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Value (in millions of U.S.$) of the upper end of competing bids for the recently built 85-room Four Seasons hotel in Napa Valley. At around $2 million per room, the offers, if taken, would make the sale one of the three priciest hotel purchases in the U.S. Prospective investors are confident in their valuation because last fall’s wildfires damaged Meadowood and destroyed Calistoga Ranch (two of Napa’s high-end resort properties), reducing competition.

Hairy grenache is the name for a diseased grenache vine that develops swollen leaves covered in spindle-like filaments.

Answer: False.

Not exactly. Hairy grenache, or garnacha peluda in Spain and lledoner pelut in the Languedoc Roussillon region of France, is a (good) clone of grenache that has particularly hairy leaves. Like the furry fuzz found on rosemary and other Mediterranean plants, the “fur” evolved as a defense mechanism to protect the vine from heat and conserve moisture. The clone is native to the Spanish region of Catalonia. Wines made from hairy grenache often have a lower alcohol content, but the clone is customarily blended with regular (non-hairy) clones of grenache.

“Every season is likeable . . . red wine and white; company and solitude. Even sleep, that deplorable curtailment of the joy of life, can be full of dreams; and the most common actions—a walk, a talk, solitude in one’s own orchard—can be enhanced and lit up by the association of the mind. Beauty is everywhere, and beauty is only two finger’s-breadth from goodness.”

—Virginia Woolf, “Montaigne” in The Common Reader.

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