Perlis Picked: Simply Wine Festival

Simply Wine Festival http://simplywinefest.com/ What started as a dream fairly quickly turned into an amazing reality. Martha Peretz and her team at Great Festivals Incorporated should be congratulating themselves for putting on a practically perfect extravaganza, the Simply Wine Festival, especially considering it was their inaugural event. Start with the venue itself, the Four Seasons…

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Perlis Picks: 2014 Family Winemakers of California

Family Winemakers of California http://familywinemakers.org (FWC) is an organization dedicated to preserving the diversity of California wine and supporting family owned wineries. Anyone who produces wine commercially or who grows wine grapes can join, although membership is dominated by wineries with an annual production of less than 5,000 cases. These small wineries also get a…

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Perlis Picks: Sonoma In The City

Sonoma County Winegrowers, Sonoma County Vintners, and Full Circle Wine Solutions periodically band together to showcase Sonoma County’s sixteen AVAs. Their Sonoma in The City event was held recently at The Montage Hotel in Beverly Hills. And lest you think this was purely about Pinot Noir and Chardonnay [make no mistake, there were excellent examples…

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The Prisoner is Out

Ever since its release, Dave Phinney’s Zinfandel based, “The Prisoner,” captivated the wine world. For many, it came as a surprise in 2010 when Phinney’s Orin Swift Cellars sold two of their most popular wines, Saldo and The Prisoner, to Chile’s Huneeus Vintners. According to Phinney, the sale is more of a partnership as Huneeus…

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Midas Man or Imposter?

Living in Europe, I am often inundated with questions concerning the California wine scene. After all, we do have the reputation of abounding with new and innovative ideas for wines. In fact, when my stateside friends come for a visit, they are expected to pay tribute to this self-proclaimed Caesar. My friends are quick to…

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