You don't need us to tell you that Napa Valley is a nice place to visit. What you do need is a way to lose the masses.
When you think of a winery, you probably imagine the bucolic Napa Valley or the dangling vineyard grapes in French wine country.
There's an oft-repeated bit of eno-philosophy that says the wine business is immune to recession because people drink in good times and bad. But it turns out there's a caveat: In bad times such as these, they mostly drink the cheap stuff.
Travelers don't always have to fight the masses and schlep overseas to find exotic vacation thrills.
SI.com has dispatched writers to report on the 32 NFL training camps across the country. Here's what Jim Trotter had to say about the Raiders' camp in Napa Valley.
Professional golfers and hackers alike try all sorts of unusual things to avoid the dreaded three-putt: cross-handed grips, staggered stances, elongated putters. Jayson Woodbridge has his own trick. He swings with one hand.
Hundreds of firefighters are battling a wildfire that is threatening homes and wineries in California's Napa Valley
As the former president of Walt Disney Studios and Paramount Television, Rich Frank has a long list of blockbusters to his credit, from Cheers and Entertainment Tonight to Pretty Woman and The Lion King. He's a born marketer with a knack for convincing the public that we want what he's got. And now he's ready to reveal his latest masterpiece, several years in the making. At his office in Calistoga, Calif., he reaches behind his desk for a dark, unmarked bottle that must weigh five pounds or more. It's called Promise. He hands it over. "This," he says, "is going to be one of those cult wines."
The somewhat true story of the little California wine that could lacks all the character one expects from a fine vintage
Dick Vermeil was concerned. He had gotten off to a good start with his 2003 vintage Charbono, a dark, stylish wine that is made only in California. It was a correct wine, mixing the dark brooding touches of this exotic grape with a clean taste of berryish fruit, but then the next vintage, the 2004, had shown an overripe, spirity quality that puzzled a few of the tasters in the room.
You don't need us to tell you that Napa Valley is a nice place to visit. What you do need is a way to lose the masses.
When you think of a winery, you probably imagine the bucolic Napa Valley or the dangling vineyard grapes in French wine country.
There's an oft-repeated bit of eno-philosophy that says the wine business is immune to recession because people drink in good times and bad. But it turns out there's a caveat: In bad times such as these, they mostly drink the cheap stuff.
Travelers don't always have to fight the masses and schlep overseas to find exotic vacation thrills.
SI.com has dispatched writers to report on the 32 NFL training camps across the country. Here's what Jim Trotter had to say about the Raiders' camp in Napa Valley.
Professional golfers and hackers alike try all sorts of unusual things to avoid the dreaded three-putt: cross-handed grips, staggered stances, elongated putters. Jayson Woodbridge has his own trick. He swings with one hand.
Hundreds of firefighters are battling a wildfire that is threatening homes and wineries in California's Napa Valley
As the former president of Walt Disney Studios and Paramount Television, Rich Frank has a long list of blockbusters to his credit, from Cheers and Entertainment Tonight to Pretty Woman and The Lion King. He's a born marketer with a knack for convincing the public that we want what he's got. And now he's ready to reveal his latest masterpiece, several years in the making. At his office in Calistoga, Calif., he reaches behind his desk for a dark, unmarked bottle that must weigh five pounds or more. It's called Promise. He hands it over. "This," he says, "is going to be one of those cult wines."
The somewhat true story of the little California wine that could lacks all the character one expects from a fine vintage
Dick Vermeil was concerned. He had gotten off to a good start with his 2003 vintage Charbono, a dark, stylish wine that is made only in California. It was a correct wine, mixing the dark brooding touches of this exotic grape with a clean taste of berryish fruit, but then the next vintage, the 2004, had shown an overripe, spirity quality that puzzled a few of the tasters in the room.
As I write this, I'm in a hotel room on the Vegas Strip, looking out my window at the construction site of what will be the largest green hotel in the world, set within MGM Mirage's $7.4 billion City Center.
My final leson for you all? Never, ever, drive a nice car. There's no upside to it. Luxury rides are evil: insidious, stealthy things, burrowing into the human subconscious with terrifying ease, whereupon they trip a dopamine depth charge that explodes both your brain and your budget.
We floated over the Rio Grande and skirted the tops of green cottonwood trees with the Sandia Mountains in the distance while school kids pointed and waved at us. We waved back.
California's Napa Valley, with its rolling hills, vineyards and prized terrain, produces some of America's finest wines. Here, tradition and craft are everything.
