PICTURED, STANDING FROM LEFT ARE STEW GOOD, AHWAHNEE BEVERAGE MANAGER, DAN JENSEN, DNC COO; SUZANNE JENSEN, CAROL DANIELS, CHUCK DANIELS, AND CHANCE JORGENSEN, AHWAHNEE GENERAL MANAGER. SEATED IS TOM RINALDI, WINEMAKER AT PROVENANCE VINEYARDS, NAPA VALLEY. You wouldn't know it by looking at the youthful face of Chuck Daniels, but he's stayed at The Ahwahnee annually since 1927, the year the hotel first opened to Yosemite visitors. Daniels, 82, and then a year-old babe in arms with his parents, continues the tradition with his wife, Carol, by attending Vintners' Holidays each year every year since The Ahwahnee's celebration of wine began in 1982.

"This is the best businesses in the world," said Daniels of the wine industry in a 1992 interview with Wines & Vines magazine as CEO of his family wine and spirits distribution company, House of Daniels. Dating back to the 1950s, Daniels' Golden Gate Distributing represented the likes of American wine pioneers Robert Mondavi and the Christian Brothers. Decades later, Daniels operated Sonoma County's Trellis Vineyards, whose 2003 Merlot is still coveted by wine connoisseurs.

Vintners' Holidays, now in its 28th year, was the invention of then Ahwahnee General Manager John O'Neill, who in 1982, assembled a few winemakers together for an informal discussion in The Ahwahnee Bar. The special event is now on the short list for annual attendance by every major winemaker in California.

"It's an honor to have Chuck and Carol back each November," said Stew Good, Ahwahnee bar manager for that first gathering, and the Ahwahnee's beverage manager for decades since.

When you think of all the incredible vintners' wines Chuck and

have had the pleasure of tasting of over the last quarter of a century, it's mind boggling."