SEASON OF ABUNDANCE AND FEASTS

Harvest once again is repeating its rituals as the last bursts of intense

heat complete the vineyard ripening. Gondolas filled with grapes trundle along

back roads, the air dense with the powerful smell of fermenting fruit.

The rhythms of crush accelerating all around us this month are one of many

harvest rituals there for the sampling in autumn. Nowhere is the sense of this

timeless cycle as linked to the past as in the Sonoma Valley, where the vines

have given up their fruit for nearly 200 years. Layers of mountains frame this

rich valley, where almost any wine grape can grow well and where the same

families have brought in the crop for generations: "There is something in the

air that tells me it's harvest, a feeling that brings a flood of memories each

September and October. I think of picking grapes and being hot and sticky or

having grape fights with my brother and cousins," says Jeff Kunde, a member of

the Kenwood family that will gather its 101st harvest this fall.

But grapes are only the most obvious of the many harvests this season

brings. There are tomatoes, squash and, of course, pumpkins now at their peak.

Even when the shadows fall longer in the slanted light and October darkens

into November, there are plenty of ways to share in the gathering that make

the pleasures of autumn so accessible. Try a drive through the vineyards lit

with color and then stop to pick some chestnuts. Or to watch the olive

harvest. Or even to select the perfect apple wood for that first fire lit at

the start of the rains.

The choices, like the harvests, are many. And that's what the rituals are

all about, selecting from the abundance and in the end bringing it to the

table for a feast.