Classic Cabernets for $15 or Less
There are all kinds of Cabernet Sauvignon out there. Some are too fruity for me. Some are too green. Some are too expensive. Some are too huge, with big alcohol and palate-punishing tannins.I like my Cabernets to have a classic profile: plum and curran...
Get Your Spurs On
*Disclaimer: I received this wine as a sample. Still digging into those deep dark reds for the winter months here in VA. Though I awoke yesterday to find that my daffodils had started blooming. That just isn’t right. We’ve barely even had enough cold days to make a fire in the woodburning stove this year!...
Two New Releases from Manzoni Vineyards
One feature of writing about wine that I especially enjoy is trying products from wineries that I’ve never encountered. Such a one is Manzoni Vineyards, a small family-owned and operated estate in Monterey County’s Santa Lucia Highlands. The winery traces its origin to Joseph Manzoni, who left Switzerland for the New World in 1921 and...
Special Valentine’s Day Salad Recipe
What better way to say I love you than cooking dinner for the ones you love! The Valentine’s Salad recipe below is from B.R. Cohn Winery & Olive Oil Company, a wonderful winery to visit in Sonoma County, California. Visitors to B.R. Cohn can experience wine tastings and olive oil tastings. Enjoy this creative salad...
Friday Wine Sips: Super Bowl Bad Boys
Sunday is the Big Day, and millions of Americans will gather in their caves around open fires, er, I mean, in their dens, media rooms and home theaters around the hypnotic glow of large-screen televisions to watch Super Bowl XLVI and devour billions of chicken wings, pigs-in-blankets and cheesy barbecue nachos. Many will drink beer,...
Damn, This Was Good! (12)
This series doesn’t always focus on rare and expensive wines. At least the wine featured in today’s post is inexpensive, though not widely available. Still, here we go…. LL brought home a piece of wild sockeye salmon from Whole Foods, and we smoked it over loose lapsang souchong tea, which turned the salmon deeply smoky...
Two Styles of Zinfandel from Joel Peterson
There was a time when consumers who loved the zinfandel grape could follow the “R” rule, that is, they could buy zinfandel wines produced by Ravenswood, Renwood, Ridge or Rosenblum and have no qualms about quality or integrity. The truth, of course, is that many wineries in California make fine examples of zinfandel, and the...
Friday Wine Sips: Napa Valley Cabernet
Many kinds of grapes are grown in the Napa Valley, and many sorts of wines are produced there, but cabernet sauvignon is what the region is best known for. Today I offer 12 examples of cabernet-based wines from the Napa Valley, the vintages ranging from 2006 to 2009, the prices spanning $25 to $120. As...
Will the Real Fake Pinot Noir Please Stand Up?
The “pinotgate” scandal is old news, but the settlement in the class-action suit occurred a few days ago. Wine industry giants E&J Gallo and Constellation Brands agreed to a $2.1 million payout to consumers who purchased bottles of their inexpensive California wines filled with merlot and syrah passed off as pinot noir by a wily...
Train Wreck!
Continuing on the theme of big winter reds, we dug deep into the cellar for this gem. In 2009 I, along with a bunch of other bloggers, invaded Calaveras County, specifically the town of Murphys, CA. One of our stops on that trip was Newsome Harlow, a favorite of mine from my first visit to...
Quick Sip: TR Elliot 2007 Queste Pinot Noir
Hello Friends,
Over the past several months, I have had the pleasure of watching a few episodes of Cellars of Sonoma TV Tuesday (live streaming broadcast) that featured special guest Theodore R. Elliot. Theodore, better known as Ted, is the man behi...
