Slated for May 4, Taste of the Town helps support the Child & Family Center. Picture this: Dozens of local restaurants and caterers offering delectable dishes for you to leisurely feast upon. There’s a large array of wine and beer purveyors eager to pour their finest selections. Distinctive entertainment by platinum recording artist Mark LeVang…
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…
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…
We played a game the other day in the Pulchella Tasting Room. Winemaker Steve Lemley removed his tasting notes and we spent nearly two hours talking winemaking practices, the effects of the past 2010 and 2011 cold Paso years and that these wines we were to taste were from the “2012 No Excuses” vintage –…
Second Annual Sierra Pelona Valley Wine Festival http://www.sierrapelonavintners.com/ Do you know what an AVA is? It is the abbreviation for “American Viticultural Area”, which is an officially designated wine grape-growing region in the United States. Creation of a new AVA has to be approved by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau of the…
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…
Were there really men over forty-years-old dancing in my family room to Eraserhead? (Or was it Tortoise Head or maybe even the more discerning, Porpoise Head?) Eddie’e CD collection from the eighties strewn across every available counter top? Middle-aged women discussing random acts of body piercing in my kitchen? An impromptu lecture on getting really…
In this final installment of my series of articles about alcohol levels in Zinfandel, we hear from two gentlemen who are on the forefront of preserving some of California great old vineyards. Morgan Twain-Peterson of Bedrock Wine Co. (www.bedrockwineco.com) grew up with Zinfandel – literally. His father is Joel Peterson, founder of Ravenswood Winery and,…
An interesting thing that happens at large wine events: camaraderie grows as wines are consumed, people tend to become chattier and want to share their discoveries of the day. So instead of just keeping track of what I was digging at the Family Winemakers Pasadena tasting, I listened to the buzz coming from Santa Clarita…
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…