News
4-01-23 – Vinfamous, the podcast of The Wine Enthusiast, interviews Frances for an episode on the $250 arson fire at Wines Central warehouse.
“The Spark that Destroyed $250 Million Worth of Wine.”
3-28-23- KCRB interviews Frances about the death of Mark Anderson.
6-10-22 – I announced my departure after 13 years from Cityside/Berkeleyside/The Oaklandside.
10-25-21 – The New York Times California Today newsletter interviewed Frances about People’s Park in Berkeley.
10-21-21 – Frances appeared on KQED’s Forum to talk about the 30th anniversary of the 1991 Oakland-Berkeley firestorm. Her first-person account of the day appeared on Berkeleyside.
9.7.21 – Frances is interviewed in the California Sun newsletter. When asked which three people dead or alive she would invite for dinner, she said IW Hellman, her great-great grandfather (so many unanswered questions!), Julia Morgan and Dorothea Lange.
11.14.18 — Frances’ story “One Day, One Night: The Fuse that Lit the Battles of Berkeley,” was awarded a prize in long-form journalism from the Northern California Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. The piece is an oral history of the day right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos came to UC Berkeley. A cadre of black-clad protestors rushed Sproul Plaza, throwing incendiary devices, breaking windows and causing havoc. It was the first of 11 raucous protests in Berkeley pitting the right against the left in 2017. Read about it here.
Protests at UC Berkeley on Feb. 1, 2107. Photo: Pete Rosos
04.20.18 — Diablo Magazine names Frances a “game-changing” woman, one of seven women who “are rewriting the rules.” Click here.
Paul Kilduff of The East Bay Monthly did an interview of me that touched on my news website, Berkeleyside, whether we should have any sympathy for wealthy wine collectors who get snookered out of money or wine, and the time I appeared on the American Greed television show to talk about John Fox, who filched about $45 million from his customers at the Berkeley store, Premier Cru.
11.26.17 – The city of Claremont in Southern California has selected Tangled Vines as its “On the Same Page” selection for 2017. The annual citywide reading program, now in its 10th year, is sponsored by the Friends of the Claremont Library.
04.17:17: The city of Whitter has selected Tangled Vines as its Whittier Reads 2017 selection.
12.22.16: Tangled Vines (paperback version)
10.16.16 – Tangled Vines has been on the San Francisco Chronicle and NCIBA bestseller list for seven weeks.
Frances and her Berkeleyside co-worker, Emilie Raguso, won an award from the Northern California chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists for their comprehensive coverage of homelessness in Berkeley.
I did an hour-long TV interview with UC Berkeley Professor Harry Kreisler as part of my appearance as the HarvEst lecturer at Cal. We discuss my family history, writing, and the creation of Berkeleyside.
Newsweek magazine takes an in-depth look at Tangled Vines and the rise of wine crime and fraud in the work. The reporter even visits Mare Island to see where the arson fire happened.
Food & Wine magazine names Tangled Vines as one of the best wine books of 2015.
The Washington Post names Tangled Vines as one of the top books to give in the 2015 holiday season. Dave McIntyre, the paper’s wine writers, said it is “the most engrossing and engaging book about Napa Valley” since James Conaway’s two-volume saga. (Published in 2002).
The Wall Street Journal names Tangled Vines “one of the best books for wine lovers.”
KQED’s Bay Area Bites names Tangled Vines to its list of 10 great food books from 2015.
The San Jose Mercury News puts Tangled Vines on its list of 5 best wine reads.
Collectors Weekly used Tangled Vines as a way to take a deeper look at the California Wine Association, the monopoly that controlled 80% of the production of wine in the state before Prohibition. Dec. 11, 2105.
Tangled Vines makes the New York Times Bestseller List! Nov. 16, 2015
Tangled Vines makes the San Francisco Chronicle/Northern California Independent Bookseller Association bestseller list for week ending Oct. 25, 2015.
St. Martins Press will publish Tangled Vines: Greed, Murder, Obsession and an Arsonist in the Vineyards of California on Oct. 6, 2015.
I am pleased to announce that I have received a writing fellowship to the 2013 Napa Valley Wine Writers’ Symposium. Now in it’s ninth year, the Symposium brings together experienced and aspiring wine writers every February for a three-day conference at the beautiful Meadowood Resort. In addition to lectures, seminars on wine tasting, and visit to various wineries, participants get to taste some of the best wine produced by Napa Valley vintners. My fellowship is sponsored by the Hess Collection, an amazing winery on Mt. Veeder Road. In a coincidence, my family used to own property right next door and we spent many happy hours wandering through the Hess vineyards.
On January 6, 2013, the San Francisco Chronicle ran an article called “Frances Dinkelspiel’s Favorite Things,” by Louise Rafkin.
“Some of my favorite things are now just memories,” says journalist and author Frances Dinkelspiel. Her house is perched high above Berkeley, surrounded by luscious greenery. It’s hard to remember this was a bleak, charred scar in the aftermath of the 1991 Oakland fire.
Photo by Liz Hafalia/SF Chronicle
On March 23, 2012, Frances and Isaias Hellman were featured on NBC’s popular genealogy show, “Who Do You Think You Are?” In the show, Academy-Award winning actress Helen Hunt traces her roots back to Gold Rush San Francisco, Isaias Hellman, and Wells Fargo Bank.
Towers of Gold is a winner of a Northern California Independent Booksellers Association 2009 Book of the Year award.
The San Francisco Chronicle names Towers of Gold a 2008 Notable Bay Area book.
11.01.08 – Towers of Gold is a San Francisco Chronicle bestseller.
