Sunrise 5:48 am: Up early, then Provence deja vu

The Dawn Joggers got on the road early (for a Saturday) knowing they were meeting friends from Maryland at 10:00 am. The sun was still low enough in the sky to cast long shadows as they jogged along the path by the Stanford golf course on their way to tackling the Big Dish circuit.

Friends Barbara and Jeff were in town, partly to visit son Aaron, partly to enjoy California food and wine. Jeff is a huge fan of Ridge wines - he routinely takes along vintages from his cellar when he visits friends in France - and had never visited the winery, which is perched high on a Santa Cruz mountain ridge above Silicon Valley. The winery received significant press in the past week after its 1971 Monte Bello Cabernet Sauvignon won a simultaneous blind tasting held in Napa and London that commemorated the 30th anniversary of the Judgment of Paris. The DJs and friends tasted some of the newer Ridge vintages, then enjoyed lunch in the winery's picnic area, highlighted by a 1994 Ridge Geyserville that Jeff had brought with him from the East. It was almost like being back in Provence.