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…
When we first began going to the Dry Creek Valley about a decade ago, the very first winery in the area we visited was Mazzocco Sonoma and its winemaker Antoine Favero was the first winemaker we met in the region. The only problem with this being our first stop is that the bar was now…
Have you ever had a whiskey that was sold out in under 20 minutes of its release? I had learned that Frey Ranch Distillery did just that when they offered their limited-edition Harvester whiskey this past February. And, at press time, they probably just sold out of their second Harvester release this past September. As…
Today we’re reviewing an interesting organic vodka, “Made in Idaho’s Magic Valley, American Harvest is crafted from organic red winter wheat and pristine Snake River aquifer water. Its remarkable smoothness comes from a single distillation — a rare approach that preserves purity rather than masking flaws. Certified USDA Organic, non-GMO, and produced in small batches,…
I thought I must have reviewed Dry Creek Vineyard wines before, but a search of our website proved me wrong. Imagine my thrill then of not only getting to sample their latest 2024 Chenin Blanc, a top seller, but also their new limited-production 2023 Sparkling Chenin Blanc that was just recently released. The new release…
TWSC Says Their Top ‘Best of the Best’ Award Has Never Been Awarded to Two Whiskies Before TAIPEI, /PRNewswire/ — In the final round of the 2025 Tokyo Whisky and Spirits Competition (TWSC), Taiwan’s premier whisky distillery achieved the impossible, scooping not just one “Best of the Best Single Malt”, but two of the same award. Organisers said: “Due to a…
August of 2019 was the last time my husband Eddie and I visited Santa Barbara, and I wrote about it for SCV Elite Magazine here. Fast forward to this past August and finally being in Santa Barbara again and we didn’t have as much time as our last visit. However, we did get some time…
A few years back we were in Napa Valley wine tasting with fellow wine bloggers and friends Steve and Vashti Roebuck. Steve and I had both made winery appointments and Honig Vineyard and Winery was one of his. We’d enjoyed Honig wines before but had never visited and had none of their bottles in our…
A Toast to Sustainability: Limited-Edition Micro-Batch Single Barrel Release Available at 1 Hotels PLANO, Texas,/PRNewswire/ — With a continued focus on sustainability, Brother’s Bond Bourbon proudly announces the launch of its first-ever micro-batch single barrel release, a Regenerative Grain Straight Bourbon, selected by 1 Hotels, a mission-driven luxury lifestyle hotel brand inspired by nature. The award-winning bourbon brand, founded…