Today is the beginning of summer.  From  Condé Nast:    How Summer  Solstice is Celebrated Around the World : The summer solstice occurs in each hemisphere annually, when one of the earth's poles has maximum tilt toward the sun. The result is the sun reaching its highest position in the sky, causing the longest day of the year. For thousands of years, the solstice has drawn people together for ancient celebrations, from gatherings at Stonehenge to romantic rituals in Belarus . I yesterday featured red wines, and particularly spotlighted Paso Robles and Petite Sirah.  I have one more story that has nothing to do with either, but is relevant because of close proximity and utter fear.  In these drives between Stanford and Oxnard up and down Highway 101 from 1958 to 1962, we also always passed by Atascadero.  Here is located the  Atascadero State Hospital . This all-male maximum-security forensic institution houses mentally ill convicts on its 70...

The wine world knows that France, Italy and California produce the best red wines.  The top two wine producers switch between Italy and France, with Italy now #1.  #'s 3 and 4 also change, with Spain today producing more than the USA.  Australia is #5.  China is rapidly rising, and is  affecting wine prices in other ways,  too.  Interestingly enough, though  world wine production is dropping , and  is lower than 1961.  Some blame climate warming. Today I will focus on the best red wines.  Some day I'll talk about the finest white wines. France:  Bordeaux and Burgandy. More specifically, there are two blends of Bordeaux, the left bank uses mostly Cabernet Sauvignon and right mostly Merlot. Burgandy is almost always Pinot Noir, although White Burgandy is Chardonnay. Italy:  Piedmont for Barolo and Tuscany for Brunello de Montalcino. California:  Napa Valley and parallel Sonoma Valley, Cabernet Sauvignon and red blends. ...

The first 18 years of my life was spent in Hawaii.  Just before starting college, I flew to stay with my brother in Oxnard to work for the summer at the Naval Civil Engineering Laboratory in Port Hueneme, California.  Oxnard is 60 miles north of Los Angeles. In September of 1958 my brother drove me to the Stanford Campus, located about 35 miles south of San Francisco.  I recall crossing from the west side to the East Bay area on Friday nights to the Garden of Allah, to dance and see entertainers like Bobby Preston and Marty Robbins.  After I graduated in 1962, over the past 62 years, I've returned to San Francisco at least 50 times. Mind you, I don't really like SFO weather.  It's almost always too cold for me.  Something enchanting about the fog, which comes and goes.  But bicycling to class at 7:30AM in the winter was not comfortable.  Stanford is a bit warmer than SFO, but still much too cold in the winter.  In fact, I remember on  21...