For the suds crowd, the sport of choice is
softball, played with long-neck bottle in hand. California's wine
folk-- especially those with Italian roots -- are gravitating toward a
more genteel pastime, taking to the lawn with a bocce ball in one hand
and a glass of wine in the other.
"Oh, yes. You have to have a glass of
red wine in hand while you're playing. A Preston red. It
emboldens you to make your best shot," affirms Lou Preston, whose
Dry Creek Valley winery in Sonoma County seems to have been the first to
spark the trend of winery bocce ball competitions. Indeed, the
interest was so great that Preston was recently forced to add a second
court.
Bocce had its beginnings in the Italian Alps
during the early Christian era, when players tossed stones at a target
(the object being to land as close as possible to the target).
Roman soldiers, employing balls instead of stones, spread the game
throughout the Roman Empire, where the game evolved to boules (France),
lawn bowls (England) and bocce (from the vulgar Latin word for ball, bottia ) in Italy.
And although it has taken well over a century for
the game to really catch fire here, bocce is gaining in
popularity. It will even be played as a demonstration sport at the
Sydney Summer Olympics next year.
The game is simplicity itself. A small white ball,
known as "jack," is bowled down the alley. The object is
to then place one's ball as close to the jack as possible to score
points. Much like croquet or horseshoes, each subsequent bowler
can dislodge those balls previously bowled. (There is even a similar
version of bocce played on ice called curling.)
Preston, whose heritage and M.B.A. from Stanford
University certainly didn't predispose him to bocce ball, put in
his first court in 1985. So how did this bread-baking, bocce ball
-playing winemaker take up this once so esoteric sport? "{It}
was inspired by my Italian in-laws -- Susan's folks, who live in the
Sierra Foothills and cook and bake and play bocce.
"Our second court was inspired by a cellar
worker who used to work for us, Roberto Sabatini. He really knew
bocce. He was a member of the West Coast chapter of the American Bocce
Federation. He helped us build a better court, coached us on how
to play better and taught us how to run a tournament."
Building a proper bocce ball court is far more
complex than the layperson could begin to imagine. International
regulations call for a court 91 feet long and 13 feet wide, but a court
of 60 feet by 10 feet is sufficient for most needs.
"First you lay down a base of
three-quarter-inch drain rock," Preston explains, "because you
don't want water pooling in the winter. Then a thick layer of
oyster shells, and over that comes the surface layer of oyster
flour. The flour is quite fine, and sifts down to fill in the
courser layers. You work it with a roller until the surface
becomes very dense and very smooth. The new technology is to mix
in a little clay with the oyster flour so that everything compacts
better
Preston admits to holding the occasional
tournament, but insists that they're never formal. "Winery
visitors keep the courts fully occupied all day on weekends. They
picnic, eat bread, play with the cats and play bocce." And as
to those rumors of nude bocce ball, Preston winks and shakes his head.
"We don't allow that, " he claims.
Sonoma County was heavily settled by Italian
immigrants who recognized an intimate geophysical resemblance to their
native Tuscany and Piedmont. It is no surprise then that the county's
winemaking population is littered with names such as Foppiano, Ghiotti,
Martini, Mazzoni, Parducci (Kenwood), Pastori, Pedroncelli, Prati,
Rafanelli, Rosse, Sebastiani, Seghesio, Sodini, Sbarboro (Italian Swiss
Colony) and Vercelli.
"We've had our court next to the tasting room
for about six years now," says Jim Pedroncelli, co-proprietor of
his family's historic Geyserville winery. He believes the game is an
important part of his Italian heritage. "My brother John and I
remember, as little guys -- this was before television, you understand
-- when bocce was a big Sunday social event. People would sit around
drinking wine, telling stories and playing bocce.
At J. Pedroncelli Winery, much like at Preston
Vineyards, "nothing is too organized," Pedroncelli says.
"Bocce is a friendly game. It's easy to learn and doesn't take a
lot of practice. It's very sociable. People sit and stand around,
talking, kibitzing, trying to throw people off their game. And bocce
doesn't take a lot of preparation or maintenance. It's not like a golf
course or a tennis court. |
"Our
court is open to our tasting room visitors," Pedroncelli explains.
