The Next Napa Valley? Napa Valley

By Alan Goldfarb

Last week I saw a headline that asked the question and read in essence: “… The Next Napa Valley?” I didn’t pay attention to which area they were referencing this time, but does that really matter? Every other week stories such as this come across my wine newsfeeds, and each time I liken it to: Do they really think Jordan Poole is going to be the next Stephen Curry?

No one is ever going to be Curry. Just as no place is going to be the next Napa Valley or Bordeaux or Burgundy, or even Sonoma.

St. Helena Burn Piles - Tim Carl Photo

No, there’s nothing like Napa Valley. There’s nothing like Napa’s myriad monuments to wine, despite the Bordelais writing the book on grandiosity long ago. Nor are there the number of culinary temples that exemplify the good life anywhere, an aspirational notion Bob Mondavi extolled ad continuum. And there certainly is not the number of “experiential” wine tastings, chock-a-block up and down the dell, representing American capitalism at its optimum.

No-siree-Bob, there’s nothing like Napa Valley.

Thus, I hope readers out there are clicking onto Napa Valley Features. This innovative site not only underscores the Valley of Dreams. NVF was also created so that writers will have a forum on which to convey thoughts in an atmosphere that — hopefully — remains unfettered. I applaud the Herculean efforts of the folks who conceived this site, as I am grateful to be invited to be a part of it.

To those of you unfamiliar with my work over the past 35 years or so, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to cover the Napa Valley exclusively as my “beat” at the fin de siècle and the beginning of this millennium.

I was the wine editor at the St. Helena Star, which I characterized as a minor newspaper in the major leagues. What a privilege to be on the ground in that ballpark where, as far as I can ascertain, I had the last one-on-one interview with the aforementioned Mr. Mondavi. Don’t we miss that man? The only person I think, who was ever able to transcend wine in this country. People who were not wine drinkers or who knew little about wine knew the name Robert Mondavi.

It was also at The Star where I found myself spending time interviewing Ken Starr, whom The Vintners organization hired to represent its case at the Supreme Court, which he won and which led to direct shipping. In spite of my personal feelings about Starr, I think I managed to hold tight to the first tenet of journalism and stay objective. Truth be told, after three interviews with the man — once alone with him in a car after his daughter gave him his first grandchild — I came away liking him. But that’s what prosecuting attorneys do. They charm the pants off you.

For The Wine Spectator I had the task of interviewing another man with whom I personally do not share certain proclivities — Rupert Murdoch. The assignment was strictly limited to Murdoch’s Moraga Estate winery above the 405 in L.A. My colleague and friend Tom Wark — Murdoch’s flack at the time — gave me strict orders not to talk politics with the man. The decree was seconded by my editor at the time at The Spectator, Tom Matthews.

Murdoch called me at precisely the assigned time. He answered all my wine questions, cordially and laconically. But I managed to get in a political question. After all, we were in the throes of the ’16 campaign and politics was uppermost in the minds of many. And Murdoch was at the nexus of it.

So I asked rather back-doorishly: “Have you had occasion to drink wine with any of the candidates? “(I knew that Trump didn’t drink, and it was rumored that Murdoch had a distaste for the man). He responded: “Oh, last night John Kasich (running from Ohio) was over for dinner.”

Can I take that as an endorsement? I queried, with a sheepish laugh. “No,” Murdoch responded succinctly. And with that, the interview was over.

On another occasion, as a contributor to Alta Journal of California — Will Hearst’s literate magazine – I interviewed Francis Coppola, who allowed me to take his picture after he had lost a lot of weight in spite of his handlers giving me strict orders not to take his photo.

It has been a wonderful, ofttimes tumultuous journey that has taken me around the world where I tasted some of the greatest wines (1950 Yquem), eaten the best food (that little trattoria in Valpolicella and that bistro in Paris, and at Chez Panisse and the French Laundry of Sally Schmitt and Thomas Keller. It has all afforded me the opportunity to meet some of the smartest, best, and most interesting vignerons and winemakers in the world.

With Napa Valley Features, I believe the excursion will keep on going.

Alan Goldfarb - Submitted Photo