Book excerpt: Sonoma County was the real birthplace of wine in California. But with its wealth of agricultural abundance, the region could have become the Golden State's dairy capital, apple king, berry bastion, or even big cheese. The fact that Sonoma's wine ended up as its No. 1 commodity, and then went on to win international acclaim and comparison with the best wines in the world, is due to the dedication and hard work of people as rich and fertile in character as the soil they till. In Beyond the grapes : an inside look at Sonoma County, wine writers Richard Paul Hinkle and Dan Berger unearth the stories and histories behind the region's best wineries and their wines. These are tales of people who blend artistry, ancestry, love and respect for Nature, dreams, risk-taking, technology, toil and luck--and then bottle and label it with their own personalities. Photographer Jena-Paul Paireault, who has photographed Franc's most famous wineries, cam to California to capture the spirit of the 94 Sonoma wineries included here and displays them splendidly across the book's pages.