Very pleased to be trying four new-to-me wines from the Santa Maria Valley and Santa Ynez: a Blanc de Noir, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon all with the same winemaker and farmer though different vineyards. When I received the samples I also asked the owner who happens to be the farmer, James Ontiveros, for…
VANCOUVER, Wash., /PRNewswire/ — The Wine Market Journal, the world’s top resource for tracking the value of rare wines, has released its list of the top appreciating wines for 2025. “Two thousand twenty-five was a challenging year for much of the alcohol industry, but high-end wines provided a very bright spot, with exceptional strength. The Wine Market Journal…
If you’ve been reading this series from the beginning about our latest visit to the Dry Creek Valley (and if you haven’t, why not?), you may recall that we added one more winery to our itinerary. When we were visiting with winemaker Antoine Favero at Mazzocco Sonoma, he graciously suggested that we pay a visit…
NAPA, Calif., /PRNewswire/ — Grgich Hills Estate, the iconic Napa Valley winery renowned for its role in elevating California wines to international acclaim, proudly introduces Paradise Block Old Vine Cabernet Sauvignon,a limited-production wine marking a new era for the estate. The debut of Paradise Block demonstrates a defining moment for Grgich Hills Estate and its CEO and President,…
This private tour and wine tasting was made possible as part of the exclusive Distinctive Voyages package provided by travel advisors associated with Travel Leaders Network to their clients. During our recent nine-night Atlas cruise from Lisbon to the Canary Islands, we had the great luck to make some amazing friends that included Julie and…
You may have seen Pedroncelli wines in wine stores. Those are tasty wines but they don’t begin to tell the whole story. Those wines you see in stores might be considered their workhorse wines, allowing this fairly small family-owned historic winery property to produce about 50,000 cases per year. Much of the grapes are purchased…
We spent Thanksgiving week wine tasting in Napa again this year, also adding in some time in Healdsburg in Sonoma County. It had been over ten years since I was in Sonoma, as Napa is my husband’s preference, but that has actually changed with this long-overdue visit for more than one reason. For one, the…
After tasting some delicious white wines, we were ready for what the Dry Valley AVA is best known for – Zinfandel! Tasting room manager Eddie presented these tastes in a side-by-side format. We started with the 2023 Briar Zinfandel and the 2023 Sullivan Zinfandel, also from the Dry Creek Valley. The Briar has 9% Petite…
This past summer I was in Portugal for the second time. During both visits I searched out wines from the Alentejo DOC to drink as they are always winners for me. Fancy my thrill at being offered two wines from the area to review when we got home. I ran a news release from the…
Now that summer is over, and it’s cool enough to accept shipped wines for review, the first two bottles I received were super welcome. I would be able to taste a Sicilian wine grape I can’t get enough of from six years ago to six months ago: Nero d’Avola. I also had an opportunity to…