Shaking the dust of Redding from our feet, we headed straight for Napa and Copia (the American Center for Wine, Food & the Arts) and arrived just in time to snaffle the last ticket to their monthly Taste of Copia Lunch.

The theme was Wild About Salmon. Three courses, three wonderful wines and a cooking demonstration. It was a real learning experience. I now know how to skin, bone and fillet a hunk of salmon. And that you can't judge a Pinot Noir by its color, because -- according to someone famous whose name I didn't write down -- while the cabernet grape was made by God, pinot was made by the devil and is extremely difficult to cultivate.

Bao discovered (to my chagrin, because we had to share) that he rather liked grilled salmon with pesto. Afterwards, he made friends with Copia staff members Jacquelyn Buchanan, Director of Culinary Progams; Peter Marks, Director of Wine and Food and Geoff Palla, Head Gardener.

You're probably wondering why it's called Copia and not ACWFA. I guess it's because you'd have to pronounce it "akwafa" which sounds more like a pool disinfectant than a gourmet center of excellence. Copia was the Roman goddess of abundance. As in Cornucopia, which is the name of their fabulous shop. It has a much nicer ring to it.

A final gem of information. Pinot Noir is good for you, because it contains resperytol, an anti-fungicide that reverses the effects of aging. I always knew there was something magical about it.