COEUR d’ALENE — Lest there be a smidgen of doubt concerning his day-to-day, hour-by-hour philosophy, Win Steiger repeated his favorite statement three times within 40 minutes.

“Life is too short to drink cheap wine,” Steiger said, while staring down at Coeur d’Alene from the deck of his spectacular home on Canfield Mountain.

For Steiger, a practicing physician who has moved into family medicine after a long career as an obstetrics and gynecology surgeon, that sentence is both literal and figurative.

Steiger and his wife, Jan, once owned a 40-acre niche vineyard and winery in California’s Napa Valley.

And there’s no question that Steiger considers life too short to waste any time.

Now 76 but refusing to slow down, he commutes to Lewiston to continue his practice at Valley Medical Center.

“I work three weeks on and two weeks off, with weekends back home in Coeur d’Alene,” Steiger said.

“I love the work I’m doing, and being a doctor is who I am...but believe me, there are plenty of other things I’ve accomplished in life, and lots more that are in front of me.

“I can still climb this mountain around the house, and I run three miles in the morning. I want to add things to my life, not subtract them.”

Steiger is an accomplished photographer, and many of his stunning photos are spread throughout the 4,200-square-foot home he shares with Jan — a woman with a fairly noteworthy past of her own.

“We’ve been married 39 years and she’s still the greatest single part of my life,” Steiger said.

AMONG his many professional stops, Steiger found himself with a Beverly Hills clientele during a residency at the famous Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

A New Yorker by birth and disposition, Steiger landed in southern California after serving a tour of duty in Vietnam as a doctor with the 26th Marines — during which he managed to survive a helicopter crash.

His last duty stop was at Los Alamitos Naval Air Station near Los Angeles, and he discovered that he fit right in with a certain group of locals.

Among the people in his social circle was his future wife, although both were coming off failed marriages.

“We were friends first, and then everything just clicked,” Win said.

Fortunately, Steiger had made Hollywood friends by that time, so he wasn’t too intimidated by his bride-to-be — which was probably a good thing.

Jan was the daughter of Hall of Fame thoroughbred jockey Jack Westrope, a star in his sport with 2,467 winners. Westrope won the Santa Anita Derby, Bluegrass Stakes and the Hollywood Gold Cup, but he died after a fall during the running of the Hollywood Oaks in 1958.

JAN’S MOTHER, actress Nan Grey, was divorced from Westrope by then and married legendary singer, songwriter and actor Frankie Laine.

Laine remains one of the most enduring figures in all of American show business.

Born Franceso LoVecchio, Laine’s career spanned a staggering 75 years, from his first concerts in 1930 with a marathon dance company to his final performance of “That’s My Desire” in 2005.

Laine’s popularity was international, as well — a compilation of his hits reached No. 16 on British charts in June of 2011, 64 years after his first major U.S. hit and four years after his death.

On a personal level, Laine and Grey lived out a 43-year love story that lasted until her death on her 75th birthday in 1993.

After Westrope’s death, Laine adopted Jan and her sister, Pamela. Thus Steiger married into an exceptionally famous family, and recalls he was comfortable right from the start.

One of the doctor’s lifetime traits became immediately obvious. As Jan put it: “He wanted to live everywhere at the same time.”

Steiger bought a home at Mammoth Lakes in California’s Sierra mountains and built a gynecologic consulting practice at the Alpine Medical Clinic, while maintaining his work at Cedars Sinai.

“From the ski slopes to Beverly Hills,” he said. “I wanted to have my cake and eat it, too.”

THE STEIGERS’ next stop was the Napa Valley, where Win aimed to produce rare, expensive wines on his relatively small 40-acre property near the town of Rutherford.

Win loved it, and happily shows off some of the extraordinary bottles produced in the winery — which was called LoVecchio Estate Vineyards, to honor Jan’s stepdad, Frankie Laine.

Jan was not quite as charmed by the winery life, however.

Asked directly if she enjoyed their time in the Napa Valley, she promptly answered: “No! I thought most of the people were snobs.”

Steiger ultimately sold the property and the couple moved to Coeur d’Alene in 2004.

Yet he only worked seven months here, at the North Idaho Medical Care Center.

“I really didn’t want to start my own practice all over again,” Steiger said. “We loved living in Coeur d’Alene, but I was hired by a company that handles Locum Tenens staffing — situations where they fly you someplace where a doctor might be gone for three weeks or three months.

“I’d take off to different places — I became fluent in Spanish working at some spots in California — but I was also in Vancouver (Wash.), Moses Lake and finally in Lewiston.

“I wanted to work closer and closer to home, and then the former CEO of the Valley Medical Center in Lewiston offered me a full-time family practice in 2010.

“I said if I could do the schedule of three weeks on and two weeks off, I’d take it.”

AND THAT’S Win’s current gig, commuting back and forth on U.S. 95.

He admits the Red Lion Hotel in Lewiston hardly offers the comforts of home and companionship with Jan, but says he’s become too close to his patients to simply walk away.

“It’s become a very personal relationship,” he said. “My oldest patient is 99 years old.”

Some gifts on display in the Steiger home have come from his patients.

Asked if a particular gentleman with a form of cancer might die, Steiger had a quick answer: “We’re all going to die. That’s why I don’t waste any time. I only sleep five hours each night. There’s still so much I want to do.”

Steiger’s next project is writing.

He’s contributed to some local and professional magazines, but has his eye on writing novels that might become movies, including a compilation of short stories titled: “The People Watcher’s Collection.”

One of his projects is a book — fiction based on real people — called “The Mission: The Adventures of a Beverly Hills Gynecologist.”

Steiger insists everything about him comes from that interest in people — his whole career from medicine to authorship.

“I’m interested in so many things,” he said. “I’ll consider anything — except slowing down.”