A unique piece of furniture at a Napa Valley vineyard comes from New Zealand, by way of Wisconsin. That trip began fifty thousand years ago, when a big piece of Kauri wood was buried in the muck of a New Zealand bog. It was dug up, and shipped to Wisconsin as a single 500 square foot, twenty foot long, five and a half foot wide board.
Robert Teisberg of Ancientwood, Ltd. in Ashland, which produced the gigantic table. Teisberg's firm, which also sells smaller pieces of Kauri wood furniture, made out all right on the deal. Without getting too specific, Teisberg says piece of unfinished wood that went into the table was sold for around $50,000. That works out to about a dollar for each year the huge plank was buried in the muck.