There's a war on bluster, and Fred Franzia is losing. Sure, the CEO of Bronco Wine, the nation's fourth-largest wine company, tells me repeatedly that only a sucker would pay more than $10 for a bottle of wine - including his own $35 Domaine Napa. And that Napa's and Bordeaux's claims about their special soils are bogus: "We can grow on asphalt. Terroir don't mean sh*t." After relieving himself by the side of his Jeep, Franzia recounts a trip to Burgundy where, after an elaborate tasting, he told the winemaker at Château Haut-Brion, "You can bottle gasoline if you can sell that."
Daryl Sattui set out to build a modest, 8,500-square-foot winery. Millions of dollars and 120,000 square feet later, he's king of a wine country castle complete with drawbridge, dungeons and nifty little slots for the old boiling oil trick.
Travel + Leisure scoured California's wine country to find one-of-a-kind boutiques and charming small-town stores. From Calistoga to Healdsburg, these eight spots are worth a visit.
Anticipation is in the sunshine flooding these vineyards' meticulously tended rows nowadays. At Napa Valley's Far Niente wine estate, that not-quite-knowable date is coming.
For many, nothing says summer like a chilled glass of Chardonnay. But for vintners Kathryn and Craig Hall, getting people to pour from their bottle has been an uphill battle.
Press the switch to open the curtains in your valley-view room at the Poetry Inn, and you're suspended with the primary-striped hot-air balloons of postcard fame. Pedal up the Silverado Trail to the Miner Family villa, climb the steps, look west over your shoulder, and a world-class view is yours too. The first might be a decade's splurge; the second, just a weekend getaway. There are many ways to enjoy this wine country.
Whether you're looking for mud baths or bike routes, a castle or just a good meal, Travel + Leisure steers you in the right direction on this easy drive from San Francisco to Calistoga, California.
New premium liquors, distilled by American entrepreneurs.
THE BACKGROUND Overfishing is severely depleting wild ocean-fish stocks and threatening the $158 billion commercial fishing industry. The number of fish caught annually is declining, with a recent ...
The background: Overfishing is severely depleting wild ocean fish stocks and threatening the $158 billion commercial fishing industry. The number of fish caught annually is declining, with a recent study projecting that the world's commercially harvested fish populations could collapse by 2048.
Drive for an hour north of San Francisco following Highway 29 and you will enter the majestic wine country that is Napa Valley.
It's that time of year -- the brilliant red and golden leaves say, "So long, summer -- autumn has arrived."
Creative chefs across the country are reinterpreting the greasy spoon. Sleek interiors and inventive cuisine define a new crop of diners.
"Andy Grove had a saying when I worked at Intel," says Chuck McMinn, a Silicon Valley veteran who spent 25 years at the chipmaker and a series of startups. "If you can't measure it, you can't impro...
Forget about that jet-fuel ouzo. Greek wineries are finally getting props from sommeliers, but they need U.S. reps. to market their product.
The latest point of pride for star chefs has more to do with French fries than foie gras.
Construction manager Dirk Porter was surprised by the lively orientation he received after joining David Weekley Homes in Dallas. He and other newcomers were flown to the company's Houston headquarters for a two-day program. There they were greeted with cheers and whistles by dozens of staffers, who then formed a giant receiving line that included company president David Weekley.
THESE DAYS EVERYONE IS slapping his name on a bottle of wine: Greg Norman, Bob Dylan, even Joe Montana. (A 1999 Montagia cabernet sauvignon, anyone?)
The last thing you want when dropping $450 on dinner is a catfight to break out between the chef and the server.
Americans taking to the roads during the July 4 holiday weekend are almost certain to encounter a traffic bottleneck somewhere, but the biggest is likely to be west of Portland, Oregon, the American Highway Users Alliance said Thursday.
River floods leave fertile soil in their wake, the silver lining to the havoc wrought. But instead of cropland, the Napa River is repaying its namesake city with a revitalized downtown scene.
Beringer Blass Wine Estates wants to be a hit with the ladies. In early May, the Napa Valley vintner will launch White Lie, the first label aimed directly at women. After learning that females make...
It's not unusual to find strangers lurking in Janet and Peter Lessem's Manhattan brownstone, fingering the cutlery, peeking in the medicine cabinet, sleeping Goldilocks-style in the beds. But the L...
THERE'S A NEW NO. 1
It began as a Web-based mystery. Who hacked the website of a Napa Valley beekeeper, leaving behind a series of GPS coordinates? Why were pay phones at the Empire State Building delivering installme...
