Karen and I were planning to revisit Santa Rosa / Sonoma County just a little over a year removed from our last ill-fated visit. While working on scheduling appointments, I started thinking that maybe last time turned out the way it did because we were somehow being punished for not visiting our good friend and…
Turley Wine Cellars has always had a very significant presence in our personal wine cellar and I don’t see that ever changing. While our wine interests have broadened, Turley continues to be on a very short list of wineries we absolutely can’t do without. But when we bumped into Turley Tasting Room Manager Malani Anderson…
Kent Rosenblum passed away on September 5th, 2018. Before there were the current big three of Turley, Carlisle and Bedrock [or whoever your favorite Zinfandel producers might currently be], there were the three Rs of Zinfandel: Rosenblum, Ravenswood and Ridge. Kent Rosenblum of Rosenblum Cellars, Joel Peterson of Ravenswood and Paul Draper of Ridge Vineyards…
Have you heard of tiny houses? There’ve been a few television shows about them. My wife Karen occasionally watches them and I’ll sometimes lift my head up from wine-related Facebook conversations to see what’s up. Basically, people downsize to a minimum level of possessions and space requirements in order to live in very small residences,…
Last week I gave you an introduction to the latest Garagiste Festival held in Santa Monica. Here now are some comments about the wines Karen and I enjoyed. Ascension Cellars – winemaker Erick Allen continues to make consistently high quality wines from Paso Robles grapes. Primarily Rhone varietals, my favorites were the 2017 Siren Rose,…
Saturday, July 21st was a great day that ended on a very sad note. Karen and I had a wonderful time at the latest incarnation of The Garagiste Festival: Urban Exposure in Santa Monica and followed that with an early dinner at one of our new favorite restaurants, Lunetta, also in Santa Monica. By the…
It’s funny sometimes how things play out. We were first exposed to Raphael Lunetta’s skills as a chef when Karen and I attended the Buick Discovery Tour at the Four Seasons Hotels in Westlake Village over five years ago. At the time Chef Lunetta was helming his restaurant JiRaffe in Santa Monica. After meeting him…
In 2016, reporting on the Los Angeles edition of the Garagiste Festival, I singled out Rhythm Wines as a “winery to watch”, especially enjoying the 2015 Tannat from the local Alonso Family Vineyard. Then, I lost track of them. Then, in early 2017 by my recollection, the manager of the short-lived and greatly missed Maré…
Every two years, trade and media has the opportunity to “taste the world” with distributor and importer Henry Wine Group. In a large ballroom at the Westin Bonaventure filled with wine and a small section devoted to spirits [covered by Eve in a recent article] we got to sample literally hundreds [if one were so…
You may ask…why does Zinfandel need to be “elevated”? It wasn’t that long ago that Zinfandel was thought of either as a sweet pink wine made for mass consumption or as a highly alcoholic monster meant to get you where you want to go as quickly as possible. Neither version was taken very seriously. But…