I’ve been asked to write a monthly column that talks about growing up in the Napa Valley. The series is called, “The Storyteller, by Tim Carl a Knights Valley Correspondent,” and will be in the St. Helena Star every 3 or 4 weeks. I will post them in this blog when they come out.
The first in the series is called, “My first bite of salami.”
“I grew up in St. Helena and moved away when I was 18. After some adventures, I came back at 24 and married my sweetheart from Rutherford. We moved away, this time to Boston. After 20 years we finally couldn’t take being away any longer and moved to Knights Valley with our two children. We’ve been back nearly 10 years, and we don’t have plans to leave. We are home.
This place is a magnet for those who have experienced it — most people affected by this magical spot are ultimately drawn back, haunted by their memories. Maybe it’s the smell of fermenting grapes on cool fall evenings as geese honk overhead. Or perhaps it’s the muffled thud of walking through thick dust in a vineyard at the end of summer, the smell of fragrant flowers mingling together into something reminiscent of perfume. And oh the food. Garden-fresh vegetables, so sweet and crisp they only need a light saute in some local olive oil. And of course the wine. The history. The weather. Writing this I realize that it is more than a magnet. Actually this place seeps into one’s soul. To use a French wine term, the people living here, if open to it, become intermingled with the “terroir” of this place, making them somewhat less whole when they are separated from it.”
