One year after the Wine Country wildfires, both Sonoma and Napa are still suffering afterburn when it comes to tourism.

The old adage is that “perception is reality,” and that is keeping tourism officials busy as they work to convince tourists that Wine County didn’t evaporate in the fires and, despite what they might see on the news, not all of the state is on fire.

New advertising campaigns are being launched. Additional funds are being budgeted, and tourism teams are feathering out nationwide (and internationally) to spread the word—Wine County is open for business.

The mission of this 22-year-old nonprofit is simple and clear:  to create and supervise long-term relationships between caring adults and at-risk school children in need of academic and social support. A cohort of energetic, committed volunteers and 11 staff members maintain mentoring centers on eight campuses of the Sonoma Valley Unified School District. Currently, there are 450 active mentor-mentee pairs, with 102 children on a waiting list that the Mentoring Alliance board is determined to decrease.

Gangs were a given in the Santa Rosa community of Roseland, when Vicente Tlatilpa was growing up. It would have been easy for him to fall in with the wrong crowd, but instead, he found Conservation Corps North Bay (CCNB), which provides year-round job training and education services for disadvantaged youth. It turned out to be a life changer.

There aren’t many charitable events, fundraisers, volunteer recognition events, and other benefits in the North Bay that don’t feature Lagunitas beer. The company, while known for being nonconformist, innovative interpretations of traditional beer styles, and humorous stories on its packaging, has also become synonymous with giving, as so many nonprofits rely on them for product donations, sponsorships.

Since last year’s wildfires, Catholic Charities of Santa Rosa has been instrumental in helping displaced residents find secure housing in Sonoma and Napa Counties. The nonprofit has adopted a model to meet county-specific approaches for the two areas. The majority of the need is concentrated in Sonoma County. Here Catholic Charities helped triage 901 people in a long-term recovery group that’s served 1,407 people.

As each new generation of tourists arrived, they sought out wineries that offered something different from a standard tasting at the bar. Along the way, cave tours and blending seminars were offered, among other activities. Members-only wine clubs began popping up, offering a whiff of exclusivity for aficionados who agreed to spend good money to receive regular shipments of a producer’s wine, sometimes available only to members. Today, nearly every local winery offers a wine club, and the days of free tastings are long gone, with a few exceptions.

Jim Rickards is not your average grape grower. He takes chances, regularly tests new grape varietals in “the cradle” (his experimental plot), and works as a registered nurse in the intensive care unit at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital when he’s not in the vineyards. His boutique winery, J. Rickards, is nothing short of a success, with award-winning wines and a loyal fan base enjoying what Rickards calls, “Darn Fine Barn Wine."

The Youth Poster Contest, created by Bruce Burtch, enables the Marin County youth ages 12 to 18 to focus on the subjects they believe deserve the most attention and require immediate action. Topics have included social justice, women’s rights, immigration, firearms regulation, climate change and other issues that affect their lives.

In the North Bay, many jobs remain unfilled, spanning a variety of industries. Health care and hospitality industries can’t find qualified professionals, and county government and school districts are having trouble filling any kind of jobs. At any level, more jobs are available than there are skilled professionals to fill them. What’s going on?

In the pop culture of the ’60s, tie-dye attired hippies gathered in San Francisco’s Haight-Asbury district to smoke pot, protest the war in Viet Nam and advocate for civil rights. And though activism continued, attire evolved to faded denims, the preppy J. Crew look and Mad Men suits. Over the next two decades or so, cannabis, though still illegal, became socially acceptable replacing the martini at cocktail parties.    

An Auberge Resort, Calistoga Ranch opened in 2004 and offers a private getaway for its guests. The resort features 72 lodges, and if you ask the locals, it’s also a haute spot for professional athletes, actors and entertainers.

