Thirty years ago this week, my father celebrated his retirement by inviting the whole family on vacation to an idyllic tropical isle. Various and sundry other friends and neighbors came along too. He was in an expansive mood — the more the merrier.

It looks to be a bumper crop this year in Napa Valley.

The Chefs Demonstration at Chefs Market just hasn't worked in the Napa Town Center Rotunda. The sun is in everyone's eyes, the wind whistles through and the acoustics are not good for that kind of activity.

Calvin Ross

There cannot be a better week of the year to engage in the conversation of who we are and what we stand for — as a nation, state and community. 

May 29 did not go as planned.

Not everyone in Napa Valley lives on a vineyard estate, with vines as far as the eye can see.

Most people are not concerned with wine-food pairings. If it’s wet and dry, the wine is fine.

Here we are in the longest days of the year, when landscape irrigation is most critical. It’s important, not only for tree, lawn and plant health, but also for wise use of a precious and limited resource: California fresh water.

In California, being a game warden is definitely a labor of love and dedication. There are fewer than 200 field wardens patrolling the entire state. That’s 159,000 square miles of land, more than 29,000 miles of streams and rivers, and 220,000 square miles of ocean from shore to 200 miles out.

Have cavities and hate to go to the dentist? Maybe the answer is to drink wine.

After reading considerable publicity about Daryl Sattui's new winery in the form of a European castle, I was more than a little suspicious. What were the odds that Sattui had crafted something convincingly medieval rather than Disney cute?

Dear Len & Rosie,

Michael Polenske, the owner of Blackbird Vineyards just north of Napa, is buying the Burgundy Inn in Yountville. He closed escrow June 1.

Tom Mills