(upbeat music) - There are just a few things you need to have a great get together.

Well, first off, obviously you need friends.

I'm still working on that.

Now any seasoned host knows step one to any good spread is a great bottle of wine.

And luckily for us, the Central Valley is home to some of the best.

I could do this a lot.

Yeah, that is really nice.

But you can't just have wine.

No, no, no, no.

You need to pair it with something.

Something delicious.

Some, hors d'oeuvres.

Sorry.

Snacky snacks.

That's right, it's a classic trio.

Wine, bread and cheese.

Everybody knows this pairing is undeniable.

So if you want to be the envy of all your friends, - We're the bread basket of California, and California is the bread basket of the world.

- Exactly.

Join me as we rediscover and dare I say fall back in love with the classic art of making wine, bread, and cheese.

The journey starts now as we take a look at some truly timeless tastes.

Central California definitely has its own vibe from the laid back latitudes of the Central Coast to the scenic wonders of the Sierra and all the amazing people, cultures, food found in the great cities and towns of the San Joaquin Valley.

I'm on a mission to explore the festivals, the hidden gems, the history, and the stories that make up this great place I love to call home.

I'm Roy Sizemore and we're hitting the road.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] "Hitting the Road" with Roy Sizemore is made possible by viewers like you.

Your support fuels the adventures and incredible connections that make the Central Valley special.

Every journey we take, every story we share is thanks to you.

Become a member today to help keep the good times rolling.

Visit our website to learn more.

Thank you.

(upbeat music) It's believed the practice of grape stomping dates back to ancient Rome with the Maenads, the female followers of Dionysus, the god of wine making known for his music and static dances used to free his followers from self-conscious fear and care.

Basically, the dude was the god of party.

One of the earliest existing representations of grape stomping appears on a Roman empire sarcophagus from the third century AD.

Now, the earliest I remember is that old "I love Lucy" episode where they go to Italy.

Remember that one?

Or that unfortunate clip that went viral on YouTube.

- [Reporter] Oh no.

Oh dear.

- I think she's actually hurt.

- No, I think she is.

- But how wine was made back then is very different from how it's made today.

Or is it?

Hey, it's Roy Sizemore coming to you today from Wine Country.

Now I know what you're thinking and you're thinking wrong because no, I am not in Napa.

I'm right here in the Central Valley.

I'm in Sanger, California at the Kings River Winery and we got a special day today.

Today is the wine stomp.

This is where people actually stomp on the grapes, like how they used to make wine in ye olden days.

So we're going to check that out, have some wine, see what else they got going on, and you're invited to come along.

So let's go.

(upbeat music) All right, we're here at the Kings River Winery with Ashley Borges, and you're going to tell us all about this grape stomp event today.

- Yeah, we do this every year.

It's a great event that we do during harvest.

So right now, we're in the middle of that, harvesting the grapes directly from our vineyard.

It's kind of evolved.

It's gotten into like a way bigger event now.

Now we have the DJ, the vendor market.

We used to just kind of have it small scale.

We had little wine barrels that people would jump in, but we've made it a bigger event and more of like a celebration and a party to kind of enjoy the harvest season.

So yeah, a few years now.

- See I was wondering like, do you get to like stomp your own grapes and then they give you the juice and like, okay, go home and ferment this?

- We don't take the juice home, we toss it.

- [Roy] No?

- Yeah.

It goes back into the ditch.

We don't drink it.

- [Roy] So no worry about the feet wine.

- Correct.

We do this for the community.

So we have the opportunity for them to come and stomp and get in the bins and kind of have their "I Love Lucy" moment if you've seen that show.

- Of course.

- Yeah.

And so it's recreating kind of like that experience and giving them that opportunity.

- So you get to just drink wine and come out and stomp grapes.

- Oh yeah, there's lots of wine drinking happening over there.

- Okay.

I think I got what's fun now.

You get to have a couple glasses of wine, have some tacos, have some food.

- [Ashley] Totally.

Shop and just hang out and listen to music and- - Stomp grapes.

- Yeah.

Enjoy this time of year.

(upbeat music) - What's that feel like?

- It's just horrible.

- It's just horrible.

- Slimy.

- Gooey.

- Is it slimy?

