Joseph Bucklin Society. A National History Center for the Gaspee Affair of
1772 and the Bucklin Family 1600-1899.
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| Bucklin Society November 2007 Newsletter. Wine with the Bucklin Name on It - Acclaimed by Wine Experts!
A
...if you insist on saluting the harvest season with one of the best heritage
wines produced in the U.S., you should think about Bucklin Old Hill Ranch
Zinfandel@ A
...You could think of Will Bucklin as the Mother Theresa of grape growers.....A
unique wine from a historic vineyard, it=
s ripe and complex with a zesty core of blueberry, raspberry and blackberry
flavored Zinfandel fruit, then all sorts of subtle secondary notes, from flecks
of rhubarb and brambly green notes to coffee, chocolate and black pepper
flavors.@ The Bucklin wine uses old, old, vines, from a field planted in 1851. Vines now so ancient and without artificial watering for so any years that each year the vines only produce a few grapes from each vine. The 150+ year old vines in the core 14 acres of this historical vineyard make this not only a spectacular wine, not only "Old Zinfandel", but also "Ancient Zinfandel." Both the viticulture and winemaking are managed by Will Bucklin the former winemaker for King Estate. Will has a distinguished background in wine making. He graduated from the renowned wine making course at UC Davis. He was interviewed by a search team from the Domaines Barons de Rothschild of France and awarded an internship at Chateau Lafitte Rothschild in France. (If you are at the Bucklin winery, ask Will what the employees drank at Chateau Lafitte Rothschild, and what was the inspiration for Bucklin's Mixed Black - a unique taste in American wines.) After the Château Lafitte in France, Will worked for several years in Australia (the Thomas Hardy winery). Then in 1992 he came back to the United States as winemaker for King Estate in Oregon. (The King Estate winery, a major sized winery, still gives Will Bucklin credit for its early success on their website: e.g., "Will Bucklin became the winemaker and under Will's guidance, the winery established a very successful approach to making Pinot Gris in a cold fermentation and without the use of oak or malolactic fermentations.") In 2000 he moved to California to bring back to life the overgrown ancient vineyard the Bucklin family owned. His expert care now produces the unique and delicious Bucklin Zinfandel wine, plus his renamed Mixed Blacks, but a white that goes wonderfully well with a holiday turkey dinner. So now you too can have wonderful wine - with the Bucklin name on it! (Makes a gift or conversation starter for a dinner party, but you yourself probably will drink every bottle you can lay your hands on.) Get some of the extremely limited production (14 acres, only a few hundred cases a year), before it is sold out! See www.buckzin.com for ordering information Just in Time for your Holiday Shopping
Of course, we have always had a bookstore. But did you know? --- if you order any book in print through the links to Amazon com you find on our website page Bookstore, Amazon sends us a 4% commission. And did you know? --- every year we depend upon donated dollars or books sale commissions to keep the website operational. So please, do your holiday on line book buying through our website. NEW! We have now added to our online bookstores a special Quick Picks Bookstore. Six to nine different, changing, recommendations for good books to buy, new recommendations each week you come back. A quick, good, and to the point place to buy a book. In short: our new Logo Clothing and Gifts Store, and our new Quick Picks Bookstore can save you time and provide you with unique gifts. From Providence to the
> 49 California Gold Rush,
Tourists in the Mission district of San Francisco today see only a drab area. No one sees the magic that existed there almost two hundred years ago when Mary Bucklin Woodward and Robert B. Woodward opened their home to the public, complete with the private zoo, aquarium, concert hall, and art museums set in the two city blocks that was their home. To explain the life of Robert and Mary, we must start with the California Gold Rush..... The California Gold Rush began shortly after January 24, 1848 (when gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill). As news of the discovery spread, some 300,000 people came to California. They traveled to California by sailing ship and in covered wagons across the continent, facing substantial hardships on the trip. One of those who rushed to California was Robert Woodward. It was only seven months after being married that Robert left his wife Mary in Providence with the announced intent of securing wealth and the promise of wealth to be gained by his leaving temporarily for the Gold Fields. And secure wealth he did! Robert B. Woodward earned his fortune the first year he was there with sweat and foresight--not in the gold fields of California, but by opening a grocery store just off San Francisco's waterfront. Then, as the San Francisco economy changed from supplying groceries on highly inflated prices, Woodward started investing his wealth in the burgeoning new economy. There was an unmet demand for rooms and meals for those in transit. Woodward opened the What Cheer House at 527-531 Sacramento Street. (The hotel was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake, so the historical plaque for this landmark of early San Francisco is on a building built where the hotel was.) The What Cheer House was a pleasant, and cheerful hotel --- for