COLOR HOLDS THE SEASON'S PROMISE

After the deluge of this new year, this new season arrives with particular

promise. The sheets of unrelenting rain are gone, replaced by the belief that

perhaps once again we can trust the skies. Everywhere the harsh edges of

winter are softening: buds break along the stark lines of trellised vines,

warmth returns to ease the long chill, and out of the monotony of gray bursts

a palette of color.

To seize that color, try a walk among the wildflowers. The trail could be

in Napa, Mendocino or Sonoma, the backdrop crashing surf or rocky palisades.

The sprinkling of brilliance on fields of green can require no more than

pulling off Highway 12 in the Valley of the Moon. Or it can test endurance -

and offer the most sweeping views ASCIICHAR_ad - with a rigorous ridgetop climb.

For less solitary pleasures, head to Dry Creek in April for the

shoulder-to-shoulder conviviality of Passport Weekend. It's all there: the

people, the food and, of course, the wine. What makes this a hot ticket is the

intimacy, not just in the feeling of a family party in the tasting rooms, but

also in the chance to chat up the winemakers who are front and center as

hosts.

The season's overriding impulse is to bolt from indoors and end the months

of hibernating. Combine that liberation with the return of color to the

landscape and the rites of spring are under way. One of the secret rituals of

spring in Wine Country is meandering among the niche nurseries hidden along

the back roads, sometimes far from the vines. The varietals are different as

well - iris, azalea, rhododendron, clematis. But in these places, with the

smell of warming earth, the vestiges of winter vanish and it is possible to

sense in the beginnings of spring the promise of the next season, when summer

will bring it all to full bloom.

--Catherine Barnett, Executive Editor