Taylor Mason, Resident Chef
…. it seems like I’ve been going to the Napa Valley every few weeks this year. Only February, and I’ve been in late January for the Master of Wine educational seminar and just last week, the Symposium for Professional Wine Journalists and the Premiere Napa Valley Barrel Auction. Usually Yountville [...]

 
Chardonnay is everyone’s favorite grape … it can take on so many expessions. Increasingly, you should recognize that many old world producers, especially in Macon, are edging towards new world appellations in style while some new world producers are trying to emulate old world producers. 

So for those of us who appreciate the apple pie a la mode style of [...]

Are you a jaded diner? In today’s power-packed culinary world, many people are lucky enough to visit four and five star restaurants as a matter of course. Twenty years ago, for example, dining at a top restaurant would be because…

 
… so you can imagine how surprised I was when a business colleague gave me a bottle of Ehret Family Winery 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa’s Knight’s Valley upon hearing I was a wine person.

This is a delicious wine with exotic spice, black berries, plums, coffee, and a never-ending finish. Knights Valley is a tiny [...]

Are you a jaded diner? In today’s power-packed culinary world, many people are lucky enough to visit four and five star restaurants as a matter of course. Twenty years ago, for example, dining at a top restaurant would be because…

“I’m staying at this fabulous hotel,” I overhear a woman tell a Napa Valley local. “Yet I can’t pronounce the name.” “That’s okay,” the Napa-based friend replies. “I can’t pronounce it either. But I hear it is fabulous.” The hotel…

Consider the year 1551. Michelangelo is in Italy, chiseling the finishing touches on his last work, the Rondanini Pietà. In merry old England, Edward VI succeeds Henry VIII as king. And in the Spanish town of Sant Sadurní d’Anoia, just…