I enjoyed a good chuckle tonight when I arrived home from work. There on the steps was a UPS package addressed to Winehiker Reviews Wine. It looked like it could contain a bottle of wine, but when I picked it up, the package wasn’t heavy enough to contain a 750ml bottle - at least a full one. Curious, naturally, and Swiss Army knife at hand, always, I set down the sunglasses, the keys, and the mail and proceeded to open the little brown mystery box.

Seems those nice folks at Clif Bar liked last week’s post about their wines so much that they decided to “sweeten” the deal by sending me two cases of Carrot Cake Clif bars - my favorite!

Golly, if Kit & Gary ever decide to open a restaurant, I will be so there.

Though I suppose it’ll be a bit hard to ship a four-course, five-star dining experience via UPS. Not that I wouldn’t take receipt of such, mind you. Indeed, there are times when I am easily amused.

Thanks, Clif Bar!
~winehiker

Its expansive panoramic views of the Pacific Ocean extend all the way down to Monterey Bay. Facing south, breathtaking landscapes of the Santa Cruz Mountains are shaded periwinkle blue in the distance. Natural springs, numerous creeks, and wetland habitat are distinct features as well as its bigleaf maples, bay laurels and lush grasslands. Across its 1,047 acres of premier hilltop ranchland, opportunities for fine hiking experiences abound.

Located within a strategic swath of nearly 33,000 acres of open space, Mindego Hill is a critical link in a chain of open lands extending along the spine of the Santa Cruz Mountain range. Image source: Peninsula Open Space Trust.

This isn’t heaven, but it’s close. And though this dramatic mountain property is quite real, its future as a wilderness destination may not be. That’s why the Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) is asking for our help in preserving the landscape known as Mindego Hill, which is adjacent to the Russian Ridge Open Space Preserve near the junction of Skyline Boulevard and Alpine Road.

Since its founding in 1977, POST has been responsible for saving 60,000 acres as permanent open space and parkland in San Mateo, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties. From the POST website, GoMindego.org:

Mindego Hill requires immediate and extraordinary action to prevent private development of the land. With its proximity to Silicon Valley and world-class views, this premiere property is a prime candidate for subdivision, which would result in a gradual diminishing of resource values and scenic protection.

If we don’t protect Mindego Hill now, we could lose this signature landscape forever. POST seeks to protect the land’s visual impact, wildlife habitat, watershed resources and recreation potential for the benefit of all. By purchasing this property for ultimate transfer to a public agency, we can ensure permanent protection of the land, so that views remain beautiful, wildlife corridors uninterrupted, watersheds pristine and hiking trails bountiful.

POST purchased the ranch in October with the hope of transferring the land to the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District (MROSD) later this year. They’re now trying to raise $6.9 million to permanently protect the Mindego Hill open space. They have recently received a dollar-for-dollar challenge grant from a foundation (who wishes to remain anonymous) that will match our gifts to help POST raise the remaining funds needed to safeguard this natural area. In effect, if you were to make a $50 donation, your donation would be doubled to $100 by the foundation.

The good news is that of that $6.9 million, $6.4 million has already been donated! If you’d like to help make up the difference and perhaps make a little history while you’re at it, you can make a donation here to prevent Mindego Hill from becoming McMansionville. For more information, including a photo gallery and a series of videos, check out GoMindego.org.

~winehiker

Editor’s note: I donated $100 to the Mindego Hill cause and dedicated my donation to my high school music teacher Don Carre, who was also an avid backpacker. (See my post titled In Memoriam to a profound man.)

In this Spring season, more than in seasons past, I’ve been seeing an incredible lot of wild cucumber flowering along my favorite Bay Area trails. The wild cucumber, Latin name Marah macrocarpus, is a member of the Cucurbitaceae, or gourd family. It is quite a pretty vine when it flowers, and does bear resemblance to most garden-variety cucumber plants. But that’s where the similarity ends.

A wild cucumber flowers along the Zinfandel Trail in the hills of Cupertino, California

For while you would eat a garden-grown cucumber, the last thing you’ll want to do - should you ever find yourself foraging for food in the wilderness - is chow down on the fruit of the wild cucumber, also known as bigroot, manroot, and old-man-in-the-ground.

