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Winemakers at J. Lohr believe their vineyard at Paso Robles produces some of the finest grapes around, ones that rival Napa and Sonoma on quality.

You might not think roaring through a vineyard on an all-terrain vehicle has a lot to do with being a waiter, but Ted Burke does. Co-owner of the Shadowbrook restaurant in Capitola, Burke believes that if you serve wine, you ought to know about it.

And to know about it, you’ve got to get out to the places where wine is made.

So every year, Burke loads up a luxury bus with 24 of his employees and heads out to the wine country, where workers study, sip and sniff their way into the world of wine.

Sometimes it requires that they ride all-terrain vehicles.

"We found we wanted an educated work force," Burke says, sitting in a red captain’s chair as the restaurant’s chartered bus lumbers along Highway 101 toward Monterey and San Luis Obispo counties for this wine-tasting excursion.

"We could have a conference and have people come and train them, but we can only tell them so much. This gives them the experience they need to assimilate the knowledge and remember it," he says.

Shadowbrook, noted for its romantic setting on Soquel Creek, is one of the few restaurants in California that finances a wine-tasting trip for staff.

Not many owners are willing to shell out the $5,000 it takes to house, feed and transport chefs, waiters and bartenders for two days, but Burke believes it is worth the cost.

"The public is more sophisticated," Burke says. "Their expectations are higher. They are willing to be more daring."

The days when patrons would order a bottle of Blue Nun to go with their Chicken Cordon Bleu are gone.

Today, diners at Shadowbrook are willing to fork over $30 and $60 for bottles of fine wine to go with their Lime Cilantro Marinated Ahi Tuna and Blackened Sirloin of Lamb.

During the U.S. Open golf tournament, Burke says, his restaurant sold more bottles of a $65 Cabernet Sauvignon than any of its lower-priced Cabernets.

It’s a trend being seen across the state, according to Kristin Olsen, spokeswoman for the California Restaurant Association.

"People want to enjoy themselves more and indulge themselves more," Olsen says. "People are spending more money in restaurants and ordering things they wouldn’t normally order."

It’s partly the economy and partly a rising interest in fine foods and wines, she says.

"That’s the fun part of my job: opening up people’s eyes to a good combination of food and wine," says Paul Piazza, a lanky waiter who has worked at Shadowbrook for five years while putting himself through the ecological horticulture program at UC Santa Cruz.

"If you don’t educate yourself and stay on top of the trends, you’re not giving service to your customers."

Vat’s a lot of fun

The Shadowbrook bus bounces its way over into the heart of the San Bernabe Vineyard in Monterey County, the world’s largest single vineyard.

Straight rows of Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay grape vines stretch as far as the eye can see, so it looks like the hills have been combed.

There are 9,400 planted acres. If you took the property and laid it over the Napa Valley, it would stretch from Yountville to St. Helena, explains Art Danner, western region manager for this giant vineyard.

"26,000 tons of grapes came off this ranch," says the Scotts Valley resident, who’s dressed in a beige barn jacket and baseball cap.

"That’s as much as some countries."

Owned by the Indelicato family, San Bernabe Vineyard raises grapes for winemakers ranging from the giant Mondavi to the tiny Bonny Doon Vineyards run by Randall Grahm.

But the family also has its own brand of wine, Monterra, which Shadowbrook stocks. So after being driven through acres of grape vines and climbing all over a harvester that’s as big as a semi, the Shadowbrook employees pile into a tiny room and taste the vineyard’s offerings over lunch.

An appley Chardonnay, a smoky Sangiovese and a jammy Syrah that Martha Stewart selected as a top wine pick in a blind tasting are laid out on tables covered in smooth white tablecloths.

"The qualities in the wine don’t overpower the food," Danner says holding up a glass of the 1998 Syrah.

"You don’t get that thick tannin bite that rips your head off."

The employees nod and roll the wine around in their mouths.

Then it’s off to Lockwood Vineyards, the wine industry’s version of a startup, where winemaker Stephen Pessagno lets the Shadowbrook staff crawl inside a 35,000-gallon stainless steel fermentation tank.

It’s like being inside the world’s biggest soda can.

He also teaches them about blending a Bordeaux-style wine vintners call a meritage.

A meritage wine is one that showcases a winemaker’s art, blending different varieties to come up with a rich, smooth wine, Pessagno explains. There is even a Meritage Association devoted only to this kind of wine.

Telling them to notice the blueberry notes in the Malbec and the Merlot’s rich coffee and cherry flavors, Passagno sets up a challenge for five groups of employees:

Blend a replica of his Very Special Reserve Red Meritage using the thick green bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Malbec and Cabernet Franc he sets in front of them.

The staff mixes, sips and frowns. When they’re done blending, one group isn’t too far off the mark of a wine that sells for $42 a bottle.

"We are seeing more of a fascination with wine," says Olsen of the restaurant association.

"There is more of an interest in the quality of wine, more of an importance on the wine list."

High-powered classroom

Shadowbrook’s visit to J. Lohr’s vineyards outside of Paso Robles is more like a scene out of "Mad Max" than a sedate winery tour.

Land developer/winery owner Jerry Lohr gives a few directions, swings his leg over a dusty all-terrain vehicle and roars off into the vineyard with eight Shadowbrook workers in rumbling pursuit.

Frost-bitten leaves are a blur of brown and rust. A hawk circles overhead. But Lohr isn’t out just for the ride.

He wants to show the staff the French clones of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon grapes he’s planted and the chalky soil that grows what he believes to be one of the finest Cabernet Sauvignon grapes around.

"People put us down as too fruity, but then they’re calling their Realtors saying, ‘Find me something where Lohr has his land,’" says Lohr, a plain-talking man who’s dressed in dirt-spattered work boots, a plaid shirt and jeans.

He lists the winemakers who have followed him to Paso Robles: Fetzer, Meridian, Estancia, Franciscan.

"I don’t want to be immodest, but they’re all J. Lohr wannabes," he says.

The climate swings from hot to cold, the soil is right and land is not as expensive as Napa and Sonoma, he says.

"Paso Robles is going to be the last great Cabernet appellation in California," says winemaker Jeff Meier, who uses words like "killer" to describe a great wine. He siphons tastes of Merlots and Syrahs right out of the barrel for the Shadowbrook crew.

There are 30 winery permit applications pending in northern San Luis Obispo County alone, he says. "There’s a lot of potential here. We’re a young Napa Valley."

By the time the tastings are done, the Shadowbrook staff is noticing hints of lilac and banana, and the bite of tannin from the grapes’ seeds and skins.

They’ve learned how climate affects the taste of wines, how something called malo-lactic fermentation gives that "buttery" taste to a Chardonnay.

Two of them fall asleep on the ride back home.

For Burke, this is what a staff who has been called upon to sell $500 bottles of Lafite Rothschild or carry $3,000 worth of wine up to a patron’s car because he fell in love with the vintage is all about.

People are taking more time with dinner, Burke says. They are ordering more appetizers, asking for better wines.

In California 55 percent of the patrons will order wine with dinner, according to the California Restaurant Association.

Employees at a restaurant like Shadowbrook have to know what they’re talking about.

"People want to hear recommendations from personal experience," Piazza says, "like how I was just at J. Lohr riding four-wheelers and doing some tasting with them."

"The goal is to make learning fun," says Burke, as the bus heads back to Santa Cruz.

"That’s why we’re successful."

Contact Peggy Townsend at ptownsend@santa-cruz.com.

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