Published January 12, 2005

Jeanne and Dan Schaefer grew up in the neighboring Wisconsin small towns of East Troy and Burlington - lovely places to live, but not particularly the epicenters of fine food and wine.

So how in the wild west world did they come to be fine cooks and winery owners?
Jeanne and Dan met at the University of Wisconsin, where Jeanne studied nursing and Dan became a Certified Public Accountant. In the late ‘70s Jeanne specialized in phlebotomy (blood flow), which brought her to work for years at Kaiser in San Francisco, while Dan practiced accounting with Price Waterhouse in The City, and the couple lived in rural Novato.

In the late ‘70s Dan made a professional move to a Novato insurance agency, which he and his buddy Joe Lehman bought two years later and ran together for the next 20 years. Eventually Dan sold his half to invest in his winery business, one of several smart moves, it turned out.

When he was still with Price Waterhouse, Dan lived closer to Napa and Sonoma counties than other house accountants, so he found himself assigned to wineries, and “got to like the people in the business. They were low-key, real and unpretentious. They enjoy good food, care about what they’re doing and are good land stewards. They have to care about the land, or they don’t have a job!”

So in love was Dan that in 1988 he and Jeanne started to buy property in Glen Ellen, purchasing their first 40 acres from local dentist Dr. Richard Wong, and purchased adjoining second and third 40-acre parcels in 1990 and 1993.

“The people and wide-open spaces appealed to me. Having a large tract of land was really enjoyable. We started with woods and ended up with a parcel producing very fine wine. We planted it in stages for two reasons: a) cost, and b) we wanted to make sure the vines would thrive, grow, and be productive. We planted what I like to drink. It was all personal preference.”

Dan did lots of research, including talking to Bernard Portet at Clos du Val Winery, John Wright of Domaine Chandon, and Mike Lee of Kenwood Winery. He asked them what grows best, studied what contiguous neighbors had planted and consulted with viticulturalists.

The Schaefers’ Glen Ellen vineyard neighbors are among the finest: the fabulous Louis Martini Monte Rosso, Hanna’s Bismark Ranch, which produces “stellar cabernets,” and Carmenet.

“We grow grapes at 750 feet altitude up to 800 feet with lots of soil types and exposures, so we can’t treat them all the same, but have the advantage of different flavors and textures.

Jeanne and Dan Schaefer now grow Bordeaux varietals Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Petit Verdot, and Malbec, and Rhone varietals Syrah, Viognier, Cinsault (“which makes a huge berry”), Grenache, and Mourvedre. According to Ben, he gets about two tons of grapes on each sloping acre, compared to the five to eight tons produced per flatland acre, resulting in about 125 tons this year. He sold 60 tons and kept the remaining 65, making about 3,500 cases of his fine Audelessa wines.
After a few years of selling grapes to wineries, Dan and Jeanne’s friend Eric Bradley suggested in 2002 that they make a barrel of wine from each of their eight vineyard blocks. “It was so spectacular that we decided to form our own winery! The name comes from our three grand daughters; Audrey, Chelsea, and Alyssa.” Anticipating the day when they could make their own wine, the Schaefers began to build “The Village,” a group of French chateau style buildings that include the winery and office and a small cottage on the vineyard property.

Dan got turned onto cooking by watching a television show in which “a guy started with a handful of flour, made a little well into it, broke an egg into the well, added salt, and said ‘watch this.’ The chef took a sauté pan, added olive oil, a little garlic, chopped prosciutto, peas, chicken stock, pepper, and he had a sauce! Then he rolled out the dough, cut it into one-inch wide ribbons, dipped it into boiling water for 45 seconds, put it on a plate, poured the sauce over it, and said ‘bon appetit!’ I said, ‘I can do that!’”
The Shaefers doubled the size of their Novato house, mostly with a new kitchen, which Dan thought was just what he wanted. When they bought their house on France Street in Sonoma two years ago, Dan designed the kitchen on the “triangle” principle, with the easiest possible access to the then new Sub Zero stainless steel refrigerator, work or chopping area, and stove, with the ovens making the functioning space into a rectangle.
And now they are buying another house nearby, and Dan is designing that kitchen to include wood-covered appliances and a Viking range with duel fuel sources. The burners will run on gas and the ovens will bake with electricity. The fun part is that he will have three “work stations” so that friends can take responsibility and help with their own work space.

