My first trip to the “real” California Wine Country was anything but a disappointment. ABC may consider themselves to be Wine Country, but there is no part of Florida that can hold a candle to the beautiful
mountainous views of Napa, Sonoma and Lake County! In February some members of the Marketing team, along with Director of Wine Sales Brad Lewis, spent a few days visiting wineries and touring vineyards—finishing our tour with Shannon Ridge, way up in Lake County, CA.  The view from Shannon Ridge’s Vigilance tasting room was one of the most breathtaking I have ever seen—competing that from the top of the Eifel Tower (you’re welcome, Clay Shannon).

As soon as we arrived at Vigilance, Clay Shannon and his crew took us for a drive in their pick-up trucks up a mountain to the Shannon Ridge Home Ranch with a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc where, when we reached the top, we talked about wine and Clay cracked jokes. Then we got a lesson in pruning. The
vines were ready to be pruned and I guess Clay thought we looked a little too comfortable, because out came the shears and before I knew it he was telling me where the vine needed a trimming. There is a science to pruning…they even have a “two bud” rule to follow as to where to cut—and became so fond of this phrase, Shannon Ridge has since produced Two Bud Zinfandel.

Pruning with Clay at Shannon Ridge Home Ranch

Following our lesson in the vineyard we met the rock stars of Shannon Ridge (aside from Clay, I suppose), who I had been so anxiously awaiting to see—Clay’s sheep! The sheep are kept in the vineyards to help with Shannon Ridge’s sustainability practices and are later sold for meat. But they
were so cute, it was tempting to hop the fence then and there! Clay calls his method of the sheep pruning the vines “sheeping”—clever!

The vegetarian in me wasn't so happy later on in the day when dinner was served back at Vigilance and the rest of the team was chowing down on lamb burgers. I couldn’t help but think back to earlier in the afternoon and those sheep “baahing” out in the vineyard. Although, everyone did rave about those burgers all the way back to Orlando.  

Hannah Grantz, Marketing Copywriter