DARLING BUDS

For lovers of good food and wine, it's hard to beat the Napa Valley in California. As green shoots appear after severe wildfires, this corner of the state is more enticing than ever.

- TOBY SKINNER AND KATE CUNNINGHAM

Arriving in the Napa Valley, there has always been a sense of entering a different ecosystem: one not just of rose bushes and golden vine-covered hills, but of languorous lunches and time slowing to the pace of a ripening grape. Recent years have threatened the Edenic status of Napa and its neighbouring wine region Sonoma- the pandemic, of course, but also the wildfires that ripped through in 2020, destroying more than 30 wineries, including Calistoga Ranch, and causing extensive damage to woodsy properties such as Meadowood Napa Valley.

Yet, the story this year is one of resilience. Meadowood is back up and running, and new tasting rooms have opened. Among them is Faust Haus, where the organic Cabernet Sauvignons are presented in a matt-black Queen Anne building worthy of the chicest horror movie.

Napa's almost 400 wineries are more sustainable than ever, too, with innovations to make growing grapes less water-intensive. "We've seen this whole community come together to fight," says Kashy Khaledi, the owner of Ashes & Diamonds, which opened in 2018 as a campus-like winery that takes its cues from mid-century modernism.

"Hellfire and apocalypse make better soundbites, but the Napa Valley is really a tight-knit collection of mostly family-run businesses, and we're coming out of this strong."

Ashes & Diamonds' highly rated grand vins are more in demand than ever, as are many of the area's tasting rooms, partly, Khaledi says, because people are consuming more consciously. More than that, Napa is still the place he fell in love with as a stressed-out Capitol Records executive.

A "Shangri-La, a place to disconnect from a disposable culture... a place that is tangible, in all the right ways."

THE NEW MEMBERS’ CLUBS