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Chickens and Wine

A Natural Combination

No, we’re not suggesting KFC start serving wine with their fast food.  We’re talking about the new releases of Bonterra wines which are certainly worth crowing about, there's room, too, for some free ranging thoughts on the flock of free-ranging chickens that call Bonterra's McNab Ranch home.

Natural predators have been depleting the flock (a not so friendly neighborhood chicken hawk, but hey, that's nature, love it or leave it).  So Julien Miclette, who will help handle your visit when you arrive at Bonterra, suggests that you say "Cockle How Do You Do" [I'm not making this stuff up] to Coco, Bonterra's new Aracana rooster, and a bevy of beauties whose names will reveal themselves as their personalities are awakened.

These are buxom Barred Rocks with gorgeous black and white checked plumage, some younger mixed breed babies, and Blondie, a fat-bottomed chick whose lineage comes from a wild flock breeding on the same nearby Lake County ranch for more than five decades.  In all the vineyard flock averages 20-25 hard working birds.

At Bonterra, besides the lovely organic eggs which are a natural benefit, the chickens have a role in biodynamic farming.  Each morning the "Chick Mobile" (a mobile chicken coop) is strategically placed in the vineyards where the chickens go to work on weeds, insects and particularly cut worms, which can crawl on the outside bark of the grape vines and damage the leaf buds in early spring.  As a bonus, their scratching and pecking aerates the soil, and they do leave behind some natural fertilizer that enriches the soil.

You can check all this out by visiting the Bonterra website, particularly at http://www.bonterra.com/farming.html, where you can click on the Organic Practices at Bonterra link for a view of the chicks in action.

When you visit, you might also notice a rather strange pair of chicken but not quite chicken looking birds hanging with the flock.  They are loud, noisy, almost obnoxious, but we love 'em just the same.  These are Guinea Hens, and they help warn the flock when danger is about...when a car, animal or human being wanders by...when the wind is blowing hard...when the sky is falling (hey, I said there were some Chicken Littles here).

Bonterra Wines don't just squawk the talk, they walk the walk.  Sometimes, with just three toes.

Edited by Dave Shultz

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