Nancyʻs Blog: Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous

Lunch (the second course):

French radishes from the garden:

On Thursday, I got to tag along with my friend Michele on a private "Culinary Tour" at Chalk Hill Winery. Michele is a food writer, and is doing a story on these $150 tours for the next issue of Savor magazine. Talk about lifestyles of the rich and famous. Gheeze Louise. Chalk Hill is a 1400-acre estate winery. On the property is lawyer-owner Fred Furth's estate, the winery/tasting room (open only by appointment), 7 guest houses (to bribe, I mean host distributers and prominent wine-club members), an organic garden complete with 10 chickens, vineyards, lakes, a chapel, an one of the largest equestrian centers in the Western U.S. The equestrian center is for Fred's wife Peggy and her trainer. Apparently there are six horses. Six. I never saw hide nor hair of one of 'em. We were driven down to the organic garden, where the gardener gave us a tour. We got to sample from a gorgeous array of freshly picked spring vegetables that he had laid out, including white asparagus. Then we were taken up to the equestrian center at the top of the property, where they also have their culinary center. The horses on this property live better than most people (they have their own jacuzzi) and have names such as "Lord Chalk Hill" and "Lord Frederick." The floor of the humongous indoor arena is composed of FAKE dirt. (Real dirt would stir up too much dust.) They've planted 1400 tulips outside the barn on either side of a flagstone path leading up to the culinary center. The full-time French Chef, and his sous-chef prepare meals using foods primarily from the organic garden. We were treated to a private 3-course meal, paired with wine. The meal was incredible, and the chef came out to meet us afterwards. I was surprisingly comfortable, considering how out-of-my-element I was. Fortunately, the two young people showing us around were nice and un-pretentious. Plus it helped that there was a dead bunny rabbit on the flagstone pathway through the tulips.

This is the indoor arena, where they once had a fundraiser with the Russian National Symphony. The dirt is fake. It's composed of cork and something else; I forget what. The timber for the building was a gift from Alaska after Fred Furth represented the state against Exxon. They closed Hwy 101 in the middle of the night in order to transport the beams up to the estate.