Perfect weather. Perfect food. Perfect wine.

The Porters settled there, built a cabin, and started homesteading. When the Civil War was beginning to ramp up, Colonel Porter left his family to ride back to Virginia to fight for the Confederacy. He survived and when the war was over rode back to join his family on the ranch. When his days were up his son took over, and his son after that. The Ranch changed hands when it was purchased in 1941 by actor Fred MacMurray as a getaway from Hollywood. I honestly didn’t know much about Fred MacMurray but apparently he was one of the biggest stars of his day- worth a quick Google. He put most of his energy into raising Scottish Aberdeen Angus, which he took much pride in. He raised his family on the Ranch and passed away in 1991. Now by this time The Russian River Valley had begun to grow thanks to the success of nearby Napa Valley. In 1996, the Gallo family asked to meet with the MacMurrays who accepted the invitation. Gallo soon purchased the property with the promise to keep the integrity of the land and maintain its devotion to agriculture. They quickly planted pinot noir and pinot gris on the property. The Russian River Valley is a cooler climate region, perfect for pinot noir, chardonnay, and pinot gris. (If you’re unfamiliar with Gallo, the family is worth 11 Billion dollars and is the largest exporter of California wine. They own everything from Allegrini, Barefoot, Lamarca, Orin Swift to Carlo Rossi, Mark West, and Dark Horse. Recently they acquired Black Box, Manischewitz, Clos du Bois, Taylor and a couple dozen other brands from Constellation for about a billion bucks.)

We got to spend the day on the ranch with Kate MacMurray, Fred’s daughter, who grew up on the ranch and knows it better than anyone. She has now worked for Gallo for two decades as a spokesperson for the ranch and the wines that come from it. She was amazing ha! We were the only people there. We listened to her tell us the history of the place as she led us around the property, through the barns, the farmhouse she grew up in, and then up to the top of the mountain. They’ve done an incredible job at keeping everything true to its roots. The house was so amazing it will be hard to describe. All of the original furniture and appliances have been returned to the home as well as most of the decor. During renovation, some of the original wallpaper that depicts a family on a farm was damaged. They had a wallpaper historian and artist come in and recreate the wallpaper to identically match the original, even in its old age, to replace the torn areas. I say this to explain how much care has gone into keeping this place as it’s always been.

If I could create both my own indoor dining room and outdoor community table and grill space I would model them after those spaces in this house. This house and its decor were MADE for a beautiful farm surrounded by close hills that reach straight to the sky. It’s beautiful. The vineyards on the backside of the ridge were unreal in their expanse. The rolling vineyards seemed to roll off the ridge in the distance. The view from the top was incredible in every direction. I can’t imagine stumbling onto a property like this and deciding to settle there. It must have been an easy decision, especially after traveling all that way.

When it comes to properties like MacMurray, Gallo has done a great job at preserving the place's history and style. They farm those vineyards thoughtfully and do what they can to mess with it as little as possible. They farm organically and even have a falconer that uses his trained falcon to hunt critters in the vineyards that snack on the fruit. Amazing. They use the 50/50 rule which ensures that only 50% of the land will ever be planted with vines and the remaining 50% returned to its natural state.

Kate and Paden were amazing hosts. They opened some old and special bottles for us, begged us to come back soon and spend more time there, promising that we’d barbecue one night at the farmhouse. We left wishing we could have spent the rest of the day there but we had our next appointment to get to. We tasted better wine at a handful of places but overall, this was our favorite visit of the week. 

Their chardonnay isn’t the only wine of theirs that’s big and bold. All of their wines are. I love their Zinfandel for many reasons. While big and jammy and on the border of sweet, this zin is a classic example of Napa zinfandel in every way.

After prohibition zinfandel took on the role as California’s most popular grape. It then fell out of style, which pushed producers to start using it to make sweet rosé they called White Zinfandel. This pink wine exploded in popularity but honestly killed the reputation of the grape with serious wine drinkers. It has more recently come back into popularity as sweeter jug wines have started to lose pull in the market. The warm climate of Napa makes these zins rich in flavor. Zinfandel grown in this climate in combination with the Rombauer style makes for a zinfandel that is as decadent as chocolate cake (a great pairing).

Fun fact: We thought zinfandel was an American grape for the longest time. We just wanted it so badly to be true. It was known as our ‘national grape’ and thought to be the best of what was native to the Americas. But when DNA testing rolled around we found out that it wasn’t native, but in fact, primitivo from Puglia, Italy. So when you’re in the Italian wine section and see primitivo on the bottle, know that that is zinfandel.

You’ll taste chocolate and vanilla, blackberry jam, blueberries, plums, and a touch of pepper. You’ll even get some dried fruits, figs, and raisins, unique in such a young wine, but speaks to its oak aging and ripeness of fruit.