There’s no easy way to do this without using a ridiculous number of three-letter abbreviations (TLAs); because it seems that sometimes, making wine requires a jumbo serving of alphabet soup: Calistoga vintners scored a long-sought victory late last year, when the federal government finally approved Calistoga as an official American Viticultural Area (AVA). The decision by the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Alcohol, Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) was more than six years in the making.
Chateau Montelena winemaker Bo Barrett started the application process in the summer of 2003, spurred by the development of businesses that used the Calistoga name on wines made with fruit grown in St. Helena—which, while a fine grape-growing region itself, has a climate and terroir that are distinctly different from its northern neighbor’s. The Napa Valley Vintners (NVV) trade group joined the AVA cause, while the faux-Calistoga wineries appealed to the feds for protection from the proposed designation, which would require all bottles labeled with the Calistoga name to contain wine made primarily from Calistoga fruit.
The uproar, in which U.S. Congressman Mike Thompson supported the NVV, led the TTB to an internal review of its approval process for new AVAs; during that time, all applications were put on hold. At last, near the end of 1999, the TTB came down on the side of Barrett and the NVV, naming Calistoga the 14th AVA in Napa County and setting off a wave of congratulatory glass-clinking that echoed all the way to Washington, D.C.
Napa Valley wines were back on the federal table in May—this time, literally: Mumm Napa’s “Carlos Santana Brut” N/V was paired with the dessert course at the White House state dinner for Mexican President Felipe Calderon Hinojosa. The meal was cooked by Chef Rick Bayless of Chicago, and among the 200-odd guests were government bigwigs galore, stars including Eva Longoria-Parker, and longtime Napa/Sonoma vintner Reynaldo Robledo Sr., founder of Robledo Family Winery in Carneros and the first Mexican migrant worker to own an American winery. Not only did Robledo attend the big state dinner on May 19, he also joined Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for a luncheon with Calderon that afternoon. While at breakfast the next morning, Calderon led a standing ovation in honor of Robledo’s achievements.
In an almost textbook tale of immigrant success, Robledo left his home in Michoacan, Mexico, at the age of 16 and made his way to the vineyards of Napa Valley, where he found his calling and, eventually, his fortune. Four decades later, Robledo, his wife Maria and their nine children now own 14 vineyards, totaling approximately 300 acres, in Napa, Sonoma and Lake counties. They also operate three businesses: Robledo Vineyard Management, Robledo Family Winery and Robledo Cellars. Asked for his response to the White House invitation, Robledo was modest and succinct: “It is a great honor to have received this invitation from Mexican President Felipe Calderon.” Well, what would you say?
Back in Napa, where—following a freakishly wet spring—summer is in full swing, music lovers from around the North Bay have been beating a path to the lovingly restored Uptown Theatre, which opened its doors in May. Shuttered for more than a decade, this 1937 movie palace is a gleaming tribute to the days when going to the pictures meant more than just sitting in a darkened box and gazing at a glowing screen. At the Uptown, what glows are the Art Deco murals, decorative painting, fanciful plasterwork and period lighting; the screen is gone for good, along with the projection booth.
Owner George Altamura has reopened the Uptown as a music hall, and I found it a very comfortable one when I attended the Lisa Loeb/Shawn Colvin double bill there a week after the place reopened. The seats were roomy, as were the rows: Originally seating more than 1,100, the Uptown has been reconfigured to hold just 860 seated patrons—more than the 480-seat Napa Valley Opera House, fewer than the 1,200-seat Lincoln Theater in Yountville. Like the other two venues, the Uptown has two lobby bars—but breaks the Napa mold with its policy by letting ticket holders bring their purchased drinks to their seats. This might be fine for a lively show by a band, but during the singer-songwriter concert I attended, it was a real distraction to have people trudging up and down the aisles in search of drink while the solo performer onstage was delivering a heartfelt ballad. At one point, an usher showed a group of cup-carrying latecomers to their seats in the very center of the front row just as Lisa Loeb was beginning to sing her most-requested song, “Stay,” more than half an hour into her set. It was intrusive and unnecessary. They could have waited until the song was finished.
I also noticed that, since the seats lack cup holders, the plastic drink cups tended to wind up on the aisle floor; at one point, I reached down in the dark for a pen I’d dropped and grasped somebody’s sticky straw instead. Yeachhh. It was a strange contrast: high-end restoration on the walls and ceiling, low-tide detritus on the floor. I was also disappointed to see that nobody under 21 was allowed to enjoy the show.
Now, here’s what the Uptown seems to be getting right: Sightlines are excellent and, at the concert I attended, so was the sound quality. Shawn Colvin apparently thought so, too, smiling as she told the audience she was going to pass up a throat lozenge she’d brought onstage with her, “because you’d hear it clicking against my teeth.” The booking policy, while nowhere near as adventurous and diverse as that of the Opera House, is solidly designed to attract boomers and their allies: June shows included Robert Cray, Merle Haggard, Boz Scaggs and Rickie Lee Jones; this month, you can catch the Gipsy Kings, Keb’ Mo’, Lyle Lovett and his Large Band and Toad the Wet Sprocket. For more on upcoming shows including Los Lonely Boys, the B-52s and Cyndi Lauper, visit www.uptowntheatrenapa.com.
