I moved back to California six years ago today. It was a homecoming for me, but leaving Brooklyn for a tiny cottage in Occidental was certainly something new. Glenny and I would become regulars at Barley and Hops tavern and would frequently drive to the coast on our day off, up and over majestic Coleman Valley Road or cruising through Freestone for Wildflower Bread fougasse and eventually making our way to Spud Point for crab sandwiches or down to Tomales Bay for fresh oysters.

These outings proved an adequate remedy to missing Brooklyn and our routines there - weekly Wednesday pizza at Lucali and live music at our local joints, Smokey's Roundup at Sunny's or Roots & Ruckus at Jalopy in Red Hook. The oddball characters we passed crossing over Summit bridge and the BQE, were now mostly replaced with hermits and hippies, off-the-grid sorts living up in the hills or deep in the redwoods. Characters with names like Dr. Lunch, our neighbor. No joke.

There would be the occasional Tom Waits sighting, but my favorite recluse was an elderly woman who could be spotted sometimes on the way into Graton, just off the road, wearing a bathrobe and a wolf mask, pulling it up occasionally to take a drag from her cigarette. Like Little Red Riding Hood in reverse.

TONIGHT: Thursday Night Flights...
This nostalgia calls for an all California lineup, six wines - all vibrant and delightful and delicious. Flights $12 from 4-8pm.

White Flight
2017 Folk Machine "White Light"
2016 Teira Sauvignon Blanc
2016 Luuma Chardonnay

Red Flight
2016 Folk Machine Valdigue
2016 LIttle Frances Merlot
2015 Helmet Red Grenache

SATURDAY FLIGHTS; Wines of Spain. Four Wines, including a  White Rioja, new Spanish Rosé, and two new exciting reds! Flights $15 from 2-6pm and wines by the glass

SUNDAY: Bordeaux Tasting, Flights from 2-6pm! We'll be opening up some top shelf, heavy hitters. Roll into OAKLAND YARD to taste these beauties - perfect wines for this cool winter weather. Wines by the glass too, as always.

See you soon,

Daniel