How is such a pretty vine accorded such an unflattering name? While I must admit to not having dug one up personally, apparently the taproot of the wild cucumber is large, fleshy, alternately woody, and can weigh up to one hundred pounds. But if that doesn’t intrigue you very much, the main thing you should know about the manroot regards the fruit that it bears: the seeds of the manroot are extremely poisonous.

The soft spines of the fruit of the manroot. I discovered this cuke along the Sunol-Ohlone Trail on the return leg of an early-April hike to Murietta Falls.

Like many of Nature’s local denizens, the wild cucumber is a plant worthy of admiration. But mostly, it deserves the healthy respect that comes from knowledge gained. I probably don’t have to tell you that it’s better to take a picture than to take a swallow!

~winehiker

Earlier this week on Two Heel Drive, a local hiking blog I often read, author Tom Mangan polled his readers, asking the question What wildlife have you seen on the trail? Apparently Tom had to take down that poll due to technical difficulties, but it essentially listed a number of animals one might commonly see in the wild if one is out in it to any regular degree. The list included animals such as bear, wolf, coyote, fox, deer, mountain lion, bobcat, and more. With the exception of wolves, I had seen all of them, some more than once.

Great Horned Owl, Bubo virginianus 

Tom hadn’t included owls, though, which brought a response from local hiker/blogger Tom McGuire, author of the gambolin’ man blog. gambolin’ man commented, saying:

A few weeks ago, toward the early evening around 6 pm, I caught a prolonged first-time ever (in the Bay Area) glimpse of a Great Horned Owl flying and the settling to roost for about three minutes on a tree limb, at Briones Reservoir. Luckily, I had my binos handy, to zoom in on this wondrous animal. It was quite a sighting!

Has anyone ever spotted one of these guys in the Bay Area Wild before?

Indeed I had, and I immediately felt compelled to write:

I was 9 years old and walking one morning with my 4th-grade class on Cabrillo Avenue in Santa Clara from Bowers Elementary to a concert at Juan Cabrillo Middle School. We all heard a sound coming from a tree lining the edge of Bowers Park and looked up to see a Great Horned Owl - the first owl many of us had ever seen. Fortunately our teacher knew what it was, but in retrospect, its large size - and its eyes - made it unmistakable.

I later saw a Great Horned Owl get hit by a jeep on the road out of Canyonlands NP. I knew I couldn’t do much about it, but I stopped anyway, put on some gloves, grabbed some newspaper, and removed it from the roadway. I saw the light fading from its luminous yellow eyes, and it died right there in my arms. I buried it that evening in camp, but I still keep one of its primaries to remind me of that morning in the Utah desert.

A whole lot of things happen out there in the wild when we’re not looking. Fortunately there are times when we can observe - even participate in - the unforgettable. I, for one, cannot imagine what my life would be like if I couldn’t occasionally catch a glimpse of these moments, for they rank up there as being the great moments of my life.

May you enjoy great moments this weekend.

~winehiker

Agent Red sent me a communique this afternoon. Though tersely worded, it was a topic of great importance. I knew I had to immediately share the news with you!

BEGIN COMMUNIQUE

• I infiltrated Fantesca’s secret stash and nabbed a limited supply of their 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon
• You can’t buy this wine on the Fantesca.com website
• This wine will go on sale tomorrow only at The Wine Spies for 20% off its $60 retail price
• The sale starts midnight tonight, May 2, 2008
• We’re offering Free Ground Shipping on 3 or more bottles when customers use code “SPYHIKER”; this promotional code is exclusively for the Winehiker faithful

Are you in?

END COMMUNIQUE

Agent Winehiker is in! He knows how good Fantesca wines are. The 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon from Fantesca Estate & Winery’s Spring Mountain appellation is exceptional, and now you have an exclusive one-day-only opportunity to get some for yourself, while they last.

