TIMELESS ELEGANCE & FINE WINES ON THE MENDOCINO COAST - Wine Love!
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The WINE WRITER: George Medovoy THE HARBOR HOUSE INN - TIMELESS ELEGANCE & FINE WINES ON THE MENDOCINO COAST Surely it's the timeless, enchanting landscape, but I'm just as convinced that it's also the free spirits, lending their imagination to lodging and food, alternative farming, and now, of course, to winemaking, like the great zinfandels that come off the Mendocino Ridge near the Navarro River. But nowhere does it all synthesize more harmoniously than at the Harbor House Inn, an elegant 1915 Arts and Crafts-style redwood house named this year by Sunset Magazine as one of the West's Best Small Inns with a restaurant. The inn sits on the ocean side of a quiet village called Elk, just south of the community of Mendocino. Our footsteps made crunching sounds on the gravel pathway as we walked to the front steps of the old house, designed as the executive lodge for early lumber company executives. Miss Dizzy, the inn's mottled brown cat, issued a welcoming meow from the broad porch. The wide windows of the Harbor House dining room offered views of the lower cove, where workers once loaded redwood onto schooners moored off a jagged outcropping called Arch Rock. In the morning, we took the wooden stairway down the side of the cliff, past a mysterious waterfall half hidden behind thick foliage, to the inn's private beach. There, the waves hitting the rocky shoreline represented the only sounds now since the demise of the lumber mills in the Great Depression. The builders of the house had planned it as a large-scale replica of the "House of Redwood," which was showcased at the 1915 San Francisco Pan Pacific Exhibition to demonstrate the enduring characteristics of redwood. Now, some 85 years later, its newest guardians are two hospitable Southerners named Sam and Elle Haynes. "Once we began to refurbish the property," said Sam, "we realized what a treasure we had. Protecting its integrity became our first priority." In the cozy warmth of the living room, we snuggled into a brown leather sofa after dinner. Old magazines, a Scrabble game, and an oversized folder with historic Harbor House documents covered a coffee table. A piano sat near the fireplace, waiting for anyone who could play, said innkeeper Ken Krauss. The wood floor seemed freshly polished, and overhead, bands of redwood crossed the ceiling. The inn's lovely bedrooms, on the first floor and up the carpeted "It's impossible to be a purist and at the same time provide guests with luxuries they have come to expect," she said. "For example, there were no king-size beds in 1916, so we searched nationwide for beds that complemented the grandeur of the Harbor House and also satisfied our discriminating customers." The inn's 10 enchanting bedrooms and four adjacent cottages come with private baths, luxurious bathrobes, and CD players. Like the lovely, second-floor Harbor Room in the main house, featuring a dramatic king-size feather bed with five heavenly pillows, a thick, white down comforter to match the white walls, a mahogany antique dresser, and a gas fireplace. As ocean breezes wafted into the room through the open windows, we surveyed the view from one of two big lounging chairs: dramatic gardens, the ocean, and seagulls circling above a stand of cypress trees on a lone ridge. Out beyond the shore, the tunnel in Arch Rock seemed large enough for a small boat to sail through. One could really understand Sam Haynes' feelings about "an impulsive enchantment with a spectacular property." The smaller Lookout Room next door, a kind of doll's house with French country wallpaper, has a doorway that leads to a rooftop "lookout" with two Adirondack chairs for ocean gazing, reading.or listening for sea lions. At some point, you'll want to steal away from your room and lose yourself in the Harbor House gardens. The work of designer Barbara Faulkner, the gardens feature large groups of similar plants, which, Faulkner said, "create a serene atmosphere and allow the view to be the dominant feature." Splashes of color owe their magic to sunset-colored Gazania and purple Cineraria, the latter of which, Faulkner said, are "happy to re-seed everywhere" in these climes. By day, deer graze in the hills across the road, but at night they can make a "dessert" of Faulkner's tasty plants! In the chicken yard, Sam's prized Silkeys, Cochins and Mille Fleurs strut their stuff for amused guests and provide fresh eggs for breakfast. On the ocean side, herbs and vegetables in planter boxes soak up the sun and the saltwater air. And as if one didn't need a reminder of the purpose of it all, the word IMAGINATION just happens to be carved into a nearby rock on a pathway. It's a fitting link to the work of chef Paul Ciardello, who infuses the The extensive wine list, recognized by Wine Spectator magazine, is well represented by California labels as well as French and Italian wines, and reflects the careful attention of both Sam and Ciardello. Of note, the list also includes organic labels like Sinskey and ZD, whose vineyards eschew pesticides and synthetic fertilizers, thriving instead on 'natural' ladybug protection, for which the young Ciardello can't find enough praise. "When you walk in their fields," he said, "there's lady bugs everywhere. You see life in their fields. It's good to see somebody do it right.and still manage to keep their land alive.without having to pump chemical fertilizers in the grounds. It's the best of all worlds." Ciardello enjoys pairing wines and food. "I search for that pairing," he said. "When I start making my menu, I start with the entrée, I pick a wine, and then I try to pick an appetizer, salads and desserts that will follow a natural progression. "You can't start out heavy and go lighter, you've got to be able to have that wine.the best are the wines that are kind of tight when you open them.the younger wines, because as the wine opens up and progresses itself, your meal can progress right along with it." When the inn features its popular "Winemaker Dinners," it does four, multiple wines with the entrée. Against a crackling fireplace, breakfast chef Lynn Derrick serves At dinner, one of our favorites was Ciardello's chilled heirloom tomato soup, a marvelously silky mixture that practically re-defined tomato soup with its nine kinds of tomatoes, different in color, shape and size - and all organically produced and un-hybridized for at least 35 years. Ciardello's desserts are just as wonderful. We just couldn't get enough of his Chocolate Budino, a warm, light flam, set on the plate with a sweet splash of contrasting raspberry sauce - in his own words: "It's to die for." After all that dinner symphony, a kind of quiet descended over the dining room, as the ocean and the sky seemed suspended in a fragile Mendocino moment before evening turned into night. Another timeless moment at the Harbor House Inn. IF YOU GO. As of August of 2001, rates in the main house are from $300, and in the cottages from $225, double occupancy, and include full breakfast and a four-course dinner for two.
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