I had a recent comment on this blog:
Thanks for attending the New World Wine Experience. I'm sorry if you were disappointed not to find wines from Italy in the Grand Tasting (Italy not being, after all, one of what we consider the New World wine regions), but I hope you had a chance to taste the Nebbiolo from Cetto in Mexico. And perhaps have dinner at Piero Selvaggio's Valentino in the Venetian, which also has an amazing list of Italian wines.
Thomas Matthews
Executive editor
Wine Spectator
Um, Thomas, thanks for the concern. But as an original Californian, the wines (or the people) from the New World are not a disappointment to me. They are part of my DNA. I am, when it is all said and done, a child of California, and so very proud of my home state (and I'm not talking about baseball).
Walking through the halls of the recent Wine Spectator Experience, so many people who I have worked with for many years. Dear friends. People who speak in my dialect. My tribe.
John Mayall, the consummate blues man, wrote one of the most beautiful songs about home, called simply California:
Going back to California
So many good things around
Don't wanna leave California
The sun seems to never go down
Some people may treat you ugly
Some treat you beautiful too
That's the way life is all over
So look for the good things for you
California - there is a good place to be
California - that's where I'm feeling so free
And while most of my roads lead to (and through) Rome, there’s no place like home. Congratulations, California, I know there will always be a place where there are folks who share similar thoughts and values and aspirations for our future and our children (and our planet’s) future. After all, in the words of their past and future governor, "We're all God's children."
Auguri, Mom!
