Paso Robles is perhaps the fastest-growing wine producing region in California.

The Napa Valley Vintners, having raised          $5.7 million at Auction Napa Valley, are off to Vin Expo in Bordeaux where they’ll be hosting a “Best of the Wild West” barbecue. Twenty-four Napa Valley wineries, including Bennett Lane, Cain, Cakebread, Chapellet, Cuvaison, Hendry, Duckhorn, Emblem, Joseph Phelps, Merryvale, Napa Cellars, Pejul, Rocca, Rubicon, Mondavi, Viader, Freemark Abbey, Heitz, Newton, St. Supery, Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars, Waterstone and Schramsberg, will be pouring their wines “until the cows come home.”

Thirty-nine wineries who are members of the Howell Mountain Vintners and Growers Association will be pouring current releases at A Taste of Howell Mountain Saturday  at the Charles Krug Winery, 2800 Main St. in St. Helena. The event, a fundraiser for the Howell Mountain Elementary School in Angwin, also includes a live and silent auction.

Spanish rule over California ended with the close of Mexico’s War of Independence in 1821. Like the Spanish before them, the Californios, as the Mexicans living in California were known, tended to live near the coast from San Diego to San Francisco where the missions had been founded by the Spanish.

Many readers of wine publications and columns may have problems understanding the language of the writers and the descriptions they use. Just think how some of that language might sound to a foreigner.

As borders come down and international travel is made easier, so, too, do Americans benefit from expanded import/export trade.