Meet Stargazer Barn, a lovely farm in northern California that grows flowers, wine and more.
We love wine over here and hope to be doing more standalone reviews in the next year, focusing on different regions of the world. How cool was it to discover a site that not only sends you wine (great for gifts of course), but also flowers and chocolate. Sure, you can just order wine from them but their gift packages that combine all the things you love is even better.
Tulips are what came in our order, which symbolize love (red ones that is). You can of course find tulips in all sorts of colors, from pink (which represent caring), purple (royalty), yellow (hopelessly in love), white (forgiveness) and orange (fascination, warm and happiness). Their flowers are eco-friendly too which we applaud.
Fresh from their artisanal farm, tulips aren’t the only flowers you can order, but also stargazer and white lilies, and iris as well. You can also opt to join their flower club to receive monthly flower deliveries, or monthly wine and flower deliveries, or join their wine club to receive four bottles of wine every month. It’s a great option for Valentine’s Day, Easter or Mother’s Day as well as special moments like anniversaries and birthdays.
Their farm has a small vineyard where their winemaker Wil Franklin creates small batch wines, which express the terroir of Humboldt County’s Trinity River.
Truth be told, we love supporting small wineries and these guys certainly fall into that category. Their estate vineyard is one of the smallest and most northern of all California AVA’s. And, Gardner Ranch is also known as one of oldest vineyards in our county.
Our favorite? The Black Bear Cuvée was our top pick, which is a 2014 red made up of 75% Cabernet Sauvignon and 25% Merlot. Am a big oak gal so no surprise that it was aged in 100% neutral oak. We love that it was grown with zero synthetic pesticides or herbicides and is un-fined and unfiltered.
Think big and bold, just the way I love my reds. I haven’t attended the Bay Area Pinot Days event in a year or so, but a few years back, I was on a mission to find the biggest Pinot of the lot and even wrote about it.
There dominant taste was blackberry with a pepper on the finish. We paired this gem of a wine with an organic ostrich steak, a spring greens salad and sauteed squash. It would also go well with sweet barbeque ribs and they suggest wild mushrooms to bring out the earthier tones. It was divine with our dinner and we’d definitely recommend.
We also loved their award-winning 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon, which has a lovely smooth tannic structure.
They suggest that the wine will age well over the next 5-15 years but we popped it within a week of receiving it and paired it with bison burgers (no bread – we avoid those starchy carbs), corn on the cob and sauteed green beans with garlic. Oh so yum!
They have a couple of Chardonnays as well but the one we wanted to try was sold out which must mean it’s darned good. We hope to try some of their Chards in the future so stand by.
Since gift packages are what they specialize in and tout, we’d suggest trying out a package to start and see what you think. For example, with summer at its peak, you can’t go wrong with a nice crisp rose for an outdoor brunch in the garden one weekend.
They offer a package of a dozen yellow Lilies, and a bottle of Trinity River Vineyards 2014 Dry Rosé Wine, which is a light Provençal-style rosé. It comes together in their signature Barn Box, which includes a galvanized, French Bucket style vase.
Did we mention coffee AND chocolate? Their Flower Foodie Collection includes two dozen stems of dark pink Barcelona tulip bulbs from the Netherlands, but grown on their Northern California farm, a bag of dark Sumatra roast coffee with organic beans sourced 100% from the island of Sumatra in western Indonesia and single origin chocolate from organic beans from a single estate in the Sambirano Valley, Madagascar. Think fruity chocolate with strong red berries – oh so yum! Bravo chocolate makers Adam Dick and Dustin Taylor.
More information including how to order, join their wine club and more can be found on their website.
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Note: we received some product to test out but all opinions expressed are entirely our own.
Renee Blodgett is the founder of We Blog the World. The site combines the magic of an online culture and travel magazine with a global blog network and has contributors from every continent in the world. Having lived in 10 countries and explored nearly 80, she is an avid traveler, and a lover, observer and participant in cultural diversity.
She is also the CEO and founder of Magic Sauce Media, a new media services consultancy focused on viral marketing, social media, branding, events and PR. For over 20 years, she has helped companies from 12 countries get traction in the market. Known for her global and organic approach to product and corporate launches, Renee practices what she pitches and as an active user of social media, she helps clients navigate digital waters from around the world. Renee has been blogging for over 16 years and regularly writes on her personal blog Down the Avenue, Huffington Post, BlogHer, We Blog the World and other sites. She was ranked #12 Social Media Influencer by Forbes Magazine and is listed as a new media influencer and game changer on various sites and books on the new media revolution. In 2013, she was listed as the 6th most influential woman in social media by Forbes Magazine on a Top 20 List.
Her passion for art, storytelling and photography led to the launch of Magic Sauce Photography, which is a visual extension of her writing, the result of which has led to producing six photo books: Galapagos Islands, London, South Africa, Rome, Urbanization and Ecuador.
Renee is also the co-founder of Traveling Geeks, an initiative that brings entrepreneurs, thought leaders, bloggers, creators, curators and influencers to other countries to share and learn from peers, governments, corporations, and the general public in order to educate, share, evaluate, and promote innovative technologies.
