Those were the words that jumped out at me in an email from the U.S. Embassy on April 2. Every day for three weeks, I anxiously awaited news of a potential repatriation flight home from South Africa, where my husband and I had been stranded amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Covid-19 is having a major and possibly devastating effect on the wine industry as a whole — tasting rooms across the globe are closed and many depend on visitation for sales — but it’s been especially difficult for wineries in the Southern Hemisphere, which also happen to be in the throes of wine’s most demanding season: harvest.

With roughly 1,000 wineries, a bounty of Michelin- starred restaurants and new luxury hotels popping up around every corner, Napa and Sonoma businesses are constantly being pushed to up the ante and diversify in order to stand out from the stiff competition. The local wine bars are no exception.

The Southern Hemisphere is world-renowned for its wines from Chile, Argentina, New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa. But Brazil—famous for Ipanema and Copacabana, not malbec and sauvignon blanc—remains a quiet underdog, despite the fact that it’s the fifth-largest wine producer in the Southern Hemisphere (ahead of New Zealand).

Better known as “Digger” from the Discovery Channel docu-series Moonshiners, Manes is wearing overalls with the top button on each side undone, and doesn’t look like someone of reality TV fame. But then again, Manes doesn’t exactly line up with my expectation of a real-life, backwoods moonshiner either.

Over the last couple of months, you may have noticed orange bulbs hanging from the rafters, kitchens, or bars of certain Bay Area restaurants. They’re not avant-garde Christmas decorations that have yet to be taken down. They’re hoshigaki — persimmons dried using the traditional Japanese method of hanging them from a string.

Tourists visit New Zealand for its incredible landscapes made famous by the Lord of the Rings and to seek out its grassy sauvignon blancs, not beer—but that’s about to change. A recent report by the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research states that New Zealand has more breweries (over 200) per capita than Britain, the US, and Australia.

Eugene is to Portland as Oakland is to San Francisco. It’s less populated, less polished, but rapidly shedding its former bad-boy rap and gaining notoriety as the cooler little brother.

Biondi Santi said its Riserva Brunello di Montalcino 2012 would be released on 1 March 2020. It will carry a special label to commemorate Franco Biondi Santi, who died in 2013, and the recommended price will be £460 per bottle.

"From Gold Rush towns preserved in time to 140-year-old grapevines, the Sierra Foothills area keeps one foot in the 19th century. In this region, known as Gold Country and the Mother Lode, you will uncover rich history, best explored via raft or wine glass."

Move over, farm-to-table. There’s a new game in town as Napa and Sonoma chefs draw inspiration from Mexico to Japan and everywhere in between.

With roughly 1,000 wineries between Napa and Sonoma, the pressure to stand out and outdo one another is on. This is good news for visitors, for wineries are in turn building stunning, state-of-the-art hospitality centers that offer a host of unique and luxurious tasting experiences. Here are five new spots—from old wine country favourites—to get the all-star treatment on your next trip to Napa and Sonoma.

Last week, on the evening of Tuesday 12th November, the worst tide in half-a-century devastated Venice and flooded Venissa’s famed Mazzorbo island vineyard – where the region’s last-surviving parcel of the indigenous Dorona grape is grown – with more than six feet of destructive, salty water.

Wildfires in California aren’t new, but after back-to-back years of the most deadly and destructive fires in California’s history, it’s clear they’re increasing in both frequency and ferocity. Members of the winemaking industry, in particular, are on high alert, concerned not only for their wineries and tasting rooms but, most importantly, their vines.

Drive roughly 50 miles north of San Francisco and, with Karl the Fog in your rearview mirror, a sunny, vine-dotted landscape of rolling hills emerges as you enter the blissful California wine country.

SNL alum Rachel Dratch’s 50th birthday party in wine country may have been the impetus for the highly-anticipated Netflix film Wine Country, but there’s perhaps another person who deserves some of the credit for making our all-star female cast dreams come true: Sonoma County chef Gerard Nebesky, proprietor of Gerard’s Paella Y Tapas in Santa Rosa, who was tasked with organizing Dratch’s birthday weekend.