Barney Rhodes – the end of an era

The news that Barney Rhodes, 88, of Rutherford, Napa Valley, has passed on to the great cellar in the sky (see a fine obituary on decanter.com) somehow marks the end of the era in which the winemakers of Napa Valley could be seen as an innocent, rural community of like-minded pioneers.

Barney and his wife Belle, who recently pre-deceased him, were, in the gentlest, most civilised way possible, the social glue, and often financial fabric, behind so much of Napa Valley’s burgeoning wine scene in the late 20^th century. Although he was by profession a dermatologist (wrinkles did...