André Guéziec  Credit: Karen Pavone André Guéziec did not grow up dreaming of owning a California vineyard, but rather in Sélestat, a small town in France’s Alsace region, where wine was woven into everyday life. It was part of Sunday meals, family gatherings and long conversations around the table. Wine was not something reserved for special occasions or collectors. It was simply part of the culture. […]

Tasting Room Sign. Credit: Peirano Estate Vineyards Lodi has never been very good at bragging. While Napa built resorts and Sonoma polished its wine-country mystique, Lodi kept farming. The work starts before sunrise, when the air is still cool enough to beat the Central Valley heat. Tractors still outnumber tour buses, and conversations revolve around irrigation schedules, crop loads and whether the Delta breeze will arrive before dinner—not critic scores or tasting-room reservations. It is the rhythm the Peirano family has known since 1879, when Giacomo Peirano left Genoa, Italy, for California and eventually settled in what would [...]

In Green Valley, mornings don’t exactly show up on schedule. […]

In Philo in Anderson Valley up in Mendocino County, Toulouse Vineyards began not as a polished wine-country destination but as a practical idea rooted in land, work, and family. Vern Boltz, an Oakland fire captain, and Maxine Boltz, a flight attendant, retired, bought bare ground in 1998, and planted Pinot Noir and Riesling with the original intention of farming grapes rather than making wine. […]

Credit: Micro-Winery Guild Napa Valley has become expensive enough that it is easy to forget who actually built it. The valley now runs on architecture, reservation systems, and tightly choreographed hospitality. Wine is still the product, but increasingly it is presented as experience first and agriculture second. The vineyard remains, but it is no longer always the center of gravity. That gap is where the Micro-Winery Guild operates. It began as Save the Family Farms, formed under pressure rather than ideology. Small growers were losing the ability to host visitors on the land they farm. Without direct access to consumers, [...]

Credit: Mikami Vineyards Jason Mikami didn’t grow up dreaming about stainless tanks or bottle labels. He grew up in a vineyard that felt like a kingdom or sentence, day by day—fifteen acres his father bought in 1963, vines already ancient, rooted deep in Lodi’s sandy loam since 1902. Those rows soaked up Mokelumne River summers for a century before the Mikami name ever touched a deed. Dirt that caked your knees, stained your skin, hung thick in the air like memory itself. As a kid, it was pure wild country. Barefoot sprints down endless rows, dirt clods bursting [...]

Credit: Bumgarner Winery Brian Bumgarner has always been a maker. Not a dabbler. Not a sampler. A maker in the old sense—hands first, head second, fully committed or not interested at all. Over the years, that instinct has taken many forms– cooking, sourdough baking, ceramic sculpture, music, stringed instruments, homebrewing, and, ultimately, wine. Some passions burned hot and faded with time. Others never let go. What never changed was the impulse itself—curiosity paired with craft, pursued all the way. […]

  Credit: Staysail Wines The first thing Matt McDermaid learned on the water was that hesitation is expensive. In sailing, the mistake isn’t changing direction. The mistake is waiting too long to do it. Wine operates on the same principle. He launched Staysail in 2019 as a hands-on learning project at Meeker Vineyard, amid early challenges like the 2019 Kincade fire and a pivotal 2020 pivot from Cabernet Franc. From those beginnings, Staysail Wines was never about chasing momentum or aligning itself with whatever gust happened to be blowing through the market. It was about choosing a line [...]

Credit: Canard Vineyards There are places in Napa Valley where the land announces itself immediately—dramatic hillsides, volcanic cuts, sweeping views engineered for postcards. And then there are places like Canard Vineyards, where conviction arrives more slowly. Not in spectacle, but in accumulation. A feeling that builds with time spent walking the rows, listening to the quiet, and noticing what the land insists on doing well. […]

Credit: Silas Fallstichwww.fullframefotos.us The trip west didn’t come with a plan. Just a red Volkswagen van, a peace sign taped in the window, and two young people betting on California before they knew what it would cost—or give back. Larry and Sharon Grassini met and married in New York, then drove until the road ran out, landing in Southern California where they raised their four daughters while building meaningful careers—Larry as a respected trial lawyer and Sharon as a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. They worked hard. They paid attention. They stayed curious. […]

Credit: Starfield Vineyards Starfield Vineyards sits high above Placerville on a 2,400-foot ridge in Apple Hill, where rows of vines roll downhill toward lakes, forest trails, and wide Sierra views. Founded by third-generation grower Tom Sinton as a second chapter after planting Shell Creek in the 1970s, the vineyard reflects both experience and restraint. Today, with son Rob guiding winemaking across 31 sustainably farmed acres, Starfield focuses on Rhône and Mediterranean varieties shaped by granite soils, mountain air, and cool nights that slow ripening and sharpen expression. The 2025 vintage marked the second year of Starfield’s move toward field blends [...]

Credit: Alison Watkins Imagine two 29-year-olds in 1981, standing on a steep, rocky knoll at around 1,000 feet elevation high above the Napa Valley floor in the eastern hills between Stags Leap and Atlas Peak, dynamite in hand. Each blast opened a hole for a future vine. Each cleared stone was a declaration. This craggy, volcanic hillside—later planted to roughly 20-plus acres across eight blocks—would one day become Hossfeld Vineyards. Henry and Susan Hossfeld, the founders, poured their passion, grit, and vision into every terrace and row, shaping a vineyard that would endure. […]

Coming to you commercially in Greater Sacramento in early 2026… Credit: Commoner Wines Wine doesn’t have to come with a white tablecloth or a shiny price tag. It doesn’t need a sommelier telling you what you should be tasting. Some nights, it’s just you, a cheap glass, maybe your dog at your feet, and the sound of the stereo bleeding out of the next room. That’s where Commoner Wines lives. […]

Alan Viader didn’t find his way into winemaking—he was born into it. Raised on Howell Mountain amid his family’s vineyards, summers meant fieldwork, not vacations. By nine, he was already helping with harvest.