Napa (Auto Parts?)
The LA Times leads this week with an interesting piece by Corie Brown about Napa growers considering more automation in fear that their migrant workforce might dry up in the face of ant-immigration sentiment. It’s all very serious and dire I’m sure, but what we’re most interested in is the Brown’s intro, which states:

“Napa Valley vintners had already started buzzing about a promising 2007 vintage when Aug. 27 dawned and pandemonium broke loose. Temperatures soared above 95 degrees and stayed there for 10 days…

Then, as suddenly as the crisis started, it was over Sept. 7. The weather cooled, and the irrigation flow returned to its usual harvest-time slow drip. In keeping with Napa Valley’s signature bravura, the buzz about a stellar vintage resumed. The word in the vineyards? This last week of unusually cool days with lingering September morning mist is allowing the extraordinarily small berries in this year’s lighter-than-expected crop to finish ripening slowly. It should be a remarkable Napa vintage, perhaps the best in a decade.”

Well, who- or what-ever pick’s ‘em, now I can’t wait for the 2007s. Hurry up, time!

For its Wine O’ the Week, the Times picks the 2004 Sandrone Nebbiolo d’Alba Valmaggiore (40 bucks), which it says, is “a stunner. Structured and graceful, with a haunting note of violets and tar, it’s supple enough to drink now, with wine-braised meats, sturdy roasts and earthy pasta dishes.”

Miss Fishbeck! Take a letter: “To Mr. Luciano Sandrone… Please accept the check enclosed in exchange for a case of your 2004 Nebbiolo d’Alba Valmaggiore… Please FedEx them with all speed…”

Down in the Valley
Up here in The Valley, where temps are cool for a welcome change and it looks like it may rain for the first time in more than a year (pray, pray, pray), the Daily News’ LA.com supplement focuses on food and wine this week.

Among the items, a new store in Pasadena, called NapaStyle opens, providing the “little old ladies” of traditional Pas and the wretched soccer moms and fake-baked young producers of nouveau Pas with ecologically sensitive gourmet foods, wine and Napa-inspired tchotchkes. I’m sure it’s a delight. But you know what? NapaStyle should be two words: “Napa Style.” How hard is that?

The News offers a plethora of suggestions for wines this week from local wine shops. The Wine Country’s Randy Kemner, for example, suggests Borgo Magredo Proseco (10 bucks) for its white. Can you say “overstock?” C’mon! I’m not even going to mention their red pick. Not that we’re snobs or anything.

Anyway,  we’re nonplussed by most of the other picks, but feel that there two standouts: the 337 Cab, from Lodi, chosen by Bacchus wines in Manhattan Beach and the 2005 Alma Rosa from Santa Barbara. We admit to a certain prejudice for the 337 as our father went to high school in Lodi.