The Essence of Wine: Wet Stones
Image © 2012 Leigh Beisch
Perhaps you have lingered in a mountain stream, climbed alpine ridge-tops or descended crevasses. Perhaps you have tasted rain on your tongue, or drunk deeply from a stone cistern, echoing with time. Even if you simply r...
Don Cornwell, The Fine Wine Bidder’s Hero
Don Cornwell may well be a wine fraudster's worst nightmare -- a highly motivated, highly educated, and extremely experienced collector who is tired of seeing people pay outrageous sums for fake wine and of auction houses that seem to have no qualms ab...
La Paulee 2012 Burgundy Tasting: February 22-25, San Francisco
Every budding wine lover faces what can often seem like a daunting mountain to climb. There are so many wines in the world to learn about and experience, it's not hard to feel overwhelmed. It's also quite common to feel a certain sense of frustration,...
The Best Zinfandels of California: Tasting at ZAP 2012
You can always count on the ZAP Zinfandel festival in San Francisco to draw a crowd, no matter what the economy is doing. The fact that things are picking up, both for business, and specifically in the wine world, meant for a very lively event last we...
Vinography Images: Bright Zinfandel
Bright Zinfandel
ALEXANDER VALLEY, CA: A brightly backlit zinfandel grape leaf turns vivid red in Autumn in Sonoma County. I've got Zinfandel on the brain this week thanks to the ZAP festival.
INSTRUCTIONS:
Download this image by right-clicking on ...
Social Media and the Wine Industry: A New Era
Ordinary wine consumers may want to skip this post.
On occasion I write purely for the wine industry, and today I'd like to address the role of social media in the wine industry. Whenever I write these kinds of things, I like to remind people that by ...
2012 Dark & Delicious Petite Sirah Tasting: February 17, Alameda
I've referred to it in the past as "the beast." Possessing tannins that need to be tamed through intelligent winemaking, Petite Sirah can truly be a monster of a wine. One of the least-well-known red grape varieties that are commonly grown in Californi...
The Essence of Wine: Vanilla
Image © 2012 Leigh Beisch
Sprung from the legendary blood of forbidden lovers suffering the wrath of a father king, slender jungle orchids climb skyward, their fruit bearing heavenly scents. The Aztecs demanded tlilxochitl, this black gold, in tr...
Australia as a Lesson on Currency and the Wine Industry
Some of the big news last week in the wine world had to do with the shifting buying habits of our friends Down Under. Thanks to the vagaries of the international currency markets, the Australian Dollar has appreciated greatly against the Euro, and for...
2006 Peay Vineyards Roussane/Marsanne Blend, Sonoma Coast
As a wine reviewer who gets paid next to nothing for his work, I have the luxury of only reviewing wines that I think are worth writing about. I've got no deadlines, no quotas to fill, and no obligation to anyone. All of which means that it's always ...
2012 SF Chronicle Wine Competition Public Tasting: February 18, San Francisco
If there is one public wine tasting event that rivals San Francisco's yearly ZAP Zinfandel tasting for sheer size and chaos, it could only be the annual SF Chronicle Wine Competition Tasting. Every year this competition is judged by more than 60 wine p...
Vinography Images: Moon Over Sonoma
Moon Over Sonoma
SONOMA COUNTY, CA: A full moon rises over an oak tree in Alexander Valley.
INSTRUCTIONS:
Download this image by right-clicking on the image and selecting "save link as" or "save target as" and then select the desired location on yo...
