The best way to understand the wine business in California and which people matter the most is to accept that the state is almost too big and too diverse. It’s almost like talking about several different countries trying to coexist, even though they agree about very little. For example, the Los Angeles area produces almost no wine, yet it is as important to the state’s wine culture as the San Francisco area, which is at the center of some of the most important wine regions in the world.