Taste the Vineyard
Lodi vintners are taking a minimalist approach to create all-natural Zinfandels from heritage vines
You might say the old grapevines look otherworldly. With their contorted limbs and thick trunks, these Zinfandel vines look more like squat alien-trees, twisting up out of a sandy 3-acre spit of land in southwest Lodi. “Look how this vine is growing here,” says Stuart Spencer, owner of St. Amant Winery. He’s standing in the dirt at nearby Marian’s Vineyard, pointing to a vine with a hole as big as a fist. “The vine just splits over time.”
The Upside of the Downturn
3 ways the sharing economy is a better economy
The sharing economy is a collaborative economic movement inspired by the efficiency of loaning and sharing existing resources on a fee-for-service model. It reduces environmental waste while supporting financial sustainability and building stronger communities, and it’s having a bigger impact than you might realize.
Haunting Dollars
Placerville's Gold Rush Tours mix the eerie with the authentic
Linda Bottjer is not a psychic or paranormal expert. But through her research online and at the local historical society, she has become intimately familiar with the ghosts of Placerville. They are a mischievous lot, known for rearranging furniture and shattering wine glasses.
Sustaining Tahoe
Can geotourism replace revenue lost by the gaming industry?
With gaming revenue on the decline and environmental sustainability an ongoing concern, the need for a new tourism strategy in Tahoe is two-fold. Enter geotourism.
Survey Says
Squaw Valley has enough water to move forward with village expansion
Squaw Valley Real Estate and KSL Capital Partners, the company that owns Squaw Valley Ski Resort, have received the critical report needed to move forward with a planned expansion of the resort’s village.
Tapped Out
Is Sac's craft beer bubble on the verge of bursting?
When downtown Sacramento’s Brew It Up poured its last beer in 2011, owner Michael Costello lost more than his business. “I lost everything,” he says. “Nobody really knows the whole breadth of it. It’s not an easy thing to go through.”
World Travel
Can Sacramento cash in on an influx of Chinese tourism dollars?
Two hundred million Chinese tourists will pack their bags and depart their homeland in 2020, bound for destinations across the globe. It’s not a mass exodus; they’re not fleeing their government. They’re tourists, and, according to CNN, they might be the greatest phenomenon to hit the global travel industry since the invention of commercial flight.
Sacramento Needs a Public Market
The Farm-to-Fork Capital is incomplete without one
Great food capitals of the world: Can you name them? Florence. Paris. Tokyo. Barcelona. Istanbul. Singapore. What do these destinations of culinary delights offer?
Kickstarter
Placer County hopes to win tourism dollars with new sports complexes
The rise of elite youth sports and the popularity of year-round athletics have created an emerging market for participant and spectator spending in south Placer County, which has positioned itself as a major sports destination. Now, two separate entities are looking to capitalize on the region’s sports market with large-scale venues that could turn a profit in as few as three years.