It’s been just about impossible to turn around out here in Napa without running into someone from Minnesota. The surprising thing is that they’re not tourists escaping the absurd weather of recent weeks, but actual residents of these parts.

I sat with Pat Stotesbury, a St. Thomas Academy grad, at a wine dinner at Beringer’s Cask Room on Wednesday night. His 2004 Ladera cab managed to hold its own in a flight with a pair of outlandishly good cabs, the 2002 Heitz Martha’s Vineyard and the 1995 Beringer Private Reserve. Pat said he no longer follows the Vikings, but he does root for Wisconsin’s own Matt Kenseth on the NASCAR circuit.

At lunch Thursday, Golden Valley native Cindy Pawlcyn buzzed through the room while we were lunching at her wonderful restaurant, Cindy’s Backstreet Kitchen. It’s one of three popular Pawlcyn eateries in Napa Valley, along with Mustards Grill and Go Fish.

Later Thursday, we visited with Emily Miner, who grew up in Navarre and Chaska before leaving Minnesota a dozen Februarys ago, when the Minneapolis windchill and the St. Helena air temperature were 140 degrees apart (minus-70 and plus-70, respectively).

She ended up marrying a Chicago transplant named Dave Miner, and they started up Miner Family Vineyards (first vitnatge: 1999). We sipped a tasty, jammy sangiovese and a beautiful Bordeaux blend called The Oracle, plus, from the barrel, a 2007 pinot noir from Garys’ Vineyard in Santa Lucia Highlands. Very promising.

Emily, who will be the subject of an upcoming profile in the taste section, confessed that she still sometimes tosses out an “uff da!” from time to time,.

Later today, I expect to bump into Duane and Susan Hoff, who own the Fantesca winery. They split their time between the Twin Cities and St. Helena, and are likely to be pouring their wines at a tasting at Spring Mountain Vineyards, the Victorian estate that used to be shown during the opening of the TV sudser “Falcon Crest.”

Uff-da, indeed.