Full Circle at the Farmstead

Photography by Chris Hardy

Picture this: It is the most perfect summer day in the wine country. The sky is a deep shade of powder blue with not a cloud in sight. The slight balmy breeze beckons for a trip into the town of St. Helena. Driving north from San Francisco, one of the first welcoming sights upon entering the south side of the town is the newly opened Long Meadow Ranch Winery & Farmstead. You and your sweetie pull in for an afternoon of wining, dining, and seasonal market and organic nursery shopping—an agenda that will surely breed romance in a way that only the wine country can do.

Another Sip Please

First stop on the property should be a visit to the winery’s new tasting room. The renovated barn doors officially swung open on December 28, 2009, and at the time of our interview with Chris Hall, vice president of sales, had only been welcoming guests for four days. While the only advertising for the space was a new sign out front, in those four days, the family-run Long Meadow Ranch Winery had already greeted nearly 200 patrons eager to sneak a peek at what the Halls had in store for wine country enthusiasts.

“We’ve had a great response from the local community,” Hall explains, detailing the renovation of the dilapidated farmhouse that previously occupied the property. “For the local community, it has been a change in the looks of the south part of the town; it’s not a broken-down old house anymore. It’s a beautifully restored building.”

The farmhouse that he is referring to was an eyesore that the Halls restored to reflect its former 19th-century gothic-revival glory. During the renovation process, they salvaged wainscoting, restored an old fireplace, and installed a large bar counter made of cherry wood stained in a shade of dark espresso. They also restored a portion of the original flooring and upgraded to a commercial kitchen in order to prepare organic cuisine made using ingredients from their 600-acre ranch, a perfect complement to their wines.

Long Meadow Ranch Winery primarily produces cabernet sauvignon and sauvignon blanc, with a few smaller productions of merlots, sangiovese, a red table wine called Ranch House Red, and a reserve cabernet named in honor of the original founder of the 140-year-old ranch property, E.J. Church Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve.

“The unique quality of the wines from Long Meadow Ranch Winery differs from many of our neighbors in that we have a very moderate alcohol content,” says Hall. He explains that this was an intentional decision when planting the 78 acres of grapes on vineyard sites that are 1,100 feet above sea level in the hills. “This means that our wines are well balanced and have elegant styles that are food-friendly and meant to be complementary to meals.”

Speaking of Meals

Just 20 feet from the tasting room, the Halls are in the midst of converting a barn constructed about six years ago into a 108-seat indoor/outdoor casual dining spot, appropriately dubbed Farmstead. As of press time, the restaurant is scheduled to open in late January or early February.

The Halls used materials salvaged from the renovation of the tasting room in the construction of the restaurant. For example, the bars are made from redwood recovered from the old farmhouse, and the stone used to build the fireplace is from the farmhouse’s 19th-century foundation. The outdoor dining patio is constructed amidst an apple orchard, allowing patrons to dine on the delectable cuisine of Chef Sheamus Feeley in a unique farm setting.

Feeley, formerly of the Rutherford Grill by Hillstone Group, the brand behind Houston’s restaurants, will be heading up the kitchen and delivering his passion for fresh ingredients to diners through innovative dishes. While planning the kitchen, Hall kept Feeley’s areas of expertise in mind. “He has a lot of experience with wood-fire cooking methods, so we installed a wood-burning oven for roasting meats and seasonal vegetables, along with a wood-burning grill.” The restaurant also boasts a Spanish-style plancha grill, which is a flat skillet that produces extremely high temperatures—great for caramelizing meats and vegetables. “Not a lot of people in California are working with planchas, so it will be very unique to Farmstead,” he explains. While the casual menu will offer selections like the Long Meadow Ranch cheeseburger, there will also be more unusual creations such as wood roasted grass-fed marrow bones with a beet and parsley salad as well as short rib potatoes with beets, herbs, and fried egg.

To Market, To Market

While the tasting room and restaurant are new projects for the Halls, farming is in their blood. Ted Hall, the current family patriarch, grew up in the 1950s on a small family farm in western Pennsylvania, where his mother schooled him in the values of organic farming and sustainable lifestyle practices, unheard-of philosophies in those days.

The Halls currently cultivate 15 acres of olive trees, six acres of organic fruits and vegetables, and run 1,500 head of cattle on property in Napa, Marin County, and Humboldt County. The five acres of historic orchards date back to 1870 and produce such a fine oil that celebrity chefs like Charlie Trotter and Alfred Portale use it in their restaurants in Chicago and New York City. The Highland cattle, which are a Scottish heritage breed, are grass fed (versus corn fed), which makes for more flavorful cuts of meat. The Halls also have bees for honey, chickens for eggs, and pigs for pork production.

Considering that the Halls have been ranching in the western hills of Napa Valley since 1989, it only makes sense that the ingredients making it onto the plates of Farmstead diners would come from the Long Meadow Ranch. Farmstead will also feature a daily seasonal farmers market offering items from the ranch, as well as an organic nursery, both of which are set to open in the spring.

“I envision that in the summer, you can come to the restaurant and have an organic heirloom tomato salad, stop at the market next door immediately after and take one of the heirloom tomatoes home with you, and also go to the nursery and buy the seeds or buy the plant to work with at home. This culinary and agricultural center is really meant to be a food-wine-and-farm experience.” Considering that back in 1991, Hall, along with his brother Timmy, were youngest registered members ever to sell at the Napa Valley Farmers Market in St. Helena, his life’s work is coming full circle indeed. More details about the ranch, winery, and restaurant can be found at www.longmeadowranch.com.