What to do when a neighbor leaves a bag of Fuyu persimmons on your porch?  When firm, they’re great sliced in salads, for example, with baby arugula or fast pickled with carrots and daikon.  But when they get riper and softer, I love using them in cookies.  These have a little more persimmon pulp in it, making them chewy.  I almost always use the chubby Fuyu persimmons but I’m sure Hachiyas would work just as well.
1 stick Smart Balance 50/50; or 1/4 cup butter and 1/4 cup nonfat Greek yogurt …

When I gave winemaker Rui Cunha my card, he laughed and said that I would find the wine muses at Ramos Pinto, the next stop on our trip.  Imagine my delight when Ramos Pinto descendent Joao Almeida told me about the ‘inspirational’ images founder Adriano Ramos Pinto used for marketing wines beginning in the 1890′s to seduce a new generation of buyers in export markets.
The House of Adriano Ramos Pinto was founded on exports to the growing Portuguese colony of Brazil.  So when Adriano devised his marketing strategy, he searched …

The Coombsville AVA became official on December 14, 2011 but the region was always an integral part of high quality Napa Valley wines since the  1870′s and, more recently, has been high on the radar of insiders.  Considering its long history, volcanic effluvial soils and ideal climate, the granting of the formal AVA is a mere formality.
Coombsville’s low profile may have been a result of its location – about 1,360 farmed acres just east of the large city of Napa, obscured by a hill of residential homes which gives way …

Virginia’s state motto is “Virginia is for lovers” but it could also be said of dreamers because wine lovers have been trying to grow grapevines here since the founding of the country with varying levels of success due to poor climate, choice of grape variety, even pests.  The French planted the domestic Scuppernog grape but didn’t like the taste while the Italians experimented with European vitis vinifera which didn’t adapt well to the climate.  Thomas Jefferson tried – and failed – seven times to cultivate vitis vinifera at his estate …

If you decide to visit the two Mendocinos, here are my suggestions for getting and staying there, dining and tasting.
Anderson Valley
Anderson Valley is about 2 1/2 hours from San Francisco via Highway 101 north to Highway 128 which meanders northwest along the Navarro River through spectacular redwoods to the coast.  The 27 wineries are easy to visit being concentrated on either side of the highway from Booneville to Navarro.  The list of wineries and map are located on the Anderson Valley Winegrower’s website at www.avwines.com
A good time to visit Anderson …