Happy Canada Day, Happy 4th of July!
What a great weekend – Friday is Canada Day and Monday is the Fourth of July! And the weather is sunny, which means wine on the deck and BBQ’ing. First, Dave and I wish all our Canadian family and friends a Happy Canada Day today. Tonight, we shall sip on both white and red wine...
Château Pichon-Longueville Comtesse de Lalande 1998
Pauillac, Bordeaux, France. 12.5%. Cork.I should travel to South East Asia more often. It seems each visit is accompanied by the opening of a bottle of Pichon Lalande. . . Though not an esteemed vintage, I still found the wine superb. This of course mi...
Playing in My Spice Rack
*Disclaimer: I received this wine as a sample from Rodney Strong Vineyards Baking spices peppered the nose of this wine, causing thoughts of Christmas cookies to dance in my head. We just started in on the HOT weather here and I’m already dreaming of Christmas. Though can you blame me? Christmas will be extra special...
Sips: A rosé from California’s Clayhouse Wines
It’s Father’s Day and a little rosé is in order this afternoon. Clayhouse Wines 2010 Adobe Pink is a concentrated blend of roughly one-third each of mourvèdre, syrah and cabernet sauvignon from California’s Central Coast. Almost co...
Va Piano, Va Delicious
I never met a wine from Va Piano Estate Vineyards that I didn’t like. A lot. Or love. We first went to Va Piano Vineyards after the Wine Bloggers Conference in Walla Walla one year ago. Our dear friend Melanie, aka Dallas Wine Chick, suggested we start at Va Piano, south of downtown Walla Walla, for our...
Big Deal Reds from Concha y Toro; or, When Is A Syrah Like a Cabernet Sauvignon?
The point of making wines from a single vineyard or even more precisely from selected blocks within a vineyard is to highlight particular qualities of character and excellence that those locations or rows of vines theoretically embody. Such a principle is the philosophical and esthetic guiding light, for example, of Burgundy, where legendary vineyards separated...
Three Sub-$20 Napa Valley Cabernets for Summer Sipping
With Summer nearly officially upon us we’ve been searching for some solid and reasonably priced local Cabernet Sauvignon. The following wines have been in our rotation for the past few weeks… 2009 Educated Guess Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon Jammy, dark reds on the nose with hints of cinnamon. Somewhat firm tannins early, but overall very...
Single-Vineyard Cabernets from Nickel & Nickel: 2006 and 2007
A number of adjectives thread through the reviews of these single vineyard, 100 percent cabernet sauvignon wines from Nickel & Nickel: dusty, granite-like, shale-like, deep, dense, austere. Such terms indicate a “house style” of cabernet for N&N, where the winemaker is Darice Spinelli and director of winemaking is Dirk Hampson. This firm, vibrant, brooding manner...
Wine Tasting Video: Six reds from Bordeaux
Tesco Finest Château Haut Langlade, Montagne St Emilion 2008 (£9.30 Tesco) There’s decent, slightly baked berry and blackcurrant fruit here, but there’s also a slightly cheesy note, and while I don’t mind the smoky bacon edge to the oak, there
Good Wine, Sunshine and Chateau Ste. Michelle
If you haven’t bought tickets yet for the Chateau Ste. Michelle Summer Concert Series, what are you waiting for? We attended the series opener last night, and highly recommend the experience! We were VIP guests at The Moody Blues concert, which kicked off the 28th year of summer concerts at the beautiful Chateau Ste. Michelle....
Two Cabernets from Kapcsándy Family Winery: An Enthusiastic “Yes,” a Regretful “O.K., But …”
The story is fascinating. Lou Kapcsándy fled Hungary after the uprising of 1956 was quashed by the Soviet Union. A soccer player before his escape, he made the transition to American football and — after a stint with the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division — played for the San Diego Chargers. Kapcsándy’s business career was...
Wines of Andalucia: On the Rise and Worthy of Far Greater Attention
I wish I was a winemaker, it seems such a wonderfully exciting, creative and honest thing to be. The skill and dedication required to make great wine beggars belief – the life consists of seriously hard work, but to the observer it seems attractive – idyllic even. Whenever I hear about mavericks who create little...
