Wine country's wide reach
During a recent vacation — the one that coincided with my break from blogging — my wife and I took a drive up to the New Clairvaux Winery in Vina.
Wineries are uncommon in this part of the Sacramento Valley, but history suggests there’s no reason this couldn’t change.
New Clairvaux is the site of a winery that railroad baron and California governor Leland Stanford operated beginning in 1885. He turned the land around Vina into one of the world’s largest vineyards. It was only the growing influence of the Prohibitionist movement in the early 20th century that convinced Stanford University to give up the business.
The Abbey of New Clairvaux and the Sunseri family jointly operate the 21st century incarnation of the winery. The Sunseris have been making wine for five generations. This is a new venture for the abbey, but not for the monastic order it’s affiliated with. In the 12th century, the Cistercians were known throughout Europe for their wine-making.
When I was growing up, the Napa Valley was wine country. But nowadays, it’s everywhere in California, including the Central Coast, the San Joaquin Valley and the Sierra foothills. So it may not be too many more decades before the land around Vina becomes yet another land of vines.
Like so much of the countryside around Chico, Vina is both close and far away. It’s a half-hour drive up Highway 99, but it feels like a huge step back in time. If you live in Chico, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that farmlands and tiny towns are far more characterisitc of the Sacramento Valley than cities and suburbs.
It’s surprising the valley isn’t home to more monasteries run by contemplative orders. The monks’ life of solitude fits in well with the wide-open spaces of this region.
The wine-tasting room at New Clairvaux is housed in a tiny section of a sprawling two-acre brick building where wine was stored when Stanford had the winery. It’s open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.