{Full Disclosure: This experience was provided to me at no cost}
You guys! I had the very best day exploring all that is Long Meadow Ranch. Now if you know me, you know that I absolutely love Farmstead, which is Long Meadow Ranch’s restaurant in St. Helena, so I was stoked to learn more about this awesome company.
While Farmstead is their most popular piece of the pie if you will, Long Meadow Ranch is SO much more! In addition to the restaurant they have a cute little general store full of goodies from their gardens, a tasting room and an actual estate winery, with plans to build another one soon.
Here’s more details on the two Long Meadow Ranch experiences I got to partake in…
The Mayacamas Estate Experience
This wine tasting and tour experience was so special. First you meet at Farmstead and hop into a car with someone from the team (this is great so you don’t have to drive!) and head up to their estate winery. There are a few pit stops on the way; like saying hi to the ladies that run the ranch – that is the hens. These chickens were very social and ran over to the fence to say hello! It was clear these were some happy hens. No wonder Farmstead’s brunch tastes so good. Happy wine country hens, make happy eggs!
Ok, I’ll stop talking about chickens now…haha
Once we reached the top of the one lane windy road, heading in the to Mayacamas mountain range, right above Rutherford, we were greeted with an amazing view of the valley (field of horses included) and a splash of Sauvignon Blanc. As we ventured inside of the winery we tasted through their winery-only wines (really enjoyed their Pinot Noir!) and meandered through the production room, wine cave and olive oil making room. By the way, the ranch is 90 acres!
This is a very intimate experience. There are no other groups while you’re there, which I love. All of the attention is on you!
After about an hour and a half we headed back down to the General Store next to Farmstead where we were highly anticipating our next experience..
With appetites in tow, we were especially eager for this experience. Plus, who doesn’t love food and wine together? I was excited to see how they would showcase all of their ingredients since everything they use is seasonal, based off what their ranch is producing.
That’s right, Long Meadow Ranch and all of its properties, believe in what they like to call, ‘full circle farming.’ This means their wines are estate grown, their meat is produced from cattle they raise on the ranch, the eggs come from the hens I mentioned earlier, fruits and veggies come from their own land and so on. In addition, everything is organic. It’s so nice knowing where all the products you are consuming come from, so big props to Long Meadow Ranch for seeing value in this.
Along with having awesome sustainability and farming practices, the food created for us was so good! I think my favorite bite was definitely the falafel and butternut squash soup – I could have eaten a huge bowl of it! The little beef tart was super good, as well as, ok nevermind everything was delish. If you’ve ever eaten at Farmstead, you know where I’m coming from!
This experience is great if you want to fit in a quick snack, but still taste wine! It can be hard to have a full lunch when out wine tasting, so I would definitely recommend this experience, where you can kill two birds with one stone and keep your sippin’ going!
Whatever part of Long Meadow Ranch you choose to experience, know that you are helping support a family owned business that believes in sustainable, organic, full circle farming and anything and everything you consume will be harvested with passion.
Oh! And I got to meet these fun blogger babes!
P.S. Thanks to Jeff, their marketing director for hosting such a great day!
