No trip to California is complete without a trip to wine country. I had never been to Sonoma or Napa despite my many trips. After a detour on Money Lane (or rather getting lost on it) we landed at the stop. As someone who is involved with invasive species control, it was nice to hear a success story let alone a success story that was driven by the industry. What was amazing was how perfect the fruit and all the challenges a wine grower is faced with-- everything from water (obvious), labor (again obvious but maybe not the complexities of the labor issue), to trespassing and people walking through and eating the crop. What's amazing is how the system works together so efficiently.
We stopped at hops next. The guys we met with are not just growing hops they are brewing their own beers and are trying to recreate the industry of beer that, at one point, Sacramento played such a big part of before big beer and prohibition. One of the more interesting things they are pushing is the how influential hop is to the flavor of beer. Not being a big beer or wine person this was surprising. I just figured hops was known as a powerful part of the flavor profile of beer.
