From Vine to Table, Coast to Sierra
You don't need to spend triple digits to drink well in California. While Napa Valley Cabernet grabs all the headlines, a new wave of producers in lesser-known appellations is turning out genuinely exciting wines at prices that won't make your credit card nervous. We did the legwork—and the tasting—so you know exactly where to look.
Long before farm-to-table became a restaurant marketing phrase, California's indigenous communities had already perfected a profound relationship with the land's edible bounty. Today, a new generation of chefs—many working in direct partnership with tribal nations—is reaching back into those ancestral food traditions and finding ingredients and techniques that are reshaping California cuisine in exciting, meaningful ways. This is a story about acorn flour, native herbs, and the people committed
From temperature-controlled caves carved into Napa hillsides to converted Santa Barbara bungalow basements, California's most devoted wine collectors are building personal vinous universes that rival small museums. We went behind the cellar doors to meet the people whose passion for California wine goes way beyond a casual Friday night bottle. What we found was equal parts obsession, investment savvy, and profound love of place.