The reality behind ‘Bachelor’ Ben

Ben Flajnik, left, gets high-fives from his roommates and Envolve Winery business partners Mike Benziger, center and Danny Fay, right, after making them dinner. (Crista Jeremiason/PD)

Ben Flajnik walks through the lobby of Vintners Inn in Santa Rosa at a clip, ducking his head, hoping not to be recognized.

Flajnik is best known to the masses as “The Bachelor,” ABC’s reality-TV star who was wooed by 25 women in exotic locations from Belize to Puerto Rico to Switzerland. The season’s last segment aired in March.

Photo Gallery: Beyond The Bachelor

The winemaker of the Envolve label is passing through Santa Rosa after checking out a vineyard in Mendocino County. Today, he doesn’t look TV-polished, but rather a bit rustic. His face has an unshaved stubble beneath his San Francisco Giants baseball cap and he’s wearing a maroon T-shirt, jeans and boots.

This reality-TV star has been in living rooms across America, but in reality, who is this bachelor? Flajnik, it turns out, has plenty to say on the topic.

“I’m not a reality-television star,” he says. “I’m not interested in being famous. It was an experience, a story, a springboard, a catalyst to make a change in my life’s direction. … It’s television and you can’t believe everything you see. It’s there for entertainment purposes.”

Flajnik, 29, lives in San Francisco with his business partners and childhood friends Mike Benziger and Danny Fay. He commutes to Sonoma Valley four or five times a week to produce the Envolve and Epilogue labels.