UNCORKED

Kurt Hummel, Taste Wine Editor

A YEAR IN THE VALLEY
Napa vs. Sonoma: Battle of the Titans, or David vs. Goliath?

I never planned on being a globetrotter. Oh, I may look jet-set on the outside — ready to hit a club, walk a runway and enjoy a glamorous life. But scratch beneath the surface and I'm really just a homebody — someone who likes to cozy up by a fireplace with a book, a significant other or a glass of a favorite wine.

Maybe all three.

I've been a nomad for you, ever since the brilliant and beautiful Quinn Fabray decided to school us all in what it means to have Taste.

For some time now, this publication has taken me around the world to bring you the best and brightest trends in wine. Each trip was jus a blip on my calendar, a moment to meet and become acquainted with new wineries, winemakers and vintages we didn't yet know, followed by a moment to recover from jet lag.

I never expected it to lead me to pack my things and move — to farmland, no less. To an area we all know so well, some might say too well. But that's exactly what our chief Taste-maker told me I would be doing for the next year.

I have packed up my New York City life and moved to California's Wine Country.

This new endeavor, in honor of our fifth anniversary, will both look back from and forward to one of the world's premier wine regions.

For the next year, I will be living in and reporting from the place many of us have visited and have all more than likely enjoyed. It hardly sounds in keeping with Taste's tradition of profiling new and cutting edge lifestyle trends, now does it?

But stay with me for a moment. Let me build my case, and share a little history before I pull the curtains back on our future, at least for this next year.

In the 1970s, Napa was probably better known for cheap jug wine than for smooth Chardonnays or lush Cabernets. That all changed with the Paris Wine Tasting of 1976, the Judgement of Paris, when California Cabernet Sauvignons and Chardonnays were pitted in blind tests against legendary Bordeaux by Mouton-Rothschild and Haut-Brion.

Now a piece of American wine lore, California's sweep of the blind tasting — a 1973 Stag's Leap Cabernet Sauvignon and the illustrious 1973 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay taking top honors — was not the first time California winemakers had beaten their French counterparts, but it was the most influential.

The competition put California wines on the map, and instantly raised the awareness and the collective reputation of Napa Valley wineries.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the valley, Sonoma County was developing its own wine industry, less heavy on the heat-loving Cabs and Chardonnays, and largely modeled on the slightly more delicate Rhône varietals, Syrahs and Pinots kissed by morning fog, its temperature raised by the afternoon sun and cooled by Pacific breezes.

Sonoma has also earned a global reputation, but it has never equaled the caché of its neighbor to the east. In some ways, Sonoma is the Napa of 1976 and Napa its French counterpart.

The fields may look alike, but the spirit that runs through these neighboring rivals could not be more different. Napa's Highway 29 is lined by major vineyard estates with big reputations and bigger budgets. You'd be hard-pressed to even find many of the boutique wineries of Sonoma, which are tucked along unmarked roads as though hiding from the world.

Do Sonomans have a chip on their shoulder about their famous Napa neighbors? Perhaps. Have the well-healed wineries of Napa become too corporate, too big for their own good? Possibly.

That's what Taste wants is set to find out, and why I have moved to California for the next year. the foreseeable future.

I've been told that I should store my Tom Ford and buy myself some (more) Levis. That I should drop the pretense of style in favor of a utilitarian wardrobe more befitting the life of a budding vintner.

Well, I may have to store some fashionable threads, but it doesn't mean I'll be holding my tongue.

For the next year, I will be taking a close look at California's wine industry, with a series of columns featuring both the established brands that have become the household names of fine wine, as well as the up-and-coming artisan winemakers who ply their trade along the Russian River and Alexander Valley.

This won't be a fly-in, fly-out treatment. We've seen that before, in those other magazines. We've even seen that here before. By relocating, I intend to to become a part of the California wine culture rather than just a visiting critic, all to bring Taste readers an insider's view of the wine country like they've never seen before.

And this summer, the Taste Challenge will bring the best of the best together for a head-to-head blind tasting. It's Sonoma versus Napa. It's boutique versus conglomerate. It's David versus Goliath.

Napa has tourists, spa resorts, Michelin Star restaurants and 95+ point wines. It has the big names of Big Reds. Sonoma has unmarked dirt roads, some quality saloons and an abundance of pickup trucks. It may also have some hidden gems. Is it Napa versus France, the sequel? We'll see.

It's the Judgement at... Well, I'm not at liberty to divulge that just yet, but we'll let you know soon enough. I am already evaluating the wines, and meeting their makers, as it were, to set our slate of competitors. And these early tastings have introduced me to people who may shape the world of wine for decades to come. Some may draw you in like a magnet. Others want nothing more than to make wine and be left alone. Some harness science to raise wine to new heights. Others devote their efforts to the craft of centuries-old techniques.

But whether you want to love them or hate them — or maybe a little bit of both — you will want to drink their wine.