![](http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2952/542/400/NONO%27S%20GRAPES.jpg)
My grandfather in his backyard with his brick bar-b-que and his grape arbor, lots of good times, always with the wine flowing, probably the first place wine touched my lips. Those grapes, their reach, always somewhere, on the wine trail, in those early California days.
It isn’t the same for me and my son. Those traditions of gathering and sharing a meal and a flask of wine are now changed, it seems, forever. Now we roll out the custom grill and fire up some exotic hardwood charcoal and throw on a couple of grass fed or organic steaks. The wine is better, the food is healthier, but it just isn’t the same, is it?
![](http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2952/542/200/thunderbird-729486.1.jpg)
![](http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2952/542/320/Sinatra.jpg)
![](http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2952/542/320/almaden.gif)
![](http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2952/542/320/CSV_PetiteSirah.jpg)
One day one of my colleagues, with the
![](http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2952/542/320/pc-lafite%20rothschild.png)
The Lafite was interesting. It was 75+ years old, same age as the U.S. president at the time, without the benefit of lighting and secret service. It was brown and losing its fruit in the glass. But the elusiveness of the fruit made it precious. Here was a wine that was dying, and we were allowed to sip its last drops, breath its last perfume before it said adieu. Wonderful moment.
I was in Galveston once upon a time, working in a
![](http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2952/542/320/GiacomoConternoMonfortino1.jpg)
Last year in Portugal we came upon a
![](http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2952/542/320/DSC00024.jpg)
That is as close as I will get to being with my family on that autumn day in 1939, celebrating my oldest sister's 1st birthday, with my mom and dad and grandmas and grandpa and aunts and uncles and cousins.
![](http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2952/542/400/italian%20tour%206.jpg)