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…
Read MoreThe 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…
Read MoreCalifornia 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…
Read MoreSuggested 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…
Read MoreAfter a quiet lunch in Rutherford yesterday, I drove back home along the Silverado Trail. As rain droplets began hitting my windshield, I passed the modest sign for the winery whose founder, to me, is an almost perfect example of the idealism of many of the early vintners who came to Napa Valley, searching for…
Read MoreAnd the nominees are … In researching The House of Mondavi, I built up a modest wine library of fifty or so volumes. Some of my treasures came from the annual sale of the St. Helena Library, which has a wonderful collection of wine books. Others came from local, independent book stores or Amazon, or…
Read MoreGreen labels – coming soon to a wine label near you? Images courtesy CCOF This morning, I climbed into my VW and headed north, to Sonoma’s wine country, where tender green buds were just beginning to unfold from the trellised vines. I pulled into the driveway of Sonoma-Cutrer, where a flock of sleek geese were…
Read MorePhoto by Mark Richards Last night, on the fifth anniversary of the start of the Iraq war, I heard Anne Lamott speak at Book Passage, one of my favorite bookstores. Anne (often referred to as Annie) was at the tail end of a three-week tour for the paperback release of her book, Grace (Eventually): Thoughts…
Read MoreOne thing I didn’t hear anyone mention at this year’s Nieman conference was the “New Journalism” – that movement pioneered in the mid-1960s by Tom Wolfe, Truman Capote, Gay Talese, Jimmy Breslin. Perhaps because there seems to be a growing sense that at least some narrative nonfiction writers have gone too far in plucking techniques…
Read MoreThis weekend, I spent 48 hours in Boston’s Prudential Center without venturing outside once. Yes, the fat snowflakes that drifted down past our hotel window Saturday morning were an enticement to venture outside. But not enough of one to convince me to miss any of the conversation taking place inside, at the Nieman conference. Making…
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