A regular fan and student at Ramekins Sonoma Valley Cooking School in Sonoma, Dan spent several years focusing on making stocks and sauces, and always has chicken, seafood, veal, and brown stocks on hand.

“I don’t bother with vegetable stock. With homemade stocks you can make almost anything better. You can make anything the great chefs can make,” he said.
For Jeanne and Dan to watch the Rose Bowl, he was preparing a “salad platter” with tossed lettuce with Caesar dressing in the center, surrounded by a sliced sautéed chicken breast, a mound of tuna salad, and sliced boiled eggs and beets in between, with maybe some garbanzos or red beans. Meanwhile, he was making sauces for the dinner he and Jeanne were to take to Oakmont the next night for her mother’s eighty-ninth birthday.

When asked at a recent gathering by former Sonoma Police Chief John Gurney, “What are you majoring in at Ramekins now, Dan?”
Without a breath, Dan replied “pastries!”

The answer was also fairly obvious on the dining room table: a raspberry whipped cream tart, a blackberry tart, an Alsace onion tart, ginger bread cake, and a smoked salmon and capers puff pastry gallette. He even likes to drape a sheet of puff pastry over a turkey for the last 30 minutes of cooking. “People cannot believe their eyes when I slice it!”

“One thing I have learned about me is that I have the ability to know what a recipe is going to taste like by reading it, and know whether Jeanne and I are going to like it,” Ben says. He does not create recipes. “I am a formula person - an accountant. I get my best recipes from newspapers, magazines, and food product packages.”

Asked how he keeps his recipes (filed in cookbooks, or what?), Dan seemed to dodge the question for a moment. When pressed, he took me into their den, slid open a sliding closet door, and showed me a huge sealed plastic bin that he says contains “thousands of recipes,” in no order whatsoever. Dan loves to sit on the floor and dig out ideas or search for just the recipe he wants.

“I like to think through menu selection, what I’m going to cook. Then I make a shopping list and go to a number of vendors. I enjoy looking for the best, especially at the Sonoma Farmers’ Market. It’s a matter of timing and planning to put it all together.
“This is the most fun thing I do with my hands. It’s fun working with your mind and your hands. It’s like someone else painting, sculpting, or building model airplanes.
“Every man I hang out with loves to cook and is primary chef in their house. Like Doug Lobsinger, who manages several Safeways, my friend Scott Andrews who is an Emmy-winning documentary producer, Bob Gaddini who introduced me to Parmesan cheese and fine vinegars.” At this point he got out his treasured tissue-wrapped bottle of Gaddini’s family vinegar and allowed me a mouth-watering sniff. “And Joe Lehman, Phil Woodward next door, who specializes in grilling, Eric Bradley, and even my son Dan.”
When I asked Jeanne if she cooks with Dan, she said “I just sit and pray to the Lord to give me strength to clean up all the pots and pans!”

Garbed in his Christmas red sweatshirt embroidered with “Chateau Au Dessus le Brouillard” (Chateau above the Fog), referring to their winery office, Dan says, “Jeanne doesn’t cook any more.” Frankly, I don’t think I would either, with Dan Schaefer in the house and hot to cook.

Kathleen Hill is co-author of Sonoma Valley-The Secret Wine Country and Napa Valley-Land of Golden Vines. Kathleen is also the host of The Kathleen Hill Show, Mondays from 3 to 4 pm on KSVY- 91.3 You may reach Kathleen at hilltopub@aol.com.