Our Favorite Sonoma Stories

Sonoma is a world famous wine region a short ride from San Francisco. But before that it was the northern tip of the Spanish Empire where the Royal Road, that stretched north from Mexico City ended. With its abundant sunshine, nurturing fogs, fertile soil and diverse, but gentle climates, the early settlers must have thought they had arrived in Eden. Sonoma has a beautiful Pacific coastline, great redwood forests and bucolic valleys which each form their own magical worlds with their own unique growing conditions, where the locals have grown grapes and made marvelous wines since the 1800’s.                These stories about how Sonoma evolved were selected from the book, Wine Country in Shorts, the Stories of Napa and Sonoma, by Ralph and Lahni DeAmicis, storytellers, speakers and filmmakers. The stories were collected over twenty years during their time as popular guides and tour book authors. They are the ultimate insiders who present a wonderfully revealing picture of Wine Country.This book celebrates the unique storytelling style that goes well with wine: colorful, relaxed, thoughtful, a little rambling and segmented. That’s because the pace of the story allows time for the listeners to taste the wines and enjoy the illumination it bestows. That’s how the ancients described the experience of drinking alcohol, being illuminated by the wine.’ We hope that you enjoy these stories that are only as remarkable as the wonderful places and people they describe, and that are treasured by so many.               A wine region’s personality is not just about the topography and climate, but also about how the people living there adapted to its unique qualities. Those experiences are shared in stories. Where did we get these stories? We heard them while standing at the back of countless tasting rooms. For many years there were a couple of hundred wineries where customers could just walk in, stand at the bar and taste the wines. At other wineries the tastings happened sitting down, and of course there are cave and vineyard tours. In these tasting experiences, the hosts shared information about the wines, and many shared stories.ContentsIntroduction: A Land of Stories 5Chapter 1: The Mysterious Golden Gate 11Chapter 2: The Gift of Mustard 25 Chapter 3: Thoroughly Cool Los Carneros 35Chapter 4: They All Came to Sonoma 49Chapter 5: The Magical Valley of the Moon 63Chapter 6: The Imperial Russian River Story 71 Chapter 7: Wine Country’s Great Buildings 79 Chapter 8: Sonoma and Napa; Ancient Siblings 107 Chapter 9: Who Named Mount Saint Helena? 119 Afterthought, the Fans 133About the Authors 137 Other Books & Documentaries 138