men only, no women allowed on the premises --- that sold good food ala carte and only non-alcoholic beverages. Woodward promoted the hotel as providing clean and safe accommodations at low prices, an unbeatable combination in the Gold Rush times of San Francisco. Each night the What Cheer House was usually completely full of sailors, ship captains, and other travelers. Robert was what today we would call a "people person". He was so well-liked that the sailors and captains would often bring him gifts of items from around the world. These gifts were the beginning of what would become the lifelong obsession of Robert Woodward with collecting educational items of museum quality. The What Cheer House multiplied Woodward's wealth from his grocery store. His continued investments in other businesses in the new California economy were shrewdly and soundly made, and his wealth accumulated. E.g., he was the first president of the San Francisco City Railway Company, operating a system of horse-drawn "bob-tail cars@on wooden planked streets. During the tumultuous Gold Rush period, Mary lived in Providence and Robert lived in San Francisco, with Robert making arduous journeys back and forth to visit Mary and the children, who stayed in the comfort and safety of the Providence society. Robert and Mary's first four children were born in Providence, Rhode Island, in the period of 1848 to 1856. In 1857, Robert, by then a wealthy man, brought his family to San Francisco, where his last child was born. Robert built a family home on Mission Street. The property was two large city blocks in size, bordered by Mission, Valencia, 13th and 15th streets. He loved collecting plants, animals and art, and spent much of his time developing his large property into a beautiful location to entertain his friends and family. Over the years, San Francisco locals became so intrigued by his opulent home, that they would either attempt to get an invitation inside, or simply stand outside the gates peering in at the mansion and its grounds. In 1883 the San Francisco Examiner wrote, "Woodward realized that it was only a question of being pestered forever or quietly throwing open his place." Woodward opted for public education. Robert Woodward said he wanted to provide ordinary folks with education and entertainment. The motto of the public gardens was to be "Education, Recreation and Amusement." So first, he went on extensive buying trips to Europe and came back with tons of artwork and animal, geological, and plant specimens. When his visionary project was finished, Woodward then moved with his wife and children to a new home in Napa, California, and officially opened San Francisco "Woodward's Gardens" to the public. Woodward= s Gardens was a combination of zoo, museum, concert hall, and amusement park in a beautiful garden setting. During its years of operation (1866-1891), hundreds of thousands of people came through the gates to the gardens to enjoy the surroundings and learn more about their world. The gardens contained the largest and most comprehensive zoo on the West Coast, with exotic animals wandering freely in large spaces. The gardens also housed four natural science museums, an aquarium (one of the first in the world) and an art gallery. There was a restaurant, based on Woodward's What Cheer House ideals of good food, low prices, and no alcoholic beverage. In fact, Woodward= s Gardens was the only San Francisco public eating or drinking establishment that didn't serve alcohol. There was a large roller skating rink, a real novelty in the 1800's. There were Sunday hot-air balloon rides. There was a Rotary Boat B a circular boat with multiple billowing sails, which rotated like a merry-go-round on a track in a large circular shallow lake, carrying up to a hundred people for a fun ride. On Sundays, there were concerts in the five thousand seat octagon pavilion. Robert Woodward died in 1876, and his heirs, living well in Napa, did not try to keep the San Francisco public gardens up to the standards of the garden= s founder. In a few years the heirs auctioned off the art and animals, the fish and fossils, and then, in 39 separate parcels, the two city blocks of land. There is a modern day restaurant by the name of Woodward's Garden. at the site of the original park, at the corner of Mission and Thirteenth Streets, and a small commemorative plaque on the side of a building at the corner of Mission and Fourteen Streets facing the site where Woodward's towering mansions and museums once stood. No one sees the magic that existed there almost two hundred years ago when Mary Bucklin Woodward and Robert B. Woodward opened their home and gardens to the public.
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© 1998 to
09-06-2008 Leonard
Bucklin © See Copyright
Information. Warnings. Disclaimers |
Since Will Bucklin started producing his Bucklin wine, the wine
experts have been heaping praise on it. For example,
NEW!
Joseph Bucklin Society now has much more than books
available through our online store. We have caps, and a cook's apron, a dozen
types of T-shirts with various logos or Society slogans, and other clothing with the Bucklin
logo. In addition to the logo clothing, we have mugs a Christmas ornament, and note cards, and other unique gift items for you and
yours. Take a look and browse our new
Robert B. Woodward and Mary Church Bucklin were married on 2
June 1847 in Providence, Rhode Island. Both were born in Providence. Both died
in California. Mary Church Bucklin saw both married loneliness and the height of
affluent living. 
