Before I left my hometown of Blackpool, England, in 1986, I was a young mechanic who was quite in love with Jaguar automobiles. I knew that I wanted to be around them all my life.

But one Wednesday I looked around and realized that the chap next to me was eating the same kind of cheese sandwich he had every Wednesday, drawn out of the same old lunch box. I realized that no matter how much I learned, or how long I stayed or how good a mechanic I became, the best I could ever hope to be was a service manager. But I would never be my own man.

The system there at the time – it’s changed for the better since – was that you had to have so many things go your way to advance: the “proper” background, a family with money and connections in the old boys’ network.

When I came to America and settled in Sonoma County, I realized that here I was only limited by my imagination. I not only could be the service manager, heck, I could be the owner!

So when you ask me why I’m so keen on this area (aside from the superb weather and great driving roads), it’s because Sonoma County is a place where, when I pull a cheese sandwich out of my lunch box, it’s been made from one of 27 local cheeses and placed between slices of freshly baked bread from any one of a dozen great local bakeries – and on any day of the week I please.