Driving down the winding, tree-canopied dirt road that leads to Lazy Creek Vineyards, you may think you’ve mistakenly taken the turnoff to some secret state park. Alders, oaks, madrones, and redwoods crowd alongside—and even over—the road, which bumps over three wooden bridges before emerging onto spectacular hilly vineyard vistas. It’s a scene so pretty and peaceful that we’re tempted to stop the car and get out for a walk—or a nap. But then we meet Josh and Mary Beth Chandler, who own and run Lazy Creek, and our energy picks up. My husband and I duck in to the tasting room, which is more like a cozy garage, for a sip of “Gewürz juice” that Josh pours from the barrel. It’s bone-dry and delicious. This is the sort of encounter we repeatedly experienced throughout Anderson Valley.
The scenery is spectacular, the locals are inviting, and the wine stands up to some of the best vintages produced in the more publicized California wine regions. Mendocino County’s jewel, which lies about 120 miles north of San Francisco, produces wines that in the last 10 to 15 years have won numerous international awards and become household names. Cooled by the fog that rolls in from the ocean, the valley is ideal for Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and sparklers, as well as the increasingly appreciated cool-weather whites: Gewürztraminer, Riesling, and Pinot Gris. But the excellent wine we consistently find here is not the only thing that keeps us coming back. There are also the trails through redwood groves in Hendy Woods State Park, roadside stands like the Philo Apple Farm, and a handful of good places to eat, including the country-chic dining room at the Boonville Hotel.
An even more compelling draw is what we can’t find here: namely, Versailles-style villas, fancy resorts, traffic, standard tasting fees, and lines. From State 128, which snakes its way circuitously from Cloverdale out to the Mendocino coast like a zipper slicing the gently rolling hills in half, all you see are miles and miles of trees and vines, periodically interrupted only by tiny towns. Anderson Valley is quiet, laid back, and friendly, with not much else to do besides admire the wine, the food, and the scenery. As a result, the valley feels manageable, approachable, authentic. Legendary New York Times writer R.W. Apple perhaps put it best, when he wrote about the valley: “When you turn off busy Route 101 at Cloverdale and head up into the hills, you leave one world behind and enter another.”
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