Napa Valley artist Gordon Huether focuses on ‘wonder, delight and storytelling’

Cody Hurd has been appointed winemaker at Priest Ranch, a producer of wines from grapes on the 1,682-acre Somerston Estate in Napa Valley’s eastern Vaca range. The Yountville-based company stated Hurd had served as assistant winemaker and joined its team in 2010. “Cody has been a part of Priest...

The reality is homes in only four Sonoma County ZIP codes out of all in the Bay Area saw values increase in the last half of 2022, according to real estate experts. Positive price growth out of region’s nine counties came from these ZIP codes, reported Zillow, a Seattle-based housing data research firm:

Andy Jones has been hired as winemaker for the Napa Valley’s Theorem Vineyards, a Calistoga winery founded by co-owners Kisha and Jason Itkin. "Andy shares our family's belief that great wine starts in the vineyard," said Kisha Itkin, who also is company president. "His many years of experience with high elevation vineyard sites, his appreciation for soil and block diversity, and his hands off, minimalistic winemaking approach are perfectly aligned with our mission of crafting deeply expressive, vineyard-driven, wines of place."

Winemaker Ted Edwards has announced his retirement after 42 years from Freemark Abbey in Calistoga. Edwards announced in 2020 he was stepping into a emeritus role and that Kristy Melton would be working with him and take over the winemaker’s role. He began his career as an assistant winemaker...

In seven days, the North Bay’s passenger rail system received a sudden avalanche of $74 million for a long-stalled effort to bring the train tracks north to Healdsburg. The first boon came last week, when the California Supreme Court dismissed a long-running lawsuit from a tax advocacy group, freeing up Bay Area bridge toll dollars that includes $40 million for the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit.

Bed Bath & Beyond continues to announce store closures with 12 more in California, including one in the North Bay, slated to shut their doors. On Tuesday, the retailer said it would shutter 87 additional stores nationwide, including locations in Palm Desert, Hawthorne, Upland, Culver City, Glendora, Pasadena and a Harmon store in Los Angeles.

One of the largest academic studies of California farmworkers is quantifying their difficult workplace and housing conditions at a time when the spotlight on those issues couldn’t be brighter. The University of California Merced Community and Labor Center released results of its first California Farmworker Health Study today. The...

A 15-year-old statewide program requiring trucking and agricultural companies to dump their old diesel-powered vehicles reached a new deadline Jan. 1, one which barred the firms from registering those trucks. “This issue we’ve worked on extensively. We argued it’s a problem because of a lack of availability and high prices...