Way Out West: the San Francisco bit (Part 2) (
1 ) ( 3 ) ( 4 )July 2 - 3. Fridge Magnets And Unbridled Hedonism In The Valley.
I had been invited to go down to San José to give a magic lecture. My friend Doug
Dyment and his wife Lynn (below left) had kindly offered to
collect me from my hotel and drive me down, which they did. Both Doug and Lynn are
fascinating people to talk to as well as being good fun. Doug is an expert mind-reader and
mentalist, very well-regarded in the magical community, as well as a highly successful
businessman.
The San José lecture was organised and hosted by Joe Atmore who,
though he has a very successful career outside magic, is also a highly respected magical
writer and historian. He is also an authority on Joseph Dunninger, one of the greatest
mentalists who ever lived.
 
Joe and his wife Cindy (above right) had very kindly laid on a small
pre-lecture reception in their lovely home for myself and a few guests. It was here that I
spotted the fridge magnet that has since become my only and greatest claim to
fame.
The lecture itself went well (I think), and as always there was a nice range of
interesting people to meet and to chat to.
The following day was devoted to exploring the myriad delights of The Napa Valley (and
it's darned difficult to find many better things to devote a day to). Tom Cutts,
all-knowledgeable wine aficionado, was my Tour Guide and Driver. Just so you can get the
picture, this is Tom's car, a 1999 white Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder. Sun high, top down,
with a soundscape selection of loud, guitar-driven rock of impeccably good taste (in this
instance a mix of Bowling For Soup and Eric Johnson).
I also had a 'virtual' tour guide in the form of my delightful friend Luise
Finan, back in London (yes, that's right, L-u-i-s-e). Luise has many impressive
accomplishments to her name, including the fact that she passed all her wine exams years
ago and knows the subject inside out. She had suggested some favoured Napa places to go
and see.
First stop, the Robert Mondavi winery,
which (sez the website) was the first major winery built in the Napa Valley in the
post-Prohibition era. It's probably also the first to feature a large sculpture of
something that could be a very smooth black polar bear. We enjoyed two tastings, as far as
I can recall. I was fascinated by the the amount of care that had gone into lighting the
main sales room. The seductive mix of natural sunshine and discreet spotlights was as
brillliant as the lighting on any Hollywood movie set.
 
After our hard morning's work at the Mondavi, we visited Domaine Chandon for lunch.
This was one of Luise's recommendations, and, as is always the case with Luise, turned out
to be a splendid choice. Domaine Chandon
itself is just another slice of sun-drenched idyllic Napa paradise. Tom and I sat at our
sun-drenched outdoors table. Our sun-drenched Chandon hostess delivered our perfect
sun-drenched food. At first we didn't know whether to read the menu or eat it, the
descriptions were so tasty: ''Hazelnut Marjolaine: layered with praline mousse, mocha
butter cream and ganache mocha ice cream'. The menu also boasted a Deconstructed
cheescake, but nobody we asked knew what this meant.
Tom ended up doing a card trick for our hostess (below right). This happens quite often
where Tom and I are concerned. The Chandon was also home to a painting of someone I'd very much like to meet.
 
Next stop was the remarkable Jarvis winery, constructed entirely inside a series of
vast artificial caves within the Vacas Mountains, just east of Napa. From the outside,
there is literally nothing to see except a huge pair of doors cut into the rock, like the
lair of a James Bond villain:
Why build a complete wine-making facility inside 45,000 square feet of rock caves? One
reason is that within a cave system both temperature and humidity are naturally constants,
so there are no variations to worry about. But I suspect the real reason for doing it is
the reason behind most human endeavour: because they could.
Our final winery of the day was Niebaum Coppola. It's a fine place with some good
wines, but with an amusingly unsophisticated gift shop that will, it seems, stock any old
tat they think will sell.
Finally, on the way home, we stopped at Mustard's Grill for a light dinner. There was a
nice group at the next table and we ended up doing close-up magic for them. The Cutts
& Rowland Improvised Close-up Magic Show is widely agreed to be one of the finest
shows the world of entertainment has to offer. However, one cannot plan to see
it. The show is entirely spontaneous, and only happens when we are in restaurants we like
and meet people whose company we enjoy.
Apart from not involving Jacqueline Bisset, this was a perfect day.
> > > Continued in Part 3
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