Wineries

Even if you spit, hire a designated driver and plan your route with the efficiency of a mom navigating Costco, there are only so many wineries you can visit in a day. Which is a problem in California, home to nearly 3,000 wineries. Most of them make terrific wine. And most of them are willing to pour you a taste. This is where the three itineraries below come in. They include not only plenty of tasting but also tours that involve more than staring at fermentation tanks. And none requires spitting, unless it's your thing.

Ask a Venturan and he or she will tell you that the city is both the end of Southern California and the beginning of the central part of the state. With a gorgeous coastline, an affinity for agriculture, a happening night life and a healthy enthusiasm for all things vino, this duality isn't just a clever marketing campaign - it's the real deal. The bed. The 76 rooms at Best Western Plus Inn of Ventura (708 E. Thompson Blvd.; [805] 648-3101, http://www.best western.com, doubles from $85.49 in spring)

You can taste wines from some of the Santa Rita Hills wineries, as well as wines from Santa Ynez Valley and Santa Maria Valley, at the annual harvest tasting of the Santa Barbara County Vintners' Assn. on Oct. 12 and 13. More than 60 wineries will be pouring samples, and many local restaurants will offer food. The event will be held at Rancho Sisquoc Winery, which is about 14 miles east of U.S. 101 just off Foxen Canyon Road, Santa Maria.

At the Lompoc Wine Ghetto, a homely set of corrugated buildings in California's south Central Coast, a handful of Santa Rita Hills winemakers routinely gathers to taste and talk about the wines taking shape in their cellars. Over the last three vintages, the talk has taken on a more earnest tone: For each, the Ghetto has served as a kind of incubator toward the pursuit of Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays that have brighter flavors, leaner textures, invigorating acidity and lower alcohols, the opposite of what has been happening in the region -- and the state -- over the last decade.

Winery workers in a contract fight today struck the giant E. & J. Gallo. Co., largest wine-producer in the world and the latest of 10 struck wineries that produce about half of California's wine. The strike of about 1,000 Gallo union workers at 8 a.m. came as the harvest neared its conclusion and grape crushing was at its height in most of California's wineries. All the struck wineries say production is continuing with nonunion personnel.

In the latest escalation of the 6-week-old California wine strike, a spokesman for the wine makers announced Monday that management would "permanently replace" about 2,200 striking employees unless they report back to work within a week. This latest development in the bitter battle between the 12-member Winery Employers Assn. and the Distillery, Wine and Allied Workers Union followed labor calls over the weekend for a national consumer boycott against the wineries.

Zaca Mesa Winery now shares office space with Cushman Realty in a Bunker Hill high-rise that is a three-hour drive south of its Santa Barbara County vineyards. "We're the only winery with headquarters 40 floors above the city," quipped President Robert W. Schulz, who also heads Cushman Equities Corp., a management company for a variety of the business enterprises of John C. Cushman III.

On a glorious summery day in June, one of California's most handsome monuments to wine making, Greystone Wine Cellars on California 29 in St. Helena, was reopened to the public after an extensive three-year renovation period. Built of hand-hewn local volcanic rock in 1888, the great three-story structure was closed in 1984 after it was deemed seismically unsafe.

Outside the Christian Brothers winery here, grape grower Don Klassen sits patiently in a red 1950 truck piled high with seven tons of Thompson seedless grapes. "That's my livelihood, right there," the grizzled farmer said, gesturing toward the back of his truck. Klassen is 25th in a line of 30 trucks waiting to dump their perishable cargoes into the winery's sole operating grape crusher.

New Jersey wine retailer Joe Arking was in the Napa Valley last month, drumming up business. Arking is hardly a typical retailer in the bricks-and-mortar sense or, for that matter, in the normal Web-commerce sense. His website, winestilsoldout.com, sells just one wine at a time and at an incredibly steep discount until it's gone without a trace -- usually within eight hours.

SACRAMENTO — A former California wine keeper convicted of destroying more than 4.5 million bottles in a warehouse fire was sentenced to 27 years in prison. A federal judge in Sacramento also ordered Mark Anderson to pay $70.3 million to customers who lost their premium collections in the October 2005 blaze. Anderson, 63, stored the wine for 95 vintners and dozens of private collectors for a fee at the Wine Central warehouse in Vallejo. Prosecutors say he set the fire to cover up the fact that he was embezzling wine for years.

A few months before the 2008 Beijing Olympics, I read a blog post by an Atlantic Monthly correspondent about Chinese wine. Chinese what? I grew up outside New York City, where I ate hundreds of pounds of lo mein and pork-fried rice but didn't see, taste or hear of Chinese wine. Even when I traveled to China in 2009 and 2010, I saw drinkers mostly tossing back beer and baijiu (Chinese liquor). But Western-style wine is attracting the attention of China'srising middle class.

Redwood fans Re " A tale of grape vs. redwood ," Aug. 25 If you ever wished for a sneak peek into a businessperson's understanding of environmental issues, look no further than these two quotes from the article. (Be warned, some viewers may find the content disturbing.): "This is not a plan to build a mall. They're talking about growing grapes. " And then the real humdinger: "These forests can be cleared and preserved at the same time. " A visit to a dictionary is in order; first up, "ecosystem," followed by "monoculture.

With abundant sunshine, shimmering heat and a diurnal shift in line with many coastal viticultural areas , there is no denying that the Temecula Valley is an authentic California winegrowing region. However, setting aside Pierce's disease and the prevailing party atmosphere, challenges remain. Problems with hygiene, brettanomyces and volatile acidity in particular still taint bottlings from less diligent producers. Farming practices too can be relatively lax, compared with the meticulous care taken by Napa and Sonoma growers.

Two plants have long been iconic to Northern California: the soaring redwood tree and the lush wine grapevine. But should one be sacrificed for the other? That question is being raised in Sonoma County a few miles from the Pacific and above the fog line, where two large wineries are petitioning the state to allow them to clear 2,000 acres of redwoods and Douglas firs to make room for new Pinot Noir vineyards. Sonoma County planners say it would be the largest woodland-to-vineyard conversion in California's history and, not surprisingly, it's touched off a debate between fans of the majestic trees and aficionados of the grapes.

A winery on Long Island has introduced two new wines to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Sept. 11. Before you start rolling your eyes, keep reading: It's not (quite) as bad as you think. The wines, produced by Lieb Family Cellars, are a 9/11 Memorial Commemorative Merlot, which the winery's website says is barrel-fermented, and a 9/11 Memorial Commemorative Chardonnay, described as having a dominant flavor of fresh green apples and "finishing with a toasty vanilla flavor. " They each retail for $19.11 a bottle if you buy directly from the winery.

More wedding bells could ring at Napa Valley wineries after a tough economic year that has some saying yes to a proposal to revise rules banning most vineyard vows. Proponents say the plan would bring in some cash for struggling vintners and provide an opportunity to introduce guests to their wines. Others think the move would threaten the rural character that gives the valley its charm. The issue, expected to get its next public airing this week at a Napa County Board of Supervisors meeting, has the area buzzing.

In the wine country north of Santa Barbara, the global economic crisis has drained wine sales, tapped tourist spending and siphoned away hotel profits. But five years after the Santa Ynez Valley was featured in an Oscar-winning film, the region is still feeling the upside of "Sideways." The offbeat comedy about the wine-soaked adventures of two hapless buddies drew crowds of connoisseurs to the region's wineries, vineyards and restaurants. And to the delight of merchants and wine makers, the continued popularity of the 2004 film has helped soften the blow of the worst recession in a generation.

This Sunday, Brady Lowe and his traveling porkapalooza, Cochon 555, rolls into the former St. Vibiana's Cathedral in downtown L.A. on a mission to make a party out of everything pig. The inaugural Los Angeles event, already sold out, raises the bar for dining festivals, linking five heritage pig farmers, five vintners and five local chefs. Each chef is challenged to create a snout-to-tail feast for 400 guests, who will serve as judges alongside a selected panel. The goal is to introduce patrons and chefs to new brands and breeds, but mostly it's a primal and competitive show of butchery, ambitious cooking and lavish feasting.

Jess Jackson, who founded Kendall-Jackson Winery in 1982, died last week at the age of 81, leaving an almost incalculable legacy on the California wine industry. He transformed it at least twice, first in establishing a style of wine that would come to be as much an irresistible flavor profile as a cultural icon; he would go on to become one of the state's most passionate and articulate advocates for the preeminence of place in the production of great California wine. In the process, he became one of the industry's most envied property owners, and by far one of its richest men. Jess Jackson was born in Los Angeles in 1930 and raised during the Depression in San Francisco.