July 25, 2015

Mad Crush

Homeland Love from The Press Democrat

Last week I made a mad dash to my homeland of Sonoma Valley. My brother was visiting my mother who lives in the valley, and I hadn’t seen him in three years. For reasons I won’t bore you with, I was only able to spend one day with him, but we made the most of it with an all-day trip down memory lane.

We went to our old neighborhood and visited the old park where our father started Sonoma’s first youth soccer league and the school where our mom taught kindergarten. We stopped by Kenwood Vineyards where, as noted in The Mad Crush, I began my short-lived winemaking “career.” We went downtown and hung out with the tourists for lunch, but most of our meanderings were through the unvarnished parts of Sonoma you don’t read about in travel magazines, the more rustic spokes of the wine country such El Verano and Boyes Hot Springs because that’s where our childhood was rooted.

I wouldn’t call it a sentimental journey, it was just something fun to do, particularly because my brother now lives in Oklahoma and rarely gets to come home.

Anyhow, the good homeland vibes kept coming even after I returned home, because one week later the Sonoma County Press Democrat published a magnificent review of The Mad Crush by esteemed wine writer Gerald Boyd (click here to read it). I feel like Mr. Boyd really captured the spirit of the book. Even better, the Press Democrat saw fit to include the photo of the infamous Dead Coyote, that unsavory bit of wildlife that has vexed a few other reviewers.

Needless to say, getting a thumb’s up from a great wine writer in my old backyard made my week, just as visiting old haunts with my bro made my week seven days earlier.

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