September 29, thirty thousand feet out of Atlanta en route to San Francisco, and thence to Napa.  The flight is packed.  Surprising for a Tuesday morning.  Could be worse; the woman next to me is on her way to Shanghai.  Boy, is she in for a long day.

It’s becoming a (very pleasant) annual custom to make our way out to wine country each October to visit and coordinate with many of the vintners who will be presenting their wares at our event in February 2010.  But one thing is different.  This year we don’t have to go it alone.We are, in fact, aided and abetted (quite ably, I might add) by the prodigious sipping skills of Steve and Ester Machiz and Marshall and Lori Hanno, whose Napa journey coincides with ours. 

Lori Hanno (L) with Marsh and Debi

They’re a day behind us, and will have some catching up to do upon their arrival, but Debi and I have tremendous confidence in their abilities.

Of course, we’re going to make some sort of feeble effort to combine business with pleasure.  First priority is to touch base with the wonderful folks at Silver Oak, V Madrone, Teachworth, Fisher, and Anderson Conn Valley, all of whom will be pouring at the chef/winemaker dinners, and all of whom will be offering liberal samples of their finest wines at the Grand Tasting. 

The Silver Oak Winery with its landmark water tower.

Additional vintners, not included on the current visit list, will include Tablas Creek/Beaucastel, Piper-Heidseick, Banfi, and a few others names you’ll recognize, but they’re still pending.  Since they’re located in places like Champagne and Tuscany, our visits will have to wait until I can convince the Foundation to pay for the trips.  I’m not optimistic.

Also on the agenda:  spending some time with our California wine buddies, Miles Grant and Robyn Cohen from San Diego, and Tony Beck from Los Angeles.  These three stalwarts were dedicated enough back in February to travel transcontinentally, just to attend our Wine & Food Fest, and make a generous auction bid, too.  It happens that we’ll all be in Napa at the same time…a happy coincidence. 

Jerry, Tony Beck, and Miles Grant at WFF in Feb.

Between the Fort Myers committee and the California contingent on this trip, we’ve scheduled enough meetings, tastings, lunches, and dinners to keep us busy from morning till night. 

And we’re also going to be Listening to the Music.  Another happy coincidence.  As luck would have it, Bruce Cohn, the owner of BR Cohn Winery, is the manager of the Doobie Brothers, and has been for quite some time.  (You may have met his son Dan, who was pouring wine like crazy at our Feb. 09 event).  Long ago, Bruce persuaded the Brothers to host an annual charity concert at the winery the first week of every October.  That’s now.  At this point, we have no idea what we’re in for…what the venue will be like, how many people, etc.  We do know that we will be sitting on the grass, and we do know that there will be wine.  Details (and explicit photos) are submitted for your consideration.

Steve & Ester Machiz, Debi, Lori & Marsh Hanno at the concert.

Recent weather in wine country has ranged from the mid 90s during the day to the low 50s at night.  Exactly the kind of climate that grapes adore.  We’re also heading into the middle of crush.  Harvesting is happening.  The juice is flowing from the vines into gleaming temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks.  Soon, yeast will be working its miraculous magic on the sugar in the juice, and fermentation will take place.  Isn’t nature wonderful?

Punching down the cap at Tres Sabores winery.

But I digress.  Lest you begin to think that our trip is nothing but an excuse to spend five days running from vineyard to vineyard, tasting room to tasting room, sampling the best that Napa and Sonoma have to offer, well…

Let me try that again.  We do have a serious purpose.  No, really.  Getting all the vintners, chefs, and associated personnel to a single destination at the same time, arranging for their lodging and local transportation, coordinating the shipping of the wines, matching the chefs to the winemakers…all this is much like herding cats.  We’ve been meeting, planning, and arranging since May, but this is our first opportunity for hands-on, face-to-face base-touching with some of our generous participants.

The cave at Teachworth Winery

One more thing.  We are, in fact, going to be tasting some wines from several other vineyards with an eye toward inviting an ever-wider range of talented winemakers and wine varieties to future events.  Our discoveries will be your discoveries.

Here’s to you.