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37 One would never know that deep beneath stately oaks and manicured gardens covering the hill behind Far Niente winery, cellar workers tend their wine's development in a romantic, timeless space lined with 2,500 French oak barrels. This winery was founded in 1885 by John Benson, a California Gold Rush 49er and uncle of the famous American painter Winslow Homer. It prospered until the onset of Prohibition in 1919, when, like many wineries, it was forced to close. But even in disrepair, the winery was still a magnificent old stone structure set against one of those mid-valley knolls. A stone archway in the west wall of the cellar indicated that wine caves were to be chiseled into the solid rock that the building was set against. Unfortunately, Benson never saw these caves materialize. In the late 1970s Gil and Beth Nickel arrived in the valley, purchased the old Far Niente winery and began a three-year restoration of the property. The couple realized that a cave would be a perfect solution to creating the additional space to age wine without the expense of adding stone buildings. Plus, and likely more important to Gil at this time, he could enjoy the intriguing and romantic notion of carrying through Benson's original plan. Gil was a charismatic man of joyful vision with the keen sense of finding the right people to guide his visions to fruition. Gil hired Alf Burtleson for the job, and little did the two men know that the Far Niente wine cave—the first to be constructed in North America for almost a century—would spawn a new industry in California wine country. It was spring of 1981 in Napa Valley, and Gil was nervously keeping a close eye on the small crew creating the tunnel. Alf's wife, Mary, remembers, "Gil was wringing his hands down there as they were setting up, saying, 'Boys, don't knock down my building!'" Later, in his folksy Oklahoma style, Gil would tell how Alf won his confidence: "In those days they were doing it with dynamite, and I was real nervous about my old historic building. Just before they set off the first dynamite charges, Alf called me down there, and we went outside to one of the cornerstones of the buildings. Alf put a coin on edge and, honest to God, they put off the dynamite and the earth shook and a big cloud of dust and rocks came belching out from the back of the winery right on out through the front door, and that coin was still standing on edge when it was over! I put my arms around Alf and said, 'You're my man!'" The wine cave began as a narrow, rather short tunnel dug that May. For the next 20 years the cave evolved as Dale Wondergem, the "roadheader artist" for Alf Burtleson Construction, ground out a vast underground maze of rooms and tunnels of varying sizes and shapes. The additional construction phases, carried out in '87, '89, '95 and 2000, have created a shining jewel in the array of wine caves today, elegantly merging function with form. The design was largely a result of the synergetic relationship between Gil and two young men, Dirk Hampson and Larry Maguire. Dirk joined Far Niente as assistant winemaker in 1982—the same year that winemaking returned to this historic property—and became winemaker in 1983. Larry joined the fledgling winery in 1983 and was charged with developing the winery's marketing and sales strategy. To introduce a worldview to their young staff, Gil and Beth began taking the team to Europe to visit the great wine estates. Larry recalls: "Our tour of the round barrel chai at Château Lafite inspired us. We realized then that we had a chance to do something very special with our caves so we took the challenge seriously. We always knew we needed a proper wine library, but it was driven home in '87 with our morning tasting in the Auxey-Duresses cellar of Madame Lalou Bize LeRoy's father and the tasting afterward at Domaine de la Romanée-Conti. The resulting design looks nothing like either place, but the spirit of the tasting with Lalou lives with me each time I'm in our library." Bouchard Père et Fils in Beaune influenced Far Niente's rear-exit grotto. Visitors enter those caves, wander throughout the walls of the city of Beaune and end up in a grotto—a magical sensation. "We loved the brick cellar under Maison Louis Latour's Corton Grancey," says Larry. "You could look through archways to see barrels in another room. Our cave construction wouldn't accommodate a similar design, but Dirk's lighted niches brought some of the feel that we experienced in that cellar. Looking down our corridor with the niches you get the sense of small, interconnecting passages." 1981 Far Niente

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