Jon Friedenberg is the chief operating officer at Marin General Hospital, and provides the overall direction for internal hospital operations. Previously, he was vice president of El Camino Hospital in Mountain View, where he founded the Genomic Medicine Institute, South Asian Heart Center, The Fogarty Institute for Innovation and the Center for Technology Integration. Friedenberg, who is married with two children, enjoys hiking with his family along Marin\\\'s trails and coastline when he’s not in the office.

What has 100 trillion members, can make you feel exuberant or depressed, are as unique to you as a fingerprint and weighs less than four-and-a-half pounds? Give up? The colony of microorganisms, or “microbiota,” as they’re properly called, that live in our gut. These are colonies of microorganisms living in your intestines, and as medical science is learning, these microorganisms have a lot to do with your health. Gut bugs facilitate digestion, influence your metabolism, strengthen your immune system and maintain your mental well-being—when they’re happy. But as medical scientists are learning, when they are not happy, our microbiota play a key role in a surprising array of illnesses ranging from general un-wellness to rheumatoid arthritis, irritable bowel syndrome, inflammatory bowel disease (IBS), allergies, asthma, headache, fatigue, anxiety and even depression.

Sonoma County philanthropists and LBC Honorary Board Members and winner of best business leader in the 2018 NorthBay biz magazine’s Best Of Readers Poll, Marcia and Gary Nelson, gave a $1 million commitment to the Luther Burbank Memorial Foundation, a nonprofit that owns and operates Luther Burbank Center for the Arts.

A glass of perfectly chilled champagne to toast a milestone is one of life’s rituals, and pharmaceutical products are crucial for managing pain. While alcohol and prescription drugs have value, they also come with a cruel downside: the addiction to such substances has the power to take control of one’s life, often causing immeasurable damage. Addiction is a formidable challenge. The National Institute on Drug Abuse describes it as “a chronic disease characterized by drug-seeking and use that is compulsive, or difficult to control, despite harmful consequences.” No one chooses to be an addict; instead, it usually creeps up on people. One drink follows another, or unrelenting pain creates the need for more medication. Repeated use, however, leads to changes in the brain that interfere with self-control and destroys an individual’s ability to resist the urge to have one more drink or take another pill.

This might be hard to swallow, but humans didn’t always possess such a sweet tooth for sugar. Sugar was once considered a “fodder” crop, which meant very little of it found its way into human diets. It’s presumed that in ancient times people chewed on sugarcane stalks occasionally. In the 1960s big sugar paid off scientists to downplay the effects of sugar on heart disease, and instead convinced them to place the blame on saturated fat as the nutritional scapegoat. These deceptive efforts persist to this day. In 2015, The New York Times found that “big sugar” behemoth Coca-Cola funded scientists who downplayed the link between sugar and obesity. The following year, The Associated Press revealed that “big sugar” companies funded studies claiming that children who eat candy weigh less than those who don’t. Fortunately, today’s scientific research on sugar isn\\\'t as artificial as it was a few decades ago.

Scott and Yasmin Taylor met for the first time at a mutual friend’s birthday party in San Francisco in 2016. He asked her out on nine consecutive dates. “He wanted to make sure no one else had a chance to take me out in between,” says Yasmin. His plan worked, and the two fell for each other—often leaving the city to spend weekends in Sonoma County touring vineyards, tasting wine, and falling in love along the way. A year after they met, Scott proposed to Yasmin in the Healdsburg Plaza, one of their favorite places. She said yes, and the search for the perfect wedding venue began. “We wanted to find a venue that would tell our story—a place that made our guests feel as if they were whisked away to Wine Country heaven,” says Yasmin. “It was important for us to offer our family and friends a weekend to celebrate our wedding, but also to make a vacation out of it.” 

Nestled along a quiet, country road west of Sebastopol and surrounded by Redwood trees, you’ll find Freeman Vineyard & Winery, known for its critically-acclaimed wines. To the left of the winery’s cellar is the Gloria Estate Vineyard and above the wine cellar doors, surrounded in stone is a small, modest sign that reads: “Freeman 9-28-85.” These two elements are part of the winery’s charm and a nod to its owners, Ken and Akiko Freeman, and their serendipitous encounter more than 30 years ago.

