Stark Insider behind the scenes: inside the kitchen for the Star Chefs & Vintners Gala fundraiser. Chef Nancy Oakes returns as Gala Chef Chair.

Join Janice on a wine country getaway as she learns, cooks, tastes, and schmoozes with Sonoma’s best of the best.

The gardens here at Ferrari-Carano are worth the visit alone. Started innocently enough in 1987 by gardener Rhonda Carano, the initial planting I’m told took 16 months.

Now taking place over the course of an entire weekend (President’s Day weekend), the event features more than 60 wineries and 25 of top restaurateurs in Sonoma Valley.

Ensuring it doesn’t get punctured is, I suspect, a rather high priority — lest the crew of the ship be confronted with an ominous, Kubrick-sized sea of red juice.

Total crush for the year came in at a a record high 4.3 milion tons. That’s up 13% from last year and 1% better than the previous record set in 2005.

As Jean-Charles Boisset presided over the Buena Vista Winery celebration which featured 3 national anthems, 2 mayors, 1 Count celebrating his 200th birthday, a proclamation, Hungarian dancing, and a vortex, I couldn’t help but wonder: is this all really happening?!

“There’s welcome quiet, and beauty; not a franchise in sight. No Starbucks. No Home Depot. No Fry’s. What on earth is a guy to do? Taste wine, talk wine, taste wine.”