9 Things You Didn’t Know About Napa (But Shouldn’t Miss) by Lena Katz, January 30, 2015
Whenever another wealthy wine aficionado visits Napa and compiles an “insider tips” list with pointers like “Attend Auction Napa Valley and you’ll brush shoulders with Thomas Keller!” everyone who grew up in the North Bay (a sub-region of the San Francisco Bay Area) heaves a big sigh. I know, because I’m one of them. I grew up on a hill in Carneros — which is actually its own sub-appellation, in neither Napa’s nor Sonoma’s fiefdom — back when it was all Quonset huts and Oreo cows and endless tall golden grass, as far as the eye could see. Officially I was on the Sonoma side, but — insider tip here — Carneros didn’t want anything to do with the regional politicking, and neither do a lot of either county’s denizens.
Napa County is unfairly pigeonholed as a destination for the 1 percent today, and I blame the people who insist on highlighting only the expensive, snooty side of it. In fact, the county is multifaceted, quirky, and not exclusively populated by billionaires. When I was a teenager, we mostly knew it for the mental hospital. “If you see a person walking down Highway 12,” said our parents, “don’t pick them up. They’re probably a mental patient.”
That’s kind of hard to believe now, but it does remind me of a side of Napa that nobody talks about anymore: the down-to-earth side, where things aren’t always perfect. The world saw glimpses of this after the August 2014 earthquake: It wasn’t only millionaires crying over lost collectibles but small business owners struggling to comprehend that a huge part of their livelihood had been crushed to rubble. (Only four downtown Napa businesses were still closed due to earthquake damage as of October 2014. So thanks for your concern, but really, it’s business as usual.)
- You can hang out in the mountains…
You know how so-called hill people in places like Kentucky and the Blue Ridge Mountains are all wild and rugged? Well, in Napa it’s not quite that extreme, but the hill appellations are still known for being a whole different world from the valley. Non-conformist mountain men like the Smith brothers of the winery Smith-Madrone and Sheldon Richards of Paloma Vineyard eschew the valley’s social scene for independent farm life. But you can’t just pop into these wineries when the mood strikes: Tastings are almost always by appointment. In fact, some of the more prized boutique labels check newcomers’ credentials before bringing them up to the facility, which is often the owner’s home.
https://www.yahoo.com/travel/9-things-you-didn-t-c1422556894218.html
Smith-Madrone News 