~winehiker

Last Thursday night at the Wine 2.0 Spring Fling at Crushpad in San Francisco (photoessay here), I chanced to meet Linzi Gay, Marketing Director of Clif Bar Family Winery. I was glad to meet her and get an advance taste of the Clif Bar wines she was about to pour. After all, I had just days before received four bottles of wine from this winery, plus an invitation to schedule an interview with Gary Erickson and Kit Crawford, the husband-and-wife team who own Clif Bar Family Winery.

A quartet of true California adventure from Clif Bar Family Winery

I wrote a post last summer about Clif Bar Family Winery. But perhaps you didn’t read that post and are wondering about the winery’s unique name. Indeed, before Kit and Gary ventured down the winemaking path, they achieved great success making the Clif bars that many outdoor enthusiasts enjoy.

And how does the word Clif fit in? It’s the name of Gary’s father.

While I enjoyed the wines Linzi poured me last week, the crowded and lively atmosphere of the cavernous Crushpad warehouse didn’t lend itself quite well enough to focused study. I’ve now, however, tasted from those four bottles, and you’ll find my tasting notes below. But before you scurry down to the bottom of this post, you might enjoy taking a moment getting there: what follows is my interview with Gary Erickon and Kit Crawford.

WH: You are the folks that make Clif bars and Luna bars. Tell us the story behind your passion for the outdoors.

Gary: When I was young, my dad took the family from Fresno, and later San Francisco, to the Sierras to go camping, hiking, and skiing. I promptly fell in love with those mountains, and as I grew up it didn’t matter to me if I was on a bike, on skis, or on a climbing rope.

Kit: My parents were into camping and the outdoors, too. We took a lot of camping trips! My family is Canadian, so we often camped all over the Great Northwest. After I graduated from high school, I worked in Yosemite at a concessionaire. I did a lot of hiking, climbed a glacier, and enjoyed some great rock climbing, which I even did in high school. Mainly I went hiking and swimming in the streams. I even hiked recently with my sister in Scotland on the West Highland trail. The outdoors is so much a part of me that it’s second nature for me to work with the animals on our farm, tend the plants, and enjoy the fruits of our garden.

Gary: These days our kid joins us backpacking and climbing, and she’s on a ski team. We both still get out there a lot; in fact we’re climbing Mt. Shasta tomorrow.

WH: Imagine how much I’d love to climb that mountain with you! So how did your outdoor pursuits result in producing Clif bars?

Gary: It was a cocktail of several things occurring at the same time. It came in the form of an epiphany, an idea born on a 175-mile “accidental” bike ride! A friend and I had climbed our bikes to the top of Mt. Hamilton, which we reached at about the 125-mile mark. But somewhere along the way we realized my friend had got the mileage wrong, and we discovered we still had 50 miles to go! All I had to eat was six Power Bars, but as the evening got darker, it also got colder and I ended up vomiting; I just couldn’t eat that last Power Bar. Finally, after a long, dark and terrible descent into San Jose, we stopped at a mini-mart where I bought a six-pack of powdered donuts. I remember thinking at the time, “If I’m ever in a situation like this again, I want something I can eat.”

I decided I wanted to make a better-tasting energy bar. I owned a bakery at the time and I also worked in the bicycle industry, so I took notice of how Power Bars were being distributed. Sixteen months later, in February 1992, I launched Clif Bar & Company. Chocolate, Apricot, and Date Oatmeal were the first three bars we made; the Date Oatmeal later evolved into Oatmeal Raisin Walnut. Today we have 130 different SKUs, including sports drinks, Luna bars, and Shot Bloks.

WH: You’ve come a long way since that accidental bike ride. How did you gravitate to making wine and olive oil?

Gary: We bought property in Napa County over ten years ago. The property reminded us of the East Bay town of Fremont in the old days, with its agriculture and its beautiful scenery. We finally moved there permanently five years ago. In the time since, we have met the parents of our children’s friends, many of whom are growers and winemakers. We became intrigued by their passion for wine, and because we enjoyed wine, too, we began to explore that age-old What If? question. We rationalized that we can’t eat energy bars all day long, so let’s learn how to create wine! It was another “cocktail” of being in the right place and meeting the right people.