- Gooey, slimy.

- Is it gooey, slimy?

- Yeah.

Slimy and gooey.

- It's fragrant.

- Yes.

Very.

- Very fragrant.

- Is this your guys' first stomp?

- [All] Yes.

- All right.

So what, you just see this and- - It's because we've done other events here.

- Yes.

- Okay.

- And then, then we saw this so we're like, "We have to do it as well."

- We have to come do this.

- Awesome.

- Yeah.

- Are you in the wine club and all that?

- Might as well because we're here all the time.

- Okay, so you guys like big party and wine gals.

I like it.

Well, that looks gross.

(everyone laughing) (upbeat music) Alright.

Is this your guys' first?

- Mine, not hers.

- Yeah, mine's my second.

- Second, okay.

So what made you come back?

- Oh gosh.

I mean, it was just so fun the last time and the wine slushies obviously, so you know.

Yeah.

- Now what does this feel like?

- What would you say?

- It feels good.

- [Roy] Does it?

- Yeah, really good.

- I wonder if it's good for your skin.

- I mean, you can get in with us if you want.

- I know.

Honestly I was going to today, but I get to live vicariously through your feet.

(upbeat music) I want to say real quick here, very talented because she could stomp and drink at the same time.

- That's right.

See?

- How did you manage to do that, like hold the glass?

- Because my wine's more important than grape stomping.

- Okay.

The end result is more important- - Yes, absolutely.

- Than the process.

Is that what you're saying?

- Yes.

- So where you from?

Visalia.

- Visalia.

So you come up here a lot?

- Oh yeah.

We got married here, my husband and I.

- Oh, congrats.

Just recently or?

- Oh no, five years ago.

(laughs) Ashley's laughing.

She's like, "Yeah, no."

- Oh no, long time ago.

Feels longer.

You're supposed to say, "Oh, it was just like yesterday."

- Yeah, it was.

But now we have a kid on top of that.

- Oh okay.

(guest laughs) See what that wine does.

- I know.

- It's all Kings River Winery's fault.

- See, there you go.

Magic things happen, starting families, stomping grapes at Kings River Winery.

All right, now it's time to have a little wine.

It's a little warm today, so I ordered a rose.

Don't judge me.

Oh, that's good.

There's a little fruity, taste of Dr. Scholls.

No, I'm just kidding.

No, this is really good.

This is really good.

Hmm.

I could do this a lot.

Yeah, that is really nice.

- We as a Central Valley are not typically thought of as a wine region.

- [Roy] Right.

- We aren't typically, you know, the first that comes to mind when you think of where to go for wine tasting and where to get away at a winery at a tasting and before that experience.

We're the bread basket of California, and California is the bread basket of the world.

That also includes wine and wine grapes.

- Exactly.

It's not all Napa.

- Right.

- There's so many- - It's not all Napa, it's not all Paso.

We love them, they're great neighbors, but we have great wine here too and fun experiences.

- Right.

Now I can't speak for the followers of Dionysus, but what I can say is that while the processes for making wine have advanced significantly, the experience hasn't changed much since their time.

Though we came to Kings River to inquire about the grape stomping, what we left with was something else entirely.

A firsthand look at the people and events that make the Central Valley a must-see destination for any and all wine connoisseurs.

(door creaks) All right.

I feel like I just got out of Narnia like we just started in this little room and it got bigger and bigger and bigger.

It's like the TARDIS in there.

That's awesome.

(tape rewinding) Now that we've got an exclusive look at one of our local Central Valley wineries, I'm getting kind of hungry.

And let's be real.

What's wine without a little something to snack on?

I'm talking some bread, but I'm not about just any old bread.

I'm talking about a local gem that's been baking up bread products for over 100 years.

Luckily, I didn't have to travel too far today.

It's right here in downtown Fresno.

Fun fact, Fresno is home to one of the largest Armenian communities in the country.

Truly amazing people who brought with them their culture, their traditions, and luckily for us, their incredible food.

So today we're stepping into one of Fresno's most beloved Armenian food institutions, Valley Lahvosh Baking Company, home to some of the best cracker bread you'll ever taste.

This fourth generation family run business has been crafting some of the best bread products in the Central Valley since 1922.

And it all started with one man, Gazair Saghatelian.

