Writing about California Wine

I started writing full-time about California wine in 2004, when I was hired on at The Santa Rosa Press Democrat to contribute stories to its quarterly food and wine magazine called Savor. Both under the ownership of The New York Times, it was an incredible time to dive in headfirst into wine writing, starting with my own backyard of Sonoma County, but extending into the Napa Valley, Lake County, Mendocino and beyond.

I came to this place and time via travel writing and journalism in general, having successfully managed to fulfill my life goal of being paid to travel. I was, though not handsomely, for many years, writing travel guides for the likes of Berkeley Guides, Rough Guides and my dream of all dreams, Lonely Planet.

But overseas travel got more challenging and scary after 9/11 and I chose to write about my own backyard instead of the faraway places to which I had become accustomed – Suriname, the Loire Valley, the Deep South of Louisiana and Mississippi to name a few.

Writing about wine was to me writing about places and people, just like travel writing had been. It still is. My relationship to this place – California – and its people - winemakers, grapegrowers and all the others who make a wine industry possible – has continued to root ever deeper since.

That’s why I’ll continue to write about all of it for as long as I can. Join me.