Take the Sierra Railroad – created in 1897 to connect the Central Valley to the Gold Country – which crosses a section of the Sierra Nevada foothills, and the Napa Valley Wine Train, a restored 1915 Pullman train car, through the region's beautiful wine country.
They give the lie to a view whispered by malicious tongues north of the border that the only good Mexico has ever done for wine is to send grape pickers to Napa Valley.
Ten years ago, it started a scheme to collect 300 tons (272 metric tonnes) of food scraps a day from houses and restaurants, convert these into fertiliser and sell the result to Napa Valley vineyards and to organic farms.To help it to achieve its goal of no new landfill waste by 2020, the city commissioned a study of where its garbage was coming from and going to.
(The firm's use of the Napa name on its labels is, as a result, currently the subject of a lawsuit).
An earthquake of magnitude 6.0 struck the Napa region of California, injuring 170 people and damaging buildings, including historical landmarks, in the wine-growing area.
Already there are signs that the British are tiring of expensive Ibiza and are now colonising the resort of Ayia Napa on Cyprus, the new "clubbing capital" of Europe.
And what have the People's Republic of Berkeley, the Vietnamese outpost of Westminster or the Napa Valley wine country in common with their neighbours?
Rather than tower above it, as do so many new Napa mansions, the Kramlich site nestles into the landscape.
Now it is pushing northwards, towards the more extensive and classy wine-making regions of Napa and Sonoma.To make matters worse, the sharpshooter is stirring up a nasty trade fight.
And so Two-buck Chuck was born.Mr Franzia's firm, the Bronco Wine Company, brings California's excess grapes to its plant in Napa Valley from all over the state.
Drinking Mexican wine with modern, lighter Mexican food has become "aspirational", according to marketers.In this section Maduro's balancing act It's hard to be green The Napa of Baja Reprints Related topics United States Food and cooking Culture and lifestyle Mexico Consumer non-cyclicalsSales are still modest, but growing fast.
