Napa Valley: Home to Wine Tasting -- and Turkey Hunting
Some vineyard owners take aim when wild turkeys threaten their precious grapes.
Nov. 21, 2007 — -- California wine country is a civilized place, framed by lush landscapes, beautiful vineyards and refined wine tasting. But the pristine Napa Valley is also home to wild turkeys, and the people who hunt them.
Amid the world's finest cabernets and merlots, you might just catch a glimpse of turkeys dodging bullets between the vines.
Vineyard owner and heir to the Sutter Home wine label Dave Trinchero gave "Nightline" a rare glimpse into the hidden side of wine country; a side so sensitive -- even dangerous -- that his fellow vineyard owners feel uncomfortable talking about it.
"They'll come to me, because I'm a local hunting guide, and because I'm the president of the National Wild Turkey Federation Chapter for this area, so they'll complain to me, but they're not willing to do it on camera," Trinchero said. "They complain that their crops get wasted, that [the turkeys] are raping their crops."
That's right -- the turkeys. It turns out the chubby little birds like to eat grapes and they love wine country, a potential recipe for disaster on a vineyard.
So every Thanksgiving, for two short weeks, Trinchero's beautiful vineyards turn into battlefields: man vs. turkey.
The" Nightline" crew suited up in camouflage and went along to watch.
"It's a little early right now, and it rained last night, and if they're cold they'll sit up there in that tree for a little bit longer and be a lot more quiet," explained Trinchero.
Trinchero began his turkey call, an art form that took him four years to learn, and then he took out the masks.
"The reflection of the skin on your face will alarm the birds," he explained. "And if they can distinguish a human form, they'll never come within shooting range."
It was then the hunt started getting good.
From our makeshift bunker hidden amid the cabernets behind a camouflage netting of unknown vintage, we watched Trinchero and the turkeys actually talk to each other.
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