There's Gold in Them Thar Buckets

(AP 2008 photo)

A Christmas surprise in a Salvation Army bucket:

An anonymous donor dropped a rare gold coin into a red kettle operated by the Napa Salvation Army on Saturday.

Volunteers discovered the 1-ounce South African Krugerrand gold coin while counting donations after a day of bell ringing at Napa’s Bel Aire Plaza, Larry Carmichael, a corps officer of the Salvation Army of Napa, told the Chronicle on Sunday.

“This is not a coin you carry in your pocket to toss anywhere,” Carmichael said. “Whoever had it was intentional about where they were donating it.”

...The organization’s annual red kettle donation campaign, which started at the Oakland Ferry Landing in 1891, collects millions of dollars nationally to fund its holiday meals program. In Napa, donations also fund a culinary arts training program, music classes for children and housing grants for more than 100 local families.

What I like about this story is that the donor wanted anonymity (and didn't even want to document the donation for the IRS!). Yes, he or she could have private, practical reasons, but I like to think that this was the motivation:

“Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.

“So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.----Matthew 6:1-4

The spot price of gold is about $2,630 per ounce, and the value of a 1-oz. Krugerrand tracks spot gold closely.

Merry Christmas!

Costco Napa - No Surprise

Selman Medina (Chron photo)

As further proof that its stores are not all alike, the new warehouse that opened in Napa today already is reputed to have one of the best wine selections among Costco's 140 California stores. [bold added]

[Selman] Medina is a Bay Area Costco legend. He spent 11 years commuting from Napa to work the floor of the wine section at the Novato Costco, widely believed to have the best wine section of any Costco in California. He’s one of 30 “wine stewards” employed at Costco stores across the U.S., and according to Bay Area Costco wine buyer Mark Kalkbrenner, he’s one of two wine steward program originals still standing.

Costco is one of the best-run and most popular retailers in the country. It doesn't go overboard on standardization and has a few products (e.g., surfboards in Hawaii warehouses) that cater to the local market. It's no surprise that its new store in wine country has an excellent wine selection, overseen by an expert buyer.

Once an Asset, Now a Liability

Proximity to San Francisco was once an asset but is now a liability to some Bay Area counties.

Headline: San Francisco's rotten reputation is killing tourism across the Bay Area [bold added]

According to the survey results, the city’s rotten reputation — regardless of whether this perception was valid or not — is actively deterring domestic travelers from even considering the rest of the region.

A striking number of respondents, nearly half in some cases, agreed that San Francisco’s woes have made visiting a county like Sonoma unattractive, even though it’s 45 miles away and vastly different from the city.

We unwound at the Kenwood Inn in Sonoma County

Fixing San Francisco's problems isn't as critical to the economic health of counties that are tech-based, but those dependent on travel and leisure, like Sonoma and Napa, have been particularly affected.

Speaking from personal experience, we've been very satisfied with overnight trips to Wine Country. Napa and Sonoma counties are well over an hour's drive from San Francisco, but both geographically (hot and dry during the summer) and culturally they feel much more distant. Here's hoping that they can endure the pain while San Francisco fixes itself.

Astride Two Worlds

(Chronicle photo)

In the Chronicle's words California wineries are "obsessed" with 32-year-old geologist Brenna Quigley:

Over the last few years, her reputation has soared within the wine industry, to the point where it’s a point of pride — and a marketing boon — to be able to say that Brenna Quigley did your vineyard’s geologic analysis. The 32-year-old is inarguably the state’s premiere wine geologist.

Then again, she might be the only person in California who identifies as a wine geologist. Her success is a testament to the fact that she has single-handedly established a demand for a service that five years ago many wineries likely never considered...

That ability to bridge geology and wine is what distinguishes Quigley from other vineyard consultants. “I saw that people were speaking two different languages,” Quigley says.

Wine people had one lexicon, while geologists had another. And among her fellow geologists, she perceived “a slight disrespect for the wine tasting aspect of it,” Quigley says. Concepts held sacrosanct by winemakers, like terroir — the idea that wines are capable of expressing a sense of place — were dismissed by scientists as woo-woo.

Quigley grew up in the Midwest in a family of geologists: Her father and brothers run a business that explores sites for heavy-metal mining. Quigley left for UC Santa Barbara, initially intending to become a marine biologist. Eventually she relented and switched to the family trade.

After getting her master’s, Quigley abandoned plans to pursue a PhD. Instead, she worked at wine shops and bartended. She got a job at the Kunin Wines tasting room in downtown Santa Barbara and began to befriend local winemakers. “I called my parents and said, ‘You’re not going to believe it, but these wine people also decorate their houses with rocks,’” she says.

She soon discovered that many winemakers were eager for basic geology lessons, so that they could communicate about their own vineyards more effectively. “There was this thing people wanted to talk about so badly, but they didn’t have the words to do it,” she says. Wineries started hiring her to help them write blurbs on their websites...

Quigley elucidated details that even longtime vineyard owners hadn’t been aware of, and she produced the first-ever detailed geologic maps of the county’s wine regions.

Brenna Quigley bestrides the worlds of geology and oenology, and her time is now.

Unlike the thousands of young adults who will do almost anything to garner attention on social media, the attention came to her because of her unique talent stack.

In this build-her-up-and-tear-her-down age, I hope the following doesn't happen:

1) politically-oriented groups will hold her up as a shining example of a successful STEM woman and ask her to speak out on any number of topics that she has not thought deeply about, thereby provoking a reaction from other politicized groups;

2) geologists with PhDs, jealous of her popularity, will sniff at the depth of her knowledge ("among her fellow geologists, she perceived 'a slight disrespect for the wine tasting aspect of it.'"). If they're so smart, why aren't they doing it?

Her Midwest and family roots should see her through. I hope Brenna Quigley continues her success.

Justice is Served

Juli Mazi

Last July we noted the arrest of Napa homeopathic doctor Juli A. Mazi for selling fake vaccination cards and "homeoprophylaxis immunization pellets." She has now pleaded guilty.

Juli Mazi accepted a plea agreement in February and pleaded guilty this week to one count of wire fraud and one count of making false statements related to health care matters, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California...

Her sentencing is scheduled for July 29. She faces the possibility of up to 20 years in prison for the wire fraud charge and up to 5 years in prison for the false statements charge, as well as a fine of up to $250,000 and three years of supervised release for each charge, officials said.

Given the relaxation of COVID-19 protocols, vaccination cards are rapidly depreciating, both legally and medically (vaccine efficacy diminishes rapidly over time). Juli Mazi will be sentenced one year after arrest, a time when even legitimate vaccination cards will have little value. Justice, though slow, is served.

Dog Bites Man

Most conveniently, a French Laundry
dinner equals one stimulus check.

Governor Gavin Newsom has taken heat for attending an indoor dinner party earlier this month at the French Laundry Restaurant in Yountville. [bold added]

Based on current Napa County infections, the [Georgia Tech] model calculates a 12% likelihood that one guest at an event of 10 people would have COVID-19. Using Sacramento County, where many of the guests were from, gives it an 11% chance...

The Nov. 6 dinner attended by at least 12 people was celebrating the birthday of lobbyist Jason Kinney, a close friend of Newsom’s....Newsom and his wife joined members of several other households at the event — including two California Medical Association executives — despite his administration urging against private gatherings of more than three households.

Governor Newsom apologized for not following his own administration's coronavirus rules. As with most politicians, he knew what he was doing and he's really sorry...about getting caught.

Bay Area Real Estate: Rich Getting Richer

(Per Chronicle)

There are clear signs that the Bay Area housing market has peaked.  While median prices have declined in only a few counties, increases were in the low single-digits.

The number of units sold has fallen by 11-13%, indicating that deal prices would have actually declined if owners were motivated to sell.

The low-end of the market has slowed, but the high-end is still going strong (hence the distinction between the median and average prices). [bold added]

while Bay Area home sales were about 5% lower than last year’s second quarter, sales of homes above $3 million surged, bringing them in line with last year’s historical peak.

Peninsula Realtor Ken DeLeon noted that foreign buyers, especially from China, are still active in the $10 million-and-up range. However, their purchases of homes in the $2 million to $4 million range “has tapered off, almost to zero,” The imposition of more stringent capital controls has made it hard for most people to get money out of China, unless you’re “uber wealthy,” DeLeon said. Most Chinese buyers purchasing high-priced homes in the Bay Area are doing it through their companies, he added.

In related news about the high-end, the median home price in Atherton has risen to $8.1 million, nearly double the tony towns of Hillsborough and Los Altos Hills.

A business colleague bought a house in Atherton in 1975 on a junior executive's pay (about $50,000). He was fond of telling me (bragging?) at the time that he was making more on price appreciation than from his salary.

Here's hoping that John held on (or traded up!).

Plus ça change

Honolulu: as power needs grow, the tangles get worse.

Telephone poles and overhead power lines have been a ubiquitous part of the Honolulu landscape ever since I can remember. They're still in every neighborhood a half-century later despite the danger and poor esthetics. The cost of burying infrastructure (electricity, trains) is enormously expensive, so little has been done.

In Napa and Sonoma counties Pacific Gas and Electric faces similar costs to Hawaiian Electric and did not bury most of its power lines.  PG&E is being blamed for starting or at least exacerbating the fires that have raged for over two weeks. The property damage--estimated so far at well under $5 billion--is much less than putting power lines throughout Northern California:

A new underground distribution line across most of PG&E’s territory costs about $1.16 million per mile, according to data filed with state regulators during the utility’s most recent general rate case. That’s more than twice the price of a new overhead line, which costs about $448,800 per mile. Most of the difference comes from the expense of digging a trench for the cable.

Prices rise within cities, where the work is more complex. A 2015 San Francisco report found that recent costs for moving power lines underground in Oakland had averaged $2.8 million per mile, while similar work in San Jose had cost $4.6 million per mile.

And burying high-voltage transmission lines — the kind usually strung from immense steel towers across long distances — can cost as much as $5 million per mile, according to PG&E.

Overhead lines are also easier and cheaper to fix:

Repair crews have no trouble spotting a knocked-over power pole or downed line. But when an underground line fails, operators first have to figure out where the problem occurred, without being able to see it — though sensors attached to the power lines can help narrow things down. Then they have to dig.

After the fires are out, expect to see the usual kabuki: personal stories of loss, public chastisement of PG&E, damage assessments, lawsuits, and settlements paid years from now. By then the new overhead power lines should be up and running.

Too Soon

Prediction: expect certain wine-tasting terms (smoky, crisp) to become more prevalent in the coming years.

Poor taste! (Are we talking about the wine or this post?)

The fires are still burning; it's too soon.

"It was a hell-storm of smoke and ash"

We are 60 miles south of Novato, the closest of the fires, yet we could smell the smoke. Friends in San Francisco said that ash was falling on their house.

Unlike previous fires that have struck unpopulated areas, these have spread through wine country and North Bay cities.

A swarm of fires supercharged by powerful winds ripped through Napa, Sonoma and Mendocino counties Monday, killing at least 10 people, injuring dozens of others, destroying more than 1,500 homes and businesses, and turning prominent wineries to ash.

Starting in the middle of the night, the fires hopscotched across neighborhoods, raced across fields and jumped freeways. Wind gusts up to 70 mph pushed walls of flames nearly 100 feet high, throwing embers ahead like hot fingers into strip malls and subdivisions. Many people who fled the surge had enough time to grab car keys, perhaps a pet, but not much more.

Winery building in Napa County (Chronicle photo)

And it's far from over.

Today the only thing we could do was head to Costco to stock up on wine. Wineries have been destroyed, thereby reducing both inventories and production capacity for years.

After the situation is contained, we'll look at ways we can assist the recovery.

Pressure Play

(Napa Valley Register photo)

Sometimes a small news item catches my attention because it seems like there's more to the story. Napa Judge Michael Williams attended a March, 2016 dinner and lifted two (2) fancy business-card holders worth $50 each. "Several weeks later, a lawyer told Williams he had been seen on video taking the holders and suggested that he return them", which the judge did the next day accompanied by a letter of apology.

Now the Commission on Judicial Performance is looking into the matter: [bold added]

Williams has been charged with willful misconduct, prejudicial conduct that brings disrepute to the judicial office, and improper action. He could be admonished, censured, or even dismissed from the bench for his conduct.

Possibly ending a person's career for what is surely a very minor lapse, since rectified, is extreme overkill.

Michael Williams became a judge in 2012 at the age of 66(!) when he was appointed by Governor Jerry Brown to serve out the term of another judge who resigned for health reasons. Judge Williams was unopposed for re-election in 2014 and his current term expires in 2021, when he will be 74.

There are a multitude of reasons--ranging from the professionally valid to the nefarious---why someone could be lowering the boom on Judge Williams. It won't be surprising at all if he resigns, the charges are dropped, and the public never learns what's truly going on. I hope he enjoys his retirement.

A Slice of Heaven

Black gold from Santa Rosa, CA (Chron photo)

It took over 100 years for Napa and Sonoma wineries to be declared the equal of their venerable French counterparts at the "Judgment of Paris" in 1976, but North Bay orchards--some using vineyard lands--are on a much faster track to competing with another renowned French export: [bold added]

Several weeks ago...was the first successful harvest among several orchards betting on Wine Country as the world’s next great truffle-growing region.[snip]

High-quality imported fresh black truffles typically cost $800 per pound and are at their prime up to four or five days after harvest, about the time it takes to fly them from Europe or Australia

Growing truffles, like making wine, is a multi-year endeavor.

Preparing the site for your truffière requires the most labor. Remove all trees, stumps and root systems from previous growth, then test your soil. Since truffles require a soil pH of 8 to 8.3, United States growers must apply agricultural lime before planting.

Once your soil is prepared, consider irrigation. Maturing [oak and filbert] trees require about an inch of water a week. When growing truffles, you do not plant one or two trees; you plant one or two acres of trees. If watering the trees proves too labor-intensive, you will likely abandon your orchard and your investment.

For a few seconds I entertained the idea of becoming a gentleman truffle farmer, but tending to two acres of trees is too steep a price, especially without seeing any results for the better part of a decade.

Here's hoping that California truffles will be on sale at Whole Foods or Costco in the not-too-distant future. If they're under $100 a pound, I'll cut me a slice or two.

Blissfully Unaware

At 3:20 a.m. the other three members of the household woke to the shaking. One began perusing information on the USGS website, another checked on the animals, and the third walked around the house, looking for items that had fallen. As for me, I slept the sleep of the blissfully unaware.

My lack of response to the Napa 6.0 earthquake perturbed the lady of the household: "Is this how you're going to react to a real emergency?" Her assessment of the quake is correct, by the way, the damage suffered by the wine industry is a real emergency.

I'm doing pretty well in abiding by one of my New Year's health resolutions to get enough sleep, but perhaps I'm overdoing it. It's not a real resolution if one enjoys it too much, n'est-ce pas?

The pct. of Jawbone UP wearers who woke up was proportional to distance from the epicenter. Like
others who live 70 miles from Napa, your humble observer is part of the majority who didn't wake up.