In Northern California wine country, the biggest buzz hasn’t been about the drawn-out grape harvest, but about the European arbiter of gastronomy, Michelin, which just published its first San Francisco, Bay Area & Wine Country 2007 guide. It was Michelin’s second stab at assessing the US restaurant scene, the first being New York last year.
While San Francisco, one of the world’s great dining cities, was the primary feasting table for Michelin’s anonymous restaurant reviewers, wine country – particularly Napa and Sonoma – was also under close scrutiny. It was absolutely no surprise that Thomas Keller’s French Laundry in...