There is something beautiful about watching paella being cooked over an open fire in a large open pan. This image was magnified this past week where at least a dozen different paellas were being made for the Berryessa Gap Paella Cook-Off, the Please The Palate pick of the week. Berryessa Gap is a winery based in Winters, in Yolo County, California, located 30 miles from Sacramento and 60 miles from San Francisco. Owned by the Martinez family who originates from Spain, they celebrate their Spanish heritage each year with the annual Paella Cookoff and Dinner. This year marked the 11th annual event and more than a dozen local chefs came out to make paellas, many from their own family's recipes.
17 November, 2018
It is not uncommon to hear about wineries in Napa who have started to explore other wine regions, such as Paso Robles and Santa Barbara, which are more affordable and offer different soils and micro-climates. But Fess Parker Winery in Santa Ynez Valley is reversing that. With a 30-year history in Santa Barbara Wine Country and a portfolio that includes Burgundian and Rhone varieties, as well as sparkling wine, Fess Parker has now expanded to Napa Valley with their label Addendum, which you can read about in my column in the Napa Valley Register.

Fess Parker Winery is a third-generation winery in the Santa Ynez Valley. Fess Parker, an American film and television actor best known for playing Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone in the 1950s and 1960s, purchased a 714-acre ranch in 1988 with the idea to run cattle, grow a few acres of grapes and one day establish a small winery. He envisioned it as a family business to hand down through the generations.

15 November, 2018
Queen is one of the greatest bands of all time. I eagerly anticipated the opening of the movie Bohemian Rhapsody and while it is not a perfect movie, it is the Please The Palate pick of the week. I grew up on the music of Queen, although I did not know at the time that some of the anthems that my friends and I sang as kids were by them. There was "We Are the Champions" and "We Will Rock You." And, when I was nine or ten years old, my friend and I would ride the ski lift chair and every time we saw someone fall, we would sing loudly, "Another one bites the dust, another one bites the dust, and another one down and another one down, another one bites the dust."
03 November, 2018
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