In 2005, I visited Michael McDermott at his studio on the banks of the Los Angeles River in Frogtown. Like everyone else, everywhere, I knew nothing about the river and scoffed at the measly course of algal water trickling down its concrete banks. There were tire tracks all over the river bed. Not emblematic of a healthy riparian ecosystem.
One day, we pushed our bikes through a hole in the fence, separating the river from Frogtown. We rode downstream, down to the old Sixth Street Bridge, famous from movies.
There was an open conduit at the time, right from the river to Santa Fe Avenue. We rode up it, back into the city, and I saw downtown LA for the first time. I knew right away that I wanted to make wine there.
