Talks, Speeches & Seminars
Wine Country in Shorts,
The Stories of Napa and Sonoma
Stories are a charming way to welcome visitors to our region and share with them what makes this place so special. We’ve been gathering stories about Napa and Sonoma for almost twenty years, usually while standing behind our wine tour clients in tasting rooms and during walks through vineyards, wineries and caves. The clients would say later that the wines were great, but it’s the hospitality and the stories they remember.
When people hear stories that give them the context and texture of a place, they feel more comfortable, confident and welcome. The talks we select are based on the group’s interests, and there is so much to choose from. The history of this place, once considered the ends of the Earth, is remarkable. It was both the northern tip of the Spanish Empire and the southern tip of the Russian Empire, and five other flags flew over the region. How did they get along so well? The tale of the famous Silverado Trail spans thousands of years, but it’s the heroics and romance of the past one hundred and fifty years that is the most fascinating.
The grand Sonoma Plaza didn’t become the most historic spot in California by chance! The 1976 Judgment of Paris wine tasting is locally famous, but it’s the inside story, and about how the movie got made, that is the most entertaining part. Many visitors ask about how someone starts a winery, and who owns them? The answer offers an insightful lesson about how businesses are put together when everything has to be planned long-term.
Wine Country is a fun, relaxed place and those qualities show up throughout the talks. Our presentations open our visitors’ minds to seeing Wine Country as it truly is, a remarkable place that celebrates farming, food, wine, people and history. Where the venue permits, while Ralph is speaking, we run beautiful, high quality videos related to the stories and talks.We are Ralph and Lahni DeAmicis, and we have been speaking professionally for thirty years on popular, professional and business topics.
We speak to all kinds of audiences, run seminar series, moderate panels, and lead large tour groups. We entered wine tourism twenty years ago through a book project about winery buildings, that became the Dream Tour Guides, the North Bay’s longest running and most popular series of wine tour books. We began producing the TV show Wine Country at Work at Napa Valley Television in 2012, and also produce documentary films for numerous local organizations.
n 2024 we published Wine Country in Shorts, the Stories of Napa and Sonoma. We also offer other presentations when conference planners want a local keynote speaker or need to fill a last minute spot. One of our popular business talks is ‘The 5 Steps to Creating a Great Home Office,’ a very popular topic. We’ve recently added a new fun talk, ‘Wine Tasting with the Stars.’
You can contact us at our office in Napa @ 707-235-2364, or @ RalphDeAmicis@gmail.com.
Seminars - Wine Tasting with the Stars
This seminar and book came about because we coincidentally produce one of America’s oldest Astrological Calendars, and, in a very different direction, popular wine tour books about Napa and Sonoma. Due to our overlapping interests, for several editions we’ve included in the Planetary Calendar a section from BioDynamics, which suggests which days, based on the Moon Sign, are best for winetasting.
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After working with this system as astrologers, tour guides and wine lovers, we are using this book to refine that approach. As far as we have seen, every day is good for wine tasting. What changes with the Moon Sign are the parts of the experience that people enjoy the most! The calendar will be especially helpful for those in the tourism industry who pour wine for clients every day with the hope that they will enjoy the experience and take some home with them.
Three parts of the book are new material, the introduction, and Chapters two and seven. The rest come from three of our other books plus the Planetary Calendar Day Planner.
Chapter One, ‘The Astrology of Fine Wine’ and Chapter Three, ‘The Signs as Actions’, come from the calendar’s companion book, which offers a foundation astrology course plus some ‘extras,’ which includes chapter One. We use that as a central part of our ‘Tasting Wine with the Stars’ seminar. Chapter Four, ‘Ralph’s ABC’s of Wine Tasting’ and Chapter Five, Our Best Tasting Room Tips’ come from the ‘2021 Editions of ‘A Tour Guide’s Napa Valley’ and ‘Dream Tours of Napa & Sonoma’.
