This is how I remember wine country when I first discovered it. I couldn’t believe that such a lush and verdant region existed in the hill country between the Central Valley and the coast. There was a pastoral magic in the air. Nearly every twist and turn in the road presented a view that seemed to say, ‘Yes, it’s that’s beautiful here. Don’t you wish this was where you lived?’

In fact, I lived in Chico, CA with my late husband, the marine artist David Thimgin. He and I would always make painting trips from our home in Chico to the coast via the main highways. One mid-summer day, I was driving back and decided we would go a different route. That decision was one of the best I made in my life, it opened a whole new world to me.

I grew up in farm country back East and never encountered anything like it in the areas of California I had visited. I missed the sense of a personal connection that the small farms and communities had to the land they cultivated. And here, in the Alexander Valley, I discovered it again. Added to all this beauty ― they were growing grapes for wine! - JC