In the United States, shelter-in-place is continuing, but many in the hospitality industry are attempting to figure out what new health regulations and laws will be implemented once people are allowed to return to the world of restaurants.
Wine caves are our favorite second favorite part about visiting wine country. They’re a peek into each winery’s particular preferences: How bottles are stored, aged, and played with to create all the flavors we love. It’s also the closest most of us will ever get to the magic and mystery of winemaking—plus, you usually get a drink or two while you’re inside, which is nice.
The sweet smell of fermenting fruit fills the streets around the modest Havana home where Orestes Estevez and his family fill glass jugs with grapes, ginger and hibiscus, then slip a condom over each glass neck to start the unusual process of winemaking in a land famed for rum.
We’re bouncing up an old dirt fire road on Pine Mountain, somewhere northeast of the town of Cloverdale. Mark Burningham’s dog trots in front of our off-road vehicle on one of the last glorious October days of the year, and I’m trying to figure out which side of the Sonoma-Mendocino border we’re on.