Autumn has arrived here at Kuleto Estate, and in its quiet, rustic mountain way, it’s spectacular here at our winery. I love fall in the Napa Valley. Everything seems to slow down, and I mean everything—nature, people, meals, even conversations. The roads are quieter, the tasting rooms are more relaxed and intimate, and I even think the wine pours are heavier. While summer is definitely high season in wine country, for me, autumn and the early months of winter are almost as good as it gets around here.

At our estate high above Lake Hennessey, the 2008 growing season has come to an end. In the vineyards, the last of our grapes were harvested almost a month ago, and in the winery, the final newly fermented wines are going into oak to begin their barrel aging. After getting off to a fairly wild start with an early-September heat wave, the harvest settled down and ended up being a relatively relaxed affair. In their early stages, newly fermented wines are often quite raw and rustic, and yet, already the 2008’s are showing stunning colors, awesome aromatics and plush, soft tannins. Every new lot of Cabernet I taste seems better than the last, and our Syrah appears to be hitting new heights. As a vintner, it’s a pretty great feeling to put another harvest to bed, and to know that the quality is this good!

The 2008 harvest also brought other satisfactions. This year, my 12-year-old son Daniel spent several weeks shadowing our great winemaker Dave Lattin—learning the ropes, so to speak. Though he has spent much of his young life here on the estate, playing in the vineyards and helping out, it felt like the right time for Daniel to dig a little deeper into the soil. With this in mind, he spent time in the vineyards, cellar, lab and winery listening to, and learning from, Dave.

I was pleased to hear that Daniel was both interested and inquisitive, and just as important, appreciative of the experience. After all, great wineries exist from generation to generation. They grow and evolve in a way that I find fascinating. To see Daniel take a growing interest in the inner-workings of Kuleto Estate makes everything I do here all the more rewarding.

It’s easy to praise the natural beauty of California. After all, there is so much of it. There are also a lot of great things to say about our cities as well—especially if you are a food lover. Over the last few decades, the Bay Area, and San Francisco in particular, have become a Mecca for foodies. Here on the edge of the Pacific, flavors from around the world have found a home alongside California’s bountiful array of fresh local produce, livestock and seafood. As someone who has been a part of the area’s vibrant restaurant scene for years, it has been exciting to watch San Francisco emerge as unquestionably one of the world’s great cities for dining out.

There are a lot of factors that have played a part in San Francisco’s rise as a culinary destination—including the reputation of its inhabitants for being creative and at times a little rebellious. That creativity and disregard for the status quo have inspired new approaches—both in sourcing the foods we eat, and how we prepare those foods. Maybe it’s no surprise that the roots of our uniquely Californian approach to cuisine began in the Nixon-era 1970s. As a movement towards health and consciousness evolved, pioneers like chef Alice Waters started looking beyond the pre-packaged, processed food choices. Instead they began partnering with local farmers and gardeners to create amazing, fresh fare. For my part, I was striving to do something similar with restaurant design, as I embraced the idea that architecture should be appropriate to the dining scene.

Like all great experiments, there were some overindulgent moments along the way in the evolution of the San Francisco dining scene when both the food and design became almost too creative. But as a group, we learned and evolved, and in time we found our own strong, distinctive voice as a culinary region.

This past January, I opened two new restaurants in San Francisco, EPIC Roasthouse and Waterbar. For me, these restaurants represent a culmination of sorts—bringing together everything I’ve learned over the years. Throughout the course of my career, I have designed and built 190 restaurants. Of those, about 75 have been steakhouses. With EPIC Roasthouse, my goal was to create a whole new class of steakhouse, taking the entire concept to a new level in architecture, food and service. Waterbar does the same thing with the seafood concept. With Jan Birnbaum and Mark Franz as partners, EPIC and Waterbar both have renowned celebrity chefs at the helm. Masters of their craft, Jan and Mark have created menus exceeding my wildest expectations.

In their own way, these restaurants are also quite unprecedented—being the first privately owned buildings to break ground on the San Francisco waterfront in almost 100 years. In the City by the Bay, the waterfront is sacred, so I was honored that San Francisco trusted me (and my vision) enough to allow this dream to become a reality. If a good view makes amazing food taste even better—and trust me it does—then our diners will be dazzled.

Sitting down to write my first blog, I am struck by the thought that if you spend any time exploring California, you’ll find a place to fall in love with. Everyone who comes here does. It might be a stretch of coastline, a secluded spot in a redwood forest, or a vineyard in wine country. I’ve lived in California for the better part of 60 years and I’ve discovered more than a few spots that inspire, amaze and fulfill me. One of these spots is a stunning stretch of hillside land on the eastern edge of the Napa Valley, and another is on the secluded shores of Tomales Bay near Point Reyes.

As a vintner and a restaurateur, I’ve been lucky to be able to make both of these places a part of my everyday life. In the mountains of Napa Valley, I built my home and planted vineyards for my winery, Kuleto Estate. On Tomales Bay, I recently realized a 30-year dream by renovating 10 Depression-era seaside cottages to establish a small hotel and restaurant at Nick’s Cove.

In their own ways, I think both of these places reflect what I value, and my rather rustic idea of the California good life. They also bring together my multiple passions as a fisherman, farmer, restaurateur, foodie and winemaker. Nick’s Cove appeals to the side of me that embraces the laid-back coastal lifestyle—that sublime idea of sitting on a dock, staring at the silver water as you wait for the fisherman to come in with the fresh catch for dinner.

In contrast, the vineyards, orchards, ranch and organic gardens of Kuleto Estate allow me to embrace two of my other passions: growing things, and sharing the things I grow with others. There is something immensely rewarding about making a dinner using only ingredients farmed and raised on your own land, and serving it with wines made from grapes grown on vines that you helped to plant. For me, this all ties in to the fresh, local and authentic take on food and wine that is such a rich part of California’s culinary identity. But that’s a story for another blog…