When we visited the Dry Creek Valley last fall, we gave a full report on Mazzocco Sonoma winery and winemaker Antoine Favero along with our stay at its onsite Briar Cottage: Perlises Pick: Mazzocco Sonoma in the Fall of 2025 – Part 1 – Eve’s Wine and Spirits 101 Perlises Pick: Mazzocco Sonoma in the…
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…
You know how when you meet someone once, and yet they make a lasting impression? That is what I thought of Adam LaZarre when I spied him as a fellow judge during the Long Beach Grand Cru competition in 2015 and met him in an elevator following the evening’s celebratory dinner. We may have shared…
Very excited about our now-annual November visit to Napa wineries – our Thanksgiving Chef Ann (my husband’s sister) moved to No CA so we follow her there now for dinner and enjoy wine tasting on the same trip! I had already shared a teaser of who we were to visit in this blog, read it…
I was wholly unaware of the 100% single varietal Napa reds from Component Wine, from 19th century “heritage” vineyards, until this tasting. I read the press release below where I learned about the challenges from the weather that winemaker Marc Gagnon faced in 2022 and that Gagnon is also the Co-Founder & Director of Winemaking…
The USA had a strong performance at the world’s largest wine competition with Virginia and Pennsylvania recording their first ever Gold medals Results from the prestigious Decanter World Wine Awards 2024 (DWWA) saw the USA continue its strong record in the global competition with a host of top medals and wins for two emerging US…
My usual one-bottle posts include observations on one wine: the color, aroma, flavor and some general notes. This time I thought I would mix it up. I will be sharing tasting notes and scores from other critics, as well as notes from my friend and a wine collector with an estimable palate, Steve Roebuck. I…
We recently wrote about a wine dinner at Tam O’Shanter restaurant featuring Carol Shelton Wines that we were unfortunately unable to attend. At the time, we had resolved to do our best to make it to the next wine dinner at The Tam, and that opportunity came sooner than expected when Tam O’Shanter paired up…
Zaca Mesa Winery just celebrated its 50th anniversary. That’s quite an achievement in this relatively young wine region. The land was purchased in 1973 by John Cushman and five of his friends. It was only the third winery in Santa Barbary County and served as the training ground for many winemakers who then went on…