Michael Chiarello with guests at a past Bud Break Party (above) and with his own budding progeny, Aidan (below)Photos from NapaStyle.com and ChiarelloFamilyVineyards.com Michael Chiarello is at home, making risotto alla primavera for 130 or so of the best customers of Chiarello Family Vineyards. He tastes a bit of the rice and parmesan cheese mixture,…
Kim Stare Wallace — is she drinking a Meritage?Photo from Dry Creek Vineyard As a newcomer to the wine world when I began The House of Mondavi, I discovered that its inhabitants spoke in a distinct language not so easily grasped by outsiders. When Michaela Rodeno, CEO of Napa Valley’s St. Supéry winery, first introduced…
The future of community?Photo from smh.com.au (Sydney Morning Herald) Writing, by its nature, is a solitary undertaking. Reading, too, is done mostly on one’s own. So why not bring writers together with readers in a virtual community? Redroom.com is the one of several social networks devoted to the love of literature. Yet, it is pulling…
Lunch in The GrottoPhoto from sfgrotto.org This month, I’ve been spending time at The Grotto, the famed San Francisco writers’ community which is home to such West Coast literary luminaries as Po Bronson, David Ewing Duncan, ZZ Packer, Jason Roberts, Julia Scheeres, Ethan Watters, and many others. One of my favorite parts of making the…
Harvard case studies probe for the veritas behind business decisions. The Harvard Business School has done six case studiesMichael Porter, a Harvard professor who wrote The Competitive Advantage of Nations, a book that I read and found fascinating after being assigned it many years ago in business school. Although I wouldn’t recommend them as bedtime…
Gareth Blackstock, aka Lenny HenryPhoto from Siegler.net Some people find gardening shows relaxing. Others love watching playful otters frolic with each other in nature documentaries. Give me the red meat and raw savagery of the kitchen anytime. First, I tore through Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential, which I found hugely enjoyable and not a little bit…
The Palazzo Antinori in Florence, Italy. Imagine a family business that has passed from one generation to the next twenty-six times, surviving everything from the scourge of Bubonic plague, to the invasion of Napoleon, two world wars, and even the birth and death of the wine cooler. The Wall Street Journal’s deputy bureau chief for…
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger greets Margrit and Robert Mondavi at the December ceremony inducting Robert into California’s Hall of Fame.AP Photo by Steve Yeater One of the questions I’m often asked when I talk at library fundraisers or with book groups about The House of Mondavi is how Robert Mondavi is doing. Still referred to…
Suggested wine pairing? Ask the go-to guy.Photo by justinsomnia.org Alder Yarrow and I had lunch together today at Taylor’s Automatic Refresher at San Francisco’s Ferry Building. After noting the $100-plus bottles of Shafer Hillside Select, Quintessa, and Blackbird Vineyards wines on offer at a take-out place that serves $8.99 burgers and $3.99 hotdogs wrapped in…