Making the most of my two-day Paso Robles media pass to cover the inaugural Cab Collective, I planned to attend four media events. However, arriving a wee bit early for the first, I stopped in to visit with Terry Hoage and taste some Rhones before the all-Cab/Bordeaux blends. During our interview, first with Terry and…
The city of Stuttgart is unusual for a German city. The country’s sixth-largest city spreads across rolling hills, valleys, parks, and of course, vineyards. Long time friend and fellow sommelier, Liesel Braun and I have returned to this wonderful city after spending a few days traveling along the banks of the Mosel River, exploring the…
The annual Santa Barbara County Vintners’ Festival Weekend attracts wine lovers from near and far for an opportunity to meet member vintners, taste their wines, and enjoy great food and music over a long spring weekend. The highlight of the weekend is the Festival itself, where every one of our 100+ member wineries gather to…
At press time we’ve since added a red carpet entry and a “step and repeat”, just like celebrities stand in front of at movie premieres. And as we don’t want anyone to wait too long, as soon as our guests check in they will be handed a program and a wine glass into which our volunteers will be…
The Garagiste Festival: Southern Exposure www.garagistefestival.com The garagiste movement is gathering steam. After two successful festivals in Paso Robles, Doug Minnick and Stewart McLennan took their concept of showcasing small wineries to the Santa Ynez Valley. Focusing on wineries with annual production of less than 1,200 cases, The Garagiste Festival: Southern Exposure was held February…
Our founding father’s certainly appreciated quality liquor. Most did not follow the colonial custom of drinking rum. Benjamin Franklin brewed beer. Thomas Jefferson was also a brewer and set up large vineyards at Monticello. George Washington had his own recipe for porter, a dark brown bitter beer brewed from malt that has been partly charred….
Who was this uber-tall, redheaded young man walking up to me with a leather cowboy hat in one hand and his black Labrador-mixed hound trailing behind the other? Come to find it was Tom Stolpman’s son Peter, the very capable manager of the family-run business. Peter met us at the Stolpman Vineyard’s tasting room in…
When visiting a winery the experience of tasting with the winemaker or winery representative is not easily duplicated. However, the planners behind the inaugural WiSH Education Foundation – benefiting our local Junior and Senior high schools – have done just that. With the approval from our city’s latest landmark – the Old Town Newhall Library…
I don’t divulge when I’m away on a wine trip – lest you find your way to my house and my cellar keys – so this column is running either before or after I went to Santa Ynez for the weekend. Some of my plans include(d) many stops that readers suggested, visits with winemakers I’d…
“Free run juice” is the initial juice that drains from the grapes when they are crushed but before they are pressed. My limited understanding is that this juice can theoretically produce wines of higher quality than from grapes that have been pressed, due to reduced exposure to the skins and the chemicals released by the…