911 COMES CALLING (I’ll Take Any Good News I Can Find) The air went out of everything pretty fast last Tuesday, and it doesn’t give me a good feeling, this harvest that came in. Now it’s hard to keep my mind on this work, this winemaking. Local sports talk show man, Gary Radnich, (for whom […]

A CASE OF THE VAPORS: Labor Day, 2001 These are the days when I wake up of a morning, and remember what time of year it is because I can smell the fermenting of dark grapes on my skin. Just beneath the surface of me, where I’m pulling on a clean T-shirt and wondering how […]

2001: THE ODDYSSEY THAT WOULD NOT DIE: Stop Me If You’ve Heard this Before I drove over 1200 miles this past week. I’m not sure which is longer, the story or the drive. But the result of all the driving is that the first grapes of the season are now in the winery, and there’s […]

The Myth of Sisyphus Every June, after yet another year of planning, diligent work, some nail-biting, and plenty of waiting, two signal events transpire, and pass, as though in a whirlwind, leaving me, alas, back at square one, ready to try it all over again. The apricot tree in our back yard is about 20 […]

Memories Are Made Of This? It’s the beginning of the “saison des vacances,” a foggy Memorial Day weekend in Berkeley (as Cornelia has always said, Summer is the coldest season in Berkeley), and there’s no place to park because the Himalayan Fair is going full-tilt up the street at Live Oak Park (Old hippies selling […]

IN THE BLEAK MIDWINTER: One thing that happened, without my planning for it, back in 1985 when I first started Edmunds St. John, was that I began to pay a lot more attention to the weather. Of course it makes sense that I would do that, but I imagine most people might think of that […]

FIRST MUSTER, DOUBLENAUGHT ONE:Sound the Trumpets! Perhaps a sign that EDMUNDS ST. JOHN is where it’s happenin’? (Or almost happenin’): from the East Bay Express, personals ad section, 12/29/2000 EDMUNDS ST. JOHN WINERY Sunday, December 3rd, 4pm, wine tasting. Slim, pretty blond woman, fuzzy tan shetland sweater, white car, dog, woman friend. Tongue-tied wine nut, […]

Listening Events Steve Edmunds’ collection of self-penned songs, Lonesome on the Ground, makes me wish I was in California… warm and easy feeling, making music with good friends. (I think people who say unkind things about California are mad, because they’re cold.) Steve’s album was produced by Laurie Lewis, who also accompanies him, along with […]

WHOLE LOTTA SHAKIN’ GOIN’ ON A man can get himself in a lot of trouble in a very short time, I keep discovering. It’s only 2 and 1/2 weeks since the last time I wrote here, and I’ve managed to find all kinds of new places where I feel achy and stiff. Since those two […]

UPDATE: VINTAGE TWO-TRIPLENAUGHT:Good to the Last Drop “Ain’t it funny how nothin’ ever turns out just the way you had it planned?” –Bob Dylan, “Brownsville Girl” After the Syrah from Fenaughty vineyard came in on October 25, the weather was dismal. It rained the night those grapes arrived, and all the next day. The grapes […]