A View from Above Napa Valley
 Charles Feil & Ernest Rose
 (Reviewer - Rebecca Brown)
 2002 VFA Publishing
  ISBN: 0971406707

This is a book of photographs taken by Charles Feil from his Rooty Kazooty gyroplane (a hi-tech one-seater helicopter) & his business partner Ernest Rose, who did much of the writing about what we're seeing.

If you have no idea where the Napa Valley is, or that it is an exquisite little Eden, & if you like the wines that come to you from this delightful part of California, then A View from Above Napa Valley will be a grand adventure. I know it was for me, & once, 20 years ago, I drove around much of that pastoral landscape, in awe to discover there really was such a beautiful place.

So, come fly with Charles Feil in his little mosquito of a plane, & see the mists over the patchworks of vineyards, the rows of vines as they undulate over rolling hillsides, the startling & poignant blends of water, trees, roads & fields, catch glimpses of elegantly architectured wineries; hot airballoons over sunset fogs.

Perhaps the most telling feature, as we glide above this inspiring landscape, is that all the things we human have made are foursquare & angled, whereas all the vines we've nurtured & groomed, are in flowing patterns following the contours of the earth.

There are so many photos that take my breath away & the fabric of corduroy often came to mind. On page 11 the tawny hills of Los Carneros bask in the sun, covered with a nap of autumnal vines; page 61 where rows of vines are stitched together by rows of windbreak trees, in spring hues of green. Or where, on page 98, fields of fine vine lines run almost into surrounding conifer forest. Pages 104 & 105 dazzle your eyes.

To see the wineries in all their individual, magical designs, from above is truly a dream, & the architects must have been very pleased.

A View from Above Napa Valley is a unique & enchanting album, definitely a good gift!

More from Charles Feil:
Massachusetts: A View from Above
Over Key West and the Florida Keys
Kittery to Calais: The Maine Coast from Above

www.viewsfromabove.com
(11/24/02)

Rebecca