Those two Chapters are a compilation of what we’ve learned from attending thousands of tastings with our clients, hosted by the world’s greatest wine educators. You can find our books on the web at www.WineCountryInShorts.com. In Chapter Six are the calendar pages from the Day Planner version of the Planetary Calendar. That is where you will find the daily Moon positions and when it changes Sign.
The calendar pages include much more astrological data than you’ll need for wine tasting, but we don’t have time to create a simple Moon Sign calendar, so consider the extra data a bonus. The full Day Planner includes annotated forecasts, astrology charts, planetary ephemerides and instructions about how to use those other bits of information for planning. If you think that sounds interesting, you can find that at www.PlanetaryCalendar.com.
Here is a segment from the first chapter of the book:
Chapter One: The Astrology of Fine Wine
“Wine is sunlight held together by water” - Galileo Galilei
In 1811 the “Great Comet” was visible for over eight months, and the year’s wine was called a “Comet Vintage”. That year’s flawless Château d’Yquem enjoyed exceptional longevity, the Veuve Clicquot was heralded as the first ‘modern’ Champagne and while 1811 stands out, many of the ‘comet vintages’ are believed to be exceptional.
Our consulting spans both Astrology and wine tourism, places where the history of natural cycles rule, so we divide our time talking with clients about their Planets and the vineyards that produce the wines they like. A person’s wine preferences are often expressions of their Charts, accounting for differences in age, economic status, education, gender and physiology. Personal transits affect what appeals to their palates and the travel experiences people seek. Saturn Transits often inspire wine trips to Bordeaux, with all their formality and tradition. Jupiter Transits more often lead to bouncing among the California vineyards, with their hospitable, over-blown and entrepreneurial style.
Three factors shape wine preferences: personality, physiology and age. Astrologically, Personality is the Sun and Moon, Physiology is the Ascendant and Age is seen in the transits. Older men and Saturnian personalities like big, structured, aged Reds. Youngsters, before their Saturn Return at the age of twenty-eight, often like lighter, even sweeter wines that delight and excite the front of the palette. As people age the flavors that appeal to them are sensed farther back on the palate. After the Saturn Return, the savory flavors that are tasted on the mid-palette, that are rich in calcium, magnesium, sodium and potassium become more appealing. At that critical juncture the body’s ability to assimilate these nutrients is reduced, so it becomes increasingly important that the body seek them out.
Herbalists have traditionally made correlations between plants and Planets. With grapes that’s easy, because they look like Celestial Bodies, round, colorful with distinctive personalities. Having our unique perspective, we looked for correlations between the major Planets and the grapes that dominate the ‘fine wine’ world.
Here is a helpful hint for wine lovers from Biodynamics, the oldest, ‘modern’ system of organic farming, that includes an Astrological system. Wine is more fragrant and the wine opens up faster during Fire and Air Moons, compared to Water and Earth Moons. That’s because the flavors volatize more easily under those Moons.
A major part of the sensory enjoyment of wine is through the nose, which can detect almost a billion scent notes, while the palate only gets five major flavors. We have noticed this ourselves and the Moon Sign is an important factor for when the great Biodynamic French wine houses schedule their industry tasting events.
The Celestial Bodies and Their Grapes
The Sun – Chardonnay. When that golden glass of Chardonnay is glowing in the café light you are seeing the embodiment of the Sun. The name in Persian means ‘The Gates of Heaven’, and as befits the Sun, Chard is America’s biggest selling premium white wine; climate tolerant, insect resistant, prolific and able to be made in many styles. Like all grapes, they start off green but as they attain ripeness, they become a translucent gold, with subtle sunspots floating beneath the surface. That vitality and adaptability is clearly Solar. WineTastingWithTheStars.com - 707-235-2648 - AmicisWineryTours@gmail.com
Three parts of the book are new material, the introduction, and Chapters two and seven. The rest come from three of our other books plus the Planetary Calendar Day Planner.
Chapter One, ‘The Astrology of Fine Wine’ and Chapter Three, ‘The Signs as Actions’, come from the calendar’s companion book, which offers a foundation astrology course plus some ‘extras,’ which includes chapter One. We use that as a central part of our ‘Tasting Wine with the Stars’ seminar. Chapter Four, ‘Ralph’s ABC’s of Wine Tasting’ and Chapter Five, Our Best Tasting Room Tips’ come from the ‘2021 Editions of ‘A Tour Guide’s Napa Valley’ and ‘Dream Tours of Napa & Sonoma’.
