A Guide to Wine, Food & the Good Life

Diamond Creek Vineyards

This tag is associated with 9 posts

THE CURRENT STATE OF NAPA VALLEY

   A recent article in The New York Times featured a brief history of the Napa Valley and one of its major vineyard owners Andy Beckstoffer. Mr. Beckstoffer is 80 years old and has been around Napa Valley since 1967. At that time he worked for Heublein, an East Coast-based liquor conglomerate. He helped them […]

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A MOTOR TRIP NORTH – FALL 2018

WINE, FOOD, FRIENDS, ADVENTURE, SIGHTSEEING AND MORE   My wife Laurie and I have been traveling to Northern California for over 50 years. In this time we have seen many things and many changes – some really good, some good, some not so good, and some bad. But, it is always an interesting and scenic […]

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HAPPY NEW YEAR 2016!

  It’s always hard to believe, but it’s that time of year again. The New Year 2016 is almost here. Beginning in 2011, after our first year as an online publication, I published my reflections on the past year and fearless wine forecasts for the upcoming year. Many things did occur and most trends were […]

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WHERE HAS NAPA VALLEY GONE?

LONG TIME PASSING WHEN WILL WE EVER LEARN? As I look back on the changes in Napa Valley over the last 40 years since my friends and I first started going there in the early 1970s, I cannot help but reflect on the great Pete Seeger song “Where Have All The Flowers Gone?”. This song […]

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THE BEST WINERIES IN AMERICA – THE TOP 4 ARE FROM CALIFORNIA’S CENTRAL COAST!

Recently The Daily Meal  published a list of the 101 Best Wineries in America (to read that article click here). The Underground is linked to The Daily Meal and is a contributor. The list was compiled from selections made by sommeliers, chefs, restaurateurs, and wine writers based on quality, consistency, and value. The list was […]

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THE MARRIAGE BLEND

  For some time I have been writing about the advantages of blending young wines (particularly inexpensive ones) to get a wine that suits your taste. This covers a wide variety of wines from Two Buck Chuck up (to read one of the early Blending Man articles click here and to read the article on […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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Retrospective Review: Volume I, Number 5 (April-May, 1980)

We are currently reproducing a copy of the fifth issue of The Underground Wineletter. Below you’ll find an updated review of each article, where I will go over what we got right and what we got wrong. We will follow this format with each successive issue. So Volume I, Number 6 will be coming next. […]

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