Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
1978 Harvey Milk (a city supervisor
and America's first openly gay
politician) and Mayor George
Moscone are both assassinated,
by political rival Dan White.
1989 An earthquake registering 7.1
on the Richter scale hits San
Francisco just before a World
Series baseball game (100 million
watch it on TV).
1991 Fire rages through the Berkeley
and Oakland hills, destroying
2,800 homes.
1993 Yerba Buena Center for the
Arts opens.
1995 The new SF MOMA opens.
1996 Former assembly speaker
Willie Brown is elected mayor of
San Francisco.
1998 El Niño deluges San Francisco
with its second-highest rainfall in
recorded history.
2000 Pacific Bell Park opens as the
new home of the San Francisco
Giants baseball team.
2003 Gavin Newsome is elected
mayor of San Francisco.
2004 San Francisco Mayor Gavin
Newsom issues over 4,000 same-
sex marriage licenses, which are
later annulled by the state's
Supreme Court.
A Quick Guide to Wine Varietals
by Erika Lenkert & Matthew Poole
Major Grape Varietals
Below is a list of some of the most
prevalent grape varietals found in
California Wine Country.
CABERNET SAUVIGNON This trans-
plant from Bordeaux has become
California's most well known vari-
etal. The small, deep-colored, thick-
skinned berry is a complex grape,
yielding medium- to full-bodied red
wines that are highly tannic when
young and usually require a long
aging period to achieve their great-
est potential. Cabernet is often
blended with other related red vari-
etals, such as merlot and cabernet
franc (see below), into full-flavored
red table wines. Cabernet is often
matched with red-meat dishes and
strong cheeses. If you're looking to
invest in several cases of wine,
cabernet sauvignon is always a
good long-term bet.
CHARDONNAY Chardonnay is the
most widely planted grape variety in
the Wine Country, and it produces
exceptional medium- to full-bodied
dry white wines. In fact, it was a Cali-
fornia chardonnay that revolution-
ized the world of wine when it won
the legendary Paris tasting test of
1976. You'll find a range of chardon-
nays in the Wine Country, from deli-
cate, crisp wines that are clear and
light in color to buttery, fruity, and
oaky (no other wine benefits more
from the oak aging process) wines
that tend to have deeper golden hues
as they increase in richness. This
highly complex and aromatic grape is
one of the few grapes in the world
that doesn't require blending; it's also
the principal grape for making
sparkling wine. Chardonnay goes well
with a variety of dishes, from seafood
to poultry, pork, veal, and pastas
made with cream and/or butter.
MERLOT Traditionally used as a
blending wine to smooth out the
rough edges of other grapes, merlot
has gained popularity in California
since the early 1970s—enough so
that wineries such as Sonoma's St.
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