Kit: We have about fifteen mature olive trees on our property. Early on, I had gotten to thinking about how to pick and press them to make olive oil. I figured to learn how, and quickly realized that it was more complicated than I thought! But I rounded up the family and, for a few years, we picked and home-pressed those olives every Thanksgiving. It was labor-intensive but fun, and the oil was fabulous! Olives do really well in Napa Valley. But I had to stop asking the family to help pick every Thanksgiving because though it was fun for me, it became evident that it wasn’t particularly fun for them.

Today we still make olive oil from those trees, but we blend our olives with olives that we purchase from other local growers. Meanwhile, we practice sustainable farming methods to produce our certified extra virgin olive oil, and we’re transitioning to organic.

WH: Tell us about your relationship with Sarah Gott.

Kit: We love her! We first met her in 2005 at a health club in St. Helena. She was training for the IronMan Triathlon, and our friend and fellow triathlete Cathy Chesky introduced us. A few years later, we were looking for a winemaker. Joel Gott heard about that and contacted us via email, mentioning his wife Sarah.

It quickly became a perfect fit: we were all three into sustainability and competitive athleticism. Sarah didn’t really want to take on new business, but she was intrigued just the same; like many athletes, she was already knowledgeable about Clif Bars. It wasn’t long before she decided to become part of our journey.

I’ve really admired how Sarah managed to balance raising three small children while training for triathlons, making wine, and doing interviews with Runner’s World and Inside Triathlon magazines.

WH: You produce about 10,000 cases and just last month released your wines nationwide. Are you satisfied with your wine sales thus far?

Gary: We’re very happy with our sales thus far. As newbies in the beverage business, we are getting good response to our wines on both style and price range. It’s hard work, but it’s going really well. We’re hoping to sell all 10,000 cases in one year. Not that we’re trying to grow our business - we just want to focus on quality and sustainability. We certainly don’t want to put the brakes on Clif Bar & Company; in fact, we’re very mindful of our growth. It’s all quite exciting, even if it is time-consuming.

WH: Where do you source your grapes, and why?

Gary: Sarah takes the lead on where we get our grapes. Right now we bottle four wines. Kit’s Killer Cab and Gary’s Improv are committed to being made from Napa grapes, and the grapes for our white Climber are sourced from the Northern California appellations of Lodi, Napa, Sonoma and Mendocino. In the future, we may also source grapes from Paso Robles.

WH: Let’s hear more about that Paso Robles idea. Will there be a Rhone-style blend in the near future from Clif Bar Family Winery?

Kit (chuckling): We’ve actually gotten good leads from sustainable vineyards in Paso Robles. In fact we became fascinated by Rhone wines last summer on an trip through the Rhone Valley in France. Gary rode his bike all over the French alps.

Gary: We loved Chateauneuf du Pape, and we were impressed with the area’s wines in general. We began to ask ourselves, “could we do a Rhone wine?” So we’re toying with the idea of planting Grenache and Syrah on our own acreage on Howell Mountain.

Kit: Sarah, meanwhile, is very proactive about collaborating with us about sourcing and blending.

WH: Let’s talk more about your Howell Mountain land and its potential for producing estate wines.

Gary: Our property is technically on Howell Mountain but is not in the Howell Mountain AVA; it’s on the east side of the mountain. It’s 130 acres, most of which will remain fallow. We may only develop a total of five acres, agriculturally, with only two acres devoted to grapes. That five acres includes fruit and olive orchards. Meanwhile, there is lots of wildlife: cougars, bobcats, fox, rattlesnakes, and raptors. Because we don’t use pesticides, Kit feels good about preserving the land for its many species of birds. When replenishing the farm’s soils, we use manure from our goats, chickens, and horses.

There was an old pond on the property that was used to irrigate a 50-tree orchard. It’s since been filled in, and we use it for our vegetable garden. 2007 was the first year for the garden, and we rotated potatoes, tomatoes and melons. We actively want to see what the land produces, and we could sell seasonally at farmer’s markets. It’s a future possibility.

Kit: We are preparing for planting grapes, and we may also collaborate for storefront sales downtown. We liked that about our visit to Chateauneuf du Pape: neighborhood wineries selling their wares downtown. Why drive when one can walk around and taste twenty different wines? Perhaps you’ll someday be able to taste our wines at Sunshine Market in St. Helena.

WH: Any plans to integrate your clifbar.com website with the Clif Bar Winery & Farm website?

Gary: We would like to integrate them and be more seamless. We’ll test that next year, but first we want to get momentum with our wines.

WH: Gary, Kit, what do you both consider important?

Gary: Balance! Trying to keep balance in business and in life. Wine is a good symbol of balance. It is good to take time to relax with family and friends and have a glass of wine. We may be swamped with a lot of projects, but we have no complaints, because we feel that balancing our aspirations for our businesses is important.

Kit: Everybody’s busy. It’s easy to get sucked into running from one thing to another. It’s important that people get out to Nature! In other words, spend moments to be in the moment.

WH: That’s certainly music to my ears. And now, lastly, what would you like the readers of Winehiker Witiculture to know?

Kit & Gary: I bet we’re preaching to the choir when we say that we all have to make time to slow down. We created Clif Bar Family Winery with that in mind. Hopefully you will continue to enjoy our Clif Bar products on your hikes, bike rides and even on a busy day at the office. After those adventures, be they work or play, we look forward to introducing you to Clif Bar Family wines. Clif Bar Family Winery strives to overdeliver quality in the bottle as we continue to challenge ourselves to leave a smaller footprint environmentally.

—————————

The following four wines were created by winemaker Sarah Gott for Clif Bar Family Winery.

The Climber California White Wine (2007): 16.5 Winehiker Points*
This unique blend of 81% Sauvignon Blanc, 12% Pinot Blanc, 4% Chenin Blanc and 3% Muscat pours a clear, pale yellow into your glass, offering a bouquet of honeysuckle and guava blossoms that is impossible not to love. Pear and gravel follow, along with a fine balance, supple body, and lovely finish.
13.5% alcohol, 5371 cases made, screwcap closure, $12.50 per bottle.

The Climber California Red Wine (2005): 14.5 17.5 Winehiker Points*
An intriguing blend of 42% Zinfandel, 31% Cabernet Sauvignon, 11% Petite Sirah, 9% Syrah and 7% Merlot, the Climber Red shows a deep garnet color in the glass, tapering to rose at the edges. Jammy black currants are underlaid by a dusty pot pourri with hints of fig to round out the mid-palate. Drink now.
14.3% alcohol, 4900 cases made, natural cork closure, $15.00 per bottle.

Kit’s Killer Cab (2005, Napa Valley): 17.5 Winehiker Points*
Deep red color with violet edges. A voluptuous fruit basket of ripe blackberries, raspberries and currants with secondary notes of caramel and cedar resins. A little tannic but holding a pleasing mouthfeel and finish, suggesting an aging potential of 5-10 years or more.
14.7% alcohol, 450 cases made, natural cork closure, $35.00 per bottle.

Gary’s Improv Zinfandel (2005, Napa Valley): 18 Winehiker Points*
Similar in color to the Kit’s Killer Cab but with more rust color toward the edges. Red roses, juniper, licorice and a touch of white pepper on the nose yield to cranberries, cigars, bramble and almond on the palate. Not your typical Zinfandel, and definitely open to interpretation - hence its name. A very food-friendly wine, as a zinfandel should be - only this zin would pair best with pork roast served with a cranberry glaze; or perhaps you’ll be more inclined to pairing it with a fennel-sausage lasagna. Age potential: 3-7 years.
15.5% alcohol, 260 cases made, natural cork closure, $32.00 per bottle.

Update: Over the weekend, I sampled the three red wines again, and am happy to say that all of them, most especially the Climber Red, had improved. The Climber Red had softened noticeably, developing a much more broadly-appealing flavor and texture. As a result, I was compelled to revise my score for the Climber Red upward to 17.5.

—————————

I first tried Power Bars when they were handed out free prior to the start of the 1986 Markleeville Death Ride. For years they were the only energy bar available in any quantity. I found Power Bars hard to swallow without also gulping down most of my water; they were also too hard to chew in cold weather.

Therefore I can easily understand Gary’s desire to create a more palatable energy bar with the right amount of moistness for easy eating on the go, and I’ve been a fan ever since I switched to Clif bars in the mid-90s. I still buy them by the case at my local Trader Joe’s. But now we wine-loving adventurers can buy Clif Bar wines by the case, too.

*Wine scores based on the 20-point Davis scale; see my wine scoring sheet for details. Special thanks to Maggie Zeman, Managing Director of The Barn Group, for arranging wine shipment and my interview with Kit & Gary.

~winehiker

My hiking season is in full swing, and I’m now trekking 20 miles or so of trail each week. But it recently became apparent to me that if I am going to keep up this pace, I had better get a new pair of boots. A pair just like my old pair of Vasques, not like their replacement Vasques that I couldn’t seem to break in after nearly two full seasons.

The main reason I prefer boots over trail-running shoes is primarily due to my desire for ankle support. I’ve rolled my ankles too many times in trailrunners - suffering loss of mobility, much less good follow-up hiking - to warrant much trail exposure without sturdy support over rough terrain. Secondly, I like having plenty of tread on a stiff sole - not just for a good grip on the trail surface, but to also avoid feeling every rock and root I step upon. And thirdly is the issue of arch fatigue: the relatively less-stiff soles of trail-running shoes always seem to leave me hobbled after any hike over six or seven miles.

So it was about time I walked away from traditional stiff leather backpacking boots, spend a little of my recent tax windfall, and buy myself a more flexible pair.

Now I’m not one to be so technical as to devour all the gear mags nor know all the technical specs, much less all of the brands of bootwear. That said, I prefer to do my research online as needed, then go try them on. That’s just what I did a couple of Fridays ago at REI’s Mountain View store.

It was a busy evening in REI’s shoe department, with about a dozen or so people trying on shoes and boots, a handful of well-behaved children, and three staffers who were quickly but competently making tiger butter out of themselves in efforts to retrieve their customers’ selections. It was no stretch to imagine that most of these patrons, if not all of them, had immediate weekend plans.

I browsed the available supply of boots on the racks, mentally checking off those I’d been attracted to online, then narrowed my selections down to three pairs of boots that I felt were worth trying on. Before I’d walked up, though, I’d already snagged a few needed pairs of hiking socks and sock liners, since I tend to wear out at least four pairs of each every season. I opened one package of each and slipped them on in prep for a boot-lacing frenzy.

I snagged a passing staffer who, within moments, had me walking the store in a pair of Montrail Torre GTX boots, a leather/Gore-Tex hybrid with a Vibram sole that, while it looked like a comfortable and long-lasting boot, just didn’t seem to feel right after a couple flights of stairs. The second pair, a leather/nylon/Gore-Tex combo dubbed the Asolo Fugitive GTX, was a little too small in the toe and constricted the tops of my feet, despite a little mid-walk loosening of the laces.

I had saved the Vasque Breeze Gore-Tex XCR boots for last, and now tried them on. Instantly I knew that these were the boots for me! But I walked the store in them anyway, climbing and descending the store’s staircases and jumping around upon the shoe department’s miniature rock slope. These leather/nylon/Gore-Tex boots are designed less for backpacking and more for day hiking, but seem to offer the stiffness and support that I desire. What I like about them is that they add a little extra flexibility while removing a bit of the bulkiness of a full-on leather backpacking boot.

The following day, I walked 10 easily-graded miles in the Marin Headlands with no foot fatigue. Sunday, however, found me gliding over 11 hilly miles at Long Ridge Open Space Preserve as if I had wings. It didn’t take a couple of evening hikes last week and a fast-paced hike up strenuous Black Mountain this past Saturday to tell me that I am simply infatuated with my new Vasque boots.

What’s really cool, though, is that I was able to return the previous pair of Vasques - the Wasatch GTX model - which were never quite comfortable. I can’t rightly explain why I chose to Walk Hard so long before replacing them, but the fact that I could furnish a receipt dated July 2006 and get my money back from those nice folks at REI in April 2008 is an incredibly beautiful thing.

And that’s just another good reason why, for years now, I’ve been referring to REI as “Russ Equipment Incorporated”.

~winehiker