napa, sonoma, and mendocino

When I was a kid there was an ad for some wine, Gallo probably, that included the phrase "napa, sonoma, and mendocino." I heard is as a single blur "napasonomoandmendocino," no idea what it meant, maybe it was where the wine came from, maybe it was a type of grape. Who knew? I think I was probably pretty fuzzy on the concept of California when I heard the ads. Even if I'd known these are three big wine growing counties in the state, it wouldn't have meant very much. I think they're still the big ones although people seem to be growing wine grapes on every spare patch of sunny soil in California these days. I don't know why people who find monocultures of corn, soybeans, or cotton oppressive don't seem to have any problems with wall-to-wall grape vines. I mean, corn is sort of pretty, especially in late summer before the stalks get harvested and pooped looking. The spindly young vines, held up by aluminum stakes, well, not-so-much.

The mature vines were looking gorgeous this weekend. Laine and i went up to Sonoma for her birthday getaway. It's a tradition. We have to go someplace away from home, that has a hot tub in order for her to poach her way through her birthday. It's generally not a happy time for her.

By going to Sonoma this time, we've hit all the wine counties. And I like Sonoma the best so far, though Mendocino runs a close second. Napa, well Napa. The main problem with Napa for me it that the whole region is set out like a massive daycamp for grownups. There's stuff to do, there's stuff to eat, and there's stuff to drink. Lots and lots of stuff to drink. It's all expensive and the people working in nearly all the places we went into were pretty snotty. The exceptions were the excellent Sweetie Pie Bakery and the Ace hardware store in Napa where we stopped to pick up a starter chimney for the grill. Now it's true that we don't look like we have great gobs of money. We don't and we don't have gobs of money either. But most of the time when we're wandering around in places where people spend money, the retail folks treat everyone as though they're going to drop a couple of grand. It only makes sense. You can't always tell who's got money and who doesn't from how they dress. (Think Britney Spears for Christ's sake.)

But folks in Napa can't seem to be bothered.

It looks as though the people who work in the restaurants, wineries, vineyards, shops, and what have you all along route 29 live over in Sonoma - in places like Agua Caliente and Boyes' Hot Springs. Or they live in the working class neighborhoods at the south end of Napa itself. Which is another whole reason for me to prefer the Sonoma side of the street. I'm feeling the class warfare these days.

The picture is from St. Helena.