Gazair was a master baker back in his homeland of Armenia.

But like so many before him, he sought a new life and new opportunities that led him right here to Fresno.

And today, I'm getting a behind the scenes look with his granddaughter and third generation owner, Agnes Saghatelian, to see how she's carrying on that delicious legacy.

So this is like an old family recipe that he like brought over, right?

From Armenia, your grandfather?

- It's a family recipe that he developed, you know, while he was here.

- [Roy] Okay.

- And that is really kind of the heart and soul of the bakery.

You know, when COVID happened, we completely shut down.

- [Roy] Right.

- And that was just devastating.

And so we came back up, came to open one day a week because I just thought, "I can't stop making that peda."

You know, that is really what started everything.

And that is the heart and soul, as we say, of the bakery.

It's a wonderful, wonderful loaf bread.

And that's what started everything.

- That's amazing.

So he came over here in 1922.

- He came over in the early 1900s.

And then actually the family settled in Lynn, Massachusetts for a brief period of time before they ended up settling here in Fresno.

So a lot of Armenians ended up settling here in Fresno.

And where we are located is actually at one time called Armenian Town.

- [Roy] Right.

- And so there were lots of Armenian, you know, households and the bakery was here and the church is across the street.

And so this was a wonderful Armenian neighborhood.

- So in the early 20s, did they came straight from Armenia to farm or what was the big migration to California for?

- They came over to get away from what was happening over in Armenia and ended up settling here.

And some people, you know, they went into farming, some people, my grandfather, knew baking.

And so he built the bakery and started making his his peda loaf bread.

And that was his way to commemorate, you know, his new life and coming to, you know, this new country and started selling the peda along with other types of bread.

So that is what we still make today is that peda along with the lahvosh cracker bread.

- Now don't let the quaint charm fool you.

Valley Lahvosh isn't just a little bakery around the corner.

This is a full scale operation that manufactures right from their downtown Fresno location and it takes up an entire city block.

Plus 95% of what they make gets shipped all over the country.

So chances are that cracker bread you're munching on in another state probably came straight from Fresno.

- We sell to food service industry, so restaurants and caterers, hotels, country clubs, and then retail, which is grocery store chains.

- [Roy] Right.

- We also private label for customers.

And so yeah, just different industry, and we pack it and formulate it based on who we're selling to.

- That's amazing.

I had no idea you guys were like nationwide.

That's great.

- Yeah, we are.

Yeah, a lot of people will see the corner bakery and they'll think, "Oh, it's just a darling, cute little bakery," which it is, but they don't realize the reach of where the product goes.

- That's awesome.

That's great.

So you're helping downtown, keeping jobs downtown.

- Yeah, it's a part of our history, a part of our family.

It's so nice to still be downtown.

So this here is a photo of the building where we're currently standing.

It was originally called California Baking Company and this is my grandfather standing here in the front.

- [Roy] Wow.

- Yeah.

And our family actually lived right next door to the bakery.

So they lived and worked right here in downtown Fresno.

And then after my grandfather had passed away, the name was changed to Valley Bakery and it was known as Valley Bakery for decades.

And then in 1994 was when we did a name change once again to Valley Lahvosh Baking Company, and that's what it is today.

- [Roy] Look at these old cars.

- [Agnes] Yeah, aren't they gorgeous?

- That is amazing.

That is so neat.

So you're like literally like almost from the beginning of Fresno.

- Very early stages.

- Very early on.

That's awesome.

- Yeah.

- [Roy] That is so cool.

- So this is a photo of my mom, Janet, and my uncle Sam, and mom worked in the bakery her whole life and my uncle Sam was the baker.

And so they're actually standing pretty much where we're standing right now.

And it's just a great photo with the peda bread and the lahvosh cracker breads.

The photo down beneath is the bakers right here in the back.

My Uncle Sam along with the other bakers making the bread by hand.

- So is this a big family business too?

Like all the cousins and everyone would come down and get jobs and make bread and like kept them- - Sure.

Oh, there were a lot of family members.

So there were actually six siblings and so my mom and my uncle Sam stayed here and worked in the bakery.

The other three, my other three uncles, the other three siblings, Jimmy, Tommy, and Sid, they had the Old Fresno Hofbrau and the Silver Dollar Hofbrau.