Those two Chapters are a compilation of what we’ve learned from attending thousands of tastings with our clients, hosted by the world’s greatest wine educators. You can find our books on the web at www.WineCountryInShorts.com. In Chapter Six are the calendar pages from the Day Planner version of the Planetary Calendar. That is where you will find the daily Moon positions and when it changes Sign.
The calendar pages include much more astrological data than you’ll need for wine tasting, but we don’t have time to create a simple Moon Sign calendar, so consider the extra data a bonus. The full Day Planner includes annotated forecasts, astrology charts, planetary ephemerides and instructions about how to use those other bits of information for planning. If you think that sounds interesting, you can find that at www.PlanetaryCalendar.com.
Here is a segment from the first chapter of the book:
Chapter One: The Astrology of Fine Wine
“Wine is sunlight held together by water” - Galileo Galilei
In 1811 the “Great Comet” was visible for over eight months, and the year’s wine was called a “Comet Vintage”. That year’s flawless Château d’Yquem enjoyed exceptional longevity, the Veuve Clicquot was heralded as the first ‘modern’ Champagne and while 1811 stands out, many of the ‘comet vintages’ are believed to be exceptional.
Our consulting spans both Astrology and wine tourism, places where the history of natural cycles rule, so we divide our time talking with clients about their Planets and the vineyards that produce the wines they like. A person’s wine preferences are often expressions of their Charts, accounting for differences in age, economic status, education, gender and physiology. Personal transits affect what appeals to their palates and the travel experiences people seek. Saturn Transits often inspire wine trips to Bordeaux, with all their formality and tradition. Jupiter Transits more often lead to bouncing among the California vineyards, with their hospitable, over-blown and entrepreneurial style.
Three factors shape wine preferences: personality, physiology and age. Astrologically, Personality is the Sun and Moon, Physiology is the Ascendant and Age is seen in the transits. Older men and Saturnian personalities like big, structured, aged Reds. Youngsters, before their Saturn Return at the age of twenty-eight, often like lighter, even sweeter wines that delight and excite the front of the palette. As people age the flavors that appeal to them are sensed farther back on the palate. After the Saturn Return, the savory flavors that are tasted on the mid-palette, that are rich in calcium, magnesium, sodium and potassium become more appealing. At that critical juncture the body’s ability to assimilate these nutrients is reduced, so it becomes increasingly important that the body seek them out.
Herbalists have traditionally made correlations between plants and Planets. With grapes that’s easy, because they look like Celestial Bodies, round, colorful with distinctive personalities. Having our unique perspective, we looked for correlations between the major Planets and the grapes that dominate the ‘fine wine’ world.
Here is a helpful hint for wine lovers from Biodynamics, the oldest, ‘modern’ system of organic farming, that includes an Astrological system. Wine is more fragrant and the wine opens up faster during Fire and Air Moons, compared to Water and Earth Moons. That’s because the flavors volatize more easily under those Moons.
A major part of the sensory enjoyment of wine is through the nose, which can detect almost a billion scent notes, while the palate only gets five major flavors. We have noticed this ourselves and the Moon Sign is an important factor for when the great Biodynamic French wine houses schedule their industry tasting events.
The Celestial Bodies and Their Grapes
The Sun – Chardonnay. When that golden glass of Chardonnay is glowing in the café light you are seeing the embodiment of the Sun. The name in Persian means ‘The Gates of Heaven’, and as befits the Sun, Chard is America’s biggest selling premium white wine; climate tolerant, insect resistant, prolific and able to be made in many styles. Like all grapes, they start off green but as they attain ripeness, they become a translucent gold, with subtle sunspots floating beneath the surface. That vitality and adaptability is clearly Solar. WineTastingWithTheStars.com - 707-235-2648 - AmicisWineryTours@gmail.com