I'm Bringing Schmaltzy* Back

As regulars Sonoma Insiders know by now, the Sonoma Wine Country is a little bit different than our neighbors to the east. To wit:

• Our vintners once hijacked a group of travel writers heading to Napa, including Sir Richard Branson, as detailed in an earlier post (scroll to bottom).
• Our vintners once, uh, hijacked the famed Napa Wine Train and poured their own wines. As detailed by that magazine of record, VIA Magazine:That’s when a merlot militia of Sonoma Valley winemakers calling themselves the Wine Patrol hijacked the Napa Valley Wine Train.

It was all terribly civilized. Wearing capes and masks, the viticulture vigilantes boarded the train and started handing out bottles of Sonoma wine to the startled passengers. ‘We walked up and down the aisles and told people, ‘Throw away all your Napa wine and drink something you can afford,’ ” recalls Lance Cutler, winemaker and author of The Tequila Lover’s Guide to Mexico and Mezcal. “

• You can buy puffy holiday sweaters in Sonoma County

The first two points are well known and part of Sonoma lore, the final point was discovered this past weekend at Twin Hill Ranch in Sebastopol where we went to claim our free 3-pound bag of apples after getting a tree at Garlock Tree Farm down the road.

Aside from apple cider and apple loaf and cool little knitted hats and clothes and whatnots, off to one side of the barn was a small selection of puffy holiday sweaters featuring all manner of Yuletide happiness, in puffy sweater form.

Some of my faves: santa, reindeer, snowy house, snowman, and the all or nothin’ version of santareindeersnowyhousesnowman.

The cool thing about a puffy holiday sweater is that it’s like a mullet – every one laughs at you, but secretly they are jealous. And they both have odd texture.

For more info on holiday sweaters, check out this video from some of the remaining crew over at the hometown paper, the Press Democrat:

* I know. Using a Yiddish word to define a Christmas sweater. America – what a country!