SANTA YNEZ, CA – The 100+ members of the Santa Barbara County Vintners’ Association will herald the arrival of spring and the beginning of the new vintage at their 30th annual Vintners’ Festival on April 21, 2012. The Festival will return to the Santa Ynez Valley on the pastoral grounds of “The Carranza”. “As the…
Winemakers in Happy Canyon (Santa Ynez Valley) celebrate a stellar harvest and hope to attract consumer and industry attention during a tough year for better-known AVAs While heavy rains late in the harvest season have raised eyebrows and concern about the outcome of the 2011 vintage in some of Northern California’s wine regions, the Golden…
Yes, church camp allows wine – from wine made by a congregant’s nephew, to members that love the selection at World Market, in a disposable box sent to me for review and even one gifted to me by my favorite Lil Bastard – a nice way to get to know each other better in the…
Once again Grape Of The Night (GOTN) met, divided and conquered a fantastic wine varietal known as Cabernet Franc. I apologize for requesting a wine varietal that was close to nonexistent in our Valley. I was unaware of this and want to thank all of you who raided their cellars to leave a few bottles…
Once again we had a fantastic turnout which meant more wines to sample and compare. This month, the wine varietal selected was Tempranillo. This is one of my favorite wines that originated and is found in most parts of Spain. Tempranillo grapes were believed to have been brought to Spain by pilgrims during the Crusades…
Mourvèdre The Grape of the Night for the month of May was fantastic. Everyone pulled out all of the stops and brought some terrific examples of a very unique wine known as Mourvèdre. This wine originated in Spain and is also called mataro or monastrell. It is the principal black grape of the five appellations…
Los Angeles Chef Transitions to the Central Coast to Work with Nichols Brothers LOS OLIVOS, California; May 2, 2011 – Brothers Matt and Jeff Nichols, Owners and Chefs of Brothers Restaurant at Mattei’s Tavern, announce the arrival of Seth Nelson as the new Chef de Cuisine of this landmark restaurant in the Santa Ynez Valley…
Once again we had a fantastic Grape of the Night adventure at Valencia Wine Company. The varietal for this adventure was Petite Sirah. I was corrected by many of my readers for posting the incorrect spelling. I am glad to see so many detail oriented readers in our group actually read what I write. Petite…
As we were preparing for our latest trip to Paso Robles, my wife and I were talking about our mutual interest in wine [okay, her interest, my obsession]. The question came up as to how we got to the point we are now. So, I started thinking about it. It actually started about 30-years ago…