Fuming or celebrating now that Sonoma County labeling is law? With 28 people responding to my last post on this labeling issue, I’d say you have some big opinions on the matter. So now that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the proposal into law last week, how are you settling in with the news?

Q&A with Glenn Close, soon to be in Wine Country. The actress who has played a Dalmatian-skinning mastermind (101 Dalmatians), an obsessed mistress (Fatal Attraction), and a high stakes litigator (Damages TV series), will be in Wine Country Sept. 11 for the Staglin Family Music Festival to support mental health research.

Wine label controversy. What camp are you in? The California Legislature unanimously approved a proposal by the Sonoma County Vintners to have every bottle of wine produced in the county bear the words “Sonoma County” on the label. This means that if a bottle is produced in Dry Creek Valley, it would say “Dry Creek Valley – Sonoma County.” And this would be the case for all of the county’s 12 appellations, including Sonoma Coast and Sonoma Valley.

Stonestreet, who just won an Emmy for best supporting actor in a comedy, has no doubt been uncorking cab to celebrate his win. No bubbly? Just how do we know what he fancies? Here’s the skinny. When Stonestreet was in Napa in June he said, “I really only drink wine with food and I’m a carnivore so whatever goes with steak works.”

One Melnik Minute Got 60 seconds? Righto. I’ll keep it brief. Did you know that pinot gris and pinot grigio are fraternal twins?

Chef Lisa Hemenway will have an eye to budget wine when she opens “Fresh,” a European market of sorts, at the Skyhawk Village Market space in Santa Rosa on Hwy12 in September.

And so it begins, this yearly harvest ritual of picking grapes, clipping them from the vine, rushing them to the winery and letting the magic begin. When I see crews in the vineyards, what I see are workers traipsing through prime real estate. Yes, Monopoly’s Boardwalk and Park Place because I know that the grapes groomed here rival the best of France.

Wineries have picked up the pace with more events, a flurry of them this harvest season creating fierce competition for the discerning palate of foodies and wine geeks in this economic downturn. Naturally the Sonoma County Harvest Fair is also in the mix with tickets for the Sept. 25th Awards Night Gala available for $65 a pop. These tickets, you recall, used to sell out in hours.

Right now we can celebrate the upcoming harvest, which always begins with picking grapes groomed for sparkling wine. While winemakers and vineyard managers calculate their picking strategy with an influx of computerized weather data, we can drink in the season by uncorking sparkling wine.

Here's some insight from an insider's perspective. Peruse our Q&A with Mumm Napa winemaker Ludovic Dervin.