Vintner is a word that implies a knowledge of vines, husbandry, and winemaking, and a significant amount of physical labor. Not so the lifestyle vintner. It is a somewhat deprecating honorarium for mostly wealthy individuals with none of the above.
For the right reasons, revisited
I remain steadfast in seeking preservation of natural valued Napa hillsides. I do support Measure C, the Watershed and Oak Woodland Protection Initiative of 2018. Over 7,000 voters have requested it be placed on the June ballot. I invite others to find their courage for Measure C and vote 'yes.'
Property rights redux
The property rights argument, as Mr. Smith presents it here, seems more a philosophical thing, an indignation that government should curtail his rights. Get over it. We live in a world of laws that proscribe our rights, and while there may be bad ones, there are also good ones, like the Ag Preserve. You may end up with a little less wealth under the Watershed Initiative - though I doubt it - but as with the Ag Preserve, Napa will be a better environment in which to live.
Wine-searcher review: Napa Sells its Soul to Developers
Wine-Searcher writer, W. Blake Gray, reviewed James Conaway's upcoming book "Napa at Last Light". He describes the theme of the Napa historian's three books that culminate in a dark assessment of the loss of agricultural focus, corruption, and a change in the business model from Ag to winemaking to tourism to real-estate flipping.
"Vineyards have become stalking horses for houses, and for ways for lifestyle vintner wannabes to get a toehold," Conaway told me by phone from his home in Washington, DC. "The valley is over-planted for the water table. The hillsides and mountainsides are part of the historic provenance of this place. It is time to say, no more carving out of vineyards in the watershed, for environmental reasons and aesthetic reasons."
Napa County voters to decide how vineyards can be planted among oaks
Napa County voters will decide June 5 on a ballot measure that backers say is needed to limit tree removal in the name of vineyard development.
Know Before You Vote: The Science and History Behind the 2018 Napa County Watershed and Oak Woodland Protection Initiative
The League of Women Voters and the Napa Sierra Club will be co-hosting this in-depth look into the science behind the initiative:
March 12, 2018, 7:00 PM
Napa Main Library Community Room, 580 Coombs St Napa, CA 94559
Why we need to protect half the planet
New research indicates current global conservation targets, which call for preserving 17 percent of land and 10 percent of oceans, are far too low. Instead, targets should be closer to 50 percent for land and 30 percent for oceans. This will protect the diversity of life on Earth and ensure human well-being and survival. Join panelists for this critical discussion on why we need to increase conservation targets in order to save the Earth.
Napa County supervisors place oak woodland initiative on June ballot
"The Napa County Board of Supervisors approved the move on Tuesday afternoon, naming the initiative Measure C.
Dunne: Conaway's third Napa narrative asks whether Napa can remain true to agrarian ideal or will be a wine themed Disneyland
From his visits he has harvested three books: “Napa: The Story of an American Eden” in 1990; “The Far Side of Eden: New Money, Old Land, and the Battle for Napa Valley” in 2002; and now “Napa at Last Light: America’s Eden in an Age of Calamity” (Simon & Schuster, 336 pages, $26), to be released March 6.
With his books, focused more on social history than wine, Conaway has been working to determine whether Napa Valley is on course to retain its agrarian traditions and culture – a preserved and cherished agricultural Yosemite, if you will – or morph into a viticultural Disneyland, vineyards as sideshows, wineries as thrill rides.
9111 creates confusion, distraction from the 3 million tons of carbon that we should be keeping out of the atmosphere
When my eyes weren't crossing from the crazy legalese—that made no sense at all regardless of how many times I read certain passages—I found myself laughing out loud at some of the report’s conclusions and the authors' pretended knowledge of (and hastily added) "scientific facts," specifically pertaining to the implications of the recent wildfires.
... Using the above figures, more than 3 million tons of sequestered carbon is at risk of entering the atmosphere in Napa County, alone, should development processes eliminate these oak woodlands and forests and their associated carbon pools.