Sonoma Index-Tribune

 Robert Arnold and Jeffrey Mayo have closed the Cellar Door tasting room at the Lodge at Sonoma, after 13 years of an excellent and productive relationship. The room will serve another purpose eventually.  Mayo has other tasting rooms but Arnold and his Chandelle wines and Guerrero Fernandez of Windsor are looking for locations separately.  Until [...]

Rumor department: Strong, reliable rumors buzz through Napa Valley that former IndyCar driver cum NASCAR driver Danica Patrick has bought 80 acres of cabernet sauvignon vineyards in the Howell Mountain appellation near Angwin. Apparently she is dynamiting to construct an in-ground cave.  I am not surprised, as Patrick has told me, and several others, several [...]

Michelle Heston of Fairmont Hotels & Resorts announced that the Fairmont San Francisco and the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn will purchase two student-raised hogs from Sonoma Valley High School Agriculture Department this year. The hogs “will be proudly served in the hotels’ signature restaurants, cafés and employee cafeterias,” according to Heston.  Heston has also offered [...]

 Fairmont CARES, a charitable foundation of Fairmont Hotels, including the Sonoma Mission Inn, has committed to “partnering” to the tune of $10,000 to Sonoma Valley High School’s Agriculture Department for development of the school’s agricultural programs, including the vegetable garden, orchard, vineyard, and animal husbandry programs.  The money will be paid over the next two [...]