Word: vineyard
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...three weeks she toured vineyards throughout California, talking to the men behind the new domestic boom. While little old winemakers long ago evolved into modern businessmen, she found that they remain the most convivial of hosts. She shared a meal of wild boar and vintage Pinot with a vintner in Sonoma, and sipped her way through 33 Cabernets at a tasting session in Buena Vista. She was guest at a château-size winery in the Napa Valley as well as a 10,000-acre vineyard near Monterey, and in the Alexander Valley she was led on a midnight...
...Rainier companies have moved into the wine business during the past few years. Food-processing companies are heeding the ancient Roman proverb, "A meal without wine is like a day without sunshine": Pillsbury Co., Nestlé and the R.T. French & Co. of mustard fame have recently become vineyard owners. So have Lazard Frères, the Wall Street investment-banking firm; John Hancock, the insurer; and Southdown Inc., the Houston-based conglomerate. Takeover-ripe wineries have become rare, and the bids for them are enormous. The Gallo brothers have spurned an offer from Seagrams of reportedly $150 to $200 million...
...Simi winery. Today it is one of the many small wineries that tend to make some of the most interesting of the California premium wines. Donn Chappellet chucked his job as president of a lucrative food-vending firm in Los Angeles in order to work on 320 acres of vineyards. He is producing about 6,000 cases but does not expect to reach the break-even point until he sells at least 10,000 cases. Rod Strong left Broadway, where he was a choreographer, and became the owner of a Windsor vineyard. Last year his Tiburon Vintners grossed...
...many fine wines. In the evenings he and his frequent guests dine royally; one recent meal was wild boar served with a 15-year-old California wine. Yet at 5:30 a.m., Sebastiani breakfasts in simple style with workers at a roadside inn, pausing on a drive to the vineyard. "All day long I drive around in a pickup truck and wear overalls, but I've got a reason for living that the guys who try to buy me out just don't understand," he says. "I could make more money elsewhere, but I would always come back...
Born near Modesto, the brothers grew up working the small vineyard owned by their father, an immigrant from Italy's northern Piedmont. "We had a tractor in the barn, but we didn't have enough money to buy gas," recalls Ernest. "Instead, we used four mules and worked the vineyards seven days a week from daylight to dusk." With the first stirrings of repeal, they dug up $5,900.23 in capital and set out to produce their own wine. They rented a railroad shed for $60 a month, bought a $2,000 grape crusher and redwood tanks...