Winemaker Robert Mondavi Corp. is drawing interest from a number of new bidders, even as some leading companies in the sector say they aren't looking at joining the field of potential buyers, according to a published report.
Michael McIntyre likes to travel in style. The president and CEO of Gentry Group, an insurance company in Dallas, recently flew via private jet with his wife and three other couples to Venice for a...
Ah, the legendary romance of winemaking. Apple-cheeked peasant girls treading grapes under a harvest moon. Intimate tastings. And, of course, multispectral imaging and neutron probes. Huh?
California's wine country, it turns out, was hit just as hard by the economic downturn as the rest of the world. Prices for some of the most coveted brands plummeted by a third, and profits of high...
Ken Starr, of Whitewater fame, is getting into the wine business. The Coalition for Free Trade--an organization of wine growers for which Starr acts as an advisor--has sued Arizona, Florida, New Je...
1 ROBERT AUGUST SURFBOARD Endless Summer star Robert August has made a longboard like the one he rode in the 1966 surfer classic. The limited-edition Endless Summer Classic Model 1963 ten-footer fe...
When Wal-Mart launched its own wine label--Alcott Ridge Vineyards, produced by E&J Gallo--in 2000, wine buffs answered with a chorus of snickers about the new "white trashfandel" and "nasti spumant...
You're way past cheap Australian reds and bargain-basement Chileans. Plunking down 30 bucks for a California chardonnay is no big deal, and you're familiar with even the most obscure Oregon pinot n...
What is it about lists that we love so much? From People's 50 Most Beautiful People to the Billboard Hot 100, the top ten vacation getaways, the Fortune 500--it just goes on and on. And then, of co...
Mild-mannered Healdsburg, Calif., in the heart of Sonoma County, has always been a slightly frumpy wine-country cousin to the flashier towns of Napa Valley. Until last summer, that is, when a stran...
Drinking wine is often fun, but buying it can be stressful. This occurred to me when my girlfriend, E, and I set out to pick a pair of "house wines." We wanted one white, one red, each cheap enough...
You think Moses had a hard time finding the Promised Land? In today's frenzied atmosphere of market spikes, game-show millionaires, and P&G paupers, figuring out when you're going to retire has nev...
We gave $100 to Keith Fergel, assistant sommelier at the much lauded French Laundry restaurant in Napa Valley, to see what he'd buy.
Sure, you work like mad. So when you get to a resort or spa, it's an effort just to make it to your massage on time. Networking among the locals doesn't top your list. Don't sweat it. Instead, tap ...
Name: Albert D. Omahen, sommelier at Baleen, Grove Isle Hotel, Coconut Grove, Fla.
Virginia Hunt Country
We handed $100 to Christie Dufault, sommelier at Vincent Guerithault on Camelback, in Phoenix, and a tour guide to France for Butterfield & Robinson. Her mission? Buy wine and take notes:
APEX PC SOLUTIONS Keeping the network humming along
I was recently shopping at Zachy's in Scarsdale, N.Y., the largest wine retailer on the East Coast, when there was a fuss behind the counter. The customer ahead of me, a salesperson quickly explain...
As a wine writer, I should have known better.
Doughnuts have gone upscale. Don't worry, good old-fashioned varieties are still readily available at Dunkin' Donuts or Krispy Kreme. And the hosts at Lou Mitchell's in Chicago still serve the best...
As described in the preceding pages ("The Future of Retirement," page 86), the great baby-boomer cohort is facing later years that are likely to be more about job sharing than shuffleboard, more ab...
First aired Dec. 10, 1951, the 10th episode of I Love Lucy opens with Ricky Ricardo toting home a $3,500 mink coat he's rented for his nightclub act. But when his crazy redhead eyeballs that specta...
Auto manufacturers aren't the only ones in the car business confronting the problems of a still sluggish economy and overstocked lots. So are car-rental firms. Because of an aggressive $45 billion ...
Levers, fans, and long plastic tubes reaching to the level of your nose from petri dishes -- glass containers used in laboratory experiments. These are hardly traditional paraphernalia for people w...
Finding the right wine to serve with summer foods is a lot trickier than shelling out for just the right Bordeaux to go with a roast veal dinner in winter. First, you probably don't want to spend t...
Compared with a shattering 508-point plunge in the Dow, a 63% change in the price of a parking space hardly seems a tremor -- except that we're not talking quarters for a parking meter. 1987 was th...
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