This column ends with a story about food and wine pairing, so I did an online search on “When did food and wine pairing start?” CoPilot gave me this: “Origins of Food and Wine Pairing – Food and wine pairing is not a practice with a single, exact starting date, but its roots go back […]
History
Posted inYountville
The Loose Cannon: Mirrors, memories and 20/20 hindsight
It was a beautiful Saturday morning when I decided to take a walk through town. As I strolled, I ruminated on what I might write about for my next column. As I passed by the playground at Yountville Park in the north end of town, there was a young dad there with his son doing […]
Posted inYountville
The Loose Cannon: Time to say goodbye, for now
Knowing that the Sun would be shutting down, I asked editor Lisa Adams Walter if I could write a “Time to say goodbye” column. She said “Yes, I would welcome a ‘goodbye for now’ column; our final issue will be on May 21.” My response was, “Goodbye for now,” of course!” “For now.” Two words […]
Posted inYountville
The Loose Cannon: Napa Valley Grape Harvest – 1960
Grape harvesting in the Napa Valley has changed a lot since 1960. For us, the 1960s was a period of change in harvesting grapes. We went from hauling individual redwood grape boxes to the winery to hauling the grapes in what were called grape gondolas. Assuming that Napa Valley was not the first to use […]
Posted inYountville
The Loose Cannon: A Napa childhood barn idea—and one unforgettable parade machine
My dad managed the Mt. Eden ranch on the Oakville Crossroad after returning home from WWII. The Mt. Eden ranch is the current location of the Rudd and PlumpJack wine estates. Our house was surrounded by vineyards. When I tell people that, they imagine an idyllic setting in which to grow up. But to me, […]
Posted inYountville
The Loose Cannon: Holding the line on history, the family that kept Yountville’s windmill standing
After I wrote the column about the windmill on Yount Street, I received an email from Lisa Duff Khajavi who lived with her family in Yountville from 1978 (first living on Starkey St.) until she graduated from Justin-Siena High School in 1982 and moved away to attend Pepperdine University. Her folks, James Lee and Lorna […]
Posted inFood & Wine
A love note to Napa County’s last A&W Burger joint
There was always something special about a stop at A&W. Even when I knew I probably shouldn’t enjoy that frothy, nostalgic indulgence, a root beer float was always in the order. Last week I made my final trip to St. Helena to visit the local A&W, the last in Napa County before it closed on […]
Posted inYountville
The Loose Cannon: Relics of the Napa Valley – windmills and tankhouses tell stories
I’m pleased that this relic from the past has survived and is still standing in the 6700 block of Yount Street today: That is a Fairbanks-Morse windmill built to pump water. Originally developed in the 1800s, windmills of this nature were quite common prior to the availability of electricity and gas engines. When the wheel […]
Posted inYountville
The Loose Cannon: Chris Brown – A Life Well Lived!
Back in June of 2018, I went to Wednesday night bocce with my mixed heritage black lab, Yogi. Lin was out of town, so the two of us boys went unsupervised. Over the course of the evening, I drank a bit too much, but not so much that I didn’t know I shouldn’t be driving. […]
Posted inLetters to the Editor
Letter to the Editor – A rose garden memory from Pancha’s
Dear Editor, Recently, I was admiring the new patio behind the new Pancha’s. I look forward to spending some time there during warm weather. I couldn’t help but think of the rose garden that once grew on that ground. Bobby Solis tended it with a certain degree of tenderness and care to which he might […]