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.