- [Roy] Oh, okay.

- [Agnes] Yeah.

- [Roy] I miss both of those.

- [Agnes] Okay.

- [Roy] A lot.

- Yeah, those were wonderful, wonderful places to go and eat delicious food.

They would buy the bread here and make the sandwiches on our peda buns.

- That's where I've seen it.

Yeah, with my corned beef back in the day.

- Yes, back in the day.

And that's actually where that register is from.

That's from- - [Roy] Oh that's so cool.

- [Agnes] The Old Fresno Hofbrau.

- [Roy] And that's where I've seen the bread before.

Okay, it's clicking.

- [Agnes] Yeah.

- I'm a little old.

You got to give me a second sometimes.

(both laughing) - That's okay.

This down here is a photo of my Uncle Sam making the lahvosh cracker bread by hand when it used to be produced by hand, you know, they would roll it out and they would put it on a long pizza paddle, put it back in the oven, it would bubble up.

They would take it out, let it cool on these racks.

This process is now all automated.

- Okay, so you've stepped it up.

You've joined the 21st century.

- Oh yeah.

Yeah.

In 1985 was when we did the major expansion and so you know, things were automated before then, but yeah.

- And then this must be the man himself.

- Yes, this is my grandfather Gazair.

And my mom had often told me that this was his favorite photo of himself.

So we've got it here.

He can watch over all of us.

- That's awesome.

- Keeping everything going.

- Now why why did her grandpa start making bread?

Because he needed the dough.

Thank you.

(audience laughs) You can have that one.

That's right, folks.

I'll be here all week.

Be sure to tip the wait staff.

Okay, enough of Roy's comedy corner.

I'm ready for this tour.

- We're entering now into the original part of the bakery where the fresh bread, the peda is produced.

This is where we make the peda every Friday.

And this is our baker, Patty, and she comes in and starts the process about 4:00 in the morning.

Yeah.

- 4:00 in the morning.

- Yeah.

- 4:00 in the morning?

Talk about an early riser.

Get it, riser?

But anyway, lucky for us, we don't have to wait to see how the magic happens.

This big guy from the 1930s was used to bake both the lahvosh and the pita bread up until 1985 before the bakery's big expansion.

Man, I'm turning into the bread expert.

Wow, that is huge.

- Yeah.

- That's wild.

I hate to see your bill.

(Agnes laughs) Your bill must- - Wait till you see our other oven, yeah.

- Okay.

(upbeat music) - So this is where we store our ingredients to produce the cracker bread.

Everything is up off the floor on pallets.

We have 50-pound bags of flour that we use and this is where they gather everything to get produced for the production run.

- [Roy] 50-pound bags.

That's a lot of gluten.

Here's a little Roy trivia for you.

How much flour do you think Valley Lahvosh goes through in a day?

Alright, put down those pencils, class.

- [Audience] Yay.

(audience applauds) - We run 600-pound doughs and so they can produce anywhere from 10 to 12 600 pound doughs in a shift.

So it's a continuous process.

They'll have a batch running and then they'll have a batch getting ready to be prepared.

- [Roy] If you said C, you really rose to the occasion, you see?

Like bread rising, you get it?

Anyway, let's get back to the tour.

- So the dough comes out of the mixer onto a table and then they cut off the chunks, they put them into a hopper and then it goes through a sheeting process.

And so it literally starts out as a large, flat piece of dough, about maybe a couple inches thick.

It goes through a series of rollers, gets progressively thinner, thinner, takes a turn, goes through more rollers, thinner, thinner.

And then it goes through a cutter.

And so that by the time it gets to the cutter, it's at the ideal thickness and weight that it should be.

And so it literally looks like a huge cookie cutter, but it has our shapes on it.

So the dough rolls underneath it and it will cut out whatever shape is on that roller.

So it's all the same process, we just swap out the cutter.

- Dang, this is some serious business.

But even more serious is their oven room.

How much does it cost to run this per shift?

- Our PG&E is pretty high.

Let's put it that way.

- I was going to say.

I don't know if you could get enough solar panels for this.

I don't know.

It's like a sauna.

You don't need a sauna.

You just come in here in the oven room.

