Last week I snuck away for a little vacation to Sonoma and Napa Valleys in California. It was lovely (how couldn't it be?), and it was cool that it seemed like everyone we met was totally into making something, from handmade salumi or the perfect compost pile, to oh yeah - just a little wine.

I sure learned a lot about the wine making process. At the beginning of the trip, I totally didn't understand what made a good wine versus a bad wine. Like, it's all smashed-up fermented grapes, right? I can taste the difference between good and bad, but I didn't know how they got one result over another.

By the end, I realized that making good wine is a lot like making a good peach tart. The most exquisite handmade tart from peaches homegrown with love and the most delicious butter and a delicate hand when forming the dough, versus a partially hydrogenated factory Mrs. Paul's. They may both have (basically) the same ingredients and use a (sort-of) similar process, but the end result couldn't be more different.

We even got to get a little hands-on (feet-on?) experience in the wine-making process, with this guy who actually stomps grapes by foot for some of his wines. I didn't think anybody'd done this since Lucille Ball, but what do I know? I'm just glad I wore my black shorts that day.

And a few more shots I love from the trip...