the production area (that’s wineryspeak for the gorgeously utilitarian area where all the big stainless steel fermentation tanks are).

From there we all headed down into the barrel room and to a second casual, intimate tasting bar. As Samantha enjoyed a Capri Sun (you know a winery is truly family-friendly when they have juice on hand for the kiddos) we tasted through the reds–a Merlot, a Cabernet Sauvignon, a Bordeaux-style blend named Dedication and a Port, each fantastic with classic, big mountain fruit.

Then, Christina came through with Nutmeg–their astonishingly calm calico winery kitty. When Christina and Nutmeg climbed the stacks of case boxes (what a cool place to play!), we knew right away where Samantha was headed:

Since the Sauvignon Blanc was perfect for us with our picnic fare, we grabbed a bottle and headed up and out to the lawn. Diana and Christina set us up with a great picnic table overlooking  the valley:

A beautiful sense of calm prevailed as we enjoyed our cheese, charcuterie, and baguette with the SB.

We felt like we were at someone’s home. Which, well, we were. We felt so comfortable. It was lovely.

Samantha played:

We were the only ones there, except of course, Sid:

And I finally got the shot I’ve been wanting (usually one of us has a funny look or something):

We finished up our picnic; another small group of visitors arrived. As we said goodbye to Diana, Christina, Sid and Blitzen, we stopped to take a few more photos: