The Napa and Sonoma Valleys... Burgundy and Bordeaux... Australia's Barossa Valley and South Africa's Stellenbosch... Risa Wyatt has sipped and supped in the world's great growing regions. 
But she's more than a wine writer and reviewer. She literally has roots (and rootstock) in the wine business as a vigneron (grower), former partner in a Napa Valley vineyard producing Cabernet sauvignon for Joseph Phelps Vineyards. So she has been entwined with the worlds of pruning, trellising, and fermentation, and has been a successful garagista, making wine in her garage for years.
From her experience she can talk knowledgeably with both growers and wine makers. Most of all, she shares with readers the miracle of the grapes: Beholding barren wood burst into tender green budbreak... Standing amazed by purple color-change as clusters sweeten and soften into absolute ripeness... Exulting in the abundance of harvest. 
A Ceja Family Celebration New Zealand Wine
Wine Enthusiast Magazine
As I walk beneath the bronze bell bearing its message of wine--song--love, Amelia Ceja gives me a hug. "I hope you learned something today," she says. "Food speaks of where it comes from. Every dish we ate today was touched by the nicest people you'll ever meet... Entertaining is so simple: Open the door to your house and your heart--and allow people to come in." Read more--
Specialty Travel Index
"Go find some dirt to plant," Moira Forsyth told her husband, Tony, a psychologist contemplating buying vineyard property. And so the Forsyths purchased land on a precipitous headland on Waiheke Island and started Te Whau--Tony planting the vines himself. "You're only on this planet for a puff--you might as well do something you like," comments Forsyth.
Seattle Dining: John Sundstrom of Lark
Physicians' Travel Magazine
"The envelope, please." And when they read the name of Best Chef/Pacific Northwest at the 2007 James Beard Foundation Awards, the winner was a man who calmly calls out in his kitchen, "Rösti potatoes for #34... mussels #29." His restaurant occupies a simple wood-frame building next to a martial arts studio and an auto-repair shop. On his menu, portions of wild striped bass or lamb loin cost $18. Haute cuisine--without the haughtiness. That describes winner John Sundstrom and his two establishments on Seattle's Capitol Hill: Lark, a restaurant; and its neighboring Licorous lounge serving chic cocktails-cum-eats.