I think I'm going to lose two pounds.

This is good.

That's good for me.

You eat the bread, you eat the crackers, then you got to walk through the oven room and burn it off.

- Right.

- That's smart.

Well, after my spa sauna treatment, we made it out to see the final process these treats go through.

I don't think they mind if I took just one, right?

Well, I think my charcuterie board is finally starting to come together.

Fresh off the line, me and the crew managed to even get our very own sesame cracker bread to take home.

All right, well, this has been incredible.

Walking through Valley Lahvosh, you can feel the history in every corner, from the old school craftsmanship that honor their Armenian baking traditions to the high tech engineering that helps them retain that familiar taste.

This is more than just bread.

It's history in every bite.

And lucky for us, it's a tradition that's still going strong right here in Fresno and beyond.

Now I know what you're thinking, and no, this isn't the latest Wes Anderson film.

This TV show host is on a quest to finish out my epic charcuterie board and I can't forget the most important food item of all time.

That's right.

We're talking number one, baby.

Cheese.

Though the time and place that cheese making originated is unknown, it's thought that the process may have come about accidentally when our ancestors left milk sitting a little too long in storage containers made out of sheep stomachs.

Today though, we're going to fill up my tummy with some yummy cheese from the people that have been doing it right since 1984.

Hilmar Cheese Factory.

It all started when a group of dairy farm families came together with one goal, make exceptional cheese from the best milk straight from their own farms.

And today, it's one of the largest cheese manufacturers in the world, producing over a million pounds of cheese every single day.

That is a lot of cheese.

I hope you took your Lactaid.

Let's check it out.

Alright, I'm here with Allie, who is my cheese expert, my chexpert here at Hilmar Cheese Company.

When did this all get started?

I didn't realize it was so big.

Like you see little dairies, I'm thinking cheese, like small.

But how did Hilmar Cheese Company like come about?

- Great question.

So in 1984, we started Hilmar Cheese Company and it was started with 12 jersey dairy farmers.

And then in 1998 is when we started the visitor center.

So it was a great way to celebrate the business's success.

And then it was the owner's idea where there was a place for the community to come together.

And any friends, family, anyone passing through can come on in for a great time.

Where we like to say where you can tour, taste, shop, and eat.

- Can you do like weddings here?

Can I get married in the Hilmar Cheese Company?

- We have done it in the past, yes.

- No, you haven't.

A cheese themed wedding.

Sign me up.

Like sign me up right there.

I love cheese.

So you started this small, and now you're kind of everywhere.

It's so big.

But how come I don't really ever see like the Hilmar Cheese Company label when I go buy cheese?

- Yes.

So the reason for that is we sell wholesale.

- [Roy] Oh, okay.

- So we have other companies that buy our cheese in bulk and then they resell it.

And that's what you're buying.

- So like they're just slapping their name on your cheese?

- Well, they slice it, dice it, cube it, shred it.

They do what they want with our cheese.

They slap their label on it.

That's what you're buying in the grocery store.

And then you can only buy cheese with our label right here in the visitor center.

- [Roy] Oh, okay.

- Yeah, a lot of people don't know that.

- So I get the real deal, authentic real deal.

Okay.

- Yes.

Yes.

- [Roy] Got it.

Before anyone else gets ahold of it.

- Yes, exactly.

- All right, well, I'm going to get some cheese today, then I'm going to go the store and buy some other cheese and I'm going to do a little- - You can do comparison.

This is the freshest you can get.

- I'm going to, "Okay.

Nope, that's Hilmar."

I'm going to go just like that.

- You can tell.

(upbeat music) - Alright, now it's time to actually taste the cheese.

What do we got going on here?

- So right in here, every single day, you can come into the visitor center and you can try free cheese samples.

So the first one I want to start off with is our squeakers.

So they're going to be the ones right here.

- What's a squeaker?

- Great question.

So our squeakers, they're freshly made cheese curds and we actually get them from the factory in the back every morning.

And so it just depends on what they're making for our customers, then we will get that flavor of cheese.

And so if you put them in your mouth, you're going to hear them squeak.

- Okay, well- - And if it's a little hard to hear, you can plug your ears, and you can hear it a little bit better.

Can you hear it a little bit?

Yeah?

- Oh, that's good.

- Especially kids love this.

And the reason why they squeak is because they haven't been fully matured, so they still have air pockets in it and so they haven't quite solidified.

So they're rubbing against your teeth and they kind of pop those air pockets and make that squeaky noise.

- I haven't fully matured either.

That's good.

This is the cheese for me.

- You're matching our cheese.

- How much cheese do you make a day?

- We actually produce a little over a million pounds of cheese every single day.

So lots of cheese.

- Wow.

- Okay, so over here we have our vintage sharp cheddar, which is a classic.

Everyone usually likes the vintage sharp cheddar.

A little stronger taste.

It's our longest aged cheese, about seven to nine months.

- Seven to nine months?

- Yeah.

- How long can you let it age though?

- It just depends on the flavor.

So we have scientists here that they have a formula, a patent formula that they know how to make these best flavored cheese, so it just depends.

- As I'm looking around, I'm getting kind of a Willy Wonka vibe, but instead of Snozzberries and the everlasting Gobstoppers, it's like just about every cheese you can think of.

All right, welcome up to the bar, you guys want some shots?

We got Yoohoo, Ovaltine, strawberry Quik, banana Quik, chocolate Quik.

What's your poison?

Come on.

I just wonder what like what you're drinking at the bar.

Like just cheddar.

Nacho cheese.

I'll do some nacho cheese shots.

I'll be down for that, 100%.

Alright, Allie, it says, "See the big cheese."

Are you the big cheese?

- I'm not the big cheese.

- Okay.

What's the big cheese?

- The big cheese is a 640-pound block of cheese.

- That's a lot of cheese.

- It is a lot of cheese.

We're actually the world's largest, one of the world's largest manufacturers of cheese.

You can see our employees working very hard in our viewing windows.

So this right here is neat because any of the visitors can come in and they can see this process.

And there's not really anywhere else where you could see it.

- No, everything's kind of closed down.

You don't really get the behind the scenes look on how everything's made, and so this is like awesome for me right now.

- Yes, you get to come here and learn how that process looks like.

And so right here, people can also see what the packaging looks like.

So this is what it looks like when it gets shipped out to our customer.

- In a big wooden box.

- In a big wooden box.

It's a great way to keep it sealed and airtight.

- I feel like an auctioneer.

All right, how much for the 640 pounds of cheese?

Do I see $200?

$200 there?

- I would definitely bid on that.

- Alright, so what's with the clothes?

What's going on here?

- So here, you can dress up as a dairy farmer, a veterinarian, or a cheese maker.

- Oh, I want to be cheesemaker.

- Yes, go for it.

So it just kind of shows all the kiddos that come here on tours and any of the public's, you know, this is the safety required as a- - I could tell this is normally a kid's shirt, but that's all right.

Let me see.

- You look great.

This is a really great way for the kids to see.

- Fat guy in a little coat.

This is good.

Okay.

I'm going to take this off because I can't breathe.

Oh, and here come the kids.

- Yes.

- You know, Hilmar Cheese doesn't just make cheese, they also teach cheese.

This place is open for tours.

So whether you're a curious visitor or a kid on a school field trip that's just here for the free samples, there's a lot to learn.

Even making ice cream.

(bell dings) Seriously though, if my school had taken us on a cheese tour, maybe I'd pay more attention in class.

Man, I didn't know it'd be such a workout to make ice cream.

But I got to say, the taste, it's pretty worth it.

That's pretty good, huh?

Well, that was fun.

- Did you enjoy that?

- Well, who doesn't like ice cream?

- No, exactly.

- Now you mentioned something about lunch maybe?

- Oh yes.

We have lunch ready for you downstairs.

A couple different options for you to try.

- Allie and the folks at Hilmar Cheese know how to show a TV host a good time.

Ice cream and lunch too?

Well, it would be rude of me not to try it.

Wow, look at this spread.

So good.

This place is seriously the perfect spot to have lunch, meet up with some friends, and in my humble opinion, have one of the best sandwiches in California.

These are truly some timeless tastes, flavors that bring people together, that tell stories, that connect us to history while still being just as delicious today as they were generations ago.

And to think it all comes from right here in the Central Valley.

(gentle music)