Summer 2008

Good grief

Sonoma’s own Linus Maurer, for whom the Peanuts character was named, has indeed created a successful life for himself. At 82, he still makes his living as a cartoonist and fine artist.

story JANET GRAY VOLKMAN photos ROBBI PENGELLY

Build me up, Buttercup

It all began the day Julie Shirley, eyeballing real estate along Carriger Road, spied an unfinished house with no “for sale” sign and intuitively knew it would someday be home.

story CAROLE KELLEHER photos REBECCA GOSSELIN

Blessed are the cheesemakers

The center of the American cheese universe is about to shift. For years, centuries even, when you said cheese, in the same breath you had to say Wisconsin.

story DAVID BOLLING photos ROBBI PENGELLY

Viva la Vella

It’s summer. We want our food simple yet delicious, lighter but still satisfying. Lucky for us, we have Vella, a world-renowned artisan cheese company right off the bike path.

story THERESE NUGENT photos ROBBI PENGELLY

Just say Ahh

If you’re lucky you’ll meet him with a glass of pinot pressed to your lips. If you’re really lucky, you’ll have two, and you’ll be sitting at his dining room table in a verdant villa above Glen Ellen.

story SARAH BERKLEY photos ROBBI PENGELLY

Ten rules of winemaking

But just call him Kaz. It’s not clear he even knows another name. What he does know is a set of rules, or essential ingredients, for making very good wine.

story DAVID BOLLING photos ROBBI PENGELLY + DAVID BOLLING

What’s in a glass?

Long gone are the days of thick-lipped workaday wineglasses. Today a real connoisseur boasts a vessel of containment for every type of wine served.

story KATE WILLIAMS photo REBECCA GOSSELIN

A brand new, grand old hall

With the late afternoon sun glinting off its arched windows, with its seven flags billowing in the breeze, it’s tempting to believe Sonoma’s City Hall has been here forever—a bastion of bureaucratic civility in what once constituted the Wild West.

story PAM GIBSON photos ROBBI PENGELLY

Wine toys

photos ROBBI PENGELLY

Bottle Talk

story DAVID BOLLING photo ROBBI PENGELLY