Two Napa wineries, Reid Family Vineyards and Counter Punch Wines, have created a grassroots effort dedicated to raising awareness and funds to ensure a world free of multiple sclerosis.
Mr. Sattui's marketing acumen extended to securing commercial zoning for his property, a loophole that makes V. Sattui one of just two Napa wineries (the other is Krug) allowed to host weddings.
After last weekend, two Napa legislators, State Senator Noreen Evans and Assemblyman Michael Allen, called on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Gov.-Elect Jerry Brown to "use the power of the governor's office to immediately allocate the necessary resources to secure the hospital".
That changed in 1976 when two Napa Valley wines, including Warren Winiarski's 1973 Stag's Leap Wine Cellars' SLV Napa Valley Cabernet, won a blind taste test held in Paris.
Attorney Steven Campora filed a lawsuit on behalf of two Napa County residents who lost their home in the Atlas fire.
He has been trying to build a private helipad on the family's vineyard estate there too, and has met with opposition from residents who have packed public meetings wearing T-shirts reading "Heli-NO". Two Napa County commissions have rejected that project, but the family is appealing.
At the start of one Napa trip, we got to Kennedy Airport a little late, and neither of us had eaten.
"In the Central Valley, grapes grow as if they're on steroids," one Napa wine expert told me disapprovingly.
One morning in the middle of March, I met Franzia at the bottling facility, an imposing Mediterranean-style building whose look one Napa winemaker described as "Tuscan warehouse".
It also has a day trip to five Napa vineyards which costs $49 per person (£28) with limo transportation and tastings.
