2006-07-27
LANDMARK VINEYARDS Take a Tour on Horse-Drawn Wagons
Hop aboard Landmark Vineyards’ horse-drawn wagon and be awed. Guided by two Belgian draft horses, the tour winds through the estate vineyards and around the winery. Tour Guide Pat Prather, a third generation Sonoma County farmer, adds charisma and gusto to the fifteen minute complimentary tour offered summer weekends between noon and 3 p.m. Call (707) 833-0218 to confirm your place.
Parked in front of the tasting room at Landmark Vineyards, Prather waits patiently for interested adventurers. Once a group gathers, Daisy and Cindy, the two Belgian draft horse, take off for the estate vineyards. Prather begins to tell the story of Landmark Vineyards. Founded in 1974 by Damaris Deere Etheridge, a descendent of John Deere, the nineteenth-century inventor of the steel plow, Landmark Vineyards’ rich agricultural heritage continues to inspire the wines today.
As the horses head out of the parking lot and into the vineyards, you are struck by the dramatic view of the Mayacama Mountains. Pat Prather leaps off the wagon to closely examine Landmark’s maturing grape clusters. He explains, “These vines have started berry set. We are about three weeks behind due to the abnormally long, wet winter this year.” Clusters of miniature green grapes with small flowers on their tips decorate the vines. Prather will watch closely in the passing weeks as these small, hard green berries mature into full, sweet golden grapes.
Prather hops back onto the wagon and continues through Landmark Vineyards’ estate meandering through the Chardonnay vineyards past the bocce ball court, pond-side picnic grounds, and guest cottage. All the while, Prather engages his group in juicy trivia about Landmark and its vineyards, winemaking, and history. The wagon tour makes its way to the back of the winery for an exclusive look at Landmark’s harvest winemaking area.
Before returning to the parking lot, Prather turns Daisy and Cindy back into the vineyards allowing the tour a final up-close view of the ever changing vineyards. The wagon squeezes through the vine rows as passengers dodge overgrown vine shoots and sneak tastes of maturing grapes. Moments later the tour emerges in Landmark’s parking lot. Visitors disembark and enter the tasting room to taste what the vineyards have produced.
Mike, great-great-great grandson of John Deere, and Mary Colhoun, the proprietors, strive “to make great wines that enhance the joy of life.”
Landmark Vineyards is located at 101 Adobe Canyon Road in Kenwood, just north of Sonoma. For more information, call (707) 833-0053 or go to www.landmarkwine.com.
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