Once again, I tried to tackle a large tasting in an hour. But this time, and the first time in a long time, I failed. It took me three and a half hours to get through the lineup listed below. I saw many familiar faces: wine (Rob Barnett of Vin Village), tequila, sake (Yoshi Murakami)…
Epoch Estate Wines How does a winery achieve immediate cult status? I first heard about Epoch perhaps a couple of years ago, maybe a little less. Lots of buzz on the erobertparker. com message boards and elsewhere. I signed up for the mailing list and was offered a small allocation. They sold out, I think,…
The last time I co-chaired a big wine event, Pour Into Haiti with Roman Weiser and David Schutz, I counted on these two very capable men to harness the winery help while I could focus on being the social networking butterfly. With the Circle of Hope (COH) taking over the Betty Ferguson Foundation’s Vine 2…
It was Saturday afternoon, and we were wrapping up our visit to Paso Robles. The previous day, we had spent much of the afternoon with Neil Roberts of Clavo Cellars, tasting through the wines he had in barrel. It was now time for our last stop of the weekend, visiting the Clavo tasting room…
Okay. It was Saturday morning, approaching 11:00. Almost time for the Turley Wine Cellars semi-annual pick-up party. This is the event where those mailing-list purchasers of Turley wines show up to pick up their orders, enjoy a lot of wine and food, music and camaraderie. Former emergency room doctor Larry Turley founded Napa Valley based…
Part 1: Old world 09 Domaine de la Quilla, Muscadet de Sèvre-et-Maine Sur Lie – Loire Valley, France Color – clear, pale yellow. Aroma – grapefruit, lemon, hints of honeydew. Taste – high acid, lemon, stainless steel, green apples, nice viscosity. Finish – mid length. Conclusion – DiMaggio suggested a pairing of cold seafood salad. …
Mourvèdre The Grape of the Night for the month of May was fantastic. Everyone pulled out all of the stops and brought some terrific examples of a very unique wine known as Mourvèdre. This wine originated in Spain and is also called mataro or monastrell. It is the principal black grape of the five appellations…
It was Saturday morning. The Turley party was scheduled to start at 11:00 AM, but once again it was 10:00 and I was thirsty. Fortunately, Castoro Cellars opens at 10:00 and it was right down the road. As I mentioned in the article that began this series, Castoro was the first winery we ever visited…
On a weekend full of wine events for Eve Wine 101ers (Vine 2 Wine on June 12th co-chaired by our very own Eve Bushman, as well as the L.A. Winefest on June 11th and 12th), I’ve been given what to me is a plum assignment — covering Wine in the Pines on June 11th (www.wineinthepines.com)….
Zeppelin Winery ( http://www.zeppelinwinery.com) owns no vineyards. In fact, it doesn’t have a physical winery and definitely not a tasting room. Yet, winemaker Stillman Brown manages to make some delicious wines, when he is not consulting for other wineries or posting on Facebook. So, that is why our small caravan drove up Vineyard Drive and…
