Local Wine Events

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Wine OR Wine & Food

Tags:   Wine   Educational   Book Signing   Personal Appearance  

Katherine Cole, the author of Voodoo Vintners: Oregon’s Astonishing Biodynamic Winegrowers, will read from her book and sign copies on Friday, February 24 from 5:30 p.m. until 7:00 p.m. at Copperfield’s Bookstore in Calistoga. The event is free and there’s no need to RSVP. Sponsoring her visit will be Hawk and Horse Vineyards, a biodynamic vineyard in Lower Lake, whose proprietors, Mitch and Tracey Hawkins, will offer tastes of their 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon and 2006 Latigo (a Cabernet-based port-style sweet wine).

Copperfield’s is located at 1330 Lincoln Avenue in Calistoga. RSVPs are suggested, to 942-1616.

Published in 2011, Voodoo Vintners is now in its second printing. Katherine Cole has been a wine columnist for The Oregonian newspaper since 2002; she also writes the wine column for MIX, Portland’s Magazine of Food + Drink. Her interest in the intersection between sustainability and winegrowing and her frustration at the lack of information about biodynamic agriculture led her to write Voodoo Vintners, the first book on biodynamic viticulture for a general wine-loving audience. Cole’s tale begins on the back of a drug runner’s motorcycle in Iran and finishes at the epicenter of the American biodynamic revolution, where Oregon vintners believe that this spiritual style of farming results in the truest translations of terroir and the purest pinot noirs possible. Praised by The New York Times, The Chicago Sun-Times, Wine Spectator and numerous other publications, Voodoo Vintners traces biodynamic winegrowing from Paleolithic times to the finest domaines in Burgundy today.

Hawk and Horse Vineyards was founded in 1999 by Mitch Hawkins, Tracey Hawkins and David Boies. The winery’s first release was 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon. Hawk and Horse is a family-owned and family-operated vineyard and ranch practicing biodynamic viticulture on a historic property in the Red Hills AVA of Lake County, specializing in estate-grown Cabernet Sauvignon and Latigo (port). Current releases are the 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon, which sells for $65.00, and the 2006 Latigo, a port-style Cabernet-based dessert wine, which sells for $85 (for a 750 ml bottle).

Hawk and Horse Vineyards is one of the North Coast’s most visible practitioners of biodynamic viticulture, having been Demeter-certified since 2008 and California Certified Organic (CCOF) since 2004.

Currently planted are 18 acres of Cabernet Sauvignon, Petite Sirah, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. The soils are rocky, red and volcanic, consisting of Aiken, Collayomi, and Whispering loam.  Lake County ‘diamonds,’ a soft form of quartz, which the winery uses for biodynamic preparations, are abundant.  They are a natural product from volcanic activity of nearby Mt. Konocti, a now dormant volcano. Hawk and Horse extends over a total of 1,300 acres and straddles elevations from 1,800 to 2,200 feet. The property is home to El Roble Grande, the largest oak tree ever recorded in California. The ranch is also the home of a herd of Scottish Highland cattle, three American Saddlebred horses, five American Quarterhorses plus bees, hawks, owls, bear, wild boar, bobcats, mountain lions, squirrels and other wildlife.