Vineyard vacation

Andrew Coats and Wendy Fok of New York tied the knot Saturday at The Sea Ranch and are in Sonoma County for their honeymoon. Dennis Quinn, a construction executive, and his wife, legal journalist and author Joan Cheever, of San Antonio, Texas, are celebrating Joan's 50th birthday.

Kente Ellen

Snody and Jomi Price, friends from Avon, N.C., own a Toppers Pizza and Pasta restaurant, where they serve Sonoma County wines. Julie Garon has come all the way from Quebec for a California vacation with her retired parents.

They are all Grape Campers, among 29 people gathered this week in Sonoma County for a three-day, hands-on harvest adventure.

Put on by the Sonoma County Winegrape Commission, in partnership with Relish Culinary School of Healdsburg, Sonoma County Vintners and the Sonoma County Tourism Bureau, Grape Camp costs $1,500 a person, with meals, tastings, outings and two nights' stay at the Vintners Inn north of Santa Rosa included.

In addition to the handful of attendees able to drive from Orinda, Redwood City, Stockton and Sacramento, the camp drew folks from places such as Texas, Florida, Virginia, Michigan and New York, as well as the Canadian family.

They can be counted among the estimated 7 million visitors who come to Sonoma County annually, the great majority of them here for leisure. Among their options are 250 wineries, 120 small farms, 40 spas, 18 golf courses and some 500 restaurants.

But increasingly, they want hands-on experiences.

"People are really craving to touch the earth and see how things are made and produced," said camp director Larry Levine, who ran a similar hands-on harvest experience at Schramsberg Vineyards in Calistoga before coming to the Sonoma County Winegrape Commission this year to help with their inaugural camp.

"In the past they were content just to go to tasting rooms, but now they want to go further," Levine said. "They're going to farmers markets where they live, and they want to talk to the grower, they want to know where food's coming from, and on vacations, they want to have experiences, to do things."

For their efforts, campers were rewarded with behind-the-scenes access to a variety of Sonoma County vineyards, wineries and winemakers, in addition to a food and wine pairing tutorial by chef John Ash, a cheesemaking tour to Redwood Hill Farm in Sebastopol and many exceptional, wine-enhanced meals.

Camp kicked off Monday with a meet-and-greet dinner under a perfect sky at Hoot Owl Creek Vineyards in Alexander Valley, with chef-owner Mark Stark of the Willi's restaurants presiding over a four-course barbecue feast.

After a round of self-introductions, the five tables of campers were encouraged to mingle, borrow, try and trade wines among themselves, six different Sonoma County bottlings having been placed atop each table.

Marla Messing and Kim Blomdal, friends from Redwood City sitting at Table 5, were happy for a quick escape from their jobs and families.

Blomdal has been to Napa and Sonoma counties many times.

"Once you enter either valley, you get an immediate sense of calm," she remarked to the table. "You can just feel your body let out a 'whew.' "

That collective sense of well-being carried over into the early-morning wake-up call Tuesday, when the group of well-fed wine lovers was put to work harvesting grapes.

Harvest being an unpredictable series of quick decisions and changed plans, the original location -- Richard and Saralee Kunde's Trenton Station Vineyard in Russian River Valley -- had to be scrapped. A backup, the Kundes' acreage nearby on Slusser Road, became the destination.

Two hours were allotted for picking, although within that time there were discussions of how a grape grows through the seasons, the crucial role of soil and how a vineyard can be sustainable. Saralee Kunde, a busy woman this time of year, graciously allowed the group to follow her to the crush pad to weigh their harvest.

After assessing the group's slim pickings, Kunde cracked, "Don't quit your day jobs."

Still beaming from the morning's outing was Linda Toccalini, a nurse from Sacramento who loves wine but, like most in the group, had never picked grapes.

"This is the first time I've done this sort of trip," she said. "It's everything and more than I ever dreamed of."

Outside of a few blending sessions she's attended at Bogle Vineyards near home, Toccalini never has had much exposure to how wine is made. But she did have some notions about how hard it is to pick.

"My mom was born in Mexico and grew up in rural parts of California, picking all the different crops, getting up early, cooking for all the pickers," she explained, adding that her mother told her "I might be crazy to pay money to do this."

Julie Garon of Quebec, who works in the insurance industry, had rented a house in Bodega Bay for the week before the camp. After stumbling on an online ad for the Grape Camp while researching Wine Country, she convinced her parents, Clement Garon and Diane Jacques, to stay on a bit longer.

"The wine was the reason to come to Sonoma," she said. "I told my parents, 'We're going to do the whole package; we're going to Grape Camp.' "

Her parents have been drinking California wine for 25 years. "In Quebec, 95 percent of what I drink is California wine," Clement Garon said. "The price is very high, even more than what it costs in the U.S., but French wines . . ." His voice trailed off as he paused before adding, "I like the fruitiness of California wine."

Sonoma lived up to their expectations.

"We went to Napa our first day, and there was so much traffic," the younger Garon said. "When we came back to Sonoma, especially the Russian River, that's what we expected, that's what we wanted. We all have that dream that we're going to own a vineyard one day and that's the closest thing I can afford -- Grape Camp."

You can reach Staff Writer Virginie Boone at 521-5440 or virginie.boone@pressdemocrat.com