2008 Valley of the Moon Vintage Festival - Sonoma, CA

111th Valley of the Moon Vintage Festival

111th Valley of the Moon Vintage Festival

This year marks the 111th Valley of the Moon Vintage Festival, a Sonoma Valley tradition celebrating the valley’s bounty, community and local culture. California’s second-oldest festival following the Rose Parade, the Vintage Festival takes place September 26-28 in and around Sonoma’s historic Plaza. The Bundschu family will serve as Grand Marshals of this year’s festival, “Rootstock: A Blending of Time and Tradition.

Food, wine, art and family activities mark Saturday and Sunday’s festivities at Sonoma’s Plaza, which include music, dancing, children’s games, food and wine tasting, a parade, historical re-enactments, a wacky waiter’s relay race and grape stomping.

This year’s- free - live music line up features on Saturday, Bautista, a powerful Latin rock band from Marin County as well as local favorites Ten Foot Tone, Natasha James and Joel Rudinow. Sunday’s entertainment includes the Whiskey Thieves and the Madison Blues Band with David Lindley highlighting the show. The music is free and starts at noon both days.
Evening events include Friday’s Patron’s Night Gala, featuring more than 70 wines, delicious food samples and music by the Richard Olsen 10-piece big-band orchestra. Tickets are $75; proceeds benefit Sonoma Valley Little League, Valley of the Moon Little League and the Native Sons of the Golden West.

Simon Boccanegra

Well, I went to the San Francisco Opera for the opening of the season and as usual I loved being there although this wasn't my favorite opera. Between all the twists of the span of 25 years, the poisoning of the Doge had an interesting line:

"Even water tastes bitter to powerful man!" They poisoned his water, not his wine?

Vance
There was an empty seat on the left of me, and on the right as well. Where were you?

The relationship between a father and daughter, a recurring theme in so many of Verdi's operas, is the emotional centerpiece of this highly regarded but infrequently performed work. Dmitri Hvorostovsky expertly embodies the title role, a noble Italian politician who is forced to deal with treachery and rebellion. The Houston Chronicle praised the Russian baritone's "gut-grabbing vocal heft," adding, "his stage presence was magnetic." He will be joined by Italian soprano Barbara Frittoli, lauded for her "impassioned lyricism" by The New York Times. Donald Runnicles conducts this grand, expansive, yet remarkably subtle score.

Film about key U.S./French wine tasting causes sour grapes

I am so happy that Reuters published the following article about the movie Bottle Shock. Please read it, it confirms my point of view that Mike Grgich was deliberately not mentioned in the movie. This is identity theft.

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No mention is given in "Bottle Shock" to the estate's wine-maker Mike Grgich but instead to Jim Barrett, the mostly hands-off part-owner of Chateau Montelena, and his son Bo.

"To claim Barrett made that wine was incorrect, Mike Grgich made it," said Taber.

"Aside from drinking it and appreciating it, he didn't know anything about wine. Mike Grgich got the George Orwell treatment and became a non-person."
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LINK TO THE WHOLE ARTICLE

Bottle Shock

Last Saturday I saw the movie Bottle Shock at the Sebastiani Theater in Sonoma and honestly I think it is a long infomercial with a few good moments and a lot of familiar scenery since they filmed the movie last year in Sonoma and few Napa locations.

One thing that strikes me the most is that they didn't even mention Mike (Milenko) Grgich (a Croatian) who was the winemaker at Chateau Montelena at the time. What is wrong with these people?