California Reconsidered: Part One

In August I headed to California to work on a story about Hank Beckmeyerwinds over the San Fran bayTom Wark And then there was a great big surprise, a dry muscat blanc. I tasted it. And sure enough, on the finish was that puppy breath which now that I bring it up, is more like beer. "You didn't use sulfur on this?" I asked, absolutely shocked because this was a white wine from Napa. The wine is bottled under the King Andrews Vineyards label, owned by Roger King who used to be the publisher of the now defunct Appellation America and joint projected it with winemaker Matthew Rorick (Forlorn Hope). When I went to sleep that night, in the stillness of the Napa hills, hoping the cat wouldn't bring me a present of mouse kidneys, I was far from forlorn, and had a lot of hope. TBC