St. Helena Road Vineyards - Wine Country Vacation Rental

Our Llama population is now down to three, Lil, Red, and Iris. They are healthy and happy and continue to enjoy their lives here in the Mayacmas Mountains of Sonoma. They enjoy visitors that have a supply of carrots in hand and appreciate their sweet and gentle nature, and ‘Lil’ usually has little ‘Llama kisses’ for the provider! They help us keep the mountain growth in check and are exceptional weed eaters. Their fertilizer is clean, odorless and great for plants.

Below is our report of the fate of the remainder of our herd. It is a bit of a sad story so those of you who would like to avoid this we thought we’d give you a warning. We realize that there are hundreds of former guests who have enjoyed the company of our Llamas and would like to know of their fate and for those, we have the following.

Our gathering of Llamas has been at six since we converted this former Llama Ranch into the spectacular mountain vineyards that it has become. This past two years has had a severe toll on our herd, with only three of our sweet ladies remaining. Minette our Alpha female, did pass on from having lived a long and happy life of close to twenty years. We all miss her presence and none more that Grania, our ‘Appaloosa’ Llama. This sweet and touching little story, a bit of a tear jerker, goes like this:

“Minette lay down in their barn one night and never woke up. All five other Llamas knew she was gone and carried on a short vigil around her before she was removed. Grania took it harder than the rest, she and Minette being together their whole lives. Four days after Minette passed; Grania lay down in the exact spot where Minette did and the next morning, she was gone as well, the victim of a broken heart.”

Needless to say, this little tale has broken many others as well.

We returned from a wine selling trip of a week to Southern California to find ‘Jackie’ our all dark brown Llama and the new ‘elder’ with a broken femur in her rear leg. She was in no pain and did not complain in the least. It took us about a week to make the decision to put her down due to her calm and peaceful disposition. She was so brave and we miss her.

Today, we have our three remaining Llamas, with ‘Lil’ the new Alpha Female. She’s the white one with the black dot on her forehead. She is followed by ‘Red’, the tall one with the long neck and ‘Iris’ the red/brown Llama with the crooked snout. They spend their winters after harvest in the vineyards, grazing on grass and munching on leaves and anything green.