My sincere hope is that my relatives in North Dakota don’t read this until their snow stops and the ice dams flooding Bismarck and Mandan wash away before their home does.

It’s just too cruel for them, and the rest of the U.S., to be taunted by our California Spring. If our Napa Valley weather were a woman she would be arrested for indecent exposure.

Today was such a day. The temperature was a balmy 75 degrees, in the shade. Bathed in bright sunshine it seemed even warmer. Long sleeves were out of the question. Shoes and socks were grudgingly borne only because sandals in March are just wrong.

It was too fine a day to waste on mere work. A compromise had to be struck. We would visit “Up Valley” wineries to prove we actually were still alive. We would call it work: PUBLIC RELATIONS.

Weeks ago an Angel from Turnbull Wine Cellars delivered unto us a wonderful bottle of 2005 Syrah. It was a little bit of heaven in a bottle and lured us back to its home as salmon to spawn. Unlike the disappearing salmon, we faced no obstacles on our journey to the source of this magic elixir.

Turnbull is easily found on Highway 29 just north of the Oakville Crossroad and in marvelous March there is no traffic. We were there before our Calvinist instincts even knew we left work in Napa.

Warmly greeted by Dennis Fagundes and our neighbor’s son-in-law, we were soon washing away our guilt with luscious wines, full bodied and with great legs. Honest, those ARE wine terms. And they TASTE good.

The winery was dressed in Spring color: pansies, crabapple blossoms, even fragrant wisteria. If heaven has wineries, this is what they look and smell like. A quick tour of the standing fine photography exhibit, “Father and Son – The Photography of Edward and Brett Weston” and we were on our way.

It had literally been YEARS since we had been to Charles Krug, Napa Valley’s FIRST winery.

Established in 1861 by a Prussian immigrant, Charles Krug is owned and operated by the Peter Mondavi Family. Mr. Mondavi had paid us a visit a few years ago and we felt like we had been in the company of legend.

We just missed him, we were told. Even though he is now over 94 years old he goes to the winery every day and is said to drive his assistants crazy with his work load.

The moment we walked into the tasting room we were welcomed by Gary Kozel who remarked that he had just posted the article from the Wall Street Journal in which we were just quoted. Our heads nearly exploding, we were quickly led to the tasting bar. There we tasted wine like liquid sunshine, refined and bottled in vintage years.

Long gone are the days when “Charles Krug” was synonymous with cheap jug wine. Maybe it was because Peter had finally recovered from the infamous family feud with his older, perhaps more famous brother Robert. Probably it is because fine wine runs deep in his three generations of Mondavi family. It is certainly because millions of dollars have been invested in the landmark winery to produce some of the finest wines in the Napa Valley.

Over our final glass of Krug’s Zinfandel Port we vowed: every Friday from now on we will go out into this Paradise which is our Napa Valley and report back to you what we have found.

It is a dirty, nasty job, but you, dear guests are worth it.

It has taken a non-Journalist to report a fact of modern life: Today’s T.V. Economic Reporters are in fact just Cable T.V. Media whores. Okay that’s unkind to prostitutes. I apologize. They are unrepentant corporate shills.

And to add irony to tragedy, it was The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart who blew the whistle!

That it was  Stewart who broke the story should not come as a surprise, since a growing number of people get  their news from this comedian turned social activist. What is shocking is that someone had to actually point out the obvious: Wall Street and the Stock Market ARE NOT WHAT WE SHOULD BE USING AS A GUIDE TO OUR ECONOMIC WELL BEING.

Wall Street is just one trading center in this vast United States and the Stock Market is a place where the greedy gamble other people’s money.

These are MARKET PLACES. It’s where prices go up and down depending on factors as fickle as the whiff of rumor.  Herds of Wildabeasts are more stable.

If you don’t have your savings tied up in Stocks and junk bonds (and by now you shouldn’t or you’ve already lost your savings) then the daily gyrations of the “Stock Market” are about as relavent to you as Pork Belly futures.

The PANIC was brought on by the greedy cockroaches’s schemes suddenly exposed to public scrutiny. Their practices and crimes are the cause of  the “Economic crisis” WE are paying for. The sooner we wake up to the facts that greed and criminal behavior are no substitute for prudent economic judgment, the sooner we will recover from this mess.

When we start to insist that Journalists replace Cable T.V. pundits reporting the major story of our times: The Economy, we will begin to see what we really need to do to quell the PANIC.

Perhaps then we will insist that Regulators regulate not participate. That Bankers learn it is better to GIVE than receive. And our American auto industry executives produce cars we might actually want to buy.

In the mean time, I know a lovely Bed and Breakfast where you can get a great deal (up to 50% off) , drink wonderful wine and make, mad passionate love until they all come to their senses.