"They just walk in and start playing." Picnicking is
also encouraged, so visitors who take full advantage of the amenities
can savor an Old World-style of relaxation that's being preserved in
wine country. "We do occasionally invite friends, members of the
wine trade and restauranteurs for loosely organized tournaments. But no
money changes hands, " Pedroncelli asserts, "it's strictly
amateur."
Over in the Russian River Valley, visitors gravitate to the bocce
ball court at Armida Winery, a noted producer of Pinot Noir. "The
original owners, the Frugolis, were Italian," explains
co-proprietor Bruce Cousins. "They put in the court before we
bought into the winery."
Armida's bocce ball court is pleasantly situated and seems to be
the center of outdoor life here. "Everyone uses it,"
Cousins says. "People open a bottle of wine and hang out and whoop
it up for hours. The court sits between the vineyard and the pond, and
is lined by roses on one side and has some nice benches on the
other. And there's a big stone lion's head overseeing things. He's
like, our referee," Cousins chuckles.
Visitors to Armida, which is open seven days a week, are welcome
to use the court. "We've never done anything organized,"
Cousins says, "but the Chicago Bocce Ball Club was here once to
play."
The Chardonnay specialists at Sonoma Valley's Landmark Vineyards
see bocce as one of the great wine-drinking games. Besides that,
"it's one of the few games I can beat my husband at," enthuses
co-proprietor Mary Colhoun. "We put in our court in the
spring of 1997. It's pretty easy to maintain -- you just sweep it and
roll it.."
Built in a lovely, park-like setting, Landmark's bocce court is
popular with winery visitors, who also may enjoy wagon rides and
Landmark's picnic grounds seven days a week.
A pair of Sonoma County wineries that maintain courts that,
unfortunately, are not generally available to visitors are Belvedere
Winery and Mazzocco Vineyards. Eye surgeon- owner Tom Mazzocco
lived in San Francisco in the late 1960s while doing his medical
residency. "I remember going over to the public courts on Columbus
Avenue, watching the old Italians play for hours at a time."
Once he built his winery "we put in a bocce court for family and
employee use, but we leave the balls out in case winery visitors wander
down from the tasting room and want to play."
Although Belvedere's court is also semi-private, it boasts a
setting so spectacular that it's worth mentioning. Sitting atop a
promontory that is 800 to 1,000 feet above sea level --a commanding
aerie that also includes picnic grounds -- it makes an ideal spot for
entertaining clients or holding company get-togethers.
Winery spokesperson English Knowles suggests that the setting
represents the rural, real Sonoma County ambience. "It's a reminder
of this county's Old World roots," she says. "The Italians
settled the area because it reminded them of their own Tuscan hills.
They also had the foresight to plant some bold red varieties. We pay
homage to them as we toss the bocce, and we have only one rule. You must
have a glass of Zinfandel in hand at all times while playing."
Indeed, the Old World game is catching on. "Everybody's
talking about bocce ball," affirms Pete Seghesio Jr. of Seghesio
Winery. "We're putting two courts in at our family's new downtown
Healdsburg facility, which is actually a retrofit of our 1895
cellar. We used to have a family-style picnic and play bocce ball.
It's a wonderful way to bring people together.:"
Slated for play to begin next year, the Seghesio courts will be
open to the public.
The folks at Mendocino County's Brutocao Cellars have incorporated
bocce courts into their new complex in downtown Hopland. "We had a
court in our backyard when I was growing up," says owner
Leonard Brutocao, who wanted to recapture those golden days for visitors
and clients.
"We want Hopland to be an important wine country
destination," Brutocao explains, "so we're putting in a
restaurant, a tasting room, a gazebo for weddings, a hillside garden
planted with 4,000 rose bushes and six bocce courts." His
winery has even joined the U.S. Bocce Federation and will serve as the
North Coast Bocce Federation's headquarters. Plans are in the works to
host inter-city, inter-winery and regional tournaments.
The entire Brutocao complex is nearing completion, while the six
courts, which Brutocao estimates cost about $100,000, opened for play in
May.
The brochure published by Boccebrew,
a Marin County bocce court builder, notes that "Bocce has been
distilled over the centuries like rare amber, ready to enlighten and
ennoble, humble and humiliate, soothe and satisfy." But the words
of Machiavelli, perhaps the greatest player the game has ever known, say
it best: "Let's-a play-a ball!"
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