Every year, just as Winter, or what passes for winter in southern California, begins to turn the corner towards Spring, lovers of Pinot Noir gather on the cliffs of Santa Barbara for a celebration of the grape they love. The World of Pinot Noir offers three days of immersion into everything Pinot in the bucolic setting of Bacara Resort. This event
Pigs & Pinot Orange County
A mini Pigs & Pinot event was held recently at Charlie Palmer's at Bloomingdales in Costa Mesa, California, fashioned after the annual Pigs & Pinot event held at Charlie Palmer's Dry Creek Kitchen in Healdsburg. Dan Prescott, the general manager at Charlie Palmer's at Bloomingdales and formerly held the same ...
Recent Sips of Chardonnay
'this' All Loring Wine Company Chardonnays are whole cluster pressed and barrel fermented in a 50/50 mix of French and American oak barrels (30{b2e123e9138e25ff8232216a74205959533a608968f4eba7854f63b9364ed57d} new). 100{b2e123e9138e25ff8232216a74205959533a608968f4eba7854f63b9364ed57d} malolactic fermentation. 'this' 'this'
Sips of Recently Tasted Pinot Noir
brick & mortar, Napa Valley, California Matt Iaconis, a graduate of University of California at Davis, launched his label in 2011 featuring Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from Napa Valley. The previously reviewed 2011 Pinot Noir and 2012 Chardonnay were impressive. Visit www.brickandmortarwines.com. 'this' Cellars 33, San Francisco, Californ
The Donum Estate: 2012 Gifts of the Land
Donum means "gift of the land," and the wines from this estate are truly that. The Donum Ranch's 147 acres covers three hills in the Sonoma Carneros region just north of San Pablo Bay. Nestled amid these hills is a 50- acre vineyard planted to a diverse collection of heirloom ...
Screen Door Cellars
Sometimes great wine just drops in your lap. This past Christmas I rented a house in Sebastopol and spent the Christmas holiday there with my family. Upon my arrival, the property manager gave me a bottle of 2012 Screen Door Cellars Russian River Valley Pinot Noir as a welcoming gift. ...
Salon des Vins de Loire 2015 day 2
The more meticulously you plan things, the more likely they are to go wrong. Thus it seems to me that the path to success involves never planning anything; then, when things go even half-right, it is a major victory worth celebrating. If I had this attitude yesterday would have been a success. As it happens, […]
Salon des Vins de Loire 2015 day 3
Well that is the annual Salon des Vins de Loire over for another year. It’s been a busy few days; in combination with the preceding weekend salons, I’ve just completed five long days of tasting, almost every wine from the Loire (with just a handful from Bordeaux). Yesterday I caught up with the domaines and […]
Exploring Sherry #7: Emperatriz Eugenia
It has taken me quite a while to get around to the next instalment of my infrequent and informal Exploring Sherry series, but the wait has been worth it. This wine, an oloroso from Lustau, is a wine worth experiencing. It comes from a solera begun in 1921 to celebrate the visit of Emperatriz Eugenia […]
Bordeaux 2014: Prices will Rise
The 2014 Bordeaux primeurs draw near. The almost traditional pre-primeurs back-and-forth is already behind us. The UK wine trade called for sensible pricing in an open letter printed here in The Drinks Business. Bordeaux says no, of course. Once a seemingly innocent device designed to provide early cash flow for the châteaux, which then mutated [&#
Critics: The Primeurs Marketing Machine?
The world’s wine eyes are beginning to turn towards Bordeaux now, as en primeur season looms. Well, that opening statement might have been true a few weeks ago. Now it would be more accurate to say that the en primeur season is already underway; the early-bird critics are in Bordeaux, and making sure their presence […]
From Amazon.com: Hugh Johnson’s 2015 Pocket Wine Book
This year's Johnson mini- encyclopedia is so chock-full of information that you won't believe it all fits in a pocket. It's only a little larger than my iPhone 6+! Updated annually since the 1970s, it just keeps getting better and better.
Vino e Cucina d’Italia: White Sangiovese – it does exist
http://www.wineloverspage.com/duarte/whiteSangiovese1214.phtml
30 Second Wine Advisor: Steak or pasta with Tuscan reds?
You're looking forward to a good Chianti or even a fine Brunello with dinner. What will you serve to show off this amiable red wine at its best? This is not as simple a question as it seems.
30 Second Wine Advisor: Plastic wine bottle?
Fine wine in a plastic bottle? The very idea probably gags most wine geeks. Wine-in-plastic seems so wrong in so many ways, from the practical to the purely emotional.
WebWineMan: Merlot holds its own.
If you are a fan of merlot, you may have been feeling a little left out of the wine buzz, writes Richard Fadeley. But you can relax, he says. Merlot is America's most popular wine.