Featured Wine Commentary
RIDGE VINEYARDS
CELEBRATING 50 YEARS: A CALIFORNIA TREASURE On a recent visit to Ridge Vineyards I met with Paul Draper, CEO/Winemaker, and Eric Braugher, VP Wine Making Monte Bello, and tasted some 2011s out of barrel as well as some bottled wines from 2010 back to 1992. The 2011 vintage presented some challenging weather conditions, but, […]
Click here to read entire article »AU BON CLIMAT & QUPÉ
GREAT WINES IN THE SHED FOR OVER 20 YEARS! Last year, along with my long time friend and contributing editor Ed Lazarus, I visited Au Bon Climat, Qupé, and Chanin at the winery facility in Santa Maria. Au Bon Climat and Qupé are now pioneer winemakers in the area and start up Chanin Winery had […]
Click here to read entire article »MOUNT EDEN VINEYARDS AND DOMAINE EDEN
A recent visit with Jeffrey and Ellie Patterson at Mount Eden Vineyards and Domaine Eden offered the opportunity to taste some 2011 wines out of barrel and also to spend an evening at Manresa in Los Gatos celebrating Ellie’s 60th birthday. (Manresa is a great restaurant under the direction of Chef-Proprietor David Kinch. I took […]
Click here to read entire article »MOSEL VERSUS MONTRACHET
THE GERMANS ARE COMING & THEY ARE STAYING FOR DINNER! While the wine fraud scandal and sky high auction prices have grabbed all the headlines this year, the German wine industry has, like mild mannered Clark Kent, slipped into the phone booth and emerged with a new persona as Superman. A nation known largely as […]
Click here to read entire article »JOSEPH SWAN: A CALIFORNIA WINE LEGEND
THE MAN AND HIS WINES AND THE CONTINUATION OF HIS VISION Recently, I attended a dinner that featured 17 different wines from Joseph Swan Vineyards. It was organized by The Rare Wine Company with the wines almost entirely from the Joseph Swan Vineyards library. Held at The Murray Circle Restaurant at Cavallo Point in San […]
Click here to read entire article »SUMMERTIME IS ROSÉ TIME!
This year it is the 2011 vintage. I have written two articles so far on the 2011 rosés (to read the Côtes de Provence rosé trade tasting article click here and to read the first Featured Wine Commentary on 2011 rosés click here). Also, if you missed it, a 2010 rosé article from […]
Click here to read entire article »IN PURSUIT OF BALANCE: A TRADE TASTING AND MORE
WITH VIEWS OF CALIFORNIA CHARDONNAY AND CALIFORNIA PINOT NOIR FROM TWO PERSPECTIVES – IN PURSUIT OF BALANCE AND THE UNDERGROUND Introduction This was the second annual In Pursuit of Balance event which was conceived by Rajat Parr of Michael Mina and Sandhi Wines and Jasmine Hirsch of Hirsch Vineyards. The goal was […]
Click here to read entire article »SPRING HAS SPRUNG
2011 ROSÉ Ah spring! What a nice time of the year. The flowers are blooming, everything is green, the birds are singing, and the weather is mild. Spring vegetables are abundant and thoughts revolve around lighter foods and being outdoors. What a perfect scenario for rosé. And, just as appropriate is the arrival of the […]
Click here to read entire article »THE MAYACAMAS MOUNTAINS OF NAPA VALLEY & THREE PIONEER PRODUCERS
Recently I visited Napa Valley with my good friend and Underground contributing editor, John Morrill. We visited friends and some new people, but also revisited three wineries that I first visited in the early 1970s shortly after they produced their first wines. For decades, all continued to produce traditional wines that are balanced and […]
Click here to read entire article »STILL DON’T KNOW JURA? YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU ARE MISSING!
DOMAINE JEAN-FRANCOIS GANEVAT Last year I tasted some of the most incredible young wines I have ever experienced. And, just to make it even more interesting, they were wines that I knew nothing about. On March 20, 2011 I posted an article entitled “You Don’t Know Jura”. Reprinted below is the introduction […]
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