Underground Wine Line
Vintage Tastings – A Day at the Tilsons
Day Two for our Tilson weekend was actually at John’s home, a beautiful sanctuary in Montecito, far away from Meghan and Harry lol. When I walked in the front door, I could feel the fine wine energy seeping through the walls and floors. Who’s afraid of seepage? Not me! The day was beautiful, the view […]
Click here to read entire article »Vintage Tastings – A Top Ten for 2023
Last year wines from my cellar were featured at two tastings – one at The San Ysidro Ranch and another at my home which is adjacent in Montecito, California. They were organized by John Kapon from Acker Merrill. His commentary on day one follows. Day two will be in a separate article. Hello and […]
Click here to read entire article »ED LAZARUS – ONE OF A KIND
It is with profound sadness that I am writing this to announce the passing of one of my oldest and dearest friends, Ed Lazarus. I first met Ed some 50 years ago at a wine event. I was just learning about wine and got to talking to him, and he started telling me about […]
Click here to read entire article »JIM CLENDENEN REMEMBERED
JIM CLENDENEN Mind Behind AU BON CLIMAT Gone too soon, Jim Clendenen, aka Mind Behind, just passed away. Jim was an iconic legend in so many ways. He founded Au Bon Climat in 1982 which was one of the very early wineries in Santa Barbara County. He began his career working at Zaca […]
Click here to read entire article »STUPID WINE DESCRIPTIONS
For many years now I have been writing about stupid wine descriptions (to read about past years winners and links to all previous articles click here). Believe me that are a lot to choose from! So let’s take one of the newest ones from this year. Very recently I received a note on NV Charles […]
Click here to read entire article »DENNIS FOLEY, RENOWNED FIGURE IN THE WORLD OF RARE WINE, PASSED AWAY AT THE AGE OF 74
Dennis Foley, longtime friend and associate of The Underground Wine Journal and an important figure in the world of rare wine and gastronomy for over 40 years, passed away Thursday, November 26 at the age of 74 in San Francisco. Dennis had a wide-ranging career in rare wine and food as an authority, writer, […]
Click here to read entire article »STUPID WINE DESCRIPTIONS
IT’S THAT TIME AGAIN! STUPID WINE DESCRIPTIONS For the last 5 years I have published my list of the most stupid wine descriptions from the past year. The list is a compilation of what I think are the most stupid wine descriptions published by some of the 100 point wine writers. And, hard […]
Click here to read entire article »HAPPY NEW YEAR 2020!
Wow. It is the end of the second decade of this century and the beginning of the 20s decade. Will the coming 20s rival the roaring 20s of the past century and the 1929 crash or will it be something completely different? My crystal ball is a bit cloudy on this subject but let’s […]
Click here to read entire article »SURPRISE WINNING WINE IN THE INTERNATIONAL WINE TASTING COMPETITION OF THE CENTURY
In recent years wine tasting competitions have proliferated across the world like wild flowers after a March rain. I just received word of a massive tasting of several thousand wines from all over the world that was held on March 27 in Abuja, Nigeria. It seems that in this relatively new planned city wine […]
Click here to read entire article »WINE & TRUTH
The Underground Wineletter has always stood for the consumer and more wine transparency (click to read about our history and mission with links to many other articles). Wine should not be a mystery. But somehow in the U.S. it has become very complicated and that is even before the bottle is opened. Consider how […]
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