I met Gabrielle Shaffer and Adam McClary on the bocce courts of St. Helena this summer. I recognized some non-playing members of their team who were gathered around a picnic table laden with the usual summer evening’s bounty of cheeses, dips, salads, flatbreads, and, of course, an array of wines. They invited me to join them. Gabrielle is winemaker and Adam is chief bottle-washer and everything...
St. Helena, Napa Valley, May 2011—Benessere Vineyards offers an usual event to celebrate the release of its 2010 Pinot Grigio: an adventure in geocaching. The winery and vineyards will be the setting for what is essentially an adult scavenger or treasure hunt, where teams of people will travel through the estate, GPS devices in hand (which the winery will supply), to search for the ‘cache.’...
Sitting at Starbucks in Waikiki one day in September, my friend from Tokyo taught me, “If you want a glass of wine in Japan, this is what you say…,” let me backtrack — I’m the kind of person that gets stir crazy from 10 minutes on Rosetta Stone, but having a lesson in something applicable made the learning process approachable, fun even… so back to the lesson. ”It’s...
The year was 1999. Layla Fanucci, then a music teacher at the St. Helena Catholic School, decided she wanted a piece of art in her home. “Not just a poster, but a real, live piece,” she said of what she was looking for. “I wanted it to be big – and colorful.” Yet, days of searching through galleries in nearby towns proved fruitless. She couldn’t find what she was looking for. And, so,...
Most people never realize a real African experience is as close as Northern California’s Napa County. Unlike many of the drive-through “wildlife safari” parks, Safari West is the real deal. With nearly a square mile of habitat, in which African wildlife roams freely, as well as giraffe, free-flight aviaries, monkeys, lemurs, and cheetahs, Safari West is a total immersion experience. You...
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