When David Goodman made a career change in 1994, he interviewed with the San Francisco Food Bank. Asked why he wanted the job, he replied that he wasn’t there to feed hungry people, but to work hard, and if hungry people benefited, it would be a job well done. Today, he’s the chief executive officer of Redwood Empire Food Bank in Santa Rosa—a nonprofit organization with a mission to end hunger in the community, serving one in six people in Sonoma County. 

Beyond the Boardroom is one of the highlights of NorthBay biz. Each month, the editorial team hand selects a business leader in the community to feature the aspects of their lives—outside of work—through fun and light-hearted questions. Get rid of the suit jacket and tie, slip on those rollerblades you cruise around town on during the weekends, and tell us about your first cassette tape. This year, for the first time, we featured “Local Heroes,” men and women who played a vital role in the community following the October wildfires of 2017. We can’t always squeeze every detail into a profile, so here’s what ended up on the cutting room floor from all 16 issues in 2018.

Seriously?! While our editorial team is on the verge of compiling an entire issue dedicated to the generosity of the North Bay business community, you go and get yourself arrested by the FBI for alleged fraud? (This is pretty bad timing, man!)

The heartbeat of Italian life occurs around the dinner table. And though Francis Ford Coppola was born in Detroit, Mich., his grandparents emigrated from Italy, and young Francis grew up with traditional values, which included Sunday night dinners with family. Coppola’s vision was to create a dining experience reminiscent of his childhood at the winery’s restaurant, Rustic. Every Tuesday night, Rustic offers a tavola (pronounced a TAH-voh-la), which means “to the table.”

The world of wine is changing, and 2019 is poised to be a year full of both opportunities and challenges for Northern California winemakers and growers alike. Here are the trends to watch.

Attention, please. The first meeting of the 2019 class of the IDNB—the Idiot Drivers of the North Bay—is now in session. It’s nice to see all of you here, though I’m a little surprised that some of you are still alive. Darwinism apparently isn’t what it used to be since I thought for sure you would have been killing each other off at a faster rate.

With the dawn of the New Year, I once again resolve to “get real” with myself. As much as I prattle on about being adept at punting and shifting when life throws its curve balls, I deplore change, especially when it comes to saying bye-bye to longstanding restaurants.

I was at TEDxSonomaCounty a few weeks ago, and one of the afternoon’s presentations was a short play built on the notion that we are merely part of a computer simulation, much like Neo in The Matrix film series. The play posed the question, “What parameters might be changed to make our (simulated) world a better place to live?”

The E. coli outbreak in romaine lettuce reported in November might have you wondering how the disease-causing bacteria is also a bacteria that naturally lives in your intestine.

Change is hard, but not for the Marin Economic Forum. The nonprofit organization’s website says it “strives to provide information and opportunities for improving Marin County economic vitality, while seeking to increase social equity and environmental protection.” Which is pretty worthy stuff, but the forum is only able to chase that objective when it isn’t seeking CEO candidates, which is a fair amount of the time.

Fine wine comes with certain expectations, and finding it in a bottle with a natural cork and an attractive label is likely to be close to the top of the list. Bottled wine undoubtedly has a certain allure. However, premium wines now come in containers other than glass and add convenience and sustainability to the sensory pleasure while maintaining its quality. As more consumers discover the benefits, alternative packaging is a trend on the upswing.

If you’re an employer, you know the hiring process for a new employee is complicated. Being a good judge of character and sealing a job offer with little more than a handshake served most employers well for a long time. Now, more regulations exist that employers must follow to the letter when they’re considering job candidates.

The modest entrance of Passalacqua winery in the heart of Dry Creek Valley offers sweeping vineyard views and an inviting patio lounge seating area underneath the shade of coastal redwood trees, surrounded by maples ablaze with fall colors. A selection of wines is leisurely poured and the nuances of each wine is explained; where the grapes were grown, how each cluster was hand selected by the owner and winemaker, and lastly, how all the wines were produced on site and cannot be purchased elsewhere. What are missing are throngs of crowds elbowing each other at the tasting bar and huge tour buses parked outside. At Passalacqua, visitors are encouraged to savor and linger.

One step through an enchanting brick entryway leads to the refreshing sounds of a mesmerizing waterfall, preceding a luscious, flowery wonderland that resembles only what children read about in fairy tales. However, this nature-filled estate is in no part a fairy tale, but captures one very real story. This is the Luther Burbank Home & Gardens, an estate located in the heart of Santa Rosa Avenue that preserves the legacy of one man that not only helped put Sonoma County on the map, but changed the history of plant science. And this year, Sonoma County will celebrate the 170th anniversary of Luther Burbank’s birthdate.

If you’ve ever visited V. Sattui Winery in St. Helena, you’ve likely been wowed by the lengthy wine selection, artisan deli and quaint picnic grounds. What you might not know is V. Sattui Winery is celebrating 134 years in business, a milestone that all began with a bread maker, a breadwinner and delicious homemade wine.

What’s my number one recommendation for the New Year? Don’t do it yourself anymore.
There was a time when you had to run software yourself. There was no secure, public internet, no way to provide remote access to software. Now, almost every application you need to run your business is available in the cloud. Office suites such as word processing, spreadsheets, email and calendaring are available from both Google (G Suite) and Microsoft (Office 365). Quickbooks Online does small business accounting, and NetSuite does the same for larger businesses. Everyone offers some form of file sharing, so no need to run an in-house file server. Slack has become the established way of communicating within teams and companies. And these companies take care of the details such as backing up your data, and ensuring those backups actually work.

“Wherever you are, eat the view”—that’s the motto at Barndiva. Family-owned and operated, Barndiva is hip and elegant Sonoma County casual. Geoff and Jill Hales and Lukka Feldman, opened the restaurant in 2004. Their goal was to offer a dining experience celebrating the exquisite bounty of Sonoma and Mendocino counties from Healdsburg to the coast, but the family farm is at the heart of the enterprise.

Gartner, Inc. recently highlighted the top strategic technology trends for 2019. Gartner defines a strategic technology trend as one with substantial disruptive potential that is beginning to break out of an emerging state into broader impact and use, or which are rapidly growing trends with a high degree of volatility reaching tipping points over the next five years. Here are the top 10 trends to watch for in the months ahead.

Bill Daniels, the force of nature behind United Markets in Marin, has checked out at age 75.

Daniels died shortly after Thanksgiving. With stores in San Anselmo and San Rafael, Daniels competed well with big chains in the grocery business, a segment with historically thin profit margins. His San Rafael store was part of the “Triangle” in the Mission City, where United, Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s are all located within two blocks of each other.

The cozy confines of the cubicle world aren’t considered an inherently dangerous environment, unless paper cuts and weekly deadlines are particularly menacing to you. However, all businesses are required to have certain safety items on site as a precautionary measure for their employees. First aid kits, fire extinguishers and safety alarms are a few of the items mandated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to meet minimum safety requirements.

The increase of U.S. wine consumption over several decades has flattened. The top 30 U.S. producers sell 90 percent of the wine sold in America, but there’s an ever-increasing number of wineries, with every state in the country having at least one. (And yes, even Alaska has about half a dozen wineries, the oldest of which is Denali Winery, located in Anchorage.) This dynamic—flat growth and an increasing number of producers—has resulted in strong competition for existing wine consumers and even pushed some wine companies to begin shifting their marketing focus from exclusivity to inclusivity.

Valentine’s Day is unquestionably the holiday with the most heart. The universal symbol for love comes in the form of heart-shaped chocolate boxes, tiny candies and flower arrangements. But this year, instead of gifting your partner with a pound of sweets, why not give a gift that tugs on the healthier side of the heartstrings? Here are five heart-healthy gift-giving